Following the seam of the Iron Curtain
I met people who risked their lives to escape from east to west
Italy
Saturday
Thursday
The last American tourist
How does it feel to be an American tourist in such a tourist-free world?
The real food of Venice
The Venetians still love black food pulled from the lagoon that saved them
Thursday
Florence with Dante
Had Dante been alive today, he would have reserved an inner circle of hell for the bureaucrats
Monday
The romantic return of Florence’s wine windows
Italians, normally so keen to hug and kiss each other, have been forced into social distancing, and it has given the wine windows a new lease of life
Wednesday
Elena Ferrante’s Italian job
Ferrante was the Flaubert of the Pantsuit Nation, a harbinger of Hillary’s page-turning presidency
School of hard Knox
As Amanda Knox walks listeners through the day of her arrest, it’s apparent she is still upset
Monday
Pictures at an exhibition
As he collects nearly two decades of essays and criticism, Marco Grassi recalls a life in the art world
Sunday
A tinpot Caesar
Mussolini’s War: Fascist Italy from Triumph to Collapse, 1935-1943 by John Gooch reviewed
Wednesday
A leaf from Verdi’s book
Can radicchio take root in the Pacific Northwest?
Sunday
Happy hours
Tuscany or Provence? It’s the former for me every time
Thursday
Will coronavirus kill the eurozone?
Merkel fiddles while Rome goes bankrupt
Saturday
Italy gave China PPE to help with coronavirus — then China made them buy it back
Reports of Beijing’s diplomacy go from bad to worse
Tuesday
Palermo without borders
At first glimpse there appears to be no serious backlash against incomers
Monday
A chance encounter with a butterfly-catching Nazi
A Slightly Foxed Editions feature
Monday
Love and War in the Apennines
On Eric Newby’s wartime memoir: A Slightly Foxed books essay
Tuesday
The triumph of Matteo Salvini
Il Capitano has become the most important populist in Europe
Monday
The real Elena Ferrante is a male-female collaboration, but HBO’s My Brilliant Friend is a man’s world
My Brilliant Friend reviewed
