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Welcome to the vertiginous curves of the Marmites of the Giants (Marmitte dei Giganti), a karstic canyon made of large canals and steep cliffs, between Musellaro, Salle and Caramanico, in the Majella Natural Park. Dug over millennia by the river Orta, this spectacular geological formation is made up of rocky towers and inaccessible rapids – the so-...

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Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on Tuesday inaugurated the restored first-floor rooms of the Svevo Castle in the Puglia regional capital of Bari ahead of their opening to the public shortly. The space, which until recently hosted the offices of the Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, will soon be used to display cont...

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I was at the counter of a tony café in Turin when I had a moment. Looking around the elegant coffee bar, I felt swaddled in Italian opulence -- and immersed in Italy. The woman next to me was warning the barman about cold drinks. As an Italophile, I recognized the conversation as one that could only happen in Italy. The perceived danger of somethin...

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Grand houses proverbially have grand souls, but the striking thing about Villa Gastel, on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como, is its mixture of the fabulous and the familial. The immense villa was a Benedictine convent, dating back to the 12th ­century, before it became the property of one of northern Italy’s most important families, the ­Visconti di...

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New York is the Big Apple, Chicago is the Windy City and Los Angeles is, as its very name tells us, the City of Angels. Cross that pond and come to Italy, where you’ll find of course Rome, the Città Eterna, and Venice La Serenissima. Cities love nicknames, all over the world, but it’s about the Italian flair for alternative geographical denominatio...

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Admittedly, I’m a saltwater kind of person, and a good vacation has always required an ocean beach. The appeal of lakes never truly hit me until I visited Italy’s lake district. Americans overlook this alpine region pocked with freshwater -- aside, maybe, from the famous Lake Como. But around Italy (and pretty much the rest of Europe) vacationers k...

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Finale Ligure, a sun-baked town at the edge of the Ligurian Sea, has no symphony orchestra or opera house. But it has a maestro of its own: Franco Morasca, the manager of Bagni Est Finale, a no-frills, private club on the beach that pulls in generations of Italians each summer for a reminder of what it means to be Italian. The term “Riviera” was bo...

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Villa Torrigiani – located in the municipality of Capannori, Lucca – dates back to at least the late 16th century, and features a beautiful Baroque façade created during a renovation in the late 1600s. What it is most famous for, however, is probably its enclosed garden, completely dedicated to flowers that grow between walls, geometrical hedges, a...

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Guardia Sanframondi is a typical medieval Italian hilltop town, with a formidable ancient castle, pretty squares…beautiful frescoed churches…flower-bedecked old palaces…and friendly locals saying “hello” to strangers. Situated in a lesser-known part of Italy’s southern Campania region, it is a hidden gem that is slowly being discovered by expats wh...

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Many consider Italy the most fascinating country in Europe, and they’re probably right. It never stops charming us with its incredible food, pampering mild climate, diverse landscape, incredible architecture and millenary history. If you have never been, it is absolutely time for your first trip to Italy.  Easier said than done though, right? As a...

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