WHY ROME’S AVENTINE HILL IS SPECIAL

WHY ROME’S AVENTINE HILL IS SPECIAL

Off-the-tourists’-beaten-track, the Aventine, one of Rome’s seven hills, is one of the Eternal City’s most peaceful, least commercial, and elegant residential neighborhoods, but nonetheless with several sights worth a visit. Last year 15 members of the Foreign Press...
POMPEII’s PRECURSOR TO McDONALD’S

POMPEII’s PRECURSOR TO McDONALD’S

On January 17th Massimo Osanna, the former and still the interim Director General of Pompeii’s excavations until a new one is appointed, as well as  the soon-to-be Director of all of Italy’s State Museums, was a guest on Sunday evening’s popular TV talk  show “Che...
A Lake District Idyll

A Lake District Idyll

The Lake District has inspired some of England’s most beloved poets and authors, including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. I never imagined that world still existed in the 21st century, but I found it in Rothswaite in Borrowdale, at Hazel Bank Country House...
RELIGIOUS HOSPITALITY IN ITALY

RELIGIOUS HOSPITALITY IN ITALY

For several years now I’ve received the annual online guide from the non-profit Association Ospitalità Religiosa Italiana (Italian Religious Hospitality) (www.ospitalitareligiosa.it), headquartered at Via Molina 10 in Varese, a city in Lombardy northwest of Milan,...
Rome Celebrates Raphael Superstar

Rome Celebrates Raphael Superstar

This year the world is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death with exhibitions in London at both the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in Paris at the Louvre, and in Washington D.C. at the National Gallery. However, the mega-show, to...
BARI’S NEWEST MUSEUM

BARI’S NEWEST MUSEUM

In July 2018 I published “The Best of Bari”. Six months later a new museum, known by its acronym “Munbam” which stands for the Children’s (Bambini) Museum of St. Nicholas, opened in the Norman Swabian Castle. Much to the joy of all three generations of my family on a...