Highlights

With its genesis during a family trip to Italy, the dinnerware and home décor company Vietri has grown into the largest Italian importing company within the American tabletop industry. The company was co-founded by sisters Susan and Frances Gravely, who took their first trip to Italy in 1983, staying on the Amalfi Coast. “They went to lunch and found themselves captivated by the hotel’s colorful, handcrafted dinnerware,” the company’s website says. “The next day they arranged to meet the artisans at a nearby factory in the town of Vietri sul Mare. As they watched the artisans paint, glaze and fire …

Volume and simplicity define Calcaterra, the Italian fashion brand created by designer Daniele Calcaterra. Calcaterra’s vision, along with his two-plus decades of experience, help keep his collections a current and contemporary, he explains. “The continuous collaboration with the finest Italian suppliers ensures absolute excellence made in Italy that is also expressed through new fabric combinations and unusual blends of fine yarns,” the company states. “A study of form always prevails to make the female figure even more modern.” The Calcaterra brand is owned by Auge S.r.l., of which Daniele is a partner with Diego Corbellini, the managing director responsible for …

Basil is so ubiquitous in Italian cuisine one might think it has been used in recipes forever. Instead, the culinary virtues of this tantalizing plant were discovered only 200 years ago. Although basil has been around since ancient times, it was mostly used as an ornamental or curative herb. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed it was toxic and avoided it, while in medieval times it was grown by nuns in convents to be used in medicinal concoctions. During the crusades, soldiers and sailors returning from the Middle East would fill up their ships with the delicate plant to repel …

Italian sculptor Gianfranco Meggiato is well-known internationally for his abstract art and large public installations focusing on societal topics. Since 1998, he has exhibited in museums, galleries and public squares all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Monaco, Ukraine, Russia, India, China, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia. His work also has been on display in the National Pavilions of the Venice Biennale and at Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial. Pursuing a childhood dream, Meggiato studied sculpture at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in …

Italy’s vini biologici movement has spread to embrace 20 percent of the nation’s enological acreage. Italy is experiencing an organic wine boom. According to recent reports, close to one-fifth of Italy’s vines are already certified organic with many more in active conversion. For organic wineries, this means foregoing chemicals in the quest for healthy soils and 100% organic grapes, an essential recipe for environmentally friendly vintners. Known as “vini biologici,” Italy’s organic wines are proudly emblazoned with a green leaf label issued by the European Union. There is a common saying that “great wine is made in the vineyard.” By …

A 2022 study confirmed that Italians have the right approach to life. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development promotes policies that improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. In a study of 22 countries, Italy scored 9.4 out of 10 on the OECD Better Life Index in the category of work-life balance. That is the highest of all the participating countries. The OECD’s BLI is calculated by aggregating 11 key dimensions of well-being, each measured by several indicators. Those dimensions are income, jobs, housing, health, education, social connections, civic engagement, environment, safety and life satisfaction, …

Tucked in the corner of an unassuming monastic church, the Brancacci Chapel helped give birth to a style of painting that held sway for centuries. The shabby exterior of the monastic church of S. Maria del Carmine in Florence looks so unpromising that visitors might be tempted to walk right past it. But if they do, they’ll miss one of the city’s greatest treasures: the spot where Renaissance painting was born. Inside, in the right transept, is a chapel endowed in the mid-1300s by a family of wealthy silk merchants named Brancacci. It was dedicated to St. Peter, the name-saint …

Cara Zia, Our mother’s health is failing, and she needed to be moved from assisted living to a nursing home. She transferred to a dementia unit soon after, since her mental capacity is also rapidly declining. I live three hours away, and my other siblings are on opposite sides of the country. I visit her often but am getting burned out and could use some help. My sister doesn’t have any real money so as executor, I offered to have the estate pay for her airfare. She said she would rather wait until the holidays. My brother says he is …

At the 10:30 a.m. Mass with my parents at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Narragansett, Rhode Island, in August, I noticed the empty pew where Judge Frank Caprio had long sat with his family. Knowing his deep Catholic faith and his battle with pancreatic cancer, I feared the worst. On Aug. 20, his family announced his passing at age 88. I interviewed Judge Caprio in the summer of 2023. It wasn’t our first meeting, but it was the first time I was welcomed into his home. I was nervous to enter the world of a man who was …

He was born Jewish, became a priest, fathered seven children and was tried and found guilty of vice. He was a poet, playwright, linguist, professor, opera impresario and grocer. He lived in Venice, London and Vienna, but spent the last 30 years of his life in New York, where he became an American citizen. He knew Casanova, Mozart and Salieri and dined with James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Washington Irving. His portrait was painted by the code-developer Samuel Morse. Thousands attended his funeral, but no one knows where his grave is. He is Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, …