Ferragosto: not at work
Some Italians consider it the “real” New Year’s Day, in that it marks the beginning of the end of one season, and points towards the...
Some Italians consider it the “real” New Year’s Day, in that it marks the beginning of the end of one season, and points towards the...
“What do you know about a field of wheat, a poem of profane love, or the fear of being taken by the hand. What do you know?” These wonderf...
"I may be shy, but Love gives me the courage to tell you that, ever since the day I first saw you, it’s always been May, and in May the world is...
Once upon a time, roses were the Italians’ most beloved flowers, the failsafe choice for every occasion. A birthday, an anniversary, for somethi...
In the Casentino area between Arezzo and Florence there is a wide valley, dominated by the castle of Romena on one side and the castle of Poppi o...
Let’s start with a truism. The good thing about Christmas is that it brings the family together, and maybe gifts us a bit of snow and some gorge...
First of all, choose yourself a soundtrack. A waltz, with its lilting up-and-down motion, would be perfect. It might be Tchaikovsky’s Flower Wal...
In Italian, we normally spell out the whole year: two-thousand and twenty, for example. But recently, we’ve got into the habit of calling that y...
When we got together on 31 December 2020 to toast the new year, we all thought that the worst of the pandemic was behind us. A year on, the vacci...
More than any other, September is the month of transition. Technically speaking, two thirds of it is still summer, but our thoughts have taken a turn ...
È primavera svegliatevi bambine…. sang the great Alberto Rabagliati in the mid-twentieth century. Spring: the season of reawakening. Aft...
“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...
Few other moments symbolize the essence of the country life in such a clear, timeless and deeply rooted way as the vendemmia, the grape harvest. With ...
September is significant: it’s the month of “resolutions”, of “starting afresh”, of “new goals” that we inte...