[caption id="attachment_86" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Dante Alighieri[/caption] Before the 13th century the literary language of Italy was Latin, which served for the writing of chronicles, historical poems, heroic legends, lives of…

Learn Italian with Rosetta Stone One of the most effective methods to learn conversational Italian Learn Italian and Unlimited Languages with Lifetime Access: Rosetta Stone Bonus Pack Bundle with Grammar…

[caption id="attachment_574" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Luigi Pirandello[/caption] The founder of futurism, the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, used language stripped to essentials. Insisting that 20th-century literature should express the characteristic dynamism of…

[caption id="attachment_571" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi[/caption] A reaction against classicism and romanticism as unrealistic marked the second half of the 19th century. It was a revolt against a…

[caption id="attachment_568" align="alignnone" width="800"] Alessandro Manzoni[/caption] Liberation and unification had been a hope of Italian writers since the 13th century. At that time nationalism had been manifested, among other ways,…

[caption id="attachment_565" align="aligncenter" width="800"] A play by Carlo Goldoni[/caption] Italy, beginning in the late 15th century, was exhausted by constant wars as rival Spanish, French, and Austrian rulers made the…

[caption id="attachment_562" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Niccolò Machiavelli[/caption] The Renaissance reached its fulfillment in the 16th century. Italian, long eclipsed by the humanists’ preoccupation with Greek and Latin, rose to a new…

[caption id="attachment_559" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Young women and men tell the 100 tales of The Decameron by Boccaccio[/caption] The Renaissance in Italy was a period of expanding economic, political, and cultural…

A new food trend in traditional Abruzzo Who knew that in the middle of the Adriatic Coast, between Ortona and Vasto, rises a beautiful road called Coast of Trabocchi (trabocco…

The Italian artichoke, il carciofo COMPOSITAE: The Composite Family Herbs or shrubs with alternate or opposite leaves. Flowers or florets collected several together into a Head surrounded by an involucre…

Click on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to read about the movie Academy Awards - Oscars 1957 - Winner: La Strada (IMDB) 1958 - Winner: Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of…

Amedeo Modigliani was born in Italy in the Livorno ghetto in 1884. His father, a ruined banker, died young and his mother, a descendant of the Dutch philosopher, Spinoza, encouraged…

An introduction to Italian fashion from clothing to Italian jewelry, Italian leather bags and shoes, Italian fashion designers and brands. Made in Italy!

[caption id="attachment_577" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Dario Fo[/caption] Other notable postwar novelists are Dino Buzzati, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, and Italo Calvino. Buzzati's allegorical writings, which owe a debt to…

Italian culture at the Heart of the World Although it lacks a large amount of political power, culturally Italy is much more prominent, and its art & architecture, literature, music,…

What Italian delicacies regions have to offer Veneto Veneto is one of the most famous parts of Italy and many people travel here to see the stunning sights of its…

Authentic Regional Italian Cuisine or American-Italian Cuisine? You Decide! When thinking of Italian cuisine, one may think of hearty soups and even heartier plates of pasta. However, the varying regions…

Michelangelo Buonarroti Born in Caprese, near Florence, in 1475, this magnificent artist and sculptor transformed blocks of marble into figures full of life. His immortal works include the Sistine Chapel…

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 – December 13, 1466), better known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance sculptor from Florence. He studied classical sculpture, and used this…

[caption id="attachment_500" align="alignleft" width="300"] Valeria Golino[/caption] Synopsis Irene lives alone on the coastline outside Rome. To her father and her married lover, she’s a student. In reality, she often travels…

A living museum Italy is a living museum. Her public structures comprise vivid, visible art and architecture that stand as testaments to the country's history and culture. The Roman and…

Michelagniolo di Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarroti Simone was born in Caprese in Tuscany in 1475. The son of a civil servant, he attended Latin School and then studied painting…

Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence in 1445. The most humanistic of the Renaissance painters, he was at first apprenticed to a goldsmith. He became, in 1465, a pupil of…

FLORENCE Built by the Romans and immortalized by the Renaissance, Florence affords an unforgettable voyage through timeless art and architecture. Savor the contrast between the Boboli Garden's green, groomed perfection,…

Paolo Uccello (born Paolo di Dono in 1397) was a Florentine painter who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. His nickname Uccello came from his…

Jacopo (Robusti) Tintoretto, born in 1518, was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. In his youth he…

Gianbattista Tiepolo, as a youth, was apprenticed to Gregorio Lazzarini, a mediocre but fashionable painter known for his elaborately theatrical, rather grandiose compositions. Tiepolo soon evolved a more spirited style…

[caption id="attachment_1428" align="alignnone" width="640"] Rossetti reading proofs of Ballads and Sonnets at 16 Cheyne Walk, by Henry Treffry Dunn (1882)[/caption] All three of the Rossetti siblings would have important effects…

Raphael, the last of the three greatest painters of the Renaissance, was born Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino, in the province of Umbria in 1483. It is probable that he took…

Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone, known as Masaccio, was not only the greatest Florentine painter of the early fifteenth century, but remains one of the most important figures in the…

Marino Marini was born in Pistoia in 1901. He began his fine arts career in Florence, where he studied painting, graphic techniques and sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti.…

(1475 - 1532) Bernardino Luini was a North Italian painter from Leonardo's circle, a conservative painter who took "as much from Leonardo as his native roots enabled him to comprehend".…

Fra Filippo Lippi work was widely respected in his time, and he is known today as an innovative and accomplished painter of the Florentine Renaissance. Lippi was born in 1406…

Giotto di Bondone, the father of modern painting and one of the greatest figures in the history of Western art, was born in a small hamlet in the valley of…

Giorgio Giorgione was born Giorgio Barbarelli in Castelfranco in 1477. Very little is known about this master who died of the plague at the age of 34, but who changed…

(1901 - 1966) Alberto Giacometti, the Surrealist sculptor known for his nervous, elongated forms, was born in Stampa, Switzerland. Giacometti started drawing at the age of nine, painting at twelve…

Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemisia were from the city of Pisa. Artemisia was a pioneer as a female painter of her time.

Giorgio de Chirico was born in Greece in 1888, to Italian parents. Although he was the son of a railroad worker, Chirico quickly developed an interest in art. He studied…

Leonardo da Vinci, the epitome of the Renaissance man, was born in 1452 in Vinci, a village near Florence and was brought up by his grandfather. In 1467 Leonardo entered…

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, revolutionary naturalist painter, was born in Caravaggio near Milan, the son of a mason in 1573. He showed his talent early and at the age of…

Giovanni Antonio Canale, known as Canaletto, was born in 1697 in Venice where his father was a painter of theatrical scenery. The young Canaletto studied first in his father's workshop…

Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano, called Il Bronzino, was born in 1503 in Monticello, outside Florence. He was first a student of, and then assistant to, Jacopo Pontormo, one of the…

Umberto Boccioni, Futurist theoretician, painter, and sculptor, was born in 1882 in Reggio Calabria and was a graduate of the Technical Institute of Catania when he began to study art…

Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar, was perhaps the most important painter of Renaissance Florence.

Is Spaghetti alla Bolognese really an Italian recipe? The sauce for sure is but the shape of the pasta is what makes it truly authentic.

The season of the white telephones lasted only for a brief period of time during the 1930s and early 1940s.

The oldest film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival was founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica." It has taken place in…

Movies with Ugo Tognazzi Because of his father's profession, inspector of an insurance company, Ugo Tognazzi spent his childhood in various cities to return later in 1936 in his native…