Maybe the Alitalia saga will one day have a happy ending; airplanes bearing the well-known green, white and red triangular “A” logo will again criss-cross the world, taking off and arriving more or less on time and offering passengers adequate leg room, smiling flight attendants and attractive pr...

The Christmas period in Rome officially began on 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, although decorations were displayed in the streets and shop windows even in November. According to the local tradition, on this date most families started decorating their homes for Christmas, pre...

This has been a rollercoaster year by even the very mobile standards of Italian politics; some of the shocks have come from outside the country, such as the autumn financial crisis, but most have been self-inflicted. A year ago, it seemed as if then centre-left prime minister Romano Prodi had pu...

If you look very carefully, you can see where a crack ran through the left shoulder and breast of Raphael’s exquisitely serene Madonna. Another cut straight through the body of the toddler, John the Baptist, and yet another obliterated almost half of the Christ child’s face. But these traces of t...

A dewy dawn over the Venetian mainland and green grassy slopes unfolding toward the blue Dolomite mountains to primrose yellow or pomegranate pink skies, ordinary people in fluttering robes or naked, made to look sacred, gravely posing in the foreground. They called the painter “Giambellino” – ...

When Italy’s determined young education minister Mariastella Gelmini announced the return to a single-teacher system in state primary schools and the consequent reduction of teaching hours, many people across the country let out a groan. Only 18 years previously a set of education reforms had abo...

Not so long ago, Italy’s connection with Africa was limited to fading memories of the colonies in Libya and east Africa; today it has African immigrants from most of the continent and Italians travel to Africa for business and tourism. Rome’s former mayor, Walter Veltroni, made the link between R...

December dates The holiday season in the eternal city starts 1 Dec with the opening of the arts and crafts fair in Piazza Navona. A great place to knock out some Christmas shopping, the market is open daily from 10.00 to 22.00 and lasts until 7 January. Remember also that shops throughout the ci...

Two of the great food and farming events of the world took place concurrently in Turin in late October: the biennial Salone del Gusto giant food fair and Terra Madre, the convention for small-scale farmers from around the world. In both of these events, the Slow Food movement took a leading part....