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The nature of mystery is manyfold and there is certainly more to it than supernatural events, haunted locations and unsolved murders. Mystery, sometimes, lies also in our impossibility to interpret a habit or a specific moment in history, to understand why our ancestors behaved in a specific manner. Many places in Italy carry within mysteries of th...

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What am I saying? Isn’t this column supposed to be about Italian? Well, yes, but it’s also about Italy’s famous dialects, and today we are going to learn about one that maybe is not so famous: the “language” that is spoken in the region Valle d’Aosta, at the very north-west of Italy. What is it? Well, it’s kind of a complicated answer so let’s take...

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Buckling up my ‘ABS’ backpack, transceiver concealed surreptitiously beneath my ski jacket and airbag toggle slung over my shoulder, I feel a little like James Bond off on a secret mission in the Alps. That’s until I fly off the chairlift 20 minutes later and go hurtling headfirst into the face of our guide Andreas, who starts to look a little more...

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Fall is my favorite season. Yes, I love chestnuts, truffles, cardigans, chunky scarves and pumpkin pies. But the real reason I love the fall is another, it’s the dark. The dark brings about hints of wintry chill, mixed with the cinnamon tang of cookies. It calls for the first hot chocolate of the season, thick and sweet, topped with whipped cream,...

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Italian mountaineer Nives Meroi and her husband Romano Benet reached the peak of Nepal's Annapurna early on Thursday, making them the first couple to scale all 14 of the eight-thousanders - mountains that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level. Meroi's sister Leila gave ANSA the news after making contact with the couple. The pair did the climb...

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Everyone knows it as Cervinia, a ski locality renowned for its beautiful panoramas and diverse ski courses, but the label Cervinia includes a much ampler mountainous zone. The ski district of of Breuil-Cervinia expands from the 5,000 feet of Valtournenche to the 11,181 feet of Plateau Rosà, brushing past the 13,123 feet of Piccolo Cervino (Little C...

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It’s an exciting month for us as we explore nebbiolo throughout all regions of Italy. The name nebbiolo is derived from the Piemontese word for nebbia, meaning fog. It derives from the fog that comes down from the mountains and roles over the Po Valley helping with the ripening of these grapes.

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di Antonella Finucci   Se volete vivere un sogno dentro atmosfere da favola, se volete perdervi in mezzo alle viuzze di pittoreschi borghi medievali o, ancora, se volete sentirvi re e regine per un giorno, seguiteci: abbiamo selezionato per voi i 20 castelli più belli d'Italia.   Arroccate su maestose montagne, immerse in scenari natu...

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An entire millennium. That's how long the Fair of Saint Ursus has been around. Conventionally, the exhibition is presumed to have begun in the year 1000 [even though St. Ursus, an Irish-born monk, lived in the sixth century].   It is held every year on January 30 and 31 in Aosta and features the arts & crafts of the entire Aosta Valley....

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by Augusto Grandi   Natural snow is still in scant supply, but the ski slopes are in excellent conditions thanks to the snowmaking system. Unlike last year, when excessively high temperatures prevented the use of snow guns, the Christmas holidays in Valle d'Aosta will be characterized by a return of skiing enthusiasts.   From Courmaye...

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