On July 22, Sergio Mattarella, the President of Italy, inaugurated the reopening, after a two-year restoration, of the magnificent Renaissance “Corsie Sistine” or, “Sistine Ward” at the oldest still-functioning hospital in Europe, the complex of Santo Spirito in Saxia.  The extensive work repaired the carved wooden ceiling, the masonry, the...

The International Slow Food Movement was founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, political activist, journalist, author and publisher, as a protest against the newly-opened McDonald’s near Rome’s elegant Piazza di Spagna, the first fast food restaurant in Italy. Today the International Slow Food Movement boasts millions of members from more...

Its inauguration postponed several times because of Covid, Garum: The Library and Museum of Cooking finally opened on May 26. The website www.atlasoscura.com lists 81 museums worldwide devoted to the history of food, but none includes a research library. Stove and Kitchenware Garum gets its name from a liquid sauce...

Decorating eggshells, especially those of ostriches, predates the Christian tradition by at least 3,000 years. The ancient Sumerians and Egyptians commonly placed decorated eggs, or their representations in gold and silver, in graves. Thus, the Christian adaptation of decorating eggs can be traced to the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who...

A small temporary exhibition will be on view until May 22 at Rome’s Borghese Gallery. “Guido Reni and Rome: Nature and Devotion” is the first exhibition dedicated to Reni in the last 30 years. Reni's Reni's Aralanta and Hippomenes.Photo: Wikipedia P Like the artworks of the Borghese Gallery’s several other...

“Baci” Perugina chocolates, a Made-In-Italy icon, are celebrating their 100th birthday this year. “Baci” means “kisses” and their birth and history are appropriately the product of a secret love story between their creator Luisa Spagnoli and businessman/politician Giovanni Buitoni, 14 years her junior. The filling for the Baci. Photo courtesy...

 Melania G. Mazzucco is one of Italy’s most distinguished and award-winning authors.  She writes fiction, scholarly tomes, art historical essays, and historical novels.  Her first international success was Vita (2003) about a brother, Diamante (based on Mazzucco’s paternal grandfather) and his sister Vita, who, at only ages 12 and 9,...

In the last paragraph of my article, Merry Christmas from the Vatican: a Cookbook to Bring Joy in a Sad Year, published here on December 9, 2020, its author Thomas Kelly wrote: “David and I are working on another Vatican cookbook to be published by The Sophia Institute, but it’s...

But it’s not only about celebrities, “I held a course for women in jail on how to make perfumes; we sold them in some of Torino’s exclusive profumerie. This project moved me deeply because inmates aren’t allowed to wear perfume. One woman, a Sicilian, fainted after we produced an orange...