If you visit Ascoli Piceno in the heart of Le Marche you’ll find a wealth of incredible religious artworks by a Renaissance artist who fell in love with the region This detail of San Giorgio is part of the stunning polyptych found in the Holy Sacrament Chapel in the cathedral in Ascoli Piceno. The art is the […]
Rich and deep and made for ageing, Barolo is Italy’s most famous wine – and the one that brings producers up and down the country the most prestige… When people talk about Italy making truly world-class wines, when they start talking about Italy being on a par with France as a wine-making nation – and […]
Mario Matassa visits Volterra, a medieval hilltop town in Tuscany, where he discovers the alabaster caves and workshops for which the area is famous The chalky white alabaster from Volterra is considered the finest in Europe because of its characteristic compactness, transparency, veining, softness and smoothness. Although the etymology of the word remains disputed, the […]
Patricia Cleveland-Peck investigates the restoration that has transformed Palazzo Papadopoli into the Aman Canal Grande Hotel in Venice… It really all comes down to the writer Andrea di Robilant: if he hadn’t written the book A Venetian Affair, which tells the story of a doomed love between a Venetian nobleman and an English girl in […]
A summer night’s dusk falls on the Grand Canal in Milan and the cafés that line the waterside prepare themselves for another evening’s brisk trade, but it wasn’t always so peaceful… Today, this is just a beautiful place to be, but these waterways were once the very arteries of Milan, carrying the city’s lifeblood around […]
Every August the people of Messina draw a 40-foot statue through their streets, and they have been doing this for 600 years. The edifice represents the final resting place of the Virgin Mary… The still photograph doesn’t do it justice. Giuseppe Pitre, the revered Sicilian writer, who died 100 years ago this year, witnessed the […]
The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, visited the Alessi factory in Omegna just over a week ago and praised Italy’s prime design production. Adapted from Alessi While travelling through Piedmont to experience the region’s productivity first-hand, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi paid a visit to Alessi’s facilities at Crusinallo. He was welcomed into the Headquarters, near Lake Orta by […]
A calling point for pilgrims from the north on their way to Rome, Lucca Cattedrale or Cathedral is the resting place of one of the most important holy images of the Middle Ages… Saint Martin’s Cathedral in Lucca is famed for housing the Holy Face of Lucca (Il Volto Santo di Lucca), a large wooden crucifix […]
In the post-war years, young Totò spends his spare time at the local cinema, where Alfredo the projectionist teaches him what he knows about film, love and life It was a flop when it first came out but now, more than 25 years since its initial release, Giuseppe Tornatore’s film is considered a masterpiece… The […]
Think of transport in Venice and you think of the gondola, but this is a relationship that has been developed in large part by the city’s tourism industry. As a working boat, there are better options. Though it is now recognized the world over as the typical boat of Venice, the gondola is in fact […]