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The world has seen a video in which for 8 minutes and 46 seconds a human being held his knee on the neck of another human being, and killed him, with the complicity of three other human beings. It wasn't a movie, it wasn't a TV show, it wasn't a play. It was unfortunately the truth, the reality, life and death that had been repeated for too long in...

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The small town of Urbino lies in the gentle rolling hills of Le Marche facing the Adriatic Sea, inland from Pesaro. A Unesco site since 1998, Urbino experienced a magnificent cultural renaissance in the 15th century thanks to the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro and his son Guidobaldo, evolving from a medieval village to a splendid princely cou...

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A 60-year-old Italian woman did just that during a procedure to remove a tumour from her left temporal lobe. The neurosurgeon at Ancona's Riuniti hospital said the two and a half hour procedure "went very well". His patient is said to have prepared 90 olives in the space of an hour. Awake brain surgery, as it is known, is used to treat some neurolo...

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Museo Omero is a tactile museum in Ancona, Italy, and one of the few places in the world where the knowledge of art is transmitted not through sight but through touch. The museum aims to help the visually impaired to experience art but its unique multi-sensory exhibition is accessible to everyone. Established in 1993, the innovative museum hosts va...

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Mercatello sul Metauro is a delightful medieval village in the Marche region, nestled in the green valley of the Upper Metauro river, about 100 kilometers (62 mi) west of Ancona and about 50 kilometers (31 mi) southwest of Pesaro.  Overlooking the valley from its 500 meters of altitude, Mercatello sul Metauro was inserted into Italy’s network of th...

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Recently I stood on a windswept hilltop overlooking Urbino, took a picture, and texted my husband. From five thousand miles away, he texted back: “Is that a painting?”“It is a painting,” I typed. “Well, it became one.” Actually, the dramatic landscape around Urbino has appeared in many paintings. There is something about Urbino itself—with its undu...

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Spring time is the right time to go on a city break, to enjoy the art, history and food of Italian towns at better prices than the high season and at a time where you may find less crowds. Here are five Italian cities we picked from north to south and from the islands, which also offer attractions nearby to go further explore the countryside or the...

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The people in our village of 1400 in east-central Italy are very friendly and gregarious. We cannot step outside very far without someone greeting us, whether we know them or not. It is considered both courteous and a custom of community connection. Yesterday, outside a food market, a very affable man who I often run into seemed ready to issue the...

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Auguri to NIAF Member Teresa Lust for her latest book, A Blissful Feast, which will be released on March 3! As much a cultural journey as it is a cooking lesson, A Blissful Feast takes readers on a series of culinary adventures in Italy’s Piedmont and Le Marche regions, and the Maremma area in Tuscany and Lazio. With passionate prose only possible...

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Six years ago I came to Florence from my home in Boston for a short stay that turned permanent after I fell in love with my now-husband, a Florentine named Rami. I was in love with the country, too, and can say that after all this time, I still find it truly breathtaking. Unfortunately the beauty isn't the only thing that makes me gasp here. Someti...

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