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One of the best aspects of living in Italy for over a decade as a travel writer has been discovering towns I didn’t have on my radar before moving here. From Tuscany to Calabria, the Dolomites to Basilicata, this country is crammed with villages full of art, food, and natural beauty—places that many travelers miss out on while focusing on the tried...

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No one knows for sure when it began or exactly why, but official record formalizes the event starting in 1310. By that time, it was already an institution. I’ve wanted to witness the spectacle firsthand since I learned of it more than 30 years ago. The Palio of the Contrade, the raw, primitive, visceral horse race with murky origins wrapped in myth...

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A young man lies spread-eagle in the center of a sand-covered arena, blood streaming from a gash above his eye. The guy who opened up this wound is straddled across his chest, pinning him down. All around them, more men are brawling in a terrifying tangle of fists and knees, shoulder charges and thrown elbows. Lending a surreal edge to this scene i...

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A lot of restaurants claim to have authentic Tuscan fare. But at Sapori Italian Restaurant in Lexington, co-owner Karen van Heerden has tested and perfected her recipes in the most authentic of places: Tuscany. An Italian word meaning “flavors” or “tastes,” Sapori opened in Lexington in August. Since that time, van Heerden has been serving up dishe...

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If not for unexpected morning rain, Kansas City would not be celebrating a major gift: a bronze cast of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s 15th-century Gates of Paradise. The original gilded doors were made for the east entrance of the baptistery in front of Florence Cathedral by Ghiberti and his workshop from 1425 to 1452. They depict scenes from the Old Testamen...

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Every year on July 14 the Legend of Innamorata is celebrated in Capoliveri, in the Elba Island, Tuscany. It is said that the legend of Innamorata originated back in 1534, when the coasts of Elba Island were sacked by the pirate Barbarossa and his Saracen crew. The legend tells about two young lovers, Lorenzo and Maria, whose love was, however, hind...

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In the mid-nineteenth century Italy was a place of great social differences, varieties of intent and multiplicity of interests and fashions. Suffice it to think that half of the peninsula had been involved in the Independence Wars while the south was placidly on its way to the Bourbon decline that the movie "The Leopard" such beautifully taught us....

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New discovery from the team of researchers of Archeometallurgy of the University of Padua. From the research published on "Plos One", it emerges that the origin of the Similaun Man, nicknamed Ötzi, originates from the area of southern Tuscany. Until today it was believed that the production and circulation of copper in the Alpine area in the 4th mi...

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The official birth of a unique cultural exchange started 10 years ago in 2007 when the “Piece Frame,” a sculpture by the artist Nall, was donated and dedicated to the city of Pietrasanta, Italy, as a gesture of good will between the small Italian city and the state of Alabama. Nall, the noted Alabama artist, had worked and exhibited in Pietrasanta...

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Thirty years ago, Temple St. Clair came to jewelry design serendipitously. She was a student in Florence, Italy, when her mother paid her a visit—she'd flown in from their hometown of Roanoke, Virginia—and asked to have an ancient coin set in a necklace. St. Clair, on a mission to find the perfect craftsman for the job, hit the Florentine streets....

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