Italian handcrafts: Tuscan tanning
Tanning was one of the earliest human activities. The first evidence of leather being used for clothes, sandals or the creation of objects such as water containers and boats comes from the writings of the Sumerians. The art of tanning was present in antiquity amongst cultures such as the Babylonians, Hittites, Persians, Egyptians, Jews, Shiites, Gr...
Italian language: SLIM, L’italiano e I giovani. Come scusa? Non ti followo
It’s October and once again it’s time for the Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo, the Week of Italian Language in the World. The Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo is a worldwide event that takes place every year and has the goal of promoting the Italian language abroad. It’s organized by all the major institutions for the Italian lan...
IT and US: 1492. Diary of the first trip
Let's start by saying that there were not three of them. The caravels, I mean. This is an enduring myth that has entered powerfully into the imagination. Three like the Wise Men, like the Musketeers, like the oranges of the fairy tale. Wanting to be precise, two caravels and a nao: a large trading ship. But it matters little: myth is built on simpl...
Italian wine: Cooperatives in Valpolicella with Cantina di Soave
I’ve long been a fan of the wines of the Veneto for such a wide variety of options they provide for consumers. Some years back I had the luxury of touring the Valpolicella wine appellation on a couple of press trips so got to get a deep dive understanding of what these wines are all about. Such a beautiful place to tour as well. I based myself o...
Italian good news: Boom of benefit companies in Italy
Boom of benefit companies in Italy: this is the outcome of the report that annually tracks the number of businesses that are born and die in our country. Monitoring this data is not only useful to understand how our economic fabric is progressing, but it is also essential to understand the trends and behavior that entrepreneurs adopt from year to y...
Italian gardens and parks: S'Abba Frisca Park-museum
The privately owned museum is located in Dorgali, within a park full of waters fed by the spring "S'Abba frisca" (in Italian “acqua fresca”, as to say fresh water). The main theme of the park-museum is summarized in two itineraries: naturalistic and ethnographic. The itinerary begins with the presentation of plant species: narrow-leafed bonewort, c...
What's up with WTI: Editorial # 155
Dear friends, September has come, summer is ending and we have so many things we’re working on! One of the two interviews in this month's magazine is with Roberto Sgalla, the Director of the Centro Studi Americani, the home of Italians who love the United States. We the Italians collaborates with this wonderful institution and is partner of the F...
Italian land and nature: Discovering Valcamonica
Valcamonica is a wide expanse of flat land that runs through the Central Lombardy Alps and the Provinces of Brescia and Bergamo. Crossed by the Oglio River, the Valley hosts one of the largest collections of prehistoric cave art in the world; it is so important that it was inserted onto the UNESCO World Heritage List as far back as 1979. To visit t...
Italian cuisine: Cacciatore-Style Chicken
Nearly every Italian family has their own recipe for Pollo alla cacciatora. In fact, many Italians forage mushrooms in the fall that can then be incorporated into this delicious dish. My own family gathers them from the Sila mountains in Calabria. The ritual of going into the woods and finding edible treasures is every bit as enticing as tasting th...
Italian handcrafts: Sicilian Puppets
The Sicilian Puppet Theatre (Opra) is a characteristic theatre performance where the puppets, animated by “puppeteers”, represent the exploits of the greatest medieval heroes who fought for Christendom against the Saracens. In particular, the most recurrent theme in the Opra was the clash between the paladins of Charlemagne and the Muslim warriors...
Italian books: The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is the most famous work of Italian writer, essayist, linguist, and philosopher Umberto Eco (1932-2016) and it was published in 1980. Eco was a great scholar and author of different kind of works; he received several honours - among those, the cavaliere di gran croce ordine al merito della repubblica italiana in 1996 and honoris...
Italian little Italies: Acerenza, the cathedral town
Perched on a tuff cliff, at more than 800 meters above sea level, between the broad Bradano river valley and the Fiumarella stream, it is truly the “caelsae nidum Acherontiae”, the “eagle’s nest of Acerenza” described by the Latin poet Horace, born in the nearby Venosa. The layout of the town is that of the typical medieval walled Borgo. To those a...