The Shroud of Turin, one of the most sacred objects of the Catholic Church, has been liberated from centuries-old patches and backing cloth in a top-secret restoration. Restoration efforts were carried out in secret by Mechthild Flury Lemberg and Irene Tomedi from June to July of this year with approval from the Vatican. Custodians of [...]
Go ahead and protest — but hands off the sacred pizza. The latest consumer strike against price hikes touched Italy’s most famous dish met and sparked vehement protests from Naples, birthplace of the pizza Margherita. Consumer association Aduc declared Sept. 21 as a day of abstinence from pizza after calculating that the average pie swells [...]
91.5% Italian women do the laundry 72% women cook 68% women clean 89% women take out the trash Keeping the home fires burning — and taking the trash out, doing the laundry etc.– is still largely women’s work in Italy. The survey of 700 women conducted by Whirlpool appliances showed that Italian men are like [...]
The Mini Hits Catwalks in Milan • Runaway book hit "La Mennulara" • Secrets of Cooking with Coffee • Listen in to Salvatore Licitra The Mini Hits Catwalks in Milan The women’s clothes for Spring-Summer 2003 are definitely sexy — even bad girl actress Asia Argento asked for something a little more tame before strutting [...]
Hundreds of locals and tourists staged a sit-in at the house used in the film ‘Il Postino’ to save it from becoming a restaurant. The pristine beauty of Salina, one of the Aeolian islands, was the setting for the Oscar-winning 1994 film about the friendship between exiled poet Pablo Neruda and his postman. The letter [...]
The few inhabitants left in Sant’Elena Sannita (Molise) are trying to save the town from extinction by turning it into a center for perfume production to supply former residents in the trade. Like many Italian towns, this one of 14 square kilometers in the province of Isernia has seen the population dwindle due to emigration. [...]
3.3% Italians use tranquilizers/sedatives 40.5% of women use tranquilizers/sedatives 30% of men use tranquilizers/sedatives 39% of residents in Northern Italy use them More statistics erode the myth of happy-go-lucky Italians: according to ISTAT data, 1.9 million residents of the Bel Paese currently use tranquilizers or sedatives to help cope with life. These figures put them [...]
Meet Actor Heartthrob Stefano Accorsi • Author Stefano Benni’s audio jukebox • Italian practice: Can you resist temptation? • Amnesty for Illegal Immigrant Worker Law Author Stefano Benni’s audio jukebox For the next two months, one of Italy’s most witty writers will publish an audio improvisation or reading weekly on the Feltrinelli site. Stop in [...]
For many visitors to Italy, any small village may seem picturesque enough but some of the most quaint ones are now competing for special certification. The national association of cities (ANCI) has awarded the title, compared to DOC certifications for wines, to the “most beautiful villages of Italy.” Some, like Paciano, had to make some [...]
It’s a small consolation for wine lovers, but at least the summer rains were good for something: mushrooms. Wine producers are already predicting Italy’s lowest harvest in decades thanks to rain and hailstorms in what are usually the hottest months — but the same farmer’s group, Coldiretti, is predicting that it will be a record [...]
