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Two-and a-half words that, said aloud in a cocktail party, mean very little to much of the crowd. Show the same people a postcard with Tuscany written in Monotype Corsiva across the bottom and the room would probably fill with the more appropriate ooohs  and ahhhs befitting of a first glance at Val d’Orcia. The moral of this storiella (little story...

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There’s now a museum nestled within the heart of the quarries. It allows people to take a tour and explore the quarries to learn about the history of how the stone was excavated, as well as its use in art and architecture. Inside the museum, you can find huge, beautiful sculptures made from the very stone that surrounds the site. People have been t...

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One of the world's most famous buildings, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, has survived everything from four powerful earthquakes to two world wars. Now, engineers may have solved the mystery of how the building has managed to survive, undamaged, for centuries. Ironically, the reason the tower is tilted is also why it survived so long: "The very same soi...

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What is Italy known for?  Among its many charming attributes, Italy is known for its cuisine. Who doesn't think of Italian food and fondly reminisce about some delicious, lovingly created dishes? Most Italians can truthfully say their mother’s and grandmother’s cooking was the best and time-honored recipes passed down from generation to generation....

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On May 15, 1819, the first U.S. Consular Agent was appointed to Florence. His name was James Ombrosi and he was tasked under mandate from the U.S. Consulate at Livorno. Nearly 200 years on, the U.S. Mission in Italy is gearing up to celebrate this special anniversary of American diplomatic presence in Florence in 2019.  As the first event in the le...

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Both food and fame are in Giada De Laurentiis's family history. Long before she became a star on the Food Network, beginning in 2002 — she has had nine shows, including “Giada in Italy” — her grandfather, Dino De Laurentiis, produced Federico Fellini’s 1954 drama “La Strada” and the 1973 “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino, and also owned an early Eataly...

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Tucked away in the north-west, Gran Paradiso National Park offers a tangible sense of wilderness. Incorporating the valleys around the eponymous 4,061m peak, it has spectacular hiking trails but not the hordes that plague Italy’s prolific Alpine destinations. This is the country’s oldest national park, created in 1922 after Vittorio Emanuele II gav...

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One morning in August 1951, at a $1-a-night hotel in Florence, Italy, two American women came face to face in the hallway. One was Ruth Orkin, a promising 29-year-old photojournalist who was seeking a subject for a magazine photo spread about the experiences of women traveling abroad alone — a rare thing to do at the time. The other was Ninalee All...

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One of the things we appreciate most, here at We the Italians, is the commitment many Italian Americans show all over the US to celebrate and remember the history and the presence of their fellow Italians who emigrated to the US. Oftentimes this passion is shown by organizing events and writing books, but many of them wanted and still want to estab...

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We are blessed to live in the Napa Valley, America's premier wine region. Here we make wine in the styles of many regions around the world including France, Germany, Spain and, of course, Italy. While our famous wines are predominately in the style of French varietals, the most desired and emulated lifestyle is that of the Italian country side -- T...

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