If you’re after the finest food... the REAL capital of Italy is PIEDMONT!
Carlo, Carlo!’ Maria’s lyrical voice carries across the wooded hills, calling her 88-year-old husband to come in for dinner. But Carlo isn’t listening. He’s busy in the forest, his trusty dog beside him, searching for truffles. This evocative scene – drenched in the golden light of autumn – is brilliantly captured in a new film, The Truffle Hunters...
5 Noteworthy Wines of Abruzzo
In their own way, the wines of Abruzzo are a force to be reckoned with. Nestled between the Adriatic Sea and the Gran Sasso and Majella massifs in the Apennine Mountains, Abruzzo enjoys a climate characterized by notable temperature variations – an ideal climate is for winemaking. The region's viticulture spans an area of 36,000 hectares – the area...
Cultured City Guide: Now Is the Time to Discover Southern Italy's Hidden Gems
After two years of Hell, we can only think of Paradise. I am not only referencing Dante, but one of the best coastal areas in the world. Travel aficionados know about the Italian isle of Capri and its mainland neighbor the Amalfi Coast (and want to spend the summer there), but trust me on this one: go there now, or you’ll miss a once-in-a-lifetime...
La scarpetta, Italy's way to say “dinner was good!”
What’s the best thing you can do after a glorious meal, when some of the good stuff still remains on the plate, but not quite enough for a full forkful of it? Simple! You grab a piece of bread and do la scarpetta. The “little shoe” is perhaps the most famous culinary act of defiance our country knows, because it isn’t entirely acceptable when it co...
Why Italy must put its forgotten ‘ghost towns’ up for sale – or risk losing them forever
One of my hobbies is exploring creepy ghost towns where silence rules and cats are the sole inhabitants. These spots are secret, hidden, with a particular quirky allure that transcends the grandeur of the big cities. They’re a forgotten, fascinating part of Italy and have been fittingly dubbed ‘the sleeping beauties’ – waiting for a knight-investor...
Get Lost in Italy’s Most Beautiful Labyrinths
Perhaps few symbols have crossed different places, eras, and cultures as the labyrinth has. If the labyrinth had a mostly mystical meaning in the classical period and a magical, religious interpretation in the Middle Ages, from the mid-16th century it turned into a game that fit well with the atmosphere of the courts; later still, they became a de...
Alessandria and its food and wine traditions: from villages to castles
Alessandria possesses a diversified historical and artistic heritage, with deep-rooted content in the territory and in popular culture, often defined as a mosaic, made up of many pieces, individually beautiful, that generate an incomparable overall design of the territory. As stated in the municipal coat of arms, the city's motto is "Deprimit elato...
Italy tightens entry requirements on US tourists, adds self-isolation mandate for the unvaccinated
Italy added testing and self-isolation requirements for American travelers on the heels of the European Union removing the USA from its safe travel list. Though the most dramatic policy changes affect unvaccinated travelers – who are still welcome to enter the country, so long as they take the time to self-isolate – vaccinated travelers will have t...
Italy to step up fight against Italian sounding food fakes
Italy is to step up the fight against Italian sounding food fakes, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told the AGM of food federation Federalimentare in a videolink with the Cibus fair on Tuesday. The government's plan for the extraordinary promotion of Italian products this year "envisages action to defend brands and quality and origin certifications...
At the Paralympics, Italy has already won more medals than in 2016
In 2016, at the Rio Paralympics, Italy won a total of 39 medals, 10 of them gold. Now, after the first week of the Tokyo Paralympics (which will end on September 5), Italy is already at 43 medals, 11 of them gold. Today alone, Italian athletes have won 9 medals: one gold, seven silver and one bronze. The bronze medal was won by Xenia Francesca Pala...
Italy's new Green Pass rules for schools, universities and transport
Teachers and staff in Italy's schools and universities, as well as college students, are now obliged to have the covid 'Green Pass' under new rules that come into force on 1 September. The scope of Italy's Green Pass - a certificate showing that people have been vaccinated, tested negative or recoverred from covid-19 - has been expanded to the educ...
Can tourists still travel to Italy from the US?
'Can I still travel to Italy from the US?' This is the question on the minds of many American tourists after the European Union dropped the US from its safe travel list due to rising covid-19 infections there, driven by the Delta variant of the virus. The EU recommended on Monday that travel restrictions on tourists from the United States be reinst...