Cultured vulgarity
We often smile when we hear certain expressions from the old peasant dialect, usually colorful and brutal in some way. We think of ourselves as proud ...
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GUIDE TO ITALIAN LIVING
Matera: caves like no other
Coming away from the edge of the gorge and heading down to the bottom of the “Sassi” is an experience that marks one’s entire life. ...
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I’m sure that you all sang that word as you read it. It’s the chorus of a song that appears, alongsid...
La vie en rose
What kind of wine has dominated in recent years? What type has been most fashionable? There’s not an atom of doubt: it’s rosé. Ros...
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar – not to be confused with balsamic vinegar in its simplest form – is an extraordinary product, the result of ...
50 shades of Pasta and Beans
It seems that even Cicero was a glutton for them. Of course, we can’t know how true that is, partly because the idea of pasta at the time of the...
Timballo, and epic hunger
The late 1990s saw the Americans express their love for Italians by releasing a film about them; in particular, it expressed their love – obsess...
Arcimboldo: when food is an art form
We are living a historic moment and food is the unrivalled protagonist. Cooking has become a spectacle, brought to our TVs by celebrity chefs who intr...
Polenta: the food of the people
Say "polenta", and like an automatic reflex your thoughts turn to great platters of the steaming stuff, an edible sculpture of warm, inviting yellows,...
If wine can be melodramatic
Versa vino, eccellente Marzemino! The wine that is sung more than any other is Marzemino, thanks to its mention in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Accord...
Parmigiana di Melanzane: a mystery
The "mela insana" (crazy apple) was brought to Italy by Arab merchants at the turn of the fifteenth century. The eggplant began to appear in Sicilian ...
Testaroli
The Lunigiana is a gorgeous area between Liguria, Emilia and Tuscany, to which it officially belongs. Historically, it was one of the first parts of I...
Rosatello: the color of the Dolce Vita
There are some wines that are older than just about all of us. Iconic wines, wines that symbolize the most significant moments of an epoch, and which...
All the “C”s of Baccalà
Due to an odd linguistic game, in a certain part of Veneto there’s a Bacalà – spelled with the one "c" – which isn’t th...
Prosecco Rosè: an overnight success
In his Naturalis Historia, the Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentioned the quality, almost as an elixir for a long life...
Pontremoli, on the edge of it all
If there’s a place on our kaleidoscopic peninsula where variety is overcome by chaos to the point of entropy, it’s Lunigiana. Today’...
Selinunte, the other side of Carthage
We baby boomers remember what happened in the Punic Wars because it was the first world issue that we tackled at primary school and because this bold ...
La Befana, an Italian legend
The word “Befana” probably comes from a poetic take on Epiphany, when the divine figure of the Baby Jesus in the manger appeared to the Ma...
Tortellini and Cappelletti: why?
The only other issue that elicits such passion (forget politics) is soccer. When faced with discussions about “traditional” cooking, peopl...
Saint Sylvester, history and legend
Sylvester was the 33rd pope of the Roman Church. It would seem that he died on 31 December, 335, and united a lengthy ministry in one of the most disj...
Recipes: Insalata Russa
Rufina, December 1971 - Granny, why’s it called "Russian salad"? - What a question! Because they make it in Russia. - The Russia where Yuri G...
Christmas with the family
Knowing how to handle Christmas 2020 is a feat of acrobatics: on one hand, there’s an obsession with the safety measures that greatly deprive us...
The Fourth Magi
We all know about the three "Magi" who brought gifts to the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. However, hardly anyone knows the little-told story of Artaban, th...
Oderzo, history and water
Cross the Piave, but before you reach the Livenza. They might be waterways with different capacities, but they are no less part of the geography of no...
Strenia, Baby Jesus and Santa Claus
Christmas is just around the corner. Almost all the Christmas decorations go up on 8 December, the day of the Immaculate Conception, according to trad...
Carloforte, where tuna comes from
We recently heard the news that the Mediterranean red tuna no longer risks extinction after years of uncontrolled fishing. There are two reasons why t...
Bevagna, port of the land
It would be hurried to call an undulating clearing on the plain a gigantic sheet of Umbria, especially if one overlooks the region’s complex riv...
I Nasoni di Roma: waste and functionality
You walk along the ancient streets of Rome, sometimes slapped awake by its murderous beauty, sometimes by the obscenities of modernity. In Rome, the g...
The Summer of St. Martin
“The Summer of St. Martin lasts three days and a bit” goes the Tuscan adage. In late autumn, there are usually three or four days in which...
Fresh pasta, a daily sculpture
An entire encyclopedia could be filled with Italy’s fresh pasta wisdom: shapes and fillings, customs, and heated debate between factions. Surrou...
Elaion, treasure from afar
Dozens of questions can be asked about extra-virgin olive oil: many authoritative means of communication have tackled the matter from different points...
Practicing beauty
I’m not a big fan of Roberto Vecchioni’s music, but I find a disconcerting beauty in the few songs of his that I do like. I don’t su...
Venice in twenty-twenty
Perhaps it’s still not time for the Lagoon City to take stock. Some call it the most beautiful city in the world, before reaching for the famous...
Chestnuts, a source of life
Growing chestnuts has left a lasting mark on Italian culture since the Early Middle Ages, when the Apennines acquired a circular system of nourishment...
A tasteful life in the leap year
The infection rate has started to climb again and containment measures are back in force to limit social gatherings. Without going into the pros and c...
Vivere di Gusto
What’s Vivere di Gusto? The answer could be short and simple, or long and detailed. Let’s put it this way: our magazine aspires to be a ch...
It’s a good story, the story of Ruffino
Like the straw around a flask, Ruffino’s history is a story woven from truth and legend, the certifiable and the cinematic. During the First Wor...
When you say N’ombra de vin...
Around Piave, the location of one of the vineyards belonging to our La Duchessa estate, as well as in the rest of the Veneto, there’s a saying w...
Vinum, the Etruscan legacy
Few ancient peoples elicit charm and mystery in equal measure: the legacy of the Etruscans became sedimented in the country’s past, fully comple...
Aperitivo: a modern ritual with an ancient flavour
So widespread that it’s the subject of arguments and the set-up of jokes, so universal that it ignores borders, and so enticing that it brings p...
Listòn in Verona: the piazza step by step
Walk through the arches that mark the end of the Corso Porta Nuova, and the street expands into a clearing that stretches the field of vision. Piazza ...
Firenze Jazz Festival
It’s still very hot for September. The sun presses down with its sheen of milky humidity and the constant cicada chorus blends with the voices o...
The Autumn Table
The fall is a time of countless poetic definitions and romantic expressions, often associated with a pregnant pause in the happiness of the summer. Ce...
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