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Italy turns itself into a fairytale dream at Christmas, where everything has a special role. Amazing Christmas trees, colorful streets full of lights, Babbi Natale –Santa Clauses– greeting people in squares, nativity scenes and zampognari playing bagpipes, Christmas markets: all makes the atmosphere magic. Christmas is celebrated everywhere, but th...

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With Christmas approaching, I look back fondly and with much nostalgia at the time I spent in my Nonna’skitchen, watching the preparation of  my favorite holiday treats: a chocolate-spice cookie, sometimes called, tatù; and the reigning queen of all holiday cookies, the cuccidati, a fig-filled sweet. I’m not sure whether I was more enchanted by the...

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Known for its luxe reputation and famed for its fashion escapades Milan has lived with this hard-metropolitan industrial façade for way too long. With its modern high-rise and historical architecture with culture behind every corner done in true Italian style, it’s time to see Milan for all it has to offer, and Christmas is the perfect time to star...

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Afew years back, pastry executive Alberto Bauli spoke with a heightened sense of panic during a press conference for an Italian consortium of bakers and confectioners. “Seven out of 10 Americans buying an ‘Italian-style’ panettone are getting a fake,” he proclaimed. Panettone—the world-famous, yeast-leavened cake, whose sales reach their peak durin...

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Santa Claus is finally coming to Italy! December 25 is near and Italian kids, just like many other children all around the world, are looking forward to waking up on Christmas morning to see if they have been good enough to deserve some presents from the misterious man in red they call Babbo Natale. However, Santa is not the only protagonist of our...

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The trees are shaking off their browned leaves, there is a distinct chill in the air, everything is peppermint and gingerbread and all about Santa Claus. It feels as though our hands are always cold. The pinkness in my cheeks, chapped lips and transition to warm cups of coffee has me nostalgic. I’m not sure if it feels the same for you, but for me,...

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During the Christmas period there are still many rituals and traditions that are held in the squares and streets of the Italian cities. One of the typical figures at this time of the year are the bagpipers who travel throughout Italy playing the Zampogna and the bagpipes. Italian traditions will guide you on the discovery of this pastoral tradition...

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Up and down this cramped pedestrian street there are little clay statues of Cristiano Ronaldo, unmistakable in their form: legs spread shoulder-width apart, arms shooting at the ground, hair gelled into a luscious wave. There are also fat Ronaldos; weirdly skinny Ronaldos; Ronaldos with faces that resemble “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch; and many, m...

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That of the nativity scene is a tradition strongly rooted in the culture and society of Italy. It is considered to date back to year 1223, when San Francesco is credited to have created in the village of Greccio the “presepe” by reconstructing the nativity scene with living animals and real people. The first known nativity, with reconstruction of t...

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You want clear lights on the tree, I think multi-colored are prettier; you prefer ham on the holiday table, I say turkey is tastier; you rock out to modern Christmas carols, I sway to the oldies; you insist on a Panettone for dessert…wait, what?? Oh, no – only a Pandoro will do!  And thus it begins…the Italian Christmas cake face-off. The solution...

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