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It’s only fitting that my Jewish boyfriend Daryl introduced me to the artichoke. Even though I was part-Sicilian, I had somehow never eaten one. I saw little culinary potential in the daunting, thorny bulb. Turns out, my Sicilian forebears also had to be convinced by their Jewish friends and neighbors that the artichoke offered much more than met t...

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“But he’s famous!” goes a voice outside a bar in Trastevere. A footballer? Politician? Big Brother contestant? Film star? “Ok, was famous,” the voice concedes, meaning none of the above. Trilussa, or Carlo Salustri, to de-anagrammatise his real name, was a poet, and a dialect poet at that. Albeit the dialect is romanesco – the patois of Caput Mundi...

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100 Pittori, Rome's historic open-air art event, returns to Via Margutta with its 116th edition from 29 October to 1 November. The four-day art festival will feature works by more than 100 Italian and international artists who will be on hand to meet the public, from 10.00 to 20.00 each day. The upcoming event is dedicated to Dante Alighieri, on th...

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One of Rome's greatest treasures - the Cornaro Chapel with its sculptural masterpiece by Baroque genius Gian Lorenzo Bernini - has been restored to its dazzling glory. nThe chapel, part of the S. Maria della Vittoria church, contains one of Bernini's most celebrated sculptures, the Ecstasy of St Teresa, completed in 1652. The chapel is a favourite...

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Italy's real estate and art worlds are all a flutter over the news that Rome's Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, better known as Villa Aurora, is on the market for almost half a billion euro. The sumptuous villa, hidden by high walls near Via Veneto, has been owned by the noble Ludovisi family since the 16th century. The historic property is al...

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For centuries, Italy was the preferred destination for poetically-minded nobles from across northern Europe. The “grand tour” was an exercise in communing with the ancient Roman world at a time when it was considered the height of culture to contemplate its romantically crumbling relics and vine-clad temples. But these “grand trippers” gave little...

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During the spread of mad cow disease several years back, serving pajata (the intestines of milk-fed veal) was banned in Rome. And locals weren't happy as Roman cuisine is rooted heavily in the so-called quinto quarto, or fifth quarter – the “less noble” parts remaining from the animal slaughter. Once destined for the poor, the fifth quarter can be...

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"To look down on ruin, ruin, ruin, all about; the triumphal arches of Constantine, Septimus Severus, and Titus; the Roman Forum; the Palace of the Caesars; the temples of the old religion, fallen down and gone; is to see the ghost of old Rome, wicked wonderful old city, haunting the very ground on which its people trod. It is the most impressive, t...

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Quentin Tarantino was at the Rome Film Festival last night to receive a lifetime achievement award from the festival and Italian horror legend Dario Argento. During a wide-ranging on-stage talk about his career with fest head Antonio Monda, Tarantino discussed his influences, behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his movies and his appreciation for Ital...

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The Roman Pantheon is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest surviving structure from the ancient Roman Empire. And not only does it survive, it radiates a vision and elegance that are nothing short of modern in their execution. To stand on his porphyry-inlaid floor and look up into the giant occulus in its dome is to forget completely that you...

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