Festivals & Events
New Year’s Day in Villa Borghese
The ideal place in Rome to spend New Year’s Day.
Extra Palio in Siena Will Commemorate 100th Anniversary of the End of WWI
An Extra Palio – Palio Straordinario – will be run in Siena on 20 October 2018.
Mille Miglia Vintage Car Race
The Mille Miglia, a vintage car race that makes a loop from Brescia to Rome each May, has been on my radar for almost a decade. This year, I finally got to see the spectacle as the cars paraded down Rome’s Via Veneto. Of course, I took photos…and some videos, too: The original Mille Miglia…
La Festa Delle Donne – International Women’s Day in Italy
Italy celebrates International Women’s Day – La Festa delle Donne – with mimosas and a free museum day.
Natale di Roma: Rome Celebrates Its Birthday
The city of Rome was born on April 21, 753 BC. In Italian, it is known as the Natale di Roma—the birthday of Rome.
The Best Ever In-Depth Video of Siena’s Palio
Inspiration always seems to find me when I’m not looking and that is exactly what happened as I settled in to watch a few minutes of television last night. Lucky for me, I clicked over to Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports, a show on ESPN that puts sports into a cultural context. One of…
Cortili Aperti: Italy’s Annual Open Courtyards Event
For more than 20 years, ADSI (Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane), aka the Historic Home Association of Italy, has been working in conjunction with the owners of the country’s estates and villas to bring to the public a program called Cortili Aperti, or “Open Courtyards.” The annual open courtyard event, also called Giornate ADSI, usually takes…
Buon Natale
Like many of you, I have already started my Christmas vacation. So, I thought I’d check in one last time before December 25 and share with you some of the prettiest Christmas pictures from Italy this year. I’ve done this by creating a gallery on Flickr. My Buon Natale 2009 gallery will feature up to…
World’s Biggest Christmas Tree in Gubbio, Umbria
Rockefeller Center has nothing on this tree. The biggest Christmas tree in the world is, in fact, in Gubbio, Umbria. But this is not any tree. No, this is not a tree at all. Gubbio’s Albero di Natale is a dazzling neon feat–and Guinness Book of World Records holder–that has been lighting up the hills…
Walking Via Giulia
Rome’s famous Renaissance street, Via Giulia, is celebrating its 500th anniversary this year. And, the New York Times‘ Elisabeth Rosenthal provides the history and descriptions of the streets’ sites in her article A Stroll in Rome With a Papal Pedigree. Usually an unharried street, Via Giulia is set to be quite busy this year with…
Eating Your Way Through Le Marche
A round-up of food festivals in Le Marche.
Coloring the Skies: Kite Festival in Umbria
This weekend, the incredibly picturesque town of Castiglione del Lago, located on the banks of Lake Trasimeno in Umbria, will become even more beautiful as the skies fill with kites of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The event is called Coloriamo i Cieli, and it features some of the world’s most interesting kites commandeered by…
Genoa’s World Pesto Championship
Pesto, the green pasta sauce indigenous to Genoa, is celebrated at the Pesto World Championship. Learn more about pesto and culinary competition.
Jazz in January: Umbria Jazz Inverno and Other Winter Festivals in Italy
Winter means the music season for most of Italy. Opera productions and church-sponsored chamber music events are typical fare from Lecco to Lecce at this time of year. But you’ll also find jazz and blues in the mix. Umbria, which is home to Umbria Jazz, hosts a summer and winter version of its well-regarded festival. Umbria Jazz…