I'm a journalist, translator and English teacher in Rome working on two projects: Inglese Professionale Business English coaching in Rome, translations and proofreading. Italian Gems A blog exploring the less-well known corners of Italy and defending the country's heritage
During an English lesson in Rome, a student of mine from Palermo was the first to tell me about the patron saint of his town: Saint Rosalia. He explained the story of the “Santuzza” or “Little Saint”, who went to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino, near to the Sicilian capital. … More Palermo’s big night: the festival of Saint Rosalia
If you would like to spend some time in the Rome area while one of the local food festivals, or sagre, are on, one of the best periods to come is toward the end of May/beginning of June, when you can head down to Nemi in the Castelli Romani and take part in the town’s … More Nemi, wild strawberries, and the sacred grove of Diana
When visiting Palermo in Sicily, you might be expecting to see a range of cultural influences, including, Norman, Arab and Spanish, but the existence of a palace designed in a Chinese style may come as more of a surprise. As trade with Asia grew in the 17th and 18th centuries, people across Europe started to collect … More Palermo’s Palazzina Cinese: a Bourbon king’s fantasy of China
Collector Pio Mellina first took an interest in traditional Italian hand-painted “majolica” floor tiles around the age of 12, when he used to go rummaging around antique markets in Sicily with his art-loving mother. Their bright colours and varied patterns were the initial aspects that intrigued him. These often revealed glimpses of the origin and … More Stanze al Genio: preserving Italy’s majolica tile treasures
Here are our top picks of some of the most fascinating places to visit in Italy this year, in roughly alphabetical order. Titles and pictures link to blog posts. Sant’ Agnese and Santa Costanza: two gems outside Rome’s walls The area around Sant’Agnese is one of the most tranquil spots in all of Rome. Here … More Ten of the Best Italian Gems to visit in 2017
Here’s a list of the Top Ten Most Popular posts on Italian Gems in 2016, based on online views of this blog. Titles and photos link to articles for more detail: A glimpse of Christmas Nativity Gems in Rome, Naples and Salerno This showcase of some of the oldest and most beautiful Christmas cribs in … More Top Ten Most Popular Italian Gems in 2016
At a first glance, Villa Palagonia in Bagheria, to the east of Palermo, could be a villa like any other. But walk further into its gardens, and you will enter into the strange and mysterious world of Francesco Ferdinando Gravina II, the eccentric 18th century Prince of Palagonia. The villa was constructed on behalf of … More Villa Palagonia: the enchanted mansion of monsters
The small coastal town of Scilla just north of Reggio on the Costa Viola was the last stop on my tour of the Calabria region. I could not wait to see this ancient and pretty site with several links to mythology, especially the story of the two monsters who terrorised sailors in the Strait of … More Between myth and beauty in the waters of Scilla
Pentedattilo, on the southern tip of Calabria, is the first true “ghost town” I have ever visited. Inhabited as far back as the Greek era in the 7th century BC, most of it is now just an empty shell, though local artisans are starting to open up workshops and trinket stores in some of the … More Pentedattilo: one of the last great myths of the world
During his travels around the southern Italian region of Calabria in 1847, the English poet and artist Edward Lear stopped in Gerace and reserved significant praise for this town, which is perched on a 500m-high cliff near Locri. In the diaries he wrote about his trip (Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria), the author of “The Owl … More Calabria in the footsteps of the poet Edward Lear: Gerace
