All Around Italy

All roads lead to Rome as the old saying goes – all 1,243 miles of road when we’re talking about the Via Francigena, the ancient byway connecting Canterbury to Rome. While the serious-minded, contemporary pellegrini (pilgrims) consider walking the full …

I was having dinner a couple of weeks ago,  when my attention was caught by the news blabbing on tv: The Sun, one of Britain best-selling tabloids, had compiled a list of the world’s most dangerous cities and, lo and …

New York is the Big Apple, Chicago is the Windy City and Los Angeles is, as its very name tells us, the City of Angels. Cross that pond and come to Italy, where you’ll find of course Rome, the Città …

I came across Monte Argentario few years ago and was mesmerized.  It amazed me with its beauty and variety — in some places rugged and others manicured, chic but discreet. Ninety kilometers south of the Pisa airport, Monte Argentario is …

Many readers may have been already to the cinema to watch one of the most anticipated movies of this Summer, the modern take on classic comic and 1970s’ tv series Wonder Woman. Those a bit more familiar with the lands …

Carlo Levi’s Words Are Stone is an unrecognized classic in the travel book genre. However, this is not a travel book for the sightseeing tourist. Levi is after a Sicilian history of another sort. His impressions of Sicily, even if …

My dad had a bright red Moto Guzzi that in its day was quite sporty and cool, with its spreading eagle wings on the motorbike logo.  He was dating my mother, who rode sidesaddle like women did in the 50s …

Michelangelo, Raffaello, Leonardo… and then again Leonardo, Galileo, and many more famed artists and scientists: there is no doubt that Firenze – the Renaissance City – has been for centuries the real keystone of both Western art and modern science. …

Pompeii is without a doubt one of the most exceptional archaeological sites in the world, probably the most relevant, for the wealth of findings and their very nature, related to the world of Imperial Rome. A lot of what we …

Nearly three hundred years after its proclamation — 1719, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s heyday — the Free Port of Trieste was re-launched by a decree of the Government. There was a need for new legislation to take into account the …