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In the placid days that followed the relaxation of the first wave pandemic restrictions, my then-boyfriend and I decided to head to the very heart of the dolce vita. The conditions were simply ideal. It was June, so the heat was still bearable. American tourists were still locked out of Europe, and the general scarcity of international tourists mea...

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Ah! The Costiera Amalfitana! The beautiful Amalfi and the charming Positano, but also Ravello and the historical wealth of Pompeii. And then, out there, just a stone-throw away from the coast, there are its islands: Ischia, Procida, Ventotene, Ponza, and Capri, of course. Capri today is synonymous with old-school glamor and the years of la dolce vi...

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“I’m in Sorrento. Don’t want to go home to a dead cat,” Ariane read out loud from her Twitter Feed, sitting up in her bed, silhouetted against the aquamarine sky and the unmistakable mound of Mount Vesuvius. “Top Gear is being filmed in Sorrento,” she continued, having established from a single Tweet that the crew were in the same town to produce t...

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Only last week, our Prime Minister Mario Draghi, during his intervention at the Verso Sud forum, held in Sorrento to discuss the role of our Southern regions in the future development of Italy, emphasized the importance of the Mediterranean in our economy, and how we should return to focus on it as we used to do throughout our history. Needless to...

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The Italian kitchen stays fervently loyal to its characteristic ingredients. Although every region across the country takes pride in different dishes, they are united in the fundamental feeling that the ingredients must speak for themselves. Each ingredient is used wisely and sparingly. Nothing should overpower; nothing should be hidden beneath str...

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Unless you’ve been living on the moon, you must have heard of My Brilliant Friend, the series of four books by the utterly talented–and mysterious!–Italian writer Elena Ferrante. I still recall the moment I bumped into the first volume of the quartet a few years ago. I was looking for a present for my mother, and the book cover caught my attention....

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Like birds migrating towards a pastel summer, the stars of the Dolce Vita began to move in the 1950s from Roman sultriness to coastal calm. In this way, the celebrity spotlight was turned from Rome to the Amalfi Coast–a location suitable for reconciling the restless rhythms of the jet-set with the slow and relaxed rhythms of the waves, for bringing...

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My train is more than one hour late, and the only other man in the carriage isn’t happy about it. After cursing the train company, he keeps complaining to somebody over the phone about his bad luck: “This is just unbelievable! I bet such things don’t even happen in Africa! I’m sure Libya has better trains than this fucking country!”.  While I’m pre...

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I arrive in Amalfi on a filthy spring night. Water runs off the snaking road through the hills from Naples, treacherously bendy at the best of times, and the rain pelting the car windscreen makes the journey even slower than usual. Far below, the sea is churning and grey, not dissimilar to the English coastline I’m used to. It’s a difficult image t...

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Sorrento has welcomed droves of tourists every year since way back when the Romans started building holiday homes there and it’s easy to see why. A short, scenic ride from Naples Airport, this quintessentially Italian city nestled high on the clifftops of Campania is all about the dramatic views, food and vibes. There are so many fun things to do i...

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