LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE
When I arrived in Florence several years ago, I thought of myself as independent and headstrong. I was a graduate student and I was going to be living in Italy ...
What “The Young Pope” does so well is that it offers a visceral whirlwind of intrigue, which unexpectedly turns notions of good and evil on its head.
While much has been accomplished to return the city and its incomparable treasures to their previous condition, many of the losses remain.
PERMESSO: the famous permesso di soggiorno, or permit to stay, which allows non-European Union citizens to legally stay in Italy. QUESTURA: the headquarters of the local Polizia di Stato, and ...
I once heard a Venetian friend, an aesthete, say that the Florentine female carries within her the harmony of the Renaissance city and the Tuscan landscape, shaped by hills and valleys ...
“Firenze, sei sempre nel mio cuore.” Those were the words I used to caption my last Instagram on my last night in Florence. As everyone was posting pictures and essay-long ...
When we returned home to the United States after our four-month stay, I gushed effusively about Florence. Everyone asked what I enjoyed so much about it. I said ...
In a part of Tuscany where old wives’ tales are canon, don’t be surprised to meet a modern-day water diviner. Small Tuscan towns like mine are made up of ...
To this day, my mother-in-law still talks about the tacchinella and my mum about the tortellini served in salty broth—my lasting memory of Christmas in Tuscany? Total exhaustion at cooking (and interpreting) for my extended family. Flying during the festive season just isn’t
Started five years ago, Montespertoli’s A Veglia sulle Aie celebrates its agricultural heritage: the land, its fruits and the traditions of this farming community. Having spent most of my childhood growing up on one of these Tuscan farms, a favorite memory of mine is catching lucciole, fireflies,
‘Single friends! Don’t have a/c at home? Want to try a marriage without commitment? For loan, Italian husband sensitive to gusts of cold wind, available for warm summer nights…so I ...
It’s only fair to say that bathrooms in Italy in private homes are typically immaculate: they approach a standard of almost Germanic cleanliness. Bathrooms in public places, however, are an ...
It’s a beautiful spring afternoon in southern Tuscany, and we are once more on a mad rush into the woods. While locals and tourists alike are preparing to stroll the streets of Florence or Rome, we’re donning our thickest boots and giving our neighbours dirty looks
If you are new to Italy, whether as a visitor, student or expat, you may be uncertain how to proceed in the initial confusion, and apparent anarchy, of the local coffee bar. In your home country, you may be used to finding—and staying quietly in—a neat
The day has finally come to say goodbye to the last guests, fold the blankets and stack the mattresses, clean, cover and close. The last day of the season and time to say goodbye to my window view of cypress trees and green hills. Incredible, how fast six months have
When it comes to food, history and culture, the Italians and French are close rivals. However, Italy were recently crowned the undisputed master of passion, winning the title ‘best kissers ...
I was in the COOP carrying a basket in one hand and steering a buggy (‘stroller’ to our American readers) with the other. Having already loaded the basket with heavy ...
It's late summer, unseasonably hot, and I'm amidst the clamoring crowds walking toward Ponte Vecchio on via Por Santa Maria. It's dusk, and for some reason the sun seems to strike harder upon going down. I need a refuge. Instead of following the map-wielding, chatty crowds,
Traditionally the children of Italy anxiously await a visit from another figure, La Befana, hanging up their stockings on January 6, the Feast of Epiphany, rather than Christmas Eve.
More than 7 million tourists pile into Florence each year, so it stands to reason that this small city suffers from serious overcrowding. Add severe traffic problems and the resulting levels of noise and pollution, and it’s not surprising that many visitors opt for accommodation that is situated
It is no secret that Italians are leaving bigger cities in search of a slower paced rural lifestyle. The current revival of small towns throughout Italy is allowing people to rediscover the beauty and benefits of a more simple and traditional way of living. Tourism is also following the
June is a magical month in Tuscany. The nights are alive with a thousand noises, lights, and scents. This atmosphere is well caught in the Pfeiffer-Everett film of A Midsummer Night?s Dream, shot in Italy. June is the month of midsummer, when Tuscan days are
