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A Unesco heritage site since 1991, Val d'Orcia was considered by Renaissance artists to be the place that most perfectly expresses the balance between Man and Nature.  You don’t need a masters in Art History to recognize why. Driving through plowed fields, meadows, woods, towns, gazing at the harmony of colors and landscapes, you’ll be falling for...

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In the late 1960s and early ’70s, thefts from museums and archaeological sites were on the rise. In an effort to protect cultural property, nations convened and drafted the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. A year prior, in anticipation of the...

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The arcades of Bologna will be the Italian candidacy for 2020 to the UNESCO World Heritage List. This was decided by the Governing Council of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, which met this morning at the headquarters of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The arcades of Bologna will be the Italian postcard, a “nomination” on which the Mu...

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Aquileia is one of the main archeological sites of northern Italy. According to Unesco, which inscribed it in its list of World Heritage sites in 1998, “most of it still lies unexcavated beneath the fields, and as such it constitutes the greatest archaeological reserve of its kind.” Located in what is today the northern Italian region of Friuli-Ven...

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The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes, which in Italy we know as the ‘trenino rosso del Bernina,’ is a mountain railway line, the highest in Europe, which connects the Italian town of Tirano to the Swiss town of St. Moritz, crossing the Alps. It is therefore a site shared between Italy and Switzerland. The highest point it reaches...

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Scala dei Turchi Patrimonio Unesco? Potrebbe accadere presto. L’Assemblea Regionale Siciliana ha approvato all’unanimità un ordine del giorno che impegna la giunta Musumeci a promuovere l’inserimento nel patrimonio mondiale, culturale e naturale dell’Unesco della celebre scogliera bianca di Realmonte (Agrigento), un gioiello ambientale minacciato d...

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If you had any doubt about how seriously Italians take their coffee, consider that earlier this month, a campaign kicked off with support from a bi-partisan group of the country’s MPs to help espresso gain UNESCO recognition and make it on to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list (as Neapolitan pizza recently did). Since the late 1800s the special...

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The foreign ministry on Thursday praised the recognition Italy received from the United Nations cultural organisation for three traditional practices - seasonal livestock droving along Mediterranean migratory routes, Alpinism and The Celestinian Forgiveness annual celebration in the central city of L'Aquila. The foreign ministry said it "welcomes w...

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Transhumance, the traditional farming practice of seasonal migration of livestock along storied tracks towards better climate conditions, was unanimously inserted Wednesday into UNESCO's list of of intangible cultural heritage. The successful bid was made by Italy, Austria and Greece. With this new inclusion, Italy has overtaken Turkey and Belgium...

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What do Chinese acupuncture, Irish hurling and the polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa have in common? They are all examples of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity that UNESCO has recognized since it began anointing such things in 2003, racking up more than 500 different practices and traditions so far. Italy now hopes...

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