This year Redi invited me not only to attend the third championship from November 2-4, but also to be one of the eight judges at its semi-finals. Besides taste we had to judge: how efficiently the contestants had worked, how well they had cleaned up their work station, how well...

One year after the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the great Leonardo’s death, comes Raphael’s turn. From the US to Italy, to Switzerland and beyond, the world celebrates Raphael’s genius and puts the spotlight on his major and minor works.

In the late 18th century, Neo-Classical sculptor Antonio Canova was proclaimed the new Phidias, the new Praxiteles, and his studio was a “must-see” stop for travelers on the official Grand Tour. His many VIP patrons throughout Europe included Popes Pius VI and VII, as well as Napoleon and the Bonaparte...

Starting in 1796, for only a few years they were stored in the Uffizi before the majority of them were moved to the Medici Villa di Castello with its magnificent gardens and grounds, where they remained until the beginning of the 20th century; then to the Accademia from 1958-1968, then...

The decadence of “Hollywood on the Tiber” played a crucial part in transforming the image of Italy from that of a struggling country, into a glamorous industrial power. It also gave Rome new appeal, thanks also to its fashion houses and artisanry, and not least for the contributions of the...

Though conflicting stories obscure their origins, and many may claim to have invented them, aperitifs like Negroni, Aperol, Chinotto and Crodino are all extremely popular. They may be highly alcoholic, or barely so, they may be seasonal or not, but they are ubiquitous in Italy.

The Codex is famous for the reddish-purple (purpureus in Latin) color of its high-quality parchment pages and for its prefatory cycle of miniatures of subjects from the Life of Christ.  The miniatures are arranged in two tiers on the page, sometimes with small Old Testament prophet portraits below holding scrolls...

"My mission? Making people happy is a good goal. Expanding people’s knowledge of something that they think is so simple that it requires no deeper thought is abysmal. That is pizza on this tour. My hope is that after the tour they think of pizza more deeply, that pizza, something...

It seems that in this year of celebrations for the 500th anniversary of his death, visiting Leonardo da Vinci exhibitions is like eating chocolate, popcorn, or peanuts: the more you see, the more you desire. At the end of my article “Celebrations for the 500th Anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci”...

Come ha fatto a conoscere Francis Ford Coppola? "Lo devo a mio zio, che conosceva il signor Coppola già dal 2011. Infatti, in occasione dell’organizzazione del buffet del matrimonio di sua figlia Sofia tenutosi prima dell’apertura proprio qui a Palazzo Margherita, il Maestro chiese a mio zio se conoscesse qualcuno...