As the name says, a "house museum" is a habitation or palazzo that has been transformed into a museum. It could have been the abode of illustrious gentlemen, or of common citizens, site of familiar intimacy or a center of power: that which renders a house museum exceptional is its capacity to re-enact or represent the life that was, the traditions...

Teramo, a splendid town in the Region of Abruzzo, is an ideal destination for nature lovers, given its setting: the Gran Sasso Mountain Range and the Laga Chain on one side, the Adriatic Coast on the other. Located in a basin at the intersection of the Tordino River and the Vezzola Tributary: essentially the site of the ancient Roman Colony, Intera...

The Rhaetian Railway is a mountain railroad network whose lines connect Italy to Switzerland, via a long labyrinth of wide valleys and mountain passes. Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008, the part of the Rhaetian Railway running through Albula and Bernina is not like any other: its tracks, completed at the beginning of the 1900s, had a...

The splendid Isle of Capri rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea and greets the Sorrentine Peninsula. Having become famous with the discovery of its Blue Grotto or Grotta Azzurra in 1826, Capri is a place of legend that continues to be a main destination for travelers, stars and intellectuals.  Among the first to be captivated by it was the Roman Emperor T...

The city of Padua is inextricably linked to the figure of St. Anthony, a Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century, venerated all over the world and patron of the city itself. Strenuous defender of Catholic doctrine, he fought the Cathar heresy, especially in France, with great energy and considerable success. He moved to Padua, where he died aged...

The Borghese Gallery in Rome is perhaps the most fascinating museum in Italy. It is housed in a villa built in the 1600s, the interior stuccoes of which make for the ideal setting of such an exceptional collection of world-famous masterpieces.  Along with bas-reliefs and ancient mosaics of astounding quality, the Gallery – commissioned by Cardinal...

First a Greek and Roman city, then a capital of the Arab world, and later conquered by both the Normans and the Swabians – this is Palermo, a place where preciosities left by the Arab and Norman rules coexist along with the Baroque and Art Nouveau styles of the buildings and monuments, the city streets and markets, gardens and theatres. The influen...

Elegant, inimitable, exciting and romantic, precious: this is Venice, the gem on any tour of Italy where churches, palazzi, ancient bridges, monuments and piazzas confirm its artistic and cultural vitality. All has testified to and continues to testify to the long history of the city.  Venice’s beating heart is Piazza San Marco, Europe’s most elega...

Alba Fucens, ancient Roman city at the base of Monte Velino (Province of L’Aquila), is an archaeological jewel that one should most definitely explore. In fact, the ruins that emerged from excavations initiated by Fernand De Visscher in 1949 (continued throughout the 20th Century and recently taken up again) are truly remarkable. Given that the cit...

The sultry heat, sand blowing in the morning air, and the parched land of Salento, a small sub region in Apulia. The women here, bent over to work in the fields, are marked by fatigue. A tarantula bites one of their ankles, so she runs to grab a tambourine and dance without inhibition, until all the poison finally exits her body. This turns out to...