Culture

Vittore Carpaccio: Birth of the Virgin, ca. 1502/1503, oil on canvas, 128,5 × 127,5 cm. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara

The Carpaccio Exhibition in Venice is Closing Soon, But the Artist’s Legacy Isn’t Going Anywhere

by Myra Robinson | Fri, 06/09/2023 - 09:26

Of all the thousands of great paintings in Venice, the favorite of my grandchildren is Vittore Carpaccio’s Saint George and the Dragon in the Scuola San…

Culture

Alessandro Mahmoud, stage name Mahmood, at the microphone

Sanremo to Under the Sea: Mahmood Shakes Up the World of Italian Dubbing in “The Little Mermaid”

by Janna Brancolini | Mon, 06/05/2023 - 06:30

Italian popstar Alessandro Mahmoud, stage name Mahmood, seemed almost destined, in retrospect, to play Sebastian in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Born to an…

Culture

Museum of Etruscan Art at Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Milan / Photo: Giovanni de Sandre for Fondazione Luigi Rovati

The New Etruscan Museum in Milan is a Thrilling Time Warp

by Liz Shemaria | Thu, 06/01/2023 - 06:33

A white hand ashtray sculpted in 1942 is lit in a glass case with terracotta hands and ears fired during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE. Etruscans formed…

Culture

Members of the Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group at the Trevi Fountain in Rome / Photo: Alessandro Penso

Who Are the Last Generation Activists and Why Are They Attacking Art in Italy?

by Tatjana Dordevic | Mon, 05/29/2023 - 09:58

The emerging European trend of climate activists targeting artworks and historical monuments with paint and other liquids is generating varying degrees of both…

Culture

Piazzale Loreto photo render / Photo: Loreto Open Community

Piazzale Loreto: A Square With Dark History Gets a Makeover and New Meaning

by Alexa Ahern | Sun, 05/14/2023 - 17:00

Piazzale Loreto in the north of Milan is an eyesore of the excessive cementificazione of Italian cityscapes. An intersection of seven major thoroughfares, it…

Culture

Italian rapper Rondodasosa (stage name of Mattia Barbieri) at far right with other drill artists / Photo: @rondodasosa via Instagram

What’s the Deal With Drill Music in Italy?

by Laurence Connell | Wed, 05/10/2023 - 09:00

In Italy, drill music — a subgenre of hip hop — has broken into the mainstream. It’s been barely three years since the release of the genre’s first viral…

Lifestyle

What if Italy Had a Coronation?

by Joseph Harshbarger | Sun, 05/07/2023 - 07:00

The world watched transfixed this weekend as King Charles III was crowned in Westminster Abbey on May 6, succeeding his mother as monarch and becoming King of…

Culture

Maria Lai libri cuciti on display at the Biennale di Venezia 2017 / Photo: Kristina Kostova via Dreamstime

Retracing the Life of Maria Lai, Mother of “Relational Art,” in Sardinia

by Lucy McCabe | Fri, 05/05/2023 - 08:25

“I played with great seriousness. At some point they began to call my games art.” – Maria Lai I first “met” Maria Lai while visiting Cagliari, the capital of…

Culture

Monument to the Partisan, Arcevia, Le Marche

Beyond “Bella Ciao”: 4 Songs of the Italian Resistance

by Amy Gulick | Wed, 04/26/2023 - 06:20

The perennially popular Italian folk tune “Bella Ciao” has roots in 19th-century farm laborer protests in northern Italy, but this simple yet stirring hymn has…

Culture

Why This Year’s Italian Championship is About More Than Soccer

by Katherine Wilson | Thu, 04/20/2023 - 15:00

This spring, the city at the base of Vesuvius is ready to erupt. Abuzz with adrenaline and already spray-painted blue, Naples is anticipating a national…