Films on artists? Most of them are bad. Directors never pay attention to detail, they always make a silly drama of a simple workaday life, they jazz up everything by moving the camera close and far, up and down, sideways...
What does a young German woman do when she and her English boyfriend decide to get married in a civil ceremony in Rome? She hits the computer to research the world of weddings on-line. The amount of information available...
You know youre free of the burden of bureaucracy when, in the tourist information centre of Norcia, you are informed that free camping is permitted anywhere within the national park. Thats 70,000 ha to choose from. No ch...
The government has got to decide what it wants to do with us, said Paola Salomone hotly. We are being used, added her colleague Giuliana Renga, and we are powerless to do anything about it. Salomone and Renga are just tw...
Quite a stir ran through those in the know the other week when a Frascati, the best known of wines from Lazio down the centuries, won a gold medal in the price-quality category.
Sommeliers awarded it at a wine oscar ce...
Things look different underwater. Firstly, there is the optical deformation which magnifies anything seen, but apart from optimistic fishermen, the rest of us compensate for the effect. Then there is the magic of the new...
You know youre free of the burden of bureaucracy when, in the tourist information centre of Norcia, you are informed that free camping is permitted anywhere within the national park. Thats 70,000 ha to choose from. No ch...
Men with long, greasy hair. Pot bellies. Tattoos. Hairy chests. Grimy black leather. Motrhead t-shirts. This is probably what comes to mind when you think of motorbike riders. However, this stereotype is in danger of ext...
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all
Mrs C.F. Alexander (1818-1895).
Wasps, and the wasp season has just begun, can be a...
The commander of the enemy of Romes graffiti writers, or scrawlers, or mural vandals, virtually acknowledges defeat at the hands of his opponents, whom he thinks must now be counted in their thousands.
The enemy is kno...
Social and political problems are becoming ever more European rather than just Italian. The flow of immigrants into Italy began more than 20 years ago but only in the last few years have governments begun to think of it...
Foreign affairs is news once again in Italy. Last month the 19 NATO leaders plus Russias Vladimir Putin met just outside Rome to sign the Rome Declaration which brings Russia into the NATO council. A fortnight earlier, t...
The unique Diamanti exhibition, due to end its four-month run at the Scuderie Papali, opposite Palazzo del Quirinale, on 30 June, has turned out to be one of the revelations of this springs cultural programme in Rome. Th...
When I was on holiday in Greece two years ago, I remember going to a bookstore and finding Frank McCourtss Angelas Ashes, the memoir for which the Irish author won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. The interesting part of this...
Can you spot a tourist a kilometre away? After living in Italy for weeks, months or even years, are you afraid you still look like one? For women, clothing and accessories are never simple. There are so many choices that...
Danny from Dublin knew his stuff. He sped a puffing group of 19 visitors from Piazza di Spagna This was once known as Piazza di Francia to the junction of Via di Propaganda and Via della Mercede: The big house on the c...
As the witnesses described the scene, it was painful. Looking back, they said, the parents should never have brought their little girl with them. She was seven or eight, and obviously a sensitive child.
As soon as I app...
This is an ugly story in itself but it has become the symbol of much more since it began. As ever in politics, and particularly in Italian politics, a single event becomes the cue to fight other battles.
The story bega...
In the second week of June representatives of over 600 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations from all over the world will gather in Rome for the Forum for Food Sovereignty. The five-...
Naples is an informal city. No need to dress up. No need to stand on ceremony. Yes, it has its glamour and glitz, but for the temporary visitor there is no need to put on a show. Naples has all types, and takes all types...
When you first arrive at the Torre Argentina cat sanctuary, you are subconsciously reminded of the childrens game where the object is to find items hidden in a drawing. As you glance around the ruins of the four temples...
His diving mask snugly fixed over his face and his oxygen tank strapped to his back, Daniele Silvestri is a happy young man when he plunges into the depths around Ponza or Elba. Theres a whole beautiful world down there...
Muhammad Ali speaks fluent Italian and so do ET, the Royal Tenenbaums and every dinner guest at Gosford Park. The dubbing industry remains a bedrock in Italy, where nearly every film, from Oscar-winners to straight-to-vi...
Tim Parks had a surprise in store for those of us gathered to see him at the British Council. Im not here to promote my new book, he announced. Im looking for new recruits for the Rome branch of the Hellas Verona Fan Clu...
Do you like to touch and feel when shopping? Are you tempted to pick up items you have no intention of buying just to take a closer look? Have you been chastised for reaching into a window display as if youve defiled sac...
On a hot summers day, when we were blinded by the play of deep shadow against bright sunlight in the leafy, lime-lined avenues of Aix-en-Provence, we drove out of town, giving up the search for Czannes studio. But next m...
Think of animal welfare and Italy and if any one person springs to mind it is probably Giuseppe Garibaldi and his brave start in 1871 in establishing the Societ Protettrice degli Animali in Turin. Badgered by a redoubtab...
What kind of agonised soul would ever stay in an airport hotel? Would he be a plane-spotter? Someone afraid of city centres? And surely any individual wanting to stay among planes only half an hour from Rome must be even...
Christmas trees, Santa Claus and the presepio. These were the main elements of Christmas as I remember it as an Italian American growing up in New Jersey. Both my parents families emigrated to the US from Naples, taking...
When I first came to Rome I was excited because I was here years ago when I was a freshman in highschool and I’ve counted the days until I could study abroad here since. My family and I came for only two nights and went...
The head office of a female Catholic Religious Order based in Monteverde, Rome seeks an accounting assistant to join our staff on a full-time basis. As a religious congregation com...
Join us for a special screening of what Variety called an "astonishing eye-opening" documentary with a special Q+A with investigative reporter Nate Halverson.
More information and...
Wall Street English Italy is recruiting Study Advisors in Rome. We are Wall Street English, the premier provider of English language instruction for individuals and corporate clien...
On Saturday 16th the concert of the Americas Trio organized by The Arts Crossroad in Rome. The concert will be at the Scottish church of St. Andrew, at 9:00 pm. Americas Trio will...