Rome has jumped 14 places in an annual ranking of Italian provinces according to the quality of life they offer. The Eternal City and environs took 21st place in the classification for 2002, buoyed by their high living s...
It can come as a bit of a shock when the grocer in a little Tuscan village greets you with a perfect Glasgow accent and the barman in a nearby cafe asks you if you want a wee cup of coffee or a bigger ane. But this is co...
Matteo Garrone is reluctant to admit that he admires Fellini. Too many Italian directors have fallen into the trap of imitating Fellini, he says. He adds that while working on his last film, LImbalsamatore (The Embalmer)...
This is Silvio Berlusconis second January as prime minister. A year ago it was interesting that he had survived longer than his first attempt at government in 1994. This new year the honeymoon with the electors is long o...
It is now just over a year since the advent of the euro, and Romes tramps were the first to sum up the upshot of the money system more clearly than anyone else as yet. Soon after it was introduced they began shouting up...
Teatro Comunale in Bologna will open the 2003 season with a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera by Verdi (19-31 Jan). The direction, stage sets, costumes and lighting will all be by Denis Krief, a director whose produ...
Verdis La Traviata goes on stage at Teatro La Fenice in Venice (15 Dec-4 Jan) with direction by Giancarlo Sepe. The same production was staged in Padua only two months ago, where it received mixed reviews. This Traviata...
Teatro San Carlo in Naples opens its new season with Don Giovanni by Mozart (12-29 Dec). Neapolitan film director Mario Martone obviously has a weak spot for Mozart: having made his dbut with Cosi fan tutte in Naples thr...
Rembrandt spent most of his hours in the quest for the nature of materiality and light. He loved surfaces flesh against fur, steel against velvet, how they glowed and clashed. He looked for brightness coming out of dark...
Bigi productions presents an IGT Umbrian wine starring Sangiovese and Merlot. The story of the union of two grape types; its a story of passion between a land and a climate in the year of 1999. Rated 13 per cent. Sartian...
There are two types of people, says Raffaele Ranucci. Those who make problems and those who resolve them. We belong to the latter group. The president of EUR Spa is not shy about explaining the companys reputation for ef...
Only four shopping weeks until Christmas and you still havent found gifts for everyone? Dont panic! A new UK-based company is offering an internet service that supplies ideas for presents and purchases and sends them on...
In Italian, Slow Food is feminine and, with the accent, comes out as la zlo foud (heavy on the final d, of course). Founded in the Piedmont region in the early 1980s, the Slow Food movement has been international since 1...
Verdis Macbeth goes on stage at Teatro Comunale in Florence (28 Nov-5 Dec). The work has become a feature of the repertoire of many Italian opera houses; the most recent production dates back to the Spoleto festival in J...
The new season in Milan gets underway at Teatro degli Arcimboldi on 7 Dec. It opens with Iphignie en Aulide by Gluck (until 21 Dec). This opera was written for Paris in 1774; Gluck wanted to win back the French capital f...
Vedder was a very successful painter, illustrator and decorator in his time. Born in lower Manhattan of Dutch parents in 1836, he lived his long life mostly in Italy. When he died in 1923 he was buried in the non-Catholi...
Viterbo, less than an hours drive north of Rome, is still a bit of a mystery to most Romans. The city is famous for its perfectly preserved mediaeval quarter and for the unique Santa Rosa festival that has been celebrate...
In its own time, a brief period which began before world war one, German Expressionism seemed daring and exciting. It grew out of late Impressionism and an impatience with academic tradition. It was politically rebelliou...
The olive is enjoying a surge in popularity. The Mediterranean diet, which uses oil from olives as its principal fat, is being touted by health professionals, dieticians and fitness instructors around the world. Italians...
Its a waste of money. It would have been much better to clean up the filthy towpaths along the embankments instead, for walkers and cyclists to use.
Luciano Morcon, sports director of one of the best known of the many c...
There are two types of people, says Raffaele Ranucci. Those who make problems and those who resolve them. We belong to the latter group. The president of EUR Spa is not shy about explaining the companys reputation for ef...
On 14 November Pope John Paul II will address the chamber of deputies, just a few weeks after he was made an honorary citizen of Rome; two apparently similar ceremonies which are actually very different.
The invitation...
It used to be said among foreigners in Rome that in the case of serious illness, the best waiting room in the city was Fiumicino airport. And only recently, an Italian dinner hostess announced that if her clockwork went...
The papacy has always been big business. It was so particularly in the late Middle Ages, through to the high Baroque. In the old world it owned vast lands producing vital raw materials, it made wars to gain even more ter...
Practically every continent has some version of a thanksgiving festival, from Africas Kwanzaa, to Indias Pongal and Chinas August moon festival. Each of these cultures celebrates the end of the harvest with a shared feas...
The space seems immense, although it is probably about the same size as a football pitch. The traffic on the busy main road nearby seems miles away. The ugly urban sprawl beyond the trees is forgotten the moment you ente...
Ask anyone, even a golfer perhaps, when the Italian Open was last disputed in Rome, and he or she may not come up with the right answer. Eight years later (it was 1994) the event returns to the capital after a gap that c...
First it was miniskirts. Then came bikinis. And now the craze is all about tattoos and piercings. It is hard to find someone without one or the other or even both. Flaunting them is the key. Your daughter may come home o...
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long leggety beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord preserve us
Traditonal West Country litany.
The ancient litany quoted is perhaps a relic of the fears and supers...
Andrea Batuzzi was tricked by his wife. On some undisclosed pretext, she inveigled him to take her to one of the most theatrical of the old gateways into Rome, Porta S. Paolo. Just in front of it there rises up the aston...
British owned pub seeks part time staff to work 2-4 nights a week. The ideal candidate must speak excellent ENGLISH with a good understanding of Italian, have had previous experien...
Accent Global Learning, a leading education abroad partner for U.S. universities with study centers in Italy, France, Spain and the UK, is pleased to announce this new position on...
PRIVATE LANGUAGE SCHOOL SEEKING QUALIFIED, EXPERIENCED MOTHER TONGUE/BILINGUAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF ROME FOR IGCSE MATHS & PHYSICS PLUS ALL LEVELS CAMBRI...
Experienced classroom teacher for Middle Years Science and any level Maths and Physics including University admissions and courses. Specific experience in teaching Cambridge Scienc...