Traditions

La musica italiana is a powerful art that brings people together. It will never cost you a dime in overweight luggage fees to take home. It will transport you back to a memory, a place, or a time. No matter …

A Christmas without panettone is barely a Christmas in Italy: loathed or loved, the Milanese born sweet loaf is something everyone has in the kitchen this time of  the year. Light, fragrant and pleasantly rich, panettone lovers relish its candied …

Christmas is a universal feast. It is the apogee of all year’s celebrations for Christians all around the world; it is a time of love and warmth for everyone else. Regardless of your faith and beliefs, in the end, Christmas …

From scarlet undies to pig’s trotters, fireworks to fearless bridge divers or tombola to fat ox parades, Italians love to celebrate the New Year with some wonderful traditions. It’s all to help usher in good luck and a good year. …

Lentils and pork sausages, the first to represent coins, the second for abundance, served up together, has long been considered an auspicious dish with which to usher in the New Year in some parts of Italy. Take Modena’s lenticchie di …

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly…and any Texan worth his or her braggin’ rights has gotta own a pair of mighty fine cowboy boots. Ask any Lone Star State resident to name the Cadillac of boot brands and you’d most …

The House of Medici. To anyone the name of this powerful Florentine family is in and of itself a synonym for the Italian Renaissance. But how many do really know about the origins, history and art patronage of the dynasty which …

This typical delicacy from Sicily is called in the local dialect Cuccidati. It is a fig-stuffed cookie traditionally served during Christmas holidays. According to some, its origin goes back to centuries, and the dough is renowned for its softness. This …

Greccio is a small town near Rieti, where St Francis conceived the first living nativity scene ever made in history, in 1223. To keep this tradition alive, the inhabitants of Greccio recreate this live nativity scene every year since 1973, …

This time of the year is my personal favorite: I am a child of the snow and the mountains, invigorated by the dry, crispy chill of winter, rather than the sticky heat of the summer months. I like early-setting darkness …