The fascist afterlife of The Four Seasons
Vivaldi’s masterwork, forgotten after his death, found new popularity when it was co-opted by Italian nationalists.
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The Leopard and the ruins of history
Newly adapted by Netflix, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel is a lesson in the anarchic motions of our times.
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Siena’s artistic revolution
In the 14th century, Duccio and others developed ways of painting that had never been seen before.
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Dante’s divine autofiction
How the Italian poet’s search for self-knowledge changed the course of literature.
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Linguistic soup in Trieste
Also this week: my mother’s malapropisms and the Pig Man of Pinner.
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My head has been turned by the sunflower
Though there is something a little unnerving about all those unblinking, yellow cyclopses, peer closely and I can see a…
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La Chimera is a charming tale of history and myth
Alice Rohrwacher’s playful, Palme d’Or-nominated film about tomb raiders summons the ghosts of Italy’s past.
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I’m missing the human touch, and a certain mushroom risotto
I’m back in England, with only grey skies, my plants and the world's worst corporation for company.
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To Puglia, somehow, for sun, wine and a fairy-tale palazzo
Just to set off the plane and breathe the herb-scented air is to feel the burden of the Anglo-Saxon world…
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Giorgia Meloni’s long game
In an attempt to define her legacy, the Italian prime minister has set her sights on reshaping the EU.
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Mario Tronti’s divine comedy
How the Italian philosopher, who died last month aged 92, turned to theology in his war with the world.
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Giorgia Meloni’s bank job
The Italian prime minister’s windfall tax isn’t quite as radical as it appears.
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How Silvio Berlusconi privatised democracy
Throughout his career, the Italian politician combined extravagance and offence with a fundamental hollowness.
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Giorgia Meloni shouldn’t be normalised
Following the Italian prime minister’s meeting with Rishi Sunak last week, too many seem willing to cast her as a…
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Why Italians get upset when you appropriate their food
Americans getting carbonara wrong and calling pasta noodles annoys us – but not for the reasons you think.
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That poor NYU student has learnt the dark side of “everything is copy”
She wrote a piece about how she’d hated her semester abroad in Florence. And now the internet has come for…
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European unity over Ukraine is holding – for now
A new poll of European publics reveals that support for Kyiv has strengthened since Russia’s invasion a year ago.
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The rise of Elly Schlein, the new left-wing leader of the Italian Democrats
She has been compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn. But can the progressive new leader unite Italy’s left?
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Italy is too large to save but cannot be left to fail. Eventually, something has to give
While Giorgia Meloni claims she wants her country to stay in the eurozone, its deep economic problems might pull her…
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Europe’s far-right parties are learning from one another
With the hard right in power in Italy and Sweden, sister parties across the EU are hoping they will be…
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