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...
No doubt there are worse ways of making a living than by being a Swiss guard. You have the honour of protecting the pope; a tax-free salary with board and lodgings thrown in; most of the time the work is pretty easy; and...
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...
At the same time as the new German government was considering raising taxes, in Italy Silvio Berlusconi came up with a financial package that his economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, hailed as the biggest reduction ever of...
If you own a home in the United States but live abroad, you probably rarely think about the insurance on your Stateside house. Recent trends in the insurance industry will reward you for investing a little time to review...
If you own a home in the United States but live abroad, you probably rarely think about the insurance on your Stateside house. Recent trends in the insurance industry will reward you for investing a little time to review...
Walking into Romes new music park is like stepping into another world. The intensity of the colours, the polish of the finishings and the definition of the forms all combine to make you think that you have been transport...
When Justin Bradshaw decided to move permanently to Rome in 1994, he was following a centuries-old instinct that had guided thousands of fellow northern artists before him. London-born Bradshaw had only the meagre saving...
A solitary Englishman was sitting in a Chinese restaurant the other night facing a table of seven young Italians when, all of a sudden, the head of the big table noticed something about the Anglo-Saxon and exclaimed: Loo...
Ahh, the classic Roman holiday: an American tourist poses his lovely wife for a photo in front of the ancient Pantheon, he lines up the camera, then, wait, what is that mangy man and his even mangier dog doing in the pic...
The sun sets below you from the terrace of the Ristorante Da Maria, shimmering on the waters of Campese bay, silhouetting the Faraglione, jagged stacks that owe their name to their resemblance to the fangs of a lion. You...
An established Roman artist has accused the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, of having brought to a halt an ambitious plan aimed at turning Romes underground into a huge, free museum of contemporary art, expressed through...
Anyone who has lived long enough in Rome will remember the days when the British Council was a somewhat stuffy institution, frequented mostly by that stratum of the ex-pat community commonly referred to as the ladies in...
One of the fun things about shopping in Rome is the variety of great re-sell boutiques. If you enjoy snooping around second-hand stores you are in for a treat because there is a wide range and something for every budget....
Football, as 1960s England star Jimmy Greaves is fond of saying, is a funny old game. And here in Italy perhaps its funnier than in most places.
On 20 August the Italian football league asked the government to declare...
What is the most attractive place in Lazio, besides Rome? And the next? And the third? Asked where they would send a friend venturing into Lazio for the first time, ten interviewees came up with answers that either aston...
Kilmainham Jail symbolises much of the darker side of Irish history. In harder times than these there was a queue of people committing crimes to gain imprisonment. In more recent times, films such as In the Name of the F...
Films on artists? Most of them are bad. Directors never pay attention to detail, they always make a silly drama of a simple workaday life, they jazz up everything by moving the camera close and far, up and down, sideways...
What does a young German woman do when she and her English boyfriend decide to get married in a civil ceremony in Rome? She hits the computer to research the world of weddings on-line. The amount of information available...
You know youre free of the burden of bureaucracy when, in the tourist information centre of Norcia, you are informed that free camping is permitted anywhere within the national park. Thats 70,000 ha to choose from. No ch...
The government has got to decide what it wants to do with us, said Paola Salomone hotly. We are being used, added her colleague Giuliana Renga, and we are powerless to do anything about it. Salomone and Renga are just tw...
Quite a stir ran through those in the know the other week when a Frascati, the best known of wines from Lazio down the centuries, won a gold medal in the price-quality category.
Sommeliers awarded it at a wine oscar ce...
Things look different underwater. Firstly, there is the optical deformation which magnifies anything seen, but apart from optimistic fishermen, the rest of us compensate for the effect. Then there is the magic of the new...
You know youre free of the burden of bureaucracy when, in the tourist information centre of Norcia, you are informed that free camping is permitted anywhere within the national park. Thats 70,000 ha to choose from. No ch...
Men with long, greasy hair. Pot bellies. Tattoos. Hairy chests. Grimy black leather. Motrhead t-shirts. This is probably what comes to mind when you think of motorbike riders. However, this stereotype is in danger of ext...
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all
Mrs C.F. Alexander (1818-1895).
Wasps, and the wasp season has just begun, can be a...
The commander of the enemy of Romes graffiti writers, or scrawlers, or mural vandals, virtually acknowledges defeat at the hands of his opponents, whom he thinks must now be counted in their thousands.
The enemy is kno...
Social and political problems are becoming ever more European rather than just Italian. The flow of immigrants into Italy began more than 20 years ago but only in the last few years have governments begun to think of it...
Foreign affairs is news once again in Italy. Last month the 19 NATO leaders plus Russias Vladimir Putin met just outside Rome to sign the Rome Declaration which brings Russia into the NATO council. A fortnight earlier, t...
The unique Diamanti exhibition, due to end its four-month run at the Scuderie Papali, opposite Palazzo del Quirinale, on 30 June, has turned out to be one of the revelations of this springs cultural programme in Rome. Th...
1x 3-Day Pass FOR SALE to experience the thrill of F1® in Qatar, and watch Maroon 5 & Myriam Fares perform live at one of the region’s premier racing tracks, Lusail International....
Chef for catering to all your culinary needs in your home. Specialist in French, British, Indian, Thai and Mexican as well as, of course, Italian food. Three courses from Euro 20...
Beautiful 50 sqm studio apartment for rent, located on the third floor of a building without an elevator, near Via Monserrato. The apartment is quiet, elegant, and comfortable, per...