Once my husband (holder of American and Italian passports) and I (American passport only) decided to stay in Rome beyond the one-year period stipulated by my spousal visa, the celebratory prosecco would soon be followed by a more practical concern: obtaining a permesso di soggiorno, the Italian e...

Enthusiasts of the visual arts are in for a promising two days on 12-13 May when owners of private apartments in Trastevere host works of art, most of which have been created especially for the location and the occasion. At a time when traditional art galleries are struggling and artists are ha...

The last line of a poem by Italian poet Giovanni Giudici (1924-2011) entitled “Una sera come tante” (“An Evening Like So Many Others”) reads as follows: “C’è più onore in tradire che in essere fedeli a metà” (“There is more honour in betrayal than in being half faithful”). That is to say, sometim...

After more than five months of Mario Monti’s government supported by a grand coalition, Italians will able to make some practical choices on the government and the parties. On 6 and 7 May, almost 800 comuni and more than 7 million voters in ordinary statute regions will choose a new mayor and cou...

What picture does Velletri conjure up in your mind? Someone well-versed in church history may know that 13 Velletri bishops subsequently became popes – quite a record for a small town bordering on the infamous Pontine marshes that once stretched halfway to Naples. Historians may also know that th...

A while ago I was struck by the unusual plan of the town of St Andrews in Scotland. It has three broad roads, North Street, Market Street, and South Street, running, almost parallel towards the cathedral, founded in 1162, at the town’s east end. I was reminded of the Vatican Borgo, with its three...

Ask the average priest what he’s doing for Easter Week and he’ll likely tell you that he’s looking forward to a bit of free time after the rigours of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Every year, priests working in parishes spend the days leading up to Easter Sunday in a whirlwind of activity. They ha...

Thanks to a small group of creative and industrious craft brewers, the city of Rome has become the crux of a fast-growing trend in the experimentation, production, marketing and consumption of original beer. In a country once considered almost exclusively dedicated to the sophisticated wine manuf...

When mining magnate and philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim established a foundation in 1937 to foster an appreciation of modern art, a global art empire was born. In 1943, Guggenheim commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a museum on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Although neither lived to s...

The imposing ruins of the ancient Temple of Jove Anxur tower high over the fishing port of Terracina. From there you get a breathtaking view that sweeps over the Riviera of Ulysses from the Circeo peninsula to Gaeta. Across the sea, the Pontine Islands bob mistily on the far horizon and, if it’s ...