Nine UNESCO-listed hilltop sanctuaries in northern Italy — filled with Renaissance frescoes and centuries-old statues — that most tourists have never heard of. Welcome to the Sacri Monti.
Sardinian women have been weaving the same geometric patterns for 3,000 years. Discover the ancient craft that survived Rome, the villages keeping it alive, and what to look for when you visit.
Fare la scarpetta — wiping your plate with bread — is the highest compliment you can pay an Italian cook. Here’s what this beloved tradition means and why it matters.
Photo: Shutterstock Walk into almost any Italian-American restaurant in New York or Chicago and you will find it — fettuccine
Explore the most beautiful Italian baby names and their meanings. From Leonardo to Sofia, discover classic names loved by Italian families for generations.
Spaghetti all’Assassina is Bari’s most unusual pasta — where burning it is the whole point. The remarkable story of Italy’s killer pasta tradition.
Puglia’s ancient millenari olive trees are over 3,000 years old and still bearing fruit — discover the living monuments of southern Italy’s landscape.
Photo by Yu on Unsplash There is a pasta dish in Rome that has just three ingredients. No sauce. No
Castel del Monte in Puglia is Italy’s most baffling castle. Built by Frederick II around 1240, its perfect octagonal design has left historians without answers for 800 years.
Inside Florence’s most sacred basilica, a leather school still teaches the city’s ancient craft by hand — the same way it has for over 70 years.
In the tiny fishing village of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast, an ancient sauce has been made the same way for over 2,000 years. Here’s the story of colatura di alici.
Most people think they have tasted balsamic vinegar. The real Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena DOP is aged 25 years in family attics and costs more per drop than fine wine.
Discover Gragnano, the small Italian town near Naples that designed its streets to dry pasta — and how a 400-year tradition earned European protection.
How Napoleon’s Continental Blockade cut off cocoa supplies to Turin — and forced Piedmontese confectioners to blend local hazelnuts with chocolate, accidentally creating gianduja and laying the foundations for Nutella.
The Florence Cathedral dome sat open for 116 years. Here’s how one man solved the impossible — and what you see when you climb inside today.
Discover why Italian artisan gelato is unlike any other frozen dessert — the centuries-old craft, regional flavours, and the secrets every gelatiere guards closely.
Discover the surprising royal decree that banned Florence’s butchers from Ponte Vecchio — and why the bridge has been lined with goldsmiths ever since.
In 1135, Cistercian monks at Chiaravalle Abbey invented Grana Padano cheese to solve a milk surplus problem. Discover the nine-century story of Italy’s most popular cheese.
Discover the real history of Venice Carnival — how a simple mask once made a duke and a servant equal, and why Napoleon tried to ban it forever.
The Trevi Fountain receives about three million visitors every year. What almost no one realises is that the water flowing
Sardinia has nearly 7,000 ancient stone towers called nuraghe, built over 3,500 years ago. No one knows exactly why. Discover the mystery of this Bronze Age civilisation.
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