Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Culture”
Lots of greenery, trails, a playground, a wild animal rescue center, a military museum, an amphitheater and contemporary sculpture – the Catanzaro Park of Biodiversity or the Parco della Biodiversità Mediterranea has a lot going on amidst its 60 hectares (148 acres) and 50,000 varieties of Mediterranean plants.
Growing up in the United States, I’d see royalty on TV every so often and think of it as a phenomenon of a distant land. I figured I would have had a greater opportunity of meeting an astronaut. Then I began spending time in Italy and it seemed that I ran into royalty with a certain frequency. Perhaps not every …
Intriguing, eclectic, thought provoking – a few words I would use to describe the Palazzo della Cultura, a new museum in Reggio Calabria that is definitely worth the visit.
Life is funny. When I began to study the Italian language as an adult and made my first attempts at conversation, I would never have imagined that one day I would be capable of giving full-fledged presentations in Italian or would appear on Italian TV.
AN OLD CUSTOM It was a little later than I had wanted to arrive, but there were still a good ten minutes before the presentation was to begin. Rounding the hallway, I could see the aula magna or assembly hall, full of students, waiting rather patiently, I thought, for a school event. I entered through the doors in front with …
THE “CURE” IN LAMEZIA TERME Using her hand like a shovel, Maria scooped up a goodly portion of mud and unceremoniously thwocked it onto my elbows, diving back into the gooey substance for my wrists, my feet and knees. Then, with multiple plops of the thick, grayish mud onto the table’s raised backrest, she instructed me to lie back onto …
UNPROTECTED FEMALES IN SICILY, CALABRIA, AND ON THE TOP OF MOUNT AETNA Intrepid is the word that comes to mind when characterizing women travelers in remote regions. Take Mrs. and Miss Lowe, two proper British ladies, a mother and daughter team that tramped all over the “continent” in the middle of the 19th-century to both the horror and delight of …
THE BEACH Amantea is blessed with an unusually mild climate, and that’s something Italians are really able to appreciate – good beach weather. In Amantea, summer can begin as early as April and last into November. Thus, the town’s long sandy beach is popular. In fact, Amantea boasts eight beautiful miles of shoreline along the Tyrrhenian Sea, a narrow coastal …
EARTHQUAKES, PLAGUES, WARS AND FAITH The devastation of the recent earthquake in Amatrice reminds me of the precariousness of life. The town had been preparing for its annual festival celebrating the world-renowned sauce that bears its name – the “amatriciana” would instead be celebrated all over the world. The region of Calabria is likewise no stranger to hardship, and in …
PRANZO DI FERRAGOSTO I was utterly charmed the first time I saw Pranzo di Ferragosto just after its release in the early fall of 2008. I remember seeing it in Rome at the multiplex in Piazza Barberini with friends from Rieti, where I was staying. The film wasn’t expected to be a huge draw and hadn’t been programmed in Rieti, …