The historical hideaway in Petrella Guidi, Marche, is where you’ll find true slowness. Slowness: the “human rhythm” that Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda described in speaking of his new novel, “The Story of a Snail Who Discovered the Importance of Being Slow”. “It is the exact pace, nothing more and nothing… more >
The Cloister in Monreale, and the entire Cathedral complex it belongs to, was built by will of a good man. Chronicler Riccardo di San Germano described the structure as representing “life and strength of the people; deliverance of the miserable, the poor, the travellers; stronghold of workers”. The man behind… more >
by Giuseppe Frangi It all started with a good dose of realism, a typical trait of the Franciscans: once the Turks conquered Constantinople, pilgrimages to Jerusalem had become increasingly risk-laden. A Franciscan monk from Milan, who had been for many years with the Custodian of the Holy Land, pulled this idea… more >
“Razors and combs, / lancets and scissors, / at my command / everything’s ready”, sings Figaro in “The Barber of Seville”. The voice of the leading character of Rossini’s world-famous opera probably ringed in the ears of the illustrious patrons of Antica Barbieria Colla, every time they put their looks in the trusted… more >
In the 1700s, there were only very few Italian States that did not ask Leonardo Ximenes’s “advice on hydrometric issues. The Grand Duke of Tuscany entrusted him with reclaiming some of Siena’s swamp lands. The Venetians asked him how they could regulate the Brenta river. The people of Lucca went… more >
If the Roman poet Horace could visit Egnatia today and stop at Masseria Cimino, perhaps he would be inspired to compose an emotional ode to the ancient Roman city, instead of addressing it with the trademark caustic irony he used in his “Satires”: “Egnatia, which [seems to have] been built… more >
Milan’s Casa degli Atellani once echoed every day with parties that the whole city envied. Its spacious frescoed rooms saw a constant celebration of the carnival of life, described in rhymes by Lorenzo the Magnificent in his famous “Canzona di Bacco”: “How beautiful our Youth / is that’s always flying… more >
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