Hot! Hotter! Soft ‘nduja, the soft Calabria salami
Between green mountains and crystal clear sea, the region of Calabria offers a plethora of unique delicacies, including ‘nduja, a curious spreadable deli meat, characterised by a bright red color and a fiery taste. Even if its origin is uncertain - maybe Spanish, because of the heavy use of chillies imported from the Americas, or possibly Medieval,...
Tourists spent nearly €40 billion in Italy last year
Incoming visitors spent €39.1 billion in Italy last year, almost €3 billion more than in 2016, according to Banca d'Italia data presented by the International Centre for Studies on Tourism Economics (Ciset) this week at a conference on Italy's international tourism industry in Venice. Factoring in the indirect and knock-on benefits, Ciset calculate...
Here Are 19 Tips On How To Eat And Drink Like An Italian
Italy’s passion for the table has created some of the world’s most popular dishes, and along the way the rituals for best enjoying them. While Italians are enthusiastic and accepting hosts, they also admire those who “fare la bella figura”—make a good impression— by learning how to navigate their culinary landscape. You know never to order cappucci...
5 Best Day Trips from Rome
Forget the old adage “all roads lead to Rome.” Sometimes, you just wanna get out of the Eternal City, with its blistering summers and maddening traffic jams. Luckily, Lazio and the surrounding regions of Tuscany and Umbria, contain a wealth of artistic and culinary treasures worthy of a day trip or long weekend. From exploring the Renaissance villa...
Remembering Our Italian Garden
Spring always brings back fond memories of times of great excitement for our family, particularly for Mom and Pop. It was the beginning of the planting season. For days, the main topics were “how big a garden this year, what to plant and where to get the best seeds.” The early planting of onion, garlic and squash had begun in hopes that the “onion...
Turismo, record di presenze nei piccoli borghi: +24 milioni in un anno
"Le presenze turistiche del 2017 nei borghi italiani sono cresciute di 24 milioni di unità rispetto all'anno precedente": sono i dati provvisori diffusi oggi da Sandro Cruciani dell'Istat, Direzione centrale per le statistiche ambientali e territoriali, durante la presentazione a Roma della XIII edizione della Guida "I Borghi più belli d'Italia", d...
'Rowing in Venice is unique - it's the closest you'll get to walking on water'
The gondola is an Italian icon, and tourists around the world dream of taking a trip on one of the traditional Venetian boats, courtesy of a gondolier dressed in a striped shirt and straw hat. For years, rowing was the only way to get around the lagoon city, but many don't realize that the technique used in Venice is unique. It may look as if gondo...
Italy and its tourists: the many types of visitors you’ll find in the Bel Paese
My experience with tourists started when I moved to Ireland, in a city known for its all-year-round, endless flux of visitors: certainly essential for the economy, they also brought a colorful touch here and there, with their awkward requests, strange dress sense and endless photo-taking sessions in the middle of the street. Back in Italy, I found...
S. Maria in Trastevere façade restored to former glory
The façade of the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere has been restored to its former glory after a restoration carried out by experts of the Rome Special Superintendent's office lasting a year and a half and costing 400,000 euros. Now the splendid medieval mosaics that run horizontally across the front can be admired in all their glimmering gold...
Postcards from the Giro: Sicily is love
My first trip to Sicily was pre-GPS in the early 2000s. Desperately lost in the chaos of downtown Palermo on a congested one-way street, I yelled over honking horns to ask a policeman how to get to my hotel. “Well, you can go straight, left, left, and left again, then right … or,” he paused and waved his hands with the drama of an opera star, “you...
Why Moscato is Misunderstood
Pop culture has the uncanny ability to turn lovely, enduring ideas into superficial fads. Take the recent arc of Moscato, a wine from Italy with a storied history. Six years ago, headlines boldly declared America to be in the grips of “Moscato Madness,” before the wine tumbled out of fashion. Yet, Moscato held court long before that, and will do so...
Why doesn't the Leaning Tower of Pisa fall over?
One of the world's most famous buildings, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, has survived everything from four powerful earthquakes to two world wars. Now, engineers may have solved the mystery of how the building has managed to survive, undamaged, for centuries. Ironically, the reason the tower is tilted is also why it survived so long: "The very same soi...