5 places to visit in Assisi, the city of St Francis
Assisi, the ancient Umbrian village in the province of Perugia, is one of Italy's most important artistic, cultural and religious destinations. The town is famous for being the birthplace of St. Francis, patron saint of Italy, and St. Clare, whose religious deeds have contributed to Assisi's fame as an open-air sanctuary, a pilgrimage destination f...
Mount Etna illuminates night sky with 1,500-metre lava fountain
Mount Etna’s spectacular eruptions reached a peak on Monday when the volcano’s lava fountains soared to 1,500 metres – a display described by one expert as “one of the most striking in the last few decades”. Europe’s most active volcano has been on explosive form in recent weeks, spewing incandescent magma and a copious shower of ash, reaching as f...
Made in Italy fashion is thriving! Here’s how the ITA is helping Italian designers
Italian fashion is known and adored all over the world for its high quality and heritage, but due to COVID precautions, companies are still unable to physically go to market. Enter the Italian Trade Agency, who guided, supported, and facilitated the brands in its Made in Italy program to once again showcase their wares virtually this season. Some 5...
10 of the Most Bizarrely Named Italian Foods
In Italy, it’s not unusual to come across dishes with names derived from insults or swear words that contrast starkly with the taste and cultural value they express. Centuries ago, farmers didn’t need to think beyond their products’ literal fragrances or shapes when naming them. Yet some of our ancestors seem to have had the foresight to know such...
Export sales soar to 5 billion euros for the Italian food districts
In the third quarter of 2020, Italian agri-food districts achieved more than 5 billion euros in export sales, up +2.3% on 2019. According to a report by Intesa Sanpaolo, this is “a record figure for Italian agri-food district exports, which had never exceeded 5 billion in the summer quarter.” The greatest contribution to growth came from the “Pasta...
Arrivederci, Montalbano. The End Of An Era For Sicily?
Writer Luca Zingaretti created the commissioner Salvo Montalbano. He’s a character that with its feet and roots deep in Sicilian ground. The company production has recently announced that March 8th is the last episode. That’s it. The last chapter is Il metodo Catalanotti. Sicily’s reaction The show’s location is Noto, a gorgeous baroque town in pro...
Turin, the Italian Capital of Winter Canoeing
The city of Turin, pearl of Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy is famous for several reasons: it is a great artistic and cultural center, industrial center, design, gastronomy and much more. In the city there are an extraordinary Egyptian Museum and an equally incredible Museum dedicated to Cinema, but this seems not to be enough for the Piedmo...
Inside Naples' World-Famous Pizza Culture
During those first few weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Rome newspaper Il Foglio ran a panicky headline that proclaimed “La morte del bacio” (The Death of Kissing). In the age of social distancing, Italians wondered if smooching would soon go the way of the Roman Empire. One hundred and forty miles down the coast, in Naples, where restaurants we...
Dario Buratto: “The love for glass stems from a broken heart”
Stories of Italy’s Matilde Antonacci and Dario Buratto, both born in 1981, only need a few words in a WhatsApp chat to understand each other. We met Dario of Stories of Italy, the studio whose name declares a mission – to tell the story of their country outside Italy (but not only). Matilde and Dario met at university twenty years ago, on the very...
Thomas Jefferson's Love for Italy Can be Tasted in this Wine
President’s Day comes with few notable traditions. But a toast of “Philip” Cabernet Sauvignon from the Fonterutoli Estate in Tuscany, Italy is an appropriate option. The namesake, Philip Mazzei, was an illustrious member of an Italian winemaking family that taught Thomas Jefferson, America's second president, the ins and outs of Italian wine over 2...
Grape News — How a New Generation of Italian Brewers Created Italian Grape Ale
In 2015, the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines were updated to include a brand-new category: Italian Grape Ale. With its relatively young beer movement, Italy had long stood apart from Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and other European neighbors, in that it was not widely recognized for having a native beer style. But here was a di...
Thick, Sweet, And Creamy: The History Of Nutella
Thick, sweet, and creamy: the holy trinity of a world-renowned spread made of hazelnuts, the then substitute to the scarcity of cocoa and the foundation of its fame and fortune. For the taste buds that cry out for sugary delight in breakfast, lathering a spoonful of this gooey cream on toast, pancakes, waffles or a bowl of oatmeal curbs the sweet-t...