Culture

For Christian Catholics, Holy Week is the most spiritually pregnant moment of the year, even more than Christmastime. But in Italy, this is a time resonant with meaning among people who don’t believe, too: Holy Week is a time of …

Our readers may remember we did tackle the subject before: there are homes for sale in Italy for just 1 euro. Mind, the news made it big in the US, so you probably didn’t only hear it from us. Let’s …

On the 14th of March 1891, 11 people were accused of the murder of the chief of police. They were acquitted, but it ended up in a pogrom: the victims were the children of the laborers deported to Louisiana to …

Being a chef in the Renaissance wasn’t as you would imagine: restaurants as we know them today didn’t exist and the only people who could afford to pay someone to cook for them were kings, lords and Popes. And while …

The Etruscans are one of the most fascinating pre-Roman civilizations but, puzzlingly, also one of those we know the least about: the real Etruscan mystery is that of their origin and of their language,  both  of which remain largely unknown, …

It is often reported that kids today no longer go out to the streets to play with their friends and to engage in discovering novel adventures, as it was usual a few generations ago. No, today they sit down in …

Home, family: there’s nothing quite like it, in the end. There’s nothing quite like going back and discovering where you truly come from. I sometimes asked myself how it may be, this finding your roots and the essence of who …

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you,” Simon and Garfunkel sang in their 1960s song Mrs. Robinson.  Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio was a cultural icon in the ’50s and ’60s, a time when …

Though ancient, the aerie of Ferrazzano has survived unspoiled into the 21st century. The medieval village of Samnite origin also gave birth to actor Robert De Niro’s great grandparents, Giovanni Di Niro and Angelina Mercurio, who left in search of their US …

It is nice — and unsurprising — to know that in this period of reflection and prayer, Italians have never quite forgotten about their kitchens. And so, we learn that the  first Easter chocolate eggs were created in Turin in …