All Around Italy

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 …

When looking at a gondola, have you ever noticed that sinuous object supporting the gondolier’s oar? Well, neither had I, until I learned about it at the Venetian workshop of Piero Dri, one of only four remaining artisans in the …

The quaint walled town of Castelfranco Veneto, in the Veneto region, province of Treviso, is too often overlooked while visiting the area for the more popular destinations of Venice and Padua. The town, located between Treviso and Vicenza, has a …

My first trip to Sicily was as a six year old, on the passenger ship Marconi, on the way back to Australia. It was the 1970s and the handful of photos we have from the trip are yellow and faded. …

It is widely believed that Sicilians, unlike Neapolitans, are not very expansive with their emotions. They are usually represented as brooding, somber characters who are more prone to explode in anger rather than in laughter. D. H. Lawrence who spent …

With its rugged beauty and breathtaking panoramas, the Central Italian region of Abruzzo is a magical place that offers the chance to enjoy steep mountains, rolling hills and stunning beaches, all within short driving distances from one another. From the …

Can you name the seven hills of Rome? Even most locals struggle to remember, but along with the Palatine and the Capitoline, the Aventine is one that everyone should know. The Aventine is often overlooked by visitors, who assume that …

Sitting proudly in the heart of Chianti country is Greve in Chianti, renamed in 1972 after the area’s inclusion in the Chianti wine district. Almost midway between Florence to the north and Siena to the south, the central piazza occupies …

There are still places in Italy where time stands still.  One of them is the Abbey of San Fruttuoso di Camogli, on the Ligurian coast. The Abbey sits on a breathtakingly beautiful bay between the towns of Camogli and Portofino, …

A classroom of children from the Alpine hamlet of Mosso in Piedmont are trying to involve other Italian children to raise money in order to buy the uninhabited island of Budelli, between Sardinia and Corsica.   According to a Facebook …