The cactus greenhouse at the Giardini Esotici Pallanca in Bordighera, where just some of the Garden’s 3,000 succulents are kept… Giacomo Pallanca left the olive oil trade in 1861 to work with the German botanist Ludwig Winter. His son Bartolomeo inherited his passion and in 1910 established the Pallanca Exotic Garden at Bordighera, a nursery […]
The Devil’s Bridge is one of Italy’s most beautiful, and most strange… The Ponte della Maddalena, otherwise known as the Ponte del Diavolo, straddles the Serchio river at Borgo a Mozzano, in Lucca, Tuscany. No one knows for sure who built it, but the legend goes that it was St Julian, who required the help […]
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 […]
Porticello Beach lies on the northeastern end of the island of Lipari, one of the glorious Aeolian Islands just north of Sicily… This pebbly beach on Lipari is notable for its content of pumice. Pumice mining was a major part of the island’s economy until 2000, when, as part of the deal for the Aeolian […]
Cagliari Cathedral was built in the 13th century in the Pisan-Romanesque style and later renovated in the Baroque style. Both can be seen here… Every Easter, the Cagliari branch of the Confraternita del Gonfalone carries a likeness of Sant’Efisio from its church in the quarter of Stampace up to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria e […]
The Fountain of Diana on Piazza Archimede in Ortigia is the work of the Italian sculptor Giulio Moschetti and was completed in 1907, two years before his death… Giulio Moschetti was originally from Ascoli Piceno and had found fame in Rome but came to see himself as ‘an adopted Sicilian’ after going to live on […]
Lying quietly between the Neapolitan mainland and the tourist haven of Ischia, the unspoilt island of Procida is the Bay of Naples’ best-kept secret… With a land area of just four square kilometres and a permanent population of just ten thousand, for most people Procida is just a passing glimpse of land on the way […]
At well over 3,000 metres tall, despite its southerly location, and subcutaneous magma, Mount Etna is perfectly capable of holding a little snow Last month, in our Winter in Italy issue, just after our features on Cervinia and Alta Badia, we showed you a Viewpoint of Urbino in the snow, pointing out that some skiers […]
A recent snowfall accentuates the beauty of the walled city of Urbino, Le Marche. The World Heritage site is within easy reach of two lesser-known ski resorts… Most ski enthusiasts will be heading for the slopes of the Italian Alps or the Dolomites this winter, but those aren’t the only places you’ll find snow in […]
An art installation by Lorenzo Quinn on Venice’s Grand Canal symbolises the threat to the city from rising waters caused by climate change… Opposite the Rialto fish market, two giant hands emerge from the waters and touch against the Ca’ Sagredo. Are they bracing the hotel, or reaching up to destroy it? The intervention is […]