Milan and the tragedy of decline
The final Milan derby in the storied San Siro is indicative of broader, destructive forces
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The Sicilian theory of Britain
Plus: poetry as medicine, and the origins of literary London
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The writer who fought the Mafia
Crime writer Leonardo Sciascia launched a political career to take on the Mafia and try to heal the malignant forces…
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Who killed Pasolini?
Olivia Laing’s new tale of gay love imagines the murder of the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini
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All roads lead to Rome? We should be so lucky
“Welcome to Britaly” sounds more like an aspiration than an omen.
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Giorgia Meloni’s selective memory
The Italian prime minister’s autobiography revises her and her country’s history. But Meloni’s success is a template for right populist…
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Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope is an exercise in the male gaze
The Italian director’s latest film is all beauty and no sense.
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Giorgia Meloni’s “alt-West” vision
Why the Italian prime minister is able to straddle the divide between Trump’s America and the EU.
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The fascist afterlife of The Four Seasons
Vivaldi’s masterwork, forgotten after his death, found new popularity when it was co-opted by Italian nationalists.
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The Leopard and the ruins of history
Newly adapted by Netflix, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel is a lesson in the anarchic motions of our times.
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Siena’s artistic revolution
In the 14th century, Duccio and others developed ways of painting that had never been seen before.
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Dante’s divine autofiction
How the Italian poet’s search for self-knowledge changed the course of literature.
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Linguistic soup in Trieste
Also this week: my mother’s malapropisms and the Pig Man of Pinner.
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My head has been turned by the sunflower
Though there is something a little unnerving about all those unblinking, yellow cyclopses, peer closely and I can see a…
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La Chimera is a charming tale of history and myth
Alice Rohrwacher’s playful, Palme d’Or-nominated film about tomb raiders summons the ghosts of Italy’s past.
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I’m missing the human touch, and a certain mushroom risotto
I’m back in England, with only grey skies, my plants and the world’s worst corporation for company.
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To Puglia, somehow, for sun, wine and a fairy-tale palazzo
Just to set off the plane and breathe the herb-scented air is to feel the burden of the Anglo-Saxon world…
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Giorgia Meloni’s long game
In an attempt to define her legacy, the Italian prime minister has set her sights on reshaping the EU.
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Mario Tronti’s divine comedy
How the Italian philosopher, who died last month aged 92, turned to theology in his war with the world.
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Giorgia Meloni’s bank job
The Italian prime minister’s windfall tax isn’t quite as radical as it appears.
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