Wines of the Aosta Valley: Come Sip and Savor
Wine has always played a dominant role in Italian cuisine and culture—although the regions of this thoroughly wine-centric country vary widely in terms of terroirs and traditions. Aosta Valley, the smallest of the 20 regions, is sandwiched in the northwestern corner between France, Switzerland, and Piedmont. Its diminutive size, high-altitude topog...
Italy's Uffizi discovers lost frescoes during COVID shutdown
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence used the winter COVID shutdown to push ahead with renovations, discovering lost frescoes that will greet visitors when the leading repository of Italian Renaissance art reopens on May 4. Uffizi director Eike Schmidt said the six months of closure were put to good use: renovating 14 new rooms that will open to the publ...
The Inclusive Feminism Of Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet belongs to the literary canon of women’s literature, telling a bildungsroman of friendship and feminism. The four books are narrated by Elena (Lenù) Greco and follow her and her best friend Raffaella (Lila) Cerullo, beginning with their adolescence in Naples and following them through the divergent paths they tak...
Cittadella of Alessandria
THE CITTADELLA IS A LARGE fort in the city of Alessandria in Piedmont, Northern Italy. Currently, it stands as one of the best-preserved fortresses designed in the modern era. The construction of the star fort of Alessandria began in the early 18th-century, when, after the War of the Spanish Succession, the House of Savoy took control of the city....
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: a real made in Italy excellence
Olive oil, widely used in Italian cuisine, has ancient origins dating back to the dawn of the earliest civilizations. Indeed, the first evidence of the use of oil goes back to 4000 BC in Armenia, Palestine, and even India where, beyond food feed, it was also used as an ointment, for lamps and for therapeutic purposes. Later, in 2500 B.C., the famou...
Montepulciano’s Great Beauty
Montepulciano has very ancient roots. Its origins date back to the times of the ancient Etruscans and legend has it that the town was founded by Lars Porsenna, Chiusi’s Etruscan lucumone. The first actual date of its birth goes back to a written document dated 715 AD, in which the town is known as Mons Politianus. The little village was disputed fo...
Italy's 'epochal' recovery plan targets women, youth, south
Italian Premier Mario Draghi presented a 222.1 billion euro ($268.6 billion) coronavirus recovery plan to Parliament on Monday, aiming to not only help Italy bounce back from the pandemic but enact "epochal" reforms to address structural problems that long predated COVID-19. Italy has the biggest share of the EU's 750 billion euro ($907 billion) re...
Pompeii reopens to visitors after covid-19 shutdown
Italy's archaeological site Pompeii reopens to the public on Tuesday 27 April, after being closed in recent months due to Italy's coronavirus restrictions. Visitors will have access to Pompeii initially from Tuesday to Sunday, with Mondays closed, until 7 June, after which the site will be open every day until further notice. On Saturdays and Sunda...
Europe Unveils Plans to Open to Vaccinated Americans
Fully vaccinated U.S. travelers should soon be able to bypass the more than year-long ban on travel to Europe, the head of the European Commission told the New York Times on April 25. The European Union “will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by EMA [the European Medicines Agency],” Ursula von der...
Italian professional dedicated life’s work to the U.S. Army
U.S. Army Garrison Italy’s resource management office is not quite the same without Fabrizio Nardello, who spent nearly four decades working there. Nardello recently retired after 42 years. A Vicenza native, Nardello recalled that at age 21 he had just returned from a one-month stint in England, where he went to improve his English. In July 1978, h...
An Italian Cookbook Explores Offal For Sustainability
Valentina Raffaelli first questioned her stance on meat consumption five years ago, when she was asked to butcher six chickens during her job at a restaurant. She and her husband, Luca Boscardin, with whom she relocated from Venice, Italy, to Amsterdam for work opportunities, pored over books, articles, and documentaries, educating themselves about...
Ferrari Collections Runway Show Planned for June 13th, 2021
The Agnelli family that controls holding company Exor, which owns Ferrari, plans to stage a runway show that will be held in Maranello, Italy, where the Ferrari brand is headquartered. The event is said to take place on June 13th, 2021, at a location to be determined and depending on the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. In Novem...