NEWS FROM : ITALY  

The Uffizi in Florence was the most popular cultural site in Italy in 2021, coming ahead of the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums for the first time, according to rankings published by art newspaper Giornale dell'Arte. With 1,721,637 visitors last year, the Uffizi pushed the Colosseum into second place with 1,633,436 visitors (in 2020 the Colosseum...

For a century it was thought that an artificial lake in Motya, an ancient city on an island off the coast of Sicily, was a military harbour similar to one in the nearby Phoenician city of Carthage. But new analysis has revealed it was a sacred pool at the centre of a huge religious compound. The basin was first constructed around 550 BC, when the a...

TV production is growing in Italy, where U.S. streamers are gradually raising their investment levels just as pubcaster RAI, which is still the industry’s main driver, is cutting back. According to local TV producers association APA, the Italian market in 2022 will generate more than €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of scripted content resulting i...

Tiramisu is one of Italy's best-loved desserts, one that's widespread in both the north and south. The original recipe includes a layer of coffee-soaked ladyfingers covered with a cream made from mascarpone, eggs, and sugar – which in some cases can be “reinforced” with a touch of liqueur. Unsweetened cocoa powder is then sprinkled on top of the cr...

Florence is like the setting for a historical novel. The cast of characters that come and go through the ancient buildings and world-famous locations can sometimes read like a writer’s arbitrarily thrown together “who’s who” in order to support a story born of a wild imagination. The thing is, when it comes to Florence and her cross-sections of lif...

As a visitor to Rome, you are most likely to roam around and stay in one of the rioni of the centro storico (historic center). The historic center of Rome roughly corresponds to the walled city; the Aurelian Walls were built between 271 and 275 AD to encompass all seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber river...

I am writing this close to midday, and I am telling you: the idea of having a nice tomato salad with a burrata on the side, dressed with just a hint of oregano and extra virgin olive oil on top is driving me nuts. Thinking about it, a good, fresh fiordilatte, or mozzarella would do just fine, too.  Burrata, mozzarella, fiordilatte: iconic products...

Back again this year one of the most popular flower events for all fans, the flowering of tulips: the event, called “Tulipanomania“, will take place as every year in the Sigurtà Garden Park and will see the flowering of more than a million tulips and other floral species that will give life to a dream landscape. So let’s find out all the informatio...

The American Academy in Rome, a centre located on the Eternal City’s Gianicolo hill that hosts US artists and scholars for coveted residencies and fellowships, has tapped Aliza Wong to be its next director. She succeeds Avinoam Shalem and will begin her tenure in July. Wong, a professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and scholar who has writte...

Selling old homes for one euro is not an easy task. Even though many villages across Italy have successfully launched the scheme, there are others which have not fared so well. This is mainly because the owners of abandoned houses were impossible to track down and the bureaucratic obstacles to dispose of the buildings proved huge. So, instead, they...

Easter is coming and we have to think about the delicious dishes of traditional Italian cuisine. In Italy, the traditional Easter dishes are not lacking and, from year to year, from generation to generation, are handed down and re-proposed, often with some variations.  In this article we have selected the top 7 traditional Italian Easter dishes to...

As Ukrainian refugees start to arrive in Italy’s cities and towns, both international and local charities are spearheading the humanitarian effort. 900,000 Ukrainian refugees are predicted to arrive in Italy over the next six months — and around 50,000 have already made the journey here. But as the catastrophic situation in Ukraine rapidly evolves,...