Growing up in the south of Italy means knowing the sea like your best friend. It is there, listening to your thoughts and comforting you with the sound of the waves rushing on the coast, hugging you with the gentle touch of the clear water, showing all its greatness below the dark surface. It also…
“Through singing, opera must make you weep, shudder, die.”- Vincenzo Bellini Today we are in Catania, the second largest city in Sicily after Palermo, famous for her majestic location at the foot of Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Curiosity #1: The word Etna comes from the Greek αἴθω (aithō), meaning “I burn” Curiosity…
“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. ” I love summer in the UK, it is my favourite week of the year: the sun shines fiercely, the temperatures soar, life seems a little bit easier. The thing is, it is unbelievably hot. And I really mean unbelievably: during those days…
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy,…
Sicily is the Queen of the Mediterranean sea: she is there, in her all glory, kissed by the waves and hugged by the sunshine. She is majestic, with her natural gifts like Mount Etna or the Aolian islands – and like the most beautiful women, her history makes her even more charming: the Valley of…
I have got a confession to make: I am one of those people that made sourdough during the lockdown. Actually, I became obsessed with it, and I tried to follow as many recipes as possible with my lovely starter: pizza, bread, pancakes, pretzel; you name it, I have probably done it (hundreds of times, with…
Who knew that the key for paradise were a few ingredients and a brothel? Very random, isn’t it? Savoiardi, mascarpone, eggs, coffee: this is what comes to mind when thinking about Tiramisu. What the majority of non-italian speakers dont know, is that its name literally translates as “pick me up”. It is a curious name…
Picture this: you are living by the sea, kissed by the sunshine almost every day of the year and gifted with the longest summers you can ever imagine. All you want is something refreshing, that can help you cope with the heat, and this is exactly the type of food your area is famous for.…
New Year’s Eve 2019, 23:59. Ready to celebrate the new year with a glass of prosecco and a resolution list longer than usual (this is what happens when you carry the same goals since 2014), I promised myself this would have been my year. AHAHAHA. Well so far it didn’t quite go as expected. But…
Have you ever heard of maritati pasta? It is a special pasta combination, made of orecchiette and maccheroni (also known as minchiareddi), particularly famous in Puglia, one of the most beautiful regions in Italy. Maritati in italian means “married”, and this pasta basically represents the marriage between orecchiette pasta (the woman), and maccheroni (the man).…
