Published on Friday, November 10, 2017 by Kathy McCabe I’m Steve Perillo of Perillo Tours. I'm thrilled to host a video series called Steve's Travel Tips to share all the insider Italy travel tips I have learned over a lifetime of travel to Italy. This time I'm back talking about a most important activity in Italy - eating - and what better time to do it than at dinner! In this video, I tell you how to do dinner r...

Published on Monday, November 6, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Amatrice, the village in Lazio famous for its pasta sauce all’Amatriciana, has been designated a 2018 World Monuments Fund (WMF) site in the Disaster category. Amatrice was destroyed by an earthquake on August 24, 2016. The earthquake in Amatrice caused 299 deaths and approximately 400 injuries. According to the WMF site, the mayor of Amatrice poignantly declare...

Published on Thursday, November 2, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Until January 28th, 2018, fans of opera, theatrical garb, and fashion will be able to see a free exhibit of costumes made for La Scala by the world’s top designers at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Organized by The Friends of La Scala Association, the show includes nearly a century of costumes, which have been painstakingly restored in celebration of the Association’s...

Published on Saturday, October 21, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Rinascente, the historic Italian department store founded in Milan, will return to the center of Rome for the first time since the Spanish clothing chain Zara took over its original location over 11 years ago. Formerly on Via del Corso, the new Rinascente (previously known as La Rinascente) opened this month in a stunning new site nearby on Via del Tritone. The 17,...

Published on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 by Kathy McCabe A new institute in Rome, the Caravaggio Research Institute, will dedicate itself to becoming the sole authority on everything related to the artist, who lived from 1571 to 1610. Founded as a result of a partnership between fashion brand Fendi and the Borghese Gallery, the institute will be a center of research and education to identify genuine works by the Italian mas...

Published on Friday, October 13, 2017 by Kathy McCabe In 2020, for the first time in 500 years, visitors to Venice will be able to tour one of its grandest and most important buildings. The Procuratie Vecchia housed the nine governors of La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic, in the centuries of its greatest power, from its construction in 1532 onward. Making up one side of famed St. Mark’s Square, the Procuratie...

Published on Monday, October 9, 2017 by Kathy McCabe I’m Steve Perillo of Perillo Tours. I'm thrilled to host a video series called Steve's Travel Tips to share all the insider Italy travel tips I have learned over a lifetime of travel to Italy. You've probably heard about Malta but you're not too sure about it. Is it independent? Part of Italy? Part of England? Well, Steve is here to answer all of your questions. ...

Published on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Even if you’ve visited Rome many times and seen it from every angle including the Vatican’s keyhole vista, there’s an entirely new view in Italy’s iconic city—from the fourth and fifth levels of its unforgettable Colosseum, the largest amphitheater ever built. Starting November 1st, visitors will be allowed access to those restored rows of seats, as well ...

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 by Kathy McCabe The oldest known evidence of a wine production center, now confirmed to be 6,000 years old, has been found in a cave in Sicily by a group of researchers from the University of South Florida. The cave contained large terracotta jugs thought to be used as wine vessels. It proves that wine making existed in Italy three millennia before 1200 BC, which was previously belie...

Published on Friday, September 29, 2017 by Kathy McCabe The best gelato flavor in the world is pistachio made by Gelateria Crispini in Spoleto, Umbria, according to a panel of judges in the Gelato World Tour. Gelato maker Alessandro Crispini concocted the winning flavor, made from three kinds of Sicilian pistachios roasted for 24 hours. Judges from the Gelato World Tour spent three years searching the globe for the bes...