All Around Italy

Taking its name from the Arabic for workshop, Venice’s Arsenale enormous shipyard was the real powerhouse of the city. Its 16,000 workers built an unrivalled navy enabling Venice to dominate eastern Mediterranean waters for centuries. They built galleons to transport …

The Tuscan Muse walks us through another list of facts about Italy which will surprise you:   The national sport of Italy is soccer (known as football outside of America).   Italy’s national dish is pasta.   Napoleon spent his …

Forget Capri and Ischia. There is another island in the Gulf of Naples that’s a prettier and more authentically natural beauty just minutes away by boat. The ancient Greeks loved it. As did the patrician classes of the Roman Empire. …

Founded by a legendary Trojan prince, occupied since Neolithic times and surrounded by fields of perfumed Lavender, Tuscania is the perfect hilltop spot to escape the summer heat of nearby Rome. Each July the village turns lilac as its annual …

A group of stewards and hostesses, called the ‘St Mark’s guardians’, will welcome tourists and provide information to keep the lagoon city clean in the area of St Mark’s Square.   The 15 stewards and hostesses, along with six high …

Having completed the first phase of the restoration of the buildings and the historic rural landscape in June of 2016,  with the support of Fondazione Zegna, FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano (the National Trust for Italy) is proud to open …

When I was in Umbria I stopped off at a small family-run winery just outside of Spello.  Enrico, the nephew of the owner (the only one who spoke English well enough to give the tour to an American) was on …

The recent news that Pistoia has been selected as Italy’s “capital of culture” for the year 2017 was met by Italians themselves with some surprise and skepticism. To be sure, not many people here have ever seemed to be aware …

Let’s say you are a curious traveler who finds him or herself dawdling under the ever-present portici of Bologna on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Let’s also say that you are passionate about Italian art and culture and that you want …

With average temperatures in the high seventies and overnight lows in the high fifties, June will be one of your best summer months to visit the Lake Como area of Italy. The crowds of vacationers usually don’t descend until July …