Worldcrunch
Inspired by a new book on vampires, Italian writer Chiara Valerio analyzes how the figure of the vampire has come to represent life and death over centuries of science, art and culture. When understood through a modern lens, what can the vampire tell us about our own Gothic concerns?
Last week, Italy was caught in the uproar of Giorgia Meloni’s break-up, a swirl of TV scandal and political controversy. But now that the dust is settled, what does this mean for a single mother standing strong, though alone, on the political right.
With the social value of sports having recently been officially acknowledged in the Italian constitution, writer Simonetta Sciandivasci reflects on the cult of excessive health, and rants about the impossibility of keeping up beauty trends masked as self-care.
Mothers everywhere are struggling with the pressures of parenting in an increasingly individualistic culture. Enter the rapidly growing empire of parenting influencers who promise to help – at a price. In Italy, where mothers have long been seen as models of strength, the novelty is particularly acute.
This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.
Our Naples-based psychiatrist imagines a world where all professionals could deny care on the basis of religious objection.
Pasta may not be considered controversial today, but it played an important role during Italy’s fascist years, particularly in one family’s celebration of community and liberation.
Eight months after being arrested, following 30 years on the run, Matteo Messina Denaro died Monday. The son of a mobster and successor of Sicily’s notorious boss of bosses, he had tried to transform Cosa Nostra into a modern criminal enterprise — with only partial success.
Famous Italian opera singer and songwriter Andrea Bocelli was born on this day in 1958, in Lajatico, in the Italian region of Tuscany. He is renowned for his powerful and emotive voice, and he has achieved worldwide recognition for his contributions to classical and pop music. What is Andrea Bocelli’s signature style of music? Bocelli […]
Spanish, Italian, Greek, Provençal: in the land of butter and cream, olive oil is all the rage! Buoyed by the wave of the Mediterranean diet, demand has soared in recent years. But production is threatened by drought in Spain, the world’s leading producer.
It has been five years since Starbucks first opened in Milan, where the company’s CEO first got the idea that the world wanted quality coffee. Today they set their sights not on retreat but expansion. The path ahead in this mecca for “caffé” for the Seattle-based coffee shop is a rosy one.
Libya’s catastrophic flood last week coincided with massive arrivals of migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa. What look at first like two distinct stories are part of the same mounting crisis that the world is simply not prepared to face: climate migration.
Women in Italy are living longer than ever. But severe economic and social inequality and loneliness mean that they urgently need a new model for community living – one that replaces the “one person, one house, one caregiver” narrative we have grown accustomed to.
Our Naples-based psychiatrist tries to relieve a patient of his anxiety over a very specific delusion of persecution.
The Argentine Lionel Messi is the personification of soccer sublime . He has come to move fans in ways that art lovers are moved by a painting.
After the fall of the Sicilian Mafia boss of bosses Matteo Messina Denaro, it’s time for Cosa Nostra to rebuild, and they’ll be taking inspiration from their own past, but also must face the rising power of the ‘ndrangheta in the neighboring region of Calabria
In the Italian city of Turin, a gym has installed urinals that appear to be shaped like a woman’s open mouth. From Duchamp to Warhol to Mick Jagger, everything we see is in the eyes of the beholder.
Italy has experienced a difficult summer of climate disasters, but the country is experiencing a boom in turtles’ nests, with Sicily leading the way.
Our Neapolitan psychiatrist recounts a chance meeting with an old patient, and the benefits of taking the bait.
Not far from Rome’s international airport, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship company bought a state concession to try to build a massive new port to host its Oasis-class cruise ships – 72-meter-high skyscrapers on the sea. Locals in Fiumicino say one major transport hub in the area is more than enough.
How is a cocktail invented, and how does it become iconic? An analysis of the art of mixology, through what may be the most famous cocktail in the world.
Along with mass tourism, large investors have arrived in the Tuscan Valley — investors with no ties to the traditions and agriculture of the place. If the residents leave, the landscape of this countryside will disappear forever.
For this patient, it’s the last spaghetti that broke the camel’s back.
On the Italian coast, you’ll be asked €200 per day for a beach umbrella and sunbed at the cheapest bathing establishments. Nowhere else makes clear the huge post-pandemic gap between the haves and have-nots.
Four decades ago, there were 9,000 dance clubs in Italy. Today, there are just 3,000. Where is everyone going instead, and why?
Segesta, Sicily is in flames, with fires spreading throughout the region. A local author describes scenes of apocalypse, which although not unusual on the wildfire-prone island, grow worse every year — and nothing is done about it.
Five years ago, Agnese DeCarlo received treatment for cancer, but the psychological effects stayed. She found a unique and pioneering treatment for women just like her — psychotherapy on the ocean.
Bologna is the first major Italian city to join the city30 initiative, taking on a model that limits the speed of cars in cities to 30 kilometers-per-hour (18.6 mph) and aims to return road space to pedestrians and cyclists.
Hundreds of people died when a boat carrying migrants capsized on its way to Europe. Eyewitnesses raise serious accusations: were Greek officials to blame for the disaster? And what role does the “smuggling mafia” play? Die Welt reconstructs the events of the tragedy.
Welcome summer with a glass of one of these elegant rosés from winemakers in Mexico, New Zealand and more.
Our Dottoré discovers the origin of a patient’s schizophrenia, deep in the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The Italian government’s use of a computerized version of Botticelli’s Venus as an influencer to promote Italian culture has been described as “humiliating” and “grotesque”. But it is not Italy’s first ridiculous and costly tourism campaign. Italy’s La Stampa daily looks at a long and solid traditions of failures when the country tried to promote itself as a tourist paradise.
A new measure from the right-wing government could force same-sex parents of children already in elementary school to suddenly lose their parental rights and status.
Before being deported from Italy, undocumented migrants are detained in Repatriation Detention Centers, where they are often sedated with powerful psychotropic drugs, according to this investigative report by Altreconomia, in collaboration with Inkyfada.
At the core, the controversial Italian leader, who died this week at 86, wanted to be liked, loved. That explains many of his choices, including the ones that have left a dark mark on Italy’s history.
A case of mistaken identity for our Naples-based psychiatrist, in the wake of Silvio Berlusconi’s passing.
The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the EU’s first act regulating AI, which banned some potentially abusive AI tech but left the door open to others that could be used to track, control and deny people seeking refuge in Europe — instead of as a tool to save them.
On Monday, news came that Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86. Much has been written about Berlusconi, having been the center of Italian political life for so long, including this particular piece by a veteran Italian columnist back in 2011 after the prime minister had resigned.
What you have in your plate isn’t always what you think it is. As food counterfeiting increases in the food industry and in our daily lives, some products are more likely to be “fake”, and it’s up to consumers to be careful.
Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of “gastronationalism.”