Photojournalist Marina Spironetti travelled to inland Sardinia and the remote region of Barbagia to document the most fascinating and ancient carnival traditions of the island… Sos Thurpos, Orotellisos Sos Thurpos from Orotelli represent another centuries-old tradition. Unlike the masks in Mamoiada and Ottana, they don’t wear sheepskins but a simple black coat, handmade chaps (gambali) […]
Today’s the day for the weird, the wonderful and the downright scary, so we thought you’d like to take a look at this wonderfully misshapen curiosity which we came across in an elegant Sicilian vegetable garden this month. A serious contender for Ugliest Fruit of the Year 2016, its knarly, pitted, pock-marked appearance and lumpy […]
In the woods and fields around the Palazzina di Stupinigi, outside Turin, between harvest time and Christmas, no animal big enough to be hunted was safe… The silhouetted figure on top gives a clue as to what this building was designed to be: a hunting lodge, a very grand hunting lodge. There has been a […]
It’s Halloween, so it’s time to delve into ghoulish stories, if you dare… Between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon lies Poveglia, thought to be the most haunted place in Italy. For centuries this island has been a place of refuge, exile and a dumping ground for the diseased, dying and deceased. In 421, Poveglia took […]
What the Vespa was to private transport in Italy in the lean years following the Second World War, the Ape would be to commercial transport… When the Second World War ended, Italy was in ruins. Not only had she fought on the losing side but, in the process of losing, much of her infrastructure – […]
Beyond the palazzo… now, rising elegantly up the slope was a series of manicured terraces, and a grand stairway climbing with them Oltrarno means ‘beyond the Arno’, and refers to the part of Florence south of the river. Although you can find many famous sights there – the Pitti Palace, Boboli Gardens, and Piazzale Michelangelo […]
Photojournalist Marina Spironetti travelled to inland Sardinia and the remote region of Barbagia to document the most fascinating and ancient carnival traditions of the island… The glitzy atmosphere of the North Sardinia coast could not be further away. That coastline may be what the island is most famous for, but it’s not the real Sardinia […]
Artist Emma Hart is not a fan of the perfected visions of life offered by social media… Though she has a background in photography, Hart has hold-ups about the intention to make subjects look “good and smooth,” and much prefers to make things look grubby and real. Her artworks draw on the vexations of modern life […]
There is in Italy a new initiative to encourage people to share cars. Tom Alberto Bull wonders how long it will be before we see something along the same lines introduced in the UK? On a recent trip to Italy I was made aware of a mobile app taking parts of the country by storm. […]