Culture

There is a portrait of Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli standing next to philosopher Marsilio Ficino, one of the foremost minds of the Italian Renaissance. In it, Toscanelli appears as a mysterious man. He wears a turban embroidered alla moresca — …

We call them coriandoli, the rest of the world calls them “confetti,” but they are the same thing: those little colorful paper disks that cheerfully fill the air and the streets at Carnevale time in Italy, and in every festive …

Delightful mandolino is a symbol of Neapolitan culture and music that, outside of Italy, came to symbolize the Bel Paese as a whole. Almost two centuries of migration towards all corners of the world, especially of people coming from the …

On Monday, schools reopened in twelve regions of Italy, more than six months after the bell rang for the last time in March. It’s been an important moment for the almost nine million students who finally, rucksack in hand and …

Who doesn’t love pizza? Yes, of course, Italian cuisine is much more varied, but there are certain times when you can’t beat a good slice: a Saturday night out and about with friends, an evening in front of the TV …

“If Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter,” said the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, “the whole face of the earth would have been different.” The same thought struck me at a reception held for the young Egyptian queen in November 46 BC …

Life becomes a time warp in Cornello dei Tasso, a golden stone medieval hamlet of unusual beauty perched on a cliff in the Brembana Valley at 800 m above sea level. Only eight kilometers north of San Pellegrino Terme and …

Arkansas is steeped in history, natural beauty and southern hospitality.  It is (you would think) one of the last places in America where residents from, fourth, fifth and sixth generations can trace their lineage back to Italy.  One location in …

In the outskirts of Capannori, a quaint village in the Tuscan countryside not far from Lucca, in the beautiful park surrounding Villa Carrara, there is a 600 years old oak, so famous and so distinctive that it is officially recognized …

Italians and Americans have plenty of things in common, but there is one they don’t share: Father’s Day.  To be truthful, it’s not only the US and Italy that celebrate their dads on different times of the year, because Father’s …