Moving Through Milan like You Live There: What to Do, Where to Eat and Where to Drink
Milan is not an overwhelming city that hits you like a lightning bolt. It’s a slow-burn city to explore beneath the surface. And yet it remains Italy’s most visited city and the only Italian entry in the top 20 most visited cities in the world (16 th place to be exact), according to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index. One of Europe’s to...
What Happens to the Trevi Fountain Coins?
I have thrown my fair share of coins into the Trevi Fountain. In fact, I make a point of tossing in a few cents whenever I find myself in the area. Even though I find myself unable to resist the romantic story behind the coin toss – I have often wondered exactly where the money in the Trevi Fountain ends up. So, here’s more information on just how...
Italian Magic at Lake Maggiore
The lake was named Maximus (or Maggiore) by the ancient Romans, as it was the largest of the pre-Alpine lakes. Its shoreline reaches the Swiss canton of Ticino as well as the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy. Previous to our visit to Stresa (population 5.000), that sits a third of the way up Lake Maggiore on its west side, I had spent thre...
The Coronavirus Stalls Milan, Italy’s Financial Engine
The landmark Duomo Cathedral, its spires towering over Milan, is closed. So is La Scala, Italy’s premier opera home, and the town’s universities and colleges. Bars are shuttered on the sacred aperitivo hour. The normally buzzing streets, trams, eating places and retailers are all eerily empty. Non-public firms, together with the insurance coverage...
Life in Italy: 'Why visiting my Italian barber gets me much more than a haircut'
Once a month I crave a “x” of Dante. Not the Dante who wrote the Divine Comedy, but Dante, a barber in my village. After having lived here for going on three years, I have a regular, quasi-religious ritual. Dante the barber cuts my hair sometime during the third week of each month. With my extent of baldness, the whole process has not, in many year...
Cappuccino, History And Curiosities About The Famous Italian Coffee Drink
Cappuccino is the Italian beverage for excellence, consisting of Espresso coffee and steamed milk. Italy is the largest consumer of Cappuccino in the world. This is traditionally eaten during the morning, at breakfast or sometimes in the afternoon, but never during meals. The Italians in the morning are divided between those who have breakfast with...
Capodimonte Porcelain: A Traveler’s and Collector’s Guide
Capodimonte is a distinctive style of porcelain that stands apart from all the other ceramic traditions of southern Italy. This delicate, ornate porcelain--historically produced outside of Naples-- is immediately recognizable for its tiny pastel flowers, sprays of buds, baskets, and elegant figurines. Today Capodimonte is a popular collectible thro...
Italy cancels Venice Carnival amid coronavirus crisis, third person dies
The last two days of events at the Venice Carnival were canceled on Sunday due to the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, the President of the Veneto Region Luca Zaia announced. The news came as a third person died from the virus on the peninsula as the government struggled to contain an outbreak of the illness in the north of the country, with...
Italian Lessons for U.S. Healthcare
Since traveling to Italy, the Skeptical Cardiologist has been in contact with Nicola Triglione, a native of southern Italy who completed his cardiology fellowship in Milan. As he has spent some time training in Seattle, and recently set up his practice in Milan, I asked him to compare and contrast the Italian health care system to our American syst...
Stradivari and the magic of his instruments
You don’t need to be a music expert to know the name “Stradivari” (or Stradivarius, its latinized version). Along with his lesser known, but just as talented, Cremonese luthiers colleagues, Amati and Guarneri, he wrote a considerable piece of the history of music. Born around 1644, his family was old Cremona through and through, with deeds signed...
Five Essential Films About Americans in Italy
Whether its the old-school charm of the locals, the mouth-watering food or the beautiful scenery, Americans have long had a fascination with Italy. It’s a place where they can either find themselves or forge a new identity; a place ripe with stunning people and opportunities, as well as a different, more relaxed way of life. The country’s charm has...
Urban inventory: the iconic benches of Milan
In recent decades, the city of Milan has grown in terms of public and private investment. A certain flexibility granted to large real estate investors has, in return, guaranteed the birth of new services for the city and the public space generated by these urban transformations is necessarily an expression of this pluralism.To the historical pieces...