The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and if you didn’t know that, then you’ve never been here before, because the fact is bandied about like so many ears of corn at a State Fair. A bit of history: when the League of Nations folded up shop […]
Italy
25 posts
I’ve been indoors most of the afternoon translating the list of treatments and procedures offered by a noted Hotel and Thermal Spa near Verona, which at times has been mind-numbing (how many ways can you find to say, “This treatment offers …”) and at times mouth-watering (after hours of translating, […]
My wife was out at the market today – which is held every Wednesday morning in Levanto, if you are interested – and bumped into some friendly real estate agents that we know. Having not seen them in a while, they chit-chatted about this and that, commenting on the never-ending […]
Liguria is, more than anything else, a long thin coastal stretch with mountains at its shoulders, and its entire complex of history, culture, and society is tied up to the sea and these geographical factors. And so the winds of Liguria are of great importance. There’s an easterly wind howling […]
Erica and I recently bought our first house, which was a surprise to us more than anyone, for when we made the decision to move permanently to the Cinque Terre area and put down roots in Levanto, we always figured that buying a house would be the last thing to […]
Having only moved to Liguria a couple of years ago, I have also only recently become aware of the great Ligurian artists, so many of whom come from Genoa, the most underrated city in all of Italy. These include the violinist Niccolò Paganini, the Nobel Prize winning poet Eugenio Montale […]
For a series of causes, the name of Massimo Amfiteatrof has been running across my radar a lot recently, so I wanted to let you all know about the excellent classical music festival that is held every summer in Levanto. Named after Massimo, a virtuoso cellist and longtime resident of […]
Despite all of the stereotypes and legends, the truth is that American tourists are usually no better nor no worse than any other group of tourists. What they may lack in terms of linguistic capabilities (which is much in comparison to tourists from any other country), is often made up […]
April 25th has always been a special holiday for Americans in Italy, considering the role played by the American army (though by no means diminishing that of the British army and the Italian partisans) in helping liberate Italy from the Fascists and their Nazi puppet-masters between 1943 and the end […]
The votes have just come in from the Parliamentary elections of 2013, and for those of you paying attention to Italian politics, the results are a mess. The liberal party, the PD, has proven itself incapable of capturing the imagination of new generations of Italian voters who are desperate for […]