Published on Monday, May 9, 2016 by Kathy McCabe This month at Milan’s Natural History Museum, a new exhibit may herald “a new species:” the skeletal remains of a Titanosaurus dinosaur that was unearthed in the Prenestine Hills near Rome is now on display. This Titanosaurus would have been a long-necked herbivore, about 19 feet long and weighing nearly 1,200 pounds. These measurements are slightly smaller t...

Published on Sunday, May 1, 2016 by Kathy McCabe A new law requires that all new restaurants and food shops in Florence’s history city center must guarantee within the next three years that at least 70 percent of their products are “made in Tuscany.” While existing restaurants would not be affected, even their owners are concerned about how this ruling will affect their lives and bottom lines. As one propri...

Published on Monday, April 18, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Ski jumper “Eddie the Eagle,” otherwise known as Michael “Eddie” Edwards, is from England (Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, to be exact)—but he got his start on skis in the Italian Alps. Edwards’ story has been delighting audiences in the U.S. recently as the Disney movie bearing his sporting moniker has debuted in theaters. Edwards’ struggles with fars...

Published on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 by Kathy McCabe You may or may not have learned in school about Hannibal, one of the most notable military commanders in human history. Hannibal Barca from Carthage was a general in the Second Punic War of 218-202 BC. In the fall of 218, Hannibal was said to have crossed the Alps into Italy, near Turin. While the outcome of Hannibal’s attacks against the Romans eventually led to...

Published on Sunday, April 10, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Very little is known about the ancient Etruscans, but thanks to an archaeological dig in Lazio, a bit more knowledge has been added to the historical record. A tomb believed to belong to an Etruscan princess from the 8th century BC has been unearthed and is filled with treasures that may have been her possessions. Vulci was once an important Etruscan city. Ironical...

Published on Monday, April 4, 2016 by Kathy McCabe A note from Steve Perillo: As most of you know, my family has been booking trips to Italy for 70 years. During those decades, we've experienced every up and down that the world could throw at us - recessions, wars, travel alerts. And still we ran our famous tours and still people traveled with us and had once-in-a-lifetime experiences. For some, it was the culminat...

Published on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 by Kathy McCabe A new book from authors and culinary writers Leslie Pariseau and Talia Baiocchi, titled Spritz: Italy’s Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes, aims to highlight the fizzy side of Italian bar culture by exploring the history of and creative variations on the spritz cocktail. "The spritz’s popularity is symbolic of a pendulum shift away from the how-much-b...

Published on Friday, March 18, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Florence’s famous Vasari Corridor, which connects the Palazzo Pitti to the Palazzo Vecchio, is currently only accessible through private tours. However, that may change, says the director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, who hopes to open the corridor to the public. “My aim is to eliminate privileges and offer the possibility, not the obligation, of passing through...

Published on Sunday, March 13, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Planning your wedding? Why not get married in Italy? That's what many people are choosing to do. According to Italian news agency ANSA, Italy’s marriage tourism industry grew to a 400€ million industry in 2015. Italy is now the second-most coveted wedding destination in the world after the tropical locale of Hawaii.  Foreigners are choosing to marry in the count...

Published on Wednesday, March 9, 2016 by Kathy McCabe At the suggestion of the Italian government, the country’s UNESCO heritage commission plans to propose that the art of making Neapolitan pizza be included on the United Nations’ Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. The proposal would officially distinguish Neapolitan pizza from other world-famous styles of pizza such as New York-style and Chicago-style...