Traditions

Pecorino Romano: the ancient cheese with the “cappa nera” While they praised the “vigor” of this cheese “made from sheep milk,” which was also part of Roman soldiers’ diet, neither Homer nor Virgil would have thought it could become this …

Ask the average non-Italian to give you a rundown on Italian cuisine and chances are it will sound like this: “Spaghetti…with meatballs, Fettuccini Alfredo, lasagna for sure…and pepperoni pizza…!”  We’ll spare the culinary critique of how…shall we say… deficient” this …

Barcellonetta,  an Italian term meaning small and pretty Barcelona, is the nickname for the city of Alghero, on the Northern coast of Sardinia dating back to the 1372 conquest of the city by Catalans.  In this pearl  on the Coral …

“Napule è mille culure, Napule è mille paure, Napule è a voce d’ ‘e creature che  saglie chiano chianu e tu saje ca nun si sulo:” Naples is a thousand colors, Naples is a thousand fears, Naples is the voice …

Cervia, the ancient city along Italy’s Adriatic coastline was once called Ficolce, and as legend has it, the name derived from Ficol, the mighty Etruscan leader who was eager to overthrow the tyranny of Ravenna. Its thousand year history has …

DRINK: NEW POPE (inspired by the TV series ‘The New Pope’, by Paolo Sorrentino, 2019) BARMAN: Simone Mina, bar manager of Ch 18 87, the cocktail bar of the historic restaurant Checchino dal 1887 in Rome, Italy INGREDIENTS: 3 cl VII Hills Italian Dry …

During a recent visit to the Museo Teatrale della Scala I admired many antique prints of commedia dell’arte situations. Commedia dell’arte was a theatrical genre that evolved in the latter part of the sixteenth century. It was a popular  reaction …

On the 4th of May, the vast majority of Italy’s productive activities will open and almost three million workers will return to work. A first, little step towards normality, ready to be retracted should social distancing not be respected and …

There are two words that truly define the essence of Italian Carnevale: the  first is maschera, or mask; the second is — of course — Venezia.  While every corner of the country celebrates this time of the year with parades, …

When in late October 1929 Wall Street collapsed, contributing to the Great Depression of the 1930s, a rural village of Piedmont started to thrive. In 1929, a picturesque land of plenty called Alba opened the first edition of the international …