Why April Is The Best Time To Visit The Italian Alps
They can be visibly seen from Northern Italy, as far as Venice in the northwest, and Mantua (aka Mantova) in the central north. Their towering, prominent, and unusually shaped, massive, jagged peaks are both picturesque and mysterious, dominating the skyline. They are the Dolomites, and this UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of limestone, forms pa...
Museum of Northwest Art celebrates sculptor and painter Italo Scanga
Italo Scanga was a multi-talented artist best known for his sculptural assemblages that included found or everyday objects – seashells, branches, glass bottles, or cast-off musical instruments. Besides sculpture, he also worked in printmaking, ceramics and glass, and taught at several art schools around the US. Scanga was a close friend and collabo...
The best villas in Tuscany
The English love Tuscany – so much so that it has been dubbed Chiantishire, as they decamp from gloomy England and set up in villas for a summer of sightseeing, swimming and socialising. But Tuscany is large and there are many hidden or lesser-known places so you don't have to mix with your fellow Brits if you don't want to. The landscape, recognis...
Iconic Pizza Maker Donatella Arpaia Expands Footprint Into South Florida
With the combination of the Pandemic and a heart surgeon husband with a great career opportunity, Donatella Arpaia is writing the next chapter of her storied career in South Florida. Arpaia, has taken over operations at two Coral Gables restaurants, Redfish and Forte. When Arpaia relocated to Miami from New York City with her husband and their youn...
The Women Responsible for Italian Rice—and Workers’ Rights
Grasp at the root of the Italian word mondina and you will discover the verb mondare, which (in certain contexts) means to weed. From this, it is easy to understand the work of the mondina, a woman employed to weed Italy’s rice fields during the 40-day period of summer known as the monda. Without her, unwanted plants would compete with cultivated r...
St. Louis museum acquires second work by 18th-century Jewish woman artist
Few art aficionados can rattle off many names of 18th-century women artists. And one who is Jewish? That’s almost like chancing upon a yeti riding a unicorn. Having bought a Torah ark curtain by Simhah Viterbo (1739-79) in 2019, the Saint Louis Art Museum is sticking with the Jewish artist, whose husband and son were rabbis. In December, it bought...
The Wines Of Sannio Are Ready For Their Star Turn
It’s often said that you could spend your entire life exploring the wines of Italy and still not get to everything. In many ways, that’s true: Though the country’s wine firmament is divided into a seemingly approachable 20 different regions, there are countless appellations within them. And each of those is comprised of a lifetime’s worth of distin...
The Heartwarming Story of Richmond Italian Restaurant Sprezza & A Review in One Post!
Not to be this girl, but I got back from a trip to Italy in October, feeling starved for even a tiny bit of what I felt there. I also happened to be looking for a new restaurant job, one where I could feel passionate about the food and the process behind it. The stars aligned and I found myself starting a new job at Sprezza. Italian food reveals a...
6M foreigners in Italy, irregular migrants down
Italy's foreign population stood at just over 6 million at the start of 2022, marking a rise of 88,000 over the previous year according to the 28th annual report on migration presented by the ISMU Foundation in Milan on Wednesday. Irregular immigrants accounted for 8.4% of the total foreign population, down from 519,000 at the start of 2021 to 506,...
Giancarlo Esposito Controls the Chaos
When Giancarlo Esposito stepped off the escalator at moma, a trio of security guards—all young men, Black or Latino—greeted him with knowing salutes. Who, I wondered, did they see? Was it Gus Fring, the fussy, stoical drug lord of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”? Or Stan Edgar, the biotech C.E.O. who manufactures superheroes in Amazon’s Marve...
Mimosa Flowers In Italy: A Women’s Day Tradition Honoured For Over 60 Years
International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8 each year, is a global event that honours the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. In Italy, this anniversary has the unique tradition of giving mimosa flowers to women. The tradition of distributing mimosas on International Women’s Day in Italy dates back...
In 2022, boom of pilgrims on Franciscan paths in Italy
Boom of walkers in 2022, +26% compared to last year. There were 4,203 walkers from 57 nations who reached the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi alone, in groups or in the company of their four-legged friends. Data collected by the Statio Peregrinorum, an office of the Basilica of St. Francis, show that the majority of pilgrims, who arrived in Assis...