The people rushing to buy cheap Italian homes
When the mayor of a sleepy town in Italy announced it was selling houses that people can move into for less than the price of a used car, he thought he might get one or two offers. But after CNN Travel reported the deal aimed at reviving the fortunes of Biccari, a pretty community in Italy's southwestern Puglia whose population has dwindled to 2,00...
Pininfarina Challenges The Design Status Quo
Rooted in elegance, luxury and downright sexy design, Italian heritage brand Pininfarina has been crafting profound, innovative creations for nearly a century. And it all started with a man—Battista “Pinin” Farina—and a car—the Lancia Dilambda. Three generations later, the marque has seen the breadth of history since its 1930 founding, yet its etho...
When Bitter Is Better, It's Amaro
Its bitter reputation is not only well-deserved but evergreen. Amaro (whose name is indeed the Italian for the adjective bitter) is Italy’s signature liqueur, a spirit that offers much more than its intense taste and syrupy texture. It’s a proper end to every Italian meal, an after-coffee combination of creativity, affability, and tradition. The Be...
Sorry Italy: Tourists return looted treasures
Several years ago a bulky package arrived out of the blue at a wine bar near Piazza Navona in Rome's historic centre. When the owners of Il Piccolo opened the weighty parcel they were surprised to find a bubble-wrapped sampietrino – a Roman cobblestone – that had been sent all the way from the UK. Accompanying the unusual contents was an anonymous...
Positano, the pearl of Amalfi Coast
Positano is one of the most suggestive towns of the Amalfi Coast. It's situated on a high cliff, like a crib. Here, there are tourists from all over the world, it is certainly the right place to relax and to disconnect from everyday life. Positano has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997, for its beaches and the beauty of the natural landsc...
Food for the Soul in Umbria
Eremito, the Hotelito del Alma, meaning “little hotel of the soul,” graces the woods in the heart of a 37,400-acre natural reserve in Umbria, the land where St. Francis of Assisi communed with Brother Wolf and Sister Water. The Chiani River flows below, and deer and wild boar inhabit the forest. Parrano, the closest village, is six miles away. With...
Keeping Our Ancestors Alive By Learning Their Stories (Back to Your Italian Roots Series)
“The moment we spotted Pienza from the road, perfectly placed atop the rolling Tuscan hills, I was transfixed. We pulled over to take in the first view of my ancestral town. It was so quiet and the air around me was thick with the smell of burning olive branches. I just knew that was the exact same view that my ancestors saw when riding their horse...
Discovering Italian: journeys of the roots in Italy
The AsSud Association (which has among its statutory purposes the study of emigration and the relationship between migration and the territories of departure and arrival, see in this regard the "Piccolo Festival delle Spartenze" founded by the Association in 2016) has established the Osservatorio sulle Radici Italiane - Observatory on Italian Roots...
Unusual Ways to Celebrate St. Valentine's Day in Italy
Probably the first thing people think about when Valentine's Day is mentioned is a loving couple, and Italy has the most famous couple of all, Romeo and Juliet. The city of the 'star crossed lovers', Verona, makes a romantic destination, but this most obvious of romantic places in Italy is actually rather disappointing. 'Juliet's house' (she never...
Rosi documentary, Pausini song make Oscar shortlist
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi's 'Notturno' (Nocturne) has made the Oscar shortlist, for best documentary, along with Laura Pausini's song for the latest Sophia Loren film, 'La vita davanti a sé', (The Life Ahead), the Academy said Tuesday evening. The make-up and hair work for Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio also made the list, as well as Italian exp...
Italy's president recalls 'horror' of the Foibe
Italy's president Sergio Mattarella has recalled the "horror" of the Foibe during a ceremony today to remember the victims of the mass killings in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmatia by Tito's partisans, both during and after world war two. The massacres were committed mainly against the local ethnic Italian population by Yugoslav communists...
Three unmissable Museums in Perugia
Perugia is the country seat of the Green Heart of Italy, Umbria, a unique and fascinating city. Perugia is strongly influenced by the passage of the Etruscan and the Romans and it offers to the visitors the opportunity to spend not only a cultural but also a gastronomic (it is recognized as the chocolate town because of the presence of the Perugina...