Small Italian Town Unveils World’s Largest Christmas Tree Display
Trumpets will sound on Monday evening in Gubbio on the Eve of the Immaculate Conception, as the world’s largest Christmas tree display once again comes to life. The attraction, which takes up an entire mountainside in the medieval Italian town, is 2,100 feet tall and more than 1,000 feet wide. Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis flipped the switch i...
An Italian Nonna’s Kitchen Tool Tour
During an age where air fryers, pressure cookers, and new-fangled gadgets have taken the home cooking world by storm, simple, handcrafted (and potentially half of a century old) tools still have a very important place in the kitchen. I like a shiny new nonstick frying pan and satisfyingly efficient mandoline as much as the next home cook or chef, b...
Walking in Liguria: Postcard Perfect
A five-day walking itinerary in a beautiful corner of Liguria was inaugurated this summer. It’s called Cammino nel Tigullio and takes place, as the name suggests, in the Gulf of Tigullio in the eastern Riviera. The walk is 75-km long and can be divided into five stages - five days, four nights, sleeping at local facilities affiliated with the proj...
Journey through the flavors of the Marche: traditional products and recipes of the Marche region
Marche cuisine is varied as well as its landscapes. It's the only Italian region with the plural name. This "plurality" is also reflected in its culinary habits. Its lands extend between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines, covered by woods and hills. So it must not surprise us if this contrast happens on the table too, meeting dishes that combine s...
Autumn in Rome
There is no bad time to come to Rome, but I think that autumn is my favorite season. The stifling heat of summer is gone and the crowds dim a bit. You may have more rain to deal with, but there are also amazing sunsets and golden displays as the leaves begin to change. In late autumn, the starlings arrive and dance across the skies at dusk in mesm...
Tiramisù, All You Need to Know About the Iconic Italian Dessert
Tiramisù is a velvety mélange of savoiardi cookies dipped in an espresso, layered with delicately sweetened whipped eggs and mascarpone cheese, and topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. Its name, tirami sù, means “pick me up,” perhaps a reference to the stimulating effects of the caffeine in the recipe’s espresso and chocolate. Tiramisù, although...
Can you spend Christmas with family and friends in Italy this year?
Christmas and New Year celebrations in Italy traditionally revolve – of course – around a huge meal, or cenone, whether on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve or all three. But amid the Covid-19 pandemic, will we be eating alone this year? While some other countries have set a number on how many people you're allowed to invite to Christmas...
Umbria’s Village Charm: Massa Martana
Umbria is dotted with charming medieval villages, many of which are still off the radar. One such village is Massa Martana, a mere 60 kilometers from the regional capital of Perugia. Surrounded by the Monti Martani mountain range and lush woods, Massa Martana is an ancient walled town possibly dating back to the Romans, as the area is traverses by...
Which will be the next Italian Cultural Capital in 2022?
The ten finalist cities are waiting to know the designation in January 2021. The year 2020 was very hard for the art and culture industries. Indeed, Parma, which won in 2021, will be the capital of culture in 2021 too, due to the Covid 19 pandemic. What about the creation of the Title Established in 2014 by the Minister for Cultural and Tourism (M...
Rome to light up Christmas tree on Festa dell'Immacolata
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December is a Catholic holy day as well as a national public holiday in Italy. The fact that it falls on a Tuesday this year means that many people in Italy have taken 7 December off to make a "ponte" (bridge) or four-day weekend. However one of the main events associated with the day in Rome - the pope's...
Bergamo’s Pandemic Survivors Carry Scars Unseen and Incalculable
Every Monday night in the northern Italian town that had perhaps the highest coronavirus death rate in all of Europe, a psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress leads group therapy sessions in the local church. “She has treated survivors of war,” the Rev. Matteo Cella, the parish priest of the town, Nembro, in Bergamo province, said of th...
Un master per il rilancio del Turismo delle Radici
Entro il 24 dicembre 2020 sarà possibile iscriversi al Master di I livello dedicato alla formazione della figura professionale “Esperto in organizzazione e gestione del turismo delle radici” (Roots Travel Planning and Management), presso l’Università della Calabria di Arcavacata (Cosenza). Il Master, coordinato dal prof. Tullio Romita, Professore A...