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...

Several works in “man-made Hell” are “food for thought”, even if none “touch on Covid-19 as there is not yet enough detachment from the experience of isolation,” explained Clair in an interview with The Art Newspaper. “Nonetheless Inferno is timely because the century we’re living in has become Hell.”

Marisa Laurito, the Artistic Director of the new Teatro Trianon Viviani since 2020, exclaims, “It was outrageous that until now Naples didn’t have a theater dedicated to performing its rich popular musical tradition. In Portugal there’s the fado; in Vienna the waltz; in Spain the flamenco; in New York Broadway’s...

Disney distorted the personality of the central character, replaced the message at the heart of the fable, and changed the setting…but Pinocchio is a story with many, many, levels of cultural, social, political, culinary and religious (particularly the “prodigal son” and resurrection) significance. It’s a text far more complex than...

Last week in the article, "Celebrating Christmas in August in Minori, a Gem of a Town on the Amalfi Coast," I talked about the Gusta Minori festival, a cultural and oeno-gastronomical festival held annually for the past 25 years during the second half of August. As part of my visit,...

“I came for a unique Minori tradition: to celebrate Christmas in August … On the 24th “Panettone Night,” 34 chefs from Italy’s 20 regions, all members of the Accademia del lievito madre founded by Minori’s most famous citizen, pastry chef “Sal” De Riso, passed out free panettone samples to all...

To celebrate Piranesi's 300th birthday in 2020, the Foreign Press were invited to visit the most special site on the the Aventine hill, the Knights of Malta’s Grand Priory, where the great architect, archeologist and engraver began by designing a picturesque square, decorating it with alternating obelisks and stelae. Canceled...

Already in 1809 Napoleon’s Roman administration had immediately selected the Quirinal Palace, at the time the popes’ summer residence, as Napoleon’s dwelling. If Napoleon concentrated on imitating ancient Rome and its emperors, his relationship with religion and the Holy See was complex, often hostile, and at best shaky, as is...

Sadly, Covid-19 is still blocking travel for pleasure from the United States to Italy (down 90% in 2020), but I can recommend three new books in English about Italian cuisine to whet your appetite and help you plan your next trip.  In the meantime, you can comfort yourself by enjoying...