What's up with WTI: Editorial # 119
Ciao from Rome to all the friends of We the Italians! On September 22nd I will have the pleasure of making on behalf of We the Italians a little welcoming remarks to the friends of NIABA who gather here in Rome. As you may recall, We the Italians and NIABA have signed a partnership, of which we are very happy. We will also have the opportunity to i...
Italian culture and history: Venice and Its Lagoon
Celebrated throughout the world for its singular beauty, Venice and its lagoon were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1987. Founded out of the necessity of fleeing the Barbarian Invasion in the 6th Century, Venice was already one of the most powerful cities in Europe around the year 1000. Beginning with the first settlements on t...
Italian handcrafts: Trento Copper
ln Trentino testimonies of metalworking appeared from the moment the man learned to use metals to build objects intended to meet the needs of everyday life. The mining and metalworking archaeology has provided many examples of a the processing of copper and other minerals in the mountains from the Valley of Mocheni to the plateau of Tesino. These m...
Italian little Italies: Furore, the town that doesn't exist
Following the hairpin curves of the hill road stretching along the coast between Amalfi and Agerola, you’ll reach Furore, a sort of Neverland. Don’t look for a ring of houses standing round a square here. You won’t find it. Furore, with its houses scattered on the slopes of the mountain, dropping sheer down to the sea, offers tiny samples of itsel...
Italian flavors: Red aubergine from Rotonda
The Rotonda Red Aubergine DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) made its appearance in the small municipality in the Polino National Park in the early twentieth century, when the necessity of finding work and the dream of building a new life drove many of the inhabitants of Rotonda to set out on the adventure instigated by the Fascist regime: Ethio...
Italian traditions: The contest of Asti
Every year in September the "Palio (contest) di Asti" is run: the oldest in Italy, it is an ancient tradition from the eight century, a real festival, which has kept unchanged its distinctive traits, qualities that have helped to make it a unique performance. The charm of the medieval history lives through the town districts and its places, includi...
Italian art: Pietro Sedda
Pietro Sedda is an artist who boasts several records: to have become the first Italian tattoo artist of world renown, to have crossed the border of his work thanks to his art, to have landed in a museum for his first anthological exhibition and to have worked with luxury brands for capsule collections. Pietro grew up in Oristano, in Sardinia; he gr...
Italian cuisine: White Kidney Beans Tuscan Style
Tuscany is a land of poets, artists and scientists, but also of excellent wine and ancient flavors that we can find in poor dishes such as pappa al pomodoro, ribollita or these white beans called all'uccelletto (small bird). According to Pellegrino Artusi, the name derives from the aromas (in particular sage) that are used to flavor the little bird...
Italian language: Don’t despair, you already know Italian…almost
Today I am going to cheat a little bit. I am not in fact going to talk about Italian words specifically, but about Italian words that became completely part of the English vocabulary. Let’s begin by saying that as all loanwords, they are not fully used properly, as the Italian grammar and meaning would require, but hey, that’s just the way it is. S...
Great Italians of the Past: Oriana Fallaci, the truth-hunter
“There are moments in life when keeping silent becomes a fault, and speaking an obligation. A civic duty, a moral challenge, a categorical imperative from which we cannot escape”. This was (or let me say, this is) Oriana Fallaci. Yes, because Oriana is like an eternal human being. Not just a journalist, Oriana was also an author and a worldwide fam...
Italian gardens: The Park of Donnafugata Castle
The Donnafugata Castle, almost 10 miles from Ragusa, is a sumptuous noble residence of the late '800, of 1,5 square miles, with a facade in neo-Gothic style accompanied by two side towers. The first construction of the castle dates back to 1300, but there are no certain dates. Later, it was purchased in 1648 by Vincenzo Arezzo-La Rocca, former baro...
Italian wine: Native grapes of Liguria
Liguria is one of the wine regions I don’t write about too often on here just due to the opportunity of not trying wines from there too often. Earlier this summer I attended some tastings and tried a variety of unique grapes from Liguria. The grapes included pollera nera, cruvin, rossese di dolceacqua and good old vermentino and sangiovese. Let’s d...