When Antonio Castrignanò listens to pizzica, he hears much more than tambourines and drums. “This music really feels like a dream,” is how the musician and composer puts it. “It gives dignity to the sacrifices my people made for their own freedom, to no longer be inferior to anyone.” It’s an emotion other natives of Salento would doubtless understa...

One could discuss at length what characterizes us as humans; undoubtedly, one particular quality we share with few other species is a sense of beauty. The instinct to adorn and decorate ourselves is as old as mankind: and this is proven by this extraordinary archaeological find in Salento, in Apulia, at the famous site of the Grotta del Cavallo. Ye...