From shipwrecked sailors in Norway to the tables of Vicenza, Julie Carbonara tells the extraordinary tale of baccalà all vicentina. My mother was a good, plain home cook but fish was not her strong point, which is why Fridays were not my favourite days. You see, in the deeply religious, Catholic Italy of my youth, you were […]
Neapolitans have always lived in the knowledge that the volcano that makes their land so fertile is also capable of untold destruction. Tom Alberto Bull went up to take a closer look… Naples volcanic energy When we think of Naples we immediately think about Vesuvius towering ominously over the city, offering both rich, fertile land […]
Alan Reed and his wife Susan run painting holidays in Italy. This is a beautiful and unique way to explore everything that the country has to offer. Here he tells us all about his journey. It was my wife Susan who first introduced me to Italy. She had lived in Venice for five years and […]
Indeed, Rome was not built in a day… Work on St Peter’s began in 1506, but the church wasn’t ready to be consecrated until 1626… Like many other buildings in Rome, St Peter’s uses stone recycled from the Colosseum. As is usually the case when a building takes longer to finish that one might have […]
The name of Monza is known to motor racing enthusiasts around the world, but Rachael Martin finds that there is more to the city than its famous race track… Mention the word Monza and most people immediately think of the city’s motor racing track. And, of course, they wouldn’t be wrong. Designed by architect Alfredo Rosselli and […]
Venice celebrated its world-famous Murano glassmaking heritage in an exciting programme of citywide events this September. Sitting in its own sea of glass, the city of Venice and its islands has long held a tradition of glassmaking. Thanks to its strategic geographical location, the Republic of Venice was a cultural and political hub for travellers […]
We talk to David Bickerstaff, filmmaker for Exhibition on Screen about the genius of Michelangelo and the challenges of telling his life story on film. The mission of Exhibition on Screen is to bring exhibition-based art to our cinema screens, working with notable galleries and museums like the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh […]
Joe Gartman pays a visit to the home of the Brownings and reminds us of their path to love and fame… The courtship of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning may be the most thoroughly documented in history, because it was conducted almost entirely by letter. And Robert was certainly a very impetuous wooer; in his very […]
The Sicilian city of Catania had always been unknown to Lorenza Bacino, so when the opportunity arose to visit with a local, she jumped at the chance… With open hearts, Sicilian journalist Francesca Marchese’s family welcomed me into their home in the Catania hinterland and I felt like a prodigal daughter returning after a long […]
This statue in the Vatican‘s Pio Clementino Museum may be the most influential of them all… Michelangelo admired it, as did Donatello before him, and Pliny the Elder long before them; this latter attributed it to three sculptors from Rhodes, but we don’t know who commissioned it, nor when it was sculpted, nor whether there […]