The Ottobrata Zafferanese is one of the most important gastronomic festivals in southern Italy, held every Sunday in October in the town of Zafferana Etnea, located on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna. This year, the 44th edition took place on the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th of October. It’s an event that combines food, culture, and tradition, drawin...

I keep a sesame biscotto in my freezer that is now going on 14 years old. It was from the last batch made by my Nonna, and somewhere in my mind if that petrified rock of lemon-scented flour, oil, sugar and eggs still exists, so does she.   On my mother’s side of the family, we are Sephardic Jews from Sicily. We were there 2,000 years ago when Greek...

Many medieval villages in Italy are beautiful, and many are proclaimed to be the most beautiful. However, the enchanting village of Gangi, located in the Madonie Mountains in Sicily's hinterlands, can say confidently and with proof that it really is one of the most beautiful. In 2014, it was awarded the prestigious title of "Il Borgo dei Borghi" (T...

Like many parts of Italy, Sicily has enjoyed a boom in tourism since the pandemic with more than five-and-a-half million visitors turning up in 2023, reports Regione Siciliana. The television series, The White Lotus Season 2, filmed in various parts of Sicily was an accelerator, although the enduring charms of Italy’s largest island—Baroque towns b...

The BBasketteers team Amelia Tuzzolino, Marianna Angelina Delfaus, Giuseppe Sylvester, and Massimo Edwards, the four NYC based Italian-American players, just returned from Sicily with a wealth of emotions and memories. From October 3rd to 6th, they participated in the Trofeo Coni Estate/Coni Trophy Summer edition, the youth Olympic styled games org...

The American Corner Palermo will be a space open to the entire community, where young people can explore American culture, participate in events and workshops, and strengthen the ties that unite our two countries. We could not have found a better partner for this project than the Falcone Foundation, which will host the new American Corner inside th...

A series of underwater caves off the southern coast of Sicily holds clues about Ice Age-era human migration. A team of ‘citizen scientists’ — including a tugboat captain and both recreational and Italian navy divers — helped discover them. The findings, reported in PLOS ONE, describe 25 caves and rock shelters that show signs of human occupation fr...

Italy, with its 7500 km (4,660 mi) of coastline, practically overflowing with indentations, gulfs and coves, natural landfalls and touristic ports, stands out as a cruise destination, and is one of the primary cruise departure points in Europe. Ever higher numbers of tourists are choosing a cruise as an all-inclusive vacation that combines fun, rel...

Etna's recent paroxysmal activities have shown that when a volcano erupts, tons of ash and lapilli materials are ejected into the atmosphere and deposited on the ground not only in the vicinity of the volcano, but also over a wide area. The volcanic ash that falls in Catania in suburban areas and roads can be collected and disposed of as inert mate...

Palermo, a city of a thousand colors, a thousand flavors, a thousand noble palaces, a thousand churches, and a thousand monuments; multicultural, a safe haven for foreigners of any race, any origin, any faith. In short, an open-air marketplace where not only material goods but also ideas, customs, and habits are exchanged—in essence, everything tha...