Carmen is such an old favourite, the story so colourful and dramatic and the music so vivid and flamboyant, that the requirements for its success are really quite simple – good...

One of my fondest childhood memories is of arriving at my maternal grandmother’s home just outside Chester in northwest England and seeing her collection of horse-drawn Romany caravans, or vardos, lined...

Earlier this spring, Claudio Scaramella, president of the Pro Loco (tourist board) of Palestrina, an ancient town 38 km southeast of Rome, brought off a coup he’d been planning for eight...

1. Aldrovandi Palace eeee Exclusive pool called “La Ranocchia” near Villa Borghese. It has a poolside restaurant and bar and is shaded by palms. Space is limited. Daily 10.00-18.00. Mon-Fri e40, Sat-Sun...

At the end of a very interesting tour of the castle of Bracciano north of Rome, the guide led the group to the battlements with a breathtaking view over rooftops...

As the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) opens its 2008 high-level conference on world food security to address “The challenge of climate change and bioenergy”...

The countdown to disaster may have begun. Experts involved in the ongoing trash emergency in Naples now believe that unless new areas for stockpiling are opened almost immediately, in early July,...

Law making in Italy is a confusing business. There seems to be no end to the terms used to express what is essentially the same thing. Some laws originate from parliament...

Nemi: Il Ramo d’Oro Nicola Ferlei-Brown A mere 30 km southeast of the centre of Rome is the beautiful town of Nemi in the Alban hills. Sitting above the ancient volcanic lake of...

“The Lega Nord has taken the north, Raffaele Lombardo of the Movimento per l’Autonomia has taken the south, Alleanza Nazionale has taken Rome and Berlusconi has taken the whole of Italy.”...