Traditions

On my first Easter in Rome in the Jubilee year of 2000, I joined the throngs jammed into the massive piazza of St. Peter’s basilica. Pope John Paul II, bent with age, extended Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including …

Is it possible to celebrate a solemn religious ritual that brings together faith, joy and a great workout? In Gubbio, a town in the province of the city of Perugia, it is. Every year, the city honors the death of …

Tuscany.  If you’ve never been, I can guarantee you’ll be in awe of the beauty of its rolling vineyard filled hills, Cypress lined driveways and the golden glow that covers that land as the sun sets.  They say it is …

I was utterly charmed by Palermo when I was there less than a week ago. I admit to have been somewhat wary of it last time I visited. It was a combination of the bumper-to-bumper traffic; the accommodation (which although …

Pasquetta, “Little Easter,” Easter Monday, is as much a holiday for Italians as Easter itself. If its liturgical significance is to commemorate the women who gathered at Christ’s tomb only to find it vacated, it has become a national picnic …

Even if the passion for java is common to most countries in the world, with some (I am looking at you, Finland) even consuming more of it per capita than Italy itself, the relationship we Italians have with our favourite …

The eternal city traces its birth to April 21, 753 B.C.  If you’re in Rome, you can enjoy festivities that include concerts, gladiator displays, a parade, and  fireworks over the Tiber. Throughout the year you’ll find traces of Rome’s long …

Kakawa is the name given to chocolate by the Olmecs in Central America around the year 1000 B.C., while the Mayans, prior to cultivating it in the area between the Yucatan and the Chapas, from the III and the X …

Even if the sweets associated with Italian Easter—colomba, Sicilian marzipan lambs, yeast breads with colorfully dyed eggs baked into them, to name the most familiar—are a memory soon after the holiday, one cake that is emblematic of the season persists …

In Italy, food means much more than nutrition, it is culture, heritage, tradition. Satisfying all senses at once in a voluptuous embrace, Italian food is impossible to resist. Its variety is legendary and its history rooted deep into that of …