Garlic and Social Class
Immigrants from southern Italy were stereotyped for their use of the aromatic vegetable.
Socially Sanctioned Love Triangles of Romantic-Era Italy
Eighteenth-century Italian noblewomen had one indispensable accessory: an extramarital lover.
Casa Malaparte Is a Strangely Awesome House
Built by a fascist-turned-communist writer in the 1940s, it belongs to no one architectural style. But the views!
The War Documentary That Never Was
John Huston's 1945 movie The Battle of San Pietro presents itself as a war documentary, but contains staged scenes. What should we make of it?
The Highest Flood in Italy This Century
Recent flooding in Venice has revived memories of a record-setting 1966 flood, which sparked an international rescue program for art and architecture.
What Does It Mean To Be Celtic?
How various nationalist groups have come to use "Celtic" as a coded way of saying "white."
The Romanticization of the Mediterranean
The idea that the disparate nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea represent a single region is the product of the nineteenth century.
Iris Origo’s Italian War Diary
The marchese's 1939-1940 diary, detailing the months before Italy's armed alliance with Nazi Germany, is now available as A Chill in the Air.
The Talking Statues of Rome
Since the 16th century, anonymous authors have been posting provocative political messages on or near these Roman statues.
The Park of Monsters
Constructed in the mid-16th century by Pier Francesco "Vicino" Orsini, this bizarre pleasure garden features twelve strange, disturbing statues--and no one knows why.