All Around Italy

I met Andrea Camilleri twice in Milan at the Hotel Manin in the late ’90s. The Sicilian literary phenomenon was not a kid at the time. He was already in his seventies when he created Inspector Salvo Montalbano, the main …

It is the oldest cinema event in the world after the Oscars. Its 76 editions do not only show the  way contemporary visual arts evolved, but also how men and women of all cultures and nationalities described their vision of …

Roma, the head of the world: that’s what our ancestors used to say and that’s what our title is  about. The city has been  going  through some difficult times lately  and  we’d ideally  like to cheer   her  up by  …

Puglia needs no special introduction. Its sea, the baroque grandeur of Lecce, its olive oil and fresh cheeses: all in the region of Italy’s “heel” calls for attention. Aficionados of the Middle Ages and mystery can explore Castel del Monte, …

There’s something heart-wrenching in witnessing art, architecture, beauty, being damaged and defiled. There’s that dull ache at the pit of the stomach, an ache that rises up and clenches its hands around your  throat, making it hard  to breath. It’s …

There seems to be a shared fascination with lighthouses the world over. These austere pillars of hope and guidance, most often planted on precarious ground, seem to speak to our need to be watched over, protected, guided through life’s storms. …

Ferrara, loderò le  tue vie piane/grandi come fiumane,/che conducono all’infinito chi va solo col suo pensiero ardente: I shall praise your flat streets/as large as rivers/that lead to infinity those walking alone with their fiery thoughts. That’s how our Gabriele …

Brimming with cultural vigor, strength and resilience, Caltagirone is the heart of the authentic, wild southeastern Sicily. The scenic town is a small slice of heaven just 40 miles from Catania that proudly acknowledges its multi-layered past. It remains a …

It was the eve of a fervent celebration planned for the Feast Day of Saint Joseph in 1906 when an earthquake struck the island of Ustica some 72 kilometers north of Palermo, Sicily, in the Tyrrhenian Sea.  On that unsettling …

How many of you are familiar with Molise? Probably not many, to be honest. And it’s a real pity, because this tiny region at the heart of the Bel Paese has so much beauty to offer and it is, in …