Griffin and lion statues, the mythical symbols of Perugia

Three Reasons to Love Perugia

Perugia, the picturesque capital of the region of Umbria, is a destination I like to recommend to travelers looking for a new place to explore in Central Italy. Perugia is an austere, university town – indeed, it’s one of Umbria’s hill towns – with several unique characteristics that make it ideal for discovery. Here’s my…

Exploring Italy’s Parks

Exploring Italy’s Parks

Fall is a great time to explore Italy’s national and regional parks, what with the beautiful foliage changing colors and the majority of tourists – both Italian and international – having packed up their bags and headed home. Italy currently has 22 national parks – with two more in the process of being established –…

For the Love of Dante

For the Love of Dante

Italofile Then and Now When I started Italofile in 2006, my goal was to help promote my Italy travel guides, collect Italy travel information in “real time,” and basically keep up with the ever-changing landscape that is the Italy travel experience. To give you an idea of how much can change, there really weren’t a…

assorted wine bottle lot displaying on rack

Rumblings in the Wine World: The Brunello di Montalcino Wine Scandal

It has been a little under two weeks since Italy announced the findings in the Brunello di Montalcino scandal. In case you haven’t been following this case, Italian authorities — prompted by the United States — started an investigation to find out whether some renowned manufacturers of Brunello di Montalcino were making their wines with…

The Real Pinocchio

The Real Pinocchio

Last November, the New York Review of Books released Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio under its NYRB Classics imprint. The tale, as reviewed by Tim Parks in the latest issue, is much darker than the Disneyfied version. After the jump is Parks’ full review. As always, I urge you to subscribe to NYRB; they…