Alex Sakalis
:
Alex Sakalis is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in the BBC, The Economist and openDemocracy among others. He lives in Bologna. Follow him on Instagram at @sakalisalex.
Articles by Alex Sakalis
The Dolomites are written about frequently, but you’ll rarely see any mention of their only real city, Bolzano; if you do, it’s usually in relati…
Spend enough time in Italy and you’ll start to notice something about the names of city streets: They’re predictable.
When I go to a new city,…
The wild and densely forested Bologna Apennines begin roughly at the southern walls of Bologna and extend all the way to the Tuscan border. Historical…
Practically every aspect of Pablo Picasso’s life and art has already been picked apart. But his brief sojourn in Italy in 1917, when the artist was 35…
As a Bologna resident, I’ve become accustomed to the throngs of people lining up on Via Piella just to peek through the Finestrella (the “little windo…
150 years ago next week, one of the world’s most influential people, often described as the inventor of radio, was born in Bologna.
Guglielmo Marconi…
Ilias Tzempetonidis doesn’t have the classic background one associates with a casting director at Europe’s top opera houses. He was born into a non-mu…
Kombucha — that acerbic, slightly bubbly drink — has, in recent years, transcended its obscure origins and niche market to become an increasingly fash…
Bologna is known for many things — food, porticoes, medieval towers — but the world’s first and only Gelato University, currently celebrating its 20-y…
The gloomy landscape of the Venetian lagoon has often surprised those who associate it with Venice and nothing else. “This damp expanse, speckled with…
When Venetian aristocrats of bygone eras needed an escape from the sweltering summer heat of the lagoon, they chose the Brenta. Between the 16th and 1…
When I first heard about a “Shoe Museum” in small-town Italy, I wasn’t exactly brimming with enthusiasm. “But it has a fascinating collection of…
Opened in Bologna in 2017, FICO Eataly World is an Italian food, gastronomy and agriculture theme park founded and operated by Eataly, the hugely succ…
Opened in 1864, the Ferrovia Porrettana was the first transapennine railway line in Italy, connecting Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany by train for the firs…
Grecia Salentina is the name given to a segment of Salento where Griko — a dialect of Greek — is still spoken. The area comprises nine villages — Cali…
Exploring Italy by train isn’t a hard sell. But moving away from the main intercity routes can make it even more appealing. Some surprisingly niche ro…
Though famous for its medieval city center filled with Renaissance buildings and porticoes, Bologna has always adapted to the tastes of each passing c…
The Ciclovia del Sole, a large, traffic-free, pan-European cycleway, has just inaugurated a new section in Emilia-Romagna. Stretching from Mirandola i…
The city of Bologna is quickly becoming a destination in its own right rather than just a curiosity stop on the Venice-Florence-Rome route. You could…
Poor Reggio Emilia. Though picturesque like all north Italian patrician towns, it lacks the showstopper sights of nearby Milan or Ferrara. It’s one of…