Gelato: the irresistible passion that has delighted Italy for generations
Here in Italy, gelato is a truly beloved treat, deeply ingrained in our culture. With an average consumption of about 6.5 kilograms (14.3 pounds) per person annually, it’s easy to see how we consider gelato more than a common dessert: we love it, all year round. Needless to say, though, it’s when the sun shines brighter – and hotter! – that we turn...
Record harvest: grape picking begins early in Sicily. Here's how winemakers are protecting the wine from the heat
The 2024 grape harvest has officially started in Italy. As often happens, Sicily kicks off what is one of the longest harvest periods in Europe, with grape picking continuing in various Italian regions until late October, or even early November. Cantina Settesoli, a large cooperative in the province of Agrigento managing 6,000 hectares of vineyard...
The Italian Aperitivo Explained as Three Things at Once
If you’ve ever been to Italy, you’ve surely encountered the tradition of aperitivo, typically a time before dinner to drink a bit, eat a bit, and socialize with friends. But did you know that you could go have an aperitivo for your aperitivo during aperitivo? What does that even mean? Aperitivo is actually three things at once. It can mean anything...
Lo Struscio Is the Slow Italian Lifestyle I’m Trying (and You Should, Too!)
From my freshman year in high school in Pennsylvania, I constantly thought about which competitive private university I would end up at on the East Coast. But when it came time to apply to college, I decided I wanted to explore a new place, away from the comfort of my high school and local community and so, to my surprise, I found myself in Califor...
100% Italian: conversations on being mixed-race in Italy
Can one ever really understand what it’s like to grow up with a heart split in two? Not a broken heart, but a heart that belongs to two worlds, two identities. I’ve often wondered how one would best describe the strange existence of mixed-race Italians as myself, never really belonging to one place or another but perpetually split in half; our spir...
How Venice became the birthplace of opera
The widespread modern stereotype of the opera as elitist and stodgy stands in stark contrast to what audiences thought of it in mid-17th-century Venice. Back then, it was popular and breathtakingly new. “Taken together, it is one of the most magnificent diversions the wit of man can invent,” wrote the English diarist John Evelyn after seeing his fi...
The Royal Palace of Caserta wins an award for its interventions in the Royal Park and its sustainable management
The Reggia di Caserta wins the City’Scape Award 2024 for its planned management and conservation plan for the Royal Park and its two lead projects: the redevelopment of the Waterway through the renewal of the first row of holm oaks and the sustainable management of the Royal Park’s grasslands. The jury reviewed more than 240 projects from around th...
Maserati’s First Electric Boat Delivers Style and Fun on the Water—We Took It for a Spin
There are few dream scenarios for a yachting writer than a sea trial of a sporty Italian dayboat on Lago Maggiore. The large lake nuzzles its way deep down among the jagged and snowy alps, straddling the border of Italy and Switzerland. While Lake Como has become touristy thanks to a certain movie star who has been filmed at the helm of a Riva, Lag...
Earthquake at same time as eruption could have caused Pompeii deaths – study
Victims who perished in Pompeii after the devastating AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have been killed by a simultaneous earthquake, research has suggested. Scholars have debated for decades whether seismic activity occurred during the eruption of Vesuvius in southern Italy nearly 2,000 years ago, and not just before it, as reported by Pliny th...
New Chair in Technology and Humanism born at University of Perugia
The launch of the innovative brunellocucinelli.ai website is also an opportunity to announce a new Chair that will be activated within the year at the University of Perugia. It is the Chair in Technology and Universal Humanism, and to tell about it Brunello Cucinelli calls to the stage the rector of the University of Perugia, Maurizio Oliviero. “It...
Peter and Elizabeth, Italian Americans in Turin to clean up school graffiti: “The city doesn't deserve walls like this”
“We believe in Italy and are tired of perceiving it as an 'underdog.' Turin itself is a little gem but many buildings, beautiful from two meters up, at the bottom are covered with writing. So we decided to do our part starting with the schools: the environment around us influences the way we are.” And so, thanks to the generosity of Pietro Bonanno,...
Egadi Vacanze: between sea and land for a hybrid holiday in freedom
Do you dream of a different, complete vacation, full of experiences? Egadi Vacanze takes you by catamaran to the heart of the wonderful Egadi Islands with its hybrid holiday formula, perfect for discovering both the islands themselves and the countless gems of the western coast of Sicily. Not only the crystal sea of Favignana, Marettimo and Levanzo...