Highlights

All across Italy, private homes have been converted into public museums that spotlight aspects of the nation’s history while celebrating the individuals who helped shaped them. After you’ve marveled at the grandeur of the Colosseum, wandered along the endless halls and galleries of the Uffizi, and glided on the canals of Venice, Italy’s hidden gems — its house museums — are ready and waiting to immerse you in intimate histories, personal collections and unique glimpses into the lives of some of the country’s most fascinating figures. Far beyond the tourist trail, you’ll discover rich and engaging stories within the walls …

Most people are familiar with the traditional diatonic harmonica’s long, wailing notes and chords on blues and country songs. Yet there’s another version of the instrument that allows the musician to tear through three octaves of sharps and flats. Once cherished in jazz, classical and folk circles, the chromatic harmonica is disappearing from the musical landscape, and Enrico Granafei is one its few remaining masters. Granafei was born and raised in the Italian region of Calabria region, and as a young man took an interest in guitar. “I enrolled in a classical guitar course at the conservatory,” Granafei says from …

New Orleans, 1919. The cobblestone streets are filled with fancy carriages as well as carts pushed by vendors, many of them Italian American, selling fresh fruit, shrimp and oysters. As gas lanterns light the nighttime streets of the French Quarter, a new music is being born. Part ragtime, part blues, part march music, it’s called jazz. Decked out in high-collared shirts and dark suits and with their hair slicked back, Cosimo and the Hot Coals transport audiences back to that magical time when a new sound was born in New Orleans. Based in Milan, the band regularly performs throughout Italy …

A new Netflix series adaptation of “The Leopard,” based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal novel, is captivating audiences worldwide. Directed by British filmmaker Tom Shankland, the series revisits the iconic tale first brought to the screen by Luchino Visconti in 1963. Set against the backdrop of 1860s Sicily during the Risorgimento, the film follows Prince Fabrizio Salina (Kim Rossi Stuart), an aging aristocrat witnessing the decline of the Sicilian nobility and the rise of a new social order. As Garibaldi’s forces land in Sicily, the prince reflects on the now-fleeting aristocratic way of life. His nephew Tancredi (Saul Nanni) …

An early example of commedia all’italiana, “Bravissimo” is a true classic of the genre. Directed by Luigi Filippo D’Amico and starring Alberto Sordi, the 1955 film blends satire with heartfelt moments, offering a critique of the entertainment industry and the exploitation of child prodigies. The story follows Ubaldo Impallato (Sordi), a substitute elementary-school teacher who supplements his income by running a tutoring program. Among the kids in his care is Gigetto, a 6-year-old with a rare musical talent. Ubaldo takes Gigetto under his wing, attempting to keep the boy safe from his greedy relatives while using him to chase his …

As the readers of this beautifully produced book will learn, the Arch of Titus is anything but uncomplicated. Most travelers to Rome who encounter the arch on their visits to the Roman Forum make a number of assumptions about it, all of which turn out to be wrong. Despite being called the Arch of Titus, it wasn’t built by that emperor, but by his younger brother, Domitian, shortly after Titus’ premature death in 81 A.D. The most famous sculpture on the arch is a panel on the inner portion that shows Roman soldiers carrying the spoils of the empire’s successful …

Salvatore Pane’s “The Neorealist in Winter” follows two well-crafted novels: “Last Call in the City of Bridges” (2012) and “The Theory of Almost Everything” (2018). Eleven stories done in a variety of voices and formal styles feature characters who are stumbling their way through American and Italian cultures, searching for ways to use what little is left of Italian-American identity to give their lives meaning in a confusing 21st century. This collection represents the best of what young writers who still claim their Italian ancestry have to offer. Throughout the stories, we meet characters raised on video games and fast …

Sitting on the edge of Italy’s largest lake, the town of Toscolano Maderno combines a charming atmosphere with a Mediterranean-like climate. However, inhabitants do more than just soak in the sun on the shores of Lake Garda. In fact, the city has been one of Italy’s top paper-producing towns for the past seven centuries! Before the Etruscans and Romans built villages here, the area had been populated since prehistoric times, thanks to the extremely fertile soil and temperate climate. The towns of Toscolano and Maderno were originally separated, but eventually grew to become one big urban center. The presence of …

Florence’s Porcellino Fountain is a traditional symbol of good luck and one of the most visited and “touched” attractions in Florence. There are copies of it all over the world: in Belgium, France, Sydney, Kansas City, Ontario and New York, with two in Munich. The latest version of Florence’s Porcellino Fountain is located on the left side of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, also known as the Mercato del Porcellino, or Piglet’s Market. The Porcellino (Little Pig) is actually a boar (cinghiale). The original was sculpted in marble as a gift to Cosimo I from Pope Pius IV in 1560 …

written by Lionel Bottari, illustrated by Jean Parisi Once, in the province of Lombardy, there lived a young couple, Bernio and Alchia. They fervently wanted to have a family, but the years went by without their wish being granted. Unwilling to give up their dream, they went to an orphanage and adopted one of the infants, who they named Fortunio. But as luck would have it, Alchia became pregnant some time afterward. This child, also a boy, they named Valentino. Until Valentino was born, Fortunio was the center of their attention, but as they grew older it became obvious to …