The transhumance of livestock in Italy is a tradition that dates back centuries, even millennia… Transhumance, the act of moving livestock ‘across ground’ to new pastures, has been practised in Italy – and other parts of the world – for longer than anyone can remember. Recently, Italy, supported by Austria and Greece, asked to […]
Rachael Martin visits Cortona to meet Sarah Marder, a film-maker whose documentary explores the changed life of this Tuscan hilltop town Photos by iStock unless otherwise stated When Sarah Marder first started going to Cortona in the 1980s, she fell in love with a place and a time. At this point in her life she […]
The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Donatus in Arezzo, Tuscany, boasts a long history and some eye-catching architecture La Cattedrale dei Santi Pietro e Donato is the city cathedral of Arezzo, Tuscany. The façade is a 20th-century reconstruction, and the clock tower was added then too, but the rest of the church was built between the […]
If it’s ancient statues you want, this is the place to be, but don’t ignore the works on the piazza outside the museum either… Words & image by Jon Palmer Recognised as the world’s first public museum (though that really depends on what you mean by ‘museum’, what you mean by ‘public’, and what you […]
For lovers of Italian language, literature and culture, Lorenza Bacino offers a round-up of some of the nation’s lesser-known book fairs and literary festivals 1. CaLibro Festival, Città di Castello “We share a passion for books,” says Andrea Tafini, one of the organisers of the CaLibro Festival in Città di Castello, Perugia. His small group […]
Despite its origins in a terrible period of Venetian history, Il Redentore is a spectacular celebration that takes place in the city each July Words by Sara Scarpa. Images by Iain Reid Most years, on the afternoon of the third Saturday of July, my friends and I prepare for a fantastic event. We set up […]
The Forum is where Roman history begins, but when it begins is a question that has recently had to be asked again… According to the story, Rome was founded on 21 April 753 BC, which means this April it was… umm… very old. How do we know the date so precisely? Because it’s just a […]
This image of a 19th-century factory in Naples illustrates just how fundamental pasta is to Italian cuisine Where or when pasta originated is something we will never know. A lot of the problem lies in what we mean by “pasta”, but the modern Italian pasta we know and love today (ie, that which is made […]
Genoa, in the northern region of Liguria, is a city with a long and proud history, but now its eyes are set firmly on the future. Jon Palmer reports from a city embracing its heritage in a thoroughly modern way Photos by Jon Palmer unless otherwise stated […]
The scenic village of Alassio on the Ligurian Riviera was once a magnet for Britons. They left when war broke out, and never came back. Mary Novakovich wonders why… (Photos by Adam Batterbee) Wintering on the Riviera… The phrase immediately conjures up images of well-to-do 19th-century British families promenading along seafronts on the northern Mediterranean […]