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Are you going to eat at that place with the life-changing zucchini pasta?” a friend joked after I spoke of plans to visit the Amalfi Coast. Of course, she was referencing the Campania episode of Searching for Tucci where the actor visits a Positano restaurant to see how spaghetti alla Nerano is made. While I laughed and conceded that I wasn’t going...

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More than 600 scrolls originally buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. could contain potential treasures from the time ranging from unread poems by Greek poet Sappho to early Christian philosophy. But, as of yet, we can’t read them because the scrolls are charred shut. Researchers hope that the use of artificial intelligence—and the i...

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There are many words in the Neapolitan language that are practically untranslatable or which, in their Italian version, lose their strength and meaning. I am thinking about cazzimma (to be cunning and opportunistic) or intalliare (to procrastinate) or even appucundria (nostalgia, similar to the Portuguese term “saudade”), vajassa (a foul-mouthed wo...

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The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 laid waste to Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum where the intense blast of hot gas carbonised hundreds of ancient scrolls in the library of an enormous luxury villa. Now, researchers are launching a global contest to read the charred papyri after demonstrating that an artificial intelligence programme can extract...

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Sarno, a small town located in the Campania region of southern Italy, is often overlooked by tourists in favor of more popular destinations like Naples or the Amalfi Coast. However, those who venture to Sarno are rewarded with an authentic Italian experience, complete with charming streets, delicious food, and a rich history that dates back to anci...

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I’m caught behind a funeral procession in the narrow streets of Spaccanapoli, Naples’ historic district. The men and women, old and young, come out from the shops, bars and from their balcony windows, one after the other, to pay their respects. They take off their hats and move their hands to sign the cross. I look up and see photos on pieces of fa...

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In what is now southern Italy, Pompeii was a bustling metropolis, until an eruption from the mighty volcano Vesuvius engulfed it in ash nearly 2,000 years ago. The stone skeleton of this ancient city has emerged through centuries of excavations – an intriguing glimpse of another time. Yet, at least one-third of the Roman city remains buried, and th...

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For centuries, Catholics in Naples have been devising delicious ways to get around Lenten dietary restrictions on meat. A case in point is frittata di scammaro, a pan-fried pasta dish studded with anchovies, olives, capers, raisins, and pine nuts. It’s so crisp you can slice it into wedges and eat it out of hand, as Neapolitans often do.   You migh...

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The Rione Sanità is one of the most evocative and characteristic places in all of Naples and probably in Italy as well. Indeed, its tradition, folklore and colors have often attracted tourists from all over the world. It is a world suspended between the ancient and everyday, between the sacred and the profane, which has made it one of the city's ma...

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The first sign was smoke rising from the mountain and it was Pliny’s mother who noticed it. They didn’t know which mountain this cloud came from, Pliny the Younger says, but it rose in the air before spreading out like a pine tree. Pliny wrote two letters to his friend, the historian Tacitus. They are quietly devastating: my uncle died in a disaste...

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