Congratulations to the city of Palermo, which has been awarded the distinction of Italian Capital of Culture for 2018. The Italian Culture Ministry (Ministero di Beni Culturali) awards the prize each year in an effort to promote tourism. Along with the distinction, the winning city receives 1 million euro which is to be used to…
With so many ancient structures in need of constant upkeep, Italy is no stranger to scaffolding. Venice’s St. Mark’s Basilica, in particular, is known for constantly being under repair.
Update, December 2018: Local authorities changed tack and decided NOT to impose an entry fee to the Pantheon. For now.
Truth is, it was bound to happen. Church officials at Santa Maria in Cosmedin, site of Rome’s “Mouth of Truth” (Bocca della Verita), have decided to charge visitors €2 for the pleasure of taking one (just one!) photo with the ancient sewer cover.
The Spanish Steps have finally re-opened after a lengthy refurbishment project funded by Bulgari. But will the steps be fenced off at night to keep “barbarian tourists” from trashing them?
During the wee hours of the morning, an earthquake with a 6.2 magnitude struck central Italy. Italian news reports say the epicenter was near Rieti, about 1.5 hours north of Rome.
Turin has added another destination to Italy’s contemporary art scene. CAMERA, the Centro Italiano per la Fotografia will showcase Italian and international photography in a 2,000 square meter space just down the road from the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and other sights in Torino’s historic center.
Roman hoteliers, who write that Rome’s 25 million annual tourists is only a quarter of the number that go to London, are less concerned about how tourists are affecting the city than how the city is affecting tourists.
The latest reports about the earthquake that hit Emilia-Romagna this weekend state that at least seven people were killed, 50 injured, and more than 13,000 have been displaced. The 6.0 earthquake struck early Sunday morning north of the city of Bologna in the town of Finale Emilia. According to The Guardian, the quake “wrought havoc…
Florence, Rome, Venice – you already know the names of the cities you must add to your Italy travel itinerary. But, do you know which cities in Italy are the best places to live? Each year, the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore publishes the Italy Quality of Life Survey, which calculates factors such as…
It has been a little under two weeks since Italy announced the findings in the Brunello di Montalcino scandal. In case you haven’t been following this case, Italian authorities — prompted by the United States — started an investigation to find out whether some renowned manufacturers of Brunello di Montalcino were making their wines with…
By now, you’ve probably heard about the case of the American girl and her Italian boyfriend accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher. As it stands now, American Amanda Knox is set to serve 30 years in an Italian prison. Is she guilty? I really don’t know, as I haven’t followed the details of the…
Unlike Greece, Italy isn’t a land of islands. Sure, there’s Sicily, Capri, and the Tuscan Archipelago, which includes Elba. But there is also a small set of islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Rome and Naples that, according to Guy Dinmore of The Financial Times, “offer a safer and saner way to travel” for those…
A round-up of food festivals in Le Marche.
Earlier today, we wrote about the travel potential of the region Puglia, this year’s emerging star of Italian tourism. Well, if Puglia is the new Tuscany then some years from now Abruzzo will be the new Puglia. Richard Norton-Taylor writes about Vasto, a largely “unknown” beach on the Costa Abruzzese for the The Guardian. There…
Olive oil “fraud” in Italy is rampant. In fact, tons of so-called “extra virgin olive oil” is made from “illegal importations of seed oil and cheap olive oil from outside the E.U.” In the most recent New Yorker, Tom Mueller discusses the increasingly corrupt business that has become the olive oil trade. In 1997 and…
I’m very lucky. The very first time I tasted risotto was in Milan. We were en route to Verona and ate the creamy, saffron-tinted risotto milanese at the train station cafe. Even given the locale, it was still an epiphany. Apparently, I’m not the only one who has dreams about one of Milan’s most prized…
In a recent NY Times Foraging column, Melissa Clark profiles Antica Aguzzeria del Cavallo, a cutlery shop that dates back to 1783. Clark notes, “If it cuts, rips, tears, nicks, grates, slices, shaves or pricks and is legal to sell, they most likely have it.” Here’s another taste of the short article: When Antonio Bernagozzi…