Marble Run: Shopping for Traditional Marbled Products in Italy
Marble, either as a substance or a style, runs through three different artisan crafts that are famous in Italy.
Experiences
Tours, outdoor recreation, and other activities to consider for your Italy itinerary
Comfort Me With Potatoes: A Tale of Two Tuber Dishes in Italy
The potato is a vegetable that no one really associates with Italy but it features in two dishes that some consider comfort fo
Help Tell the Story of Jewish Italy
CulturaItalia, a website operated by the Italian Culture Ministry, is seeking your help in its efforts to document the Jewish contributions to Italian society over the past 150 years. As one of its many initiatives to mark the anniversary of 150 years of Italian Unity, CulturaItalia has teamed up with with Judaica Europeana, a Europe-wide…
Seven Longobard Sites Newest Additions to UNESCO Heritage List
In 2011, UNESCO inscribed Italy’s newest World Heritage sites: The Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power (568-774 A.D.). Treated as one entity, these seven sites stretch from as far north as Castelseprio, Lombardy to as far south as Benevento in Campania. All seven of these sites represent, according to UNESCO, “the high achievement of…
Longer Hours for Rome’s Municipal Museums
In an initiative to allow locals and the throngs of summer tourists more time to enjoy Rome’s cultural riches, the City of Rome is keeping its municipal museums open from 8pm until 1am every Saturday through September 3. Which museums are municipal museums, you ask? They include the Capitoline Museums (pictured), the Ara Pacis Museum,…
Culinary Tour of Ravenna
Cooking school teacher and chef Angela Schiavina shows off the culinary riches of Ravenna in this “My City” video from The Guardian.
Five Fabulous Art Works in Rome You May Have Missed
Deciding on a favorite piece of art in Italy is similar to picking a favorite child: it’s an impossible task. On some days, when thinking about Italy’s great art works, a certain color combo will grab me or maybe a dark mood has me preferring chiaroscuro over lighter fare. At any rate, this month’s Italy…
How Does Venice Work?
Although Venice has been sinking into the Adriatic sea for centuries, visitors, as well as many residents, pay little mind to this fact other than keeping close watch on the acqua alta forecasts. Few of the millions of people that tread on Venice’s cobblestones and stroll over its storied canals know how the city manages to…
Some Suggestions for Driving in Italy
Disclaimer: This post was written before I had the chance to fully appreciate driving (and parking) in Italy. While the below information still applies, I have much more experience driving in Italy, inside cities like Rome and Florence, as well as on highways and the A-1 autostrada. Read my updated post about driving in Italy….
Ancient Aphrodite Sculpture Back in Sicily
On Tuesday, the Museo Archeologico di Morgantina, a small archeological museum in Aidone (Enna), Sicily, held an inauguration for the repatriation of an ancient sculpture of Aphrodite.
![Improve Your Italian with These Useful Hand Gestures [Video]](https://www.italofile.com/wp-content/uploads/video-italian-hand-gestures.jpg)
Improve Your Italian with These Useful Hand Gestures [Video]
These fun videos teaches you some basic hand gestures to complement your Italian language learning.
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…
Best Places to Live in Italy: The Quality of Life Index 2010
Florence, Rome, Venice – you already know the names of the cities you must add to your Italy travel itinerary. But, do you know which cities in Italy are the best places to live? Each year, the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore publishes the Italy Quality of Life Survey, which calculates factors such as…
How to Eat Fish in Venice
Eat fish in Venice…but don’t touch that lemon!
Scenic Drive on the Amalfi Coast
Italy is full of scenic drives. There are the honey-colored sunsets of Tuscany, sepia-toned ruins of Ostia, and the snow-capped cityscapes of Torino. But if you want a ride with the bluest of blues then the only place to find yourself is along Campania’s La Costiera Amalfitana, The Amalfi Coast. This coastal road links Sorrento…
A Bribe-Free Holiday in Sicily
The brave work of the anti-mafia organization AddioPizzo.org was recently brought to my attention. “Addio Pizzo” means “Goodbye, Pizzo,” the latter word meaning the protection money that hundreds of businesses throughout Sicily have had to pay to the powerful, omnipresent mafia. AddioPizzo was formed in 2004 after a group of young Sicilian entrepreneurs, afraid that…
‘An Irreverent Curiosity’ – An Interview with David Farley
If you know me, you’ll know that I am nuts about religious relics. And if you know David Farley’s book “An Irreverent Curiosity,” you’ll know immediately why that first line is a wee bit funny. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Farley in Manhattan to discuss his book, which has the tag…
Five Favorites: Art in Tuscany
To many a traveler, Tuscany and art are synonymous. From the architecture to the numerous galleries to those gorgeous, green, and cliché hills, there’s an element of art in every corner of Tuscany.