How to Spend One Year in Italy
How do you spend one year in Italy? Here’s a month-by-month, personal account of my first year living and traveling in Italy.
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In Rome, Communing Over Coffee
In the mornings after I’ve sent the kids off to school and tidied up the house I go down and have my morning cappuccino.
How to Avoid Tourists in Venice
It’s the conundrum that many travelers to Venice face: how to be a tourist but avoid other tourists.
Visions of Veronese Green: In Search of the Sublime Shade in Venice
Veronese Green is named after Verona-born painter Paolo Caliari, also known as Veronese. I used the color to guide me on my travels in Venice.
Everything is Authentic
Trying to decide if a travel experience is authentic or not is like trying to separate “travelers” from “tourists.” That debate separates those who travel along class and age lines, with travelers proclaiming their experiences better, richer, more true than those of the tourists. There’s even a famous quote by G.K. Chesterton that delineates these…
Lost in Translation: A Look at the Gruesome Stories Behind Rome’s Monuments and Art
We admire Italy’s art and monuments for color, style, and the skillfulness of their creators. But the gruesome stories that many of these famous works depict are a reminder of real human suffering.
Rome Revisited: What Has and Hasn’t Changed
Rome is changing. Rome has changed. You hear those phrases around Rome all the time these days. Crime, corruption, unemployment, immigration, unreliable public transit, trash collection, the euro – Italy is in crisis and the prevailing mood among its citizens is one of resignation and exhaustion. This was most recently expressed cinematically with La Grande…
Exploring the Ghetto: A Tour of Rome’s Jewish Quarter [Review]
Learn more about the ancient and contemporary history of the Jewish people in Rome with a tour through the ex-Ghetto.
August in Italy: The Things You’ll Need
The prevailing travel wisdom about Italy has always been to avoid going to the country in August. “Don’t go to Italy in August!” they say, because it’s hot, many shops and restaurants are closed, and the cities are emptied out of residents and replaced by other tourists. All of this is quite true. But if…
Writer’s Block, Italian Style
This is what happens when you have writer’s block and you are supposed to write about Italy.
The Roman Spring of Tennessee Williams
In the late winter/early spring of 1948, American playwright Tennessee Williams arrived in Rome in need of a change of scenery. Williams, of course, is known for his writing set in the American South, including “A Streetcar Named Desire” (written in 1947) and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” (1955), both of which earned him Pulitzer…
The 7 Hills of Rome: What Are They and What Can You See?
Rome is a city of many hills. But the seven hills of Rome are the original hills on which the ancient city was founded.
Remembering the Battle of Montecassino
About an hour and a half south of Rome lies Montecassino, an enormous Benedictine monastery whose environs witnessed a very costly battle of World War II.
Important Dates in Italian History for the Curious Traveler
A short primer on a few of the dates you will encounter while meandering the streets and squares of Italy.
The Art of Nobel Winner Dario Fo
Calling Italian playwright Dario Fo a “Renaissance” man would probably irk him given his long history of questioning authority and mocking the status quo. But Fo, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 (one of six Italians to have won the literature prize) proves he is worthy of this nickname with the new…
Rooted in Italy: The World’s First Botanical Gardens
It has been said (too many times) that all roads lead to Rome. But did you know that you could trace botanical medicine and even the environmental movement to 16th century Italy? It was here in the city of Pisa (1544) then Padua (1545) that the world’s first botanical gardens were set up. This month’s…
Braving the Elements: A Rare Snowfall in Rome
Over the past weekend, Rome got pelted with eight inches of snow, the largest single snowfall in the capital since 1986. The rare snowfall prompted the closure of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, and other tourist attractions. Many businesses had to close because workers were unable to access public transportation or get their…
Give the Gift of Italian Culture
When my colleagues in the Italy Blogging Roundtable and I decided to write on the topic “gifts” for our December post, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I knew straight away that I didn’t want to write about Italian gifts you can buy in a store, though there are many I desire…