Venice lagoon reveals grim secrets
From the BBC: Venice lagoon reveals grim secrets. The Venetian authorities are surveying two ancient ships found beside the lost island of San Marco in Boccalama that disappeared beneath the rising...
View ArticleNewly unearthed cave may be linked to myth of Rome’s founding
From the International Herald Tribune: Newly unearthed cave may be linked to myth of Rome’s founding. Italian archaeologists have inched closer to unearthing the secrets behind one of Western...
View ArticleMedici philosopher’s mystery death is solved
From the Telegraph: Medici philosopher’s mystery death is solved. After 500 years, one of Renaissance Italy’s most enduring murder mysteries has been solved by forensic scientists. Ever since Giovanni...
View ArticleAncient artifacts seized near Rome
From the Guardian: Ancient Artifacts Seized Near Rome. Police seized some 1,000 ancient artifacts from a wealthy Italian man’s country house outside Rome that were stolen from one of Emperor Trajan’s...
View ArticleItalian builders uncover 2,000-year-old tombs
From scotsman.com: Italian builders uncover 2,000-year-old tombs. Archaeologists were yesterday celebrating the discovery of 27 2,000-year-old tombs in Italy’s "Valley of the Dead". (…) Archaeologists...
View ArticleThousand-year-old Lombard warrior skeleton discovered buried with horse in Italy
From The Telegraph: Thousand-year-old Lombard warrior skeleton discovered buried with horse in Italy. Italian archaeologists have discovered a perfectly preserved skeleton of a 1400-year-old Lombard...
View ArticleOn Venice’s Grand Canal in a kayak
Dear heavens! These people kayaked through Venice. Part of me wants to shout "sacrilege!" and part of me wishes I’d thought of doing that. From the New York Times: On Venice’s Grand Canal in a Kayak....
View ArticleBeyond Pompeii: places swallowed by Vesuvius
From philly.com: Beyond Pompeii: Places swallowed by Vesuvius. Over several centuries, millions of tourists have visited Pompeii to acquaint themselves with the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius...
View ArticleItaly, anyone?
From the BBC: Sicily mayor offers bargain homes. A small town in western Sicily has come up with a revolutionary solution to solve its property problems. They are offering houses in the town, which...
View ArticleItalians vote for ugliest English words
From The Telegraph: Italians vote for ugliest English words. For years it was the French who worked themselves into a lather over their native tongue being infected by English. Now it is their southern...
View ArticleHow the barbarians drove Romans to build Venice
From the Times: How the barbarians drove Romans to build Venice. The hidden ruins of an ancient lagoon city that was the ancestor of Venice have been unearthed by scientists using satellite imaging....
View ArticleOstia’s ruins
From the New York Times: Archaeologists Unveil Majestic Roman Ruins That Rival Riches of Pompeii. The ruins of Ostia, an ancient Roman port, have never captured the public imagination in the same way...
View ArticleWine flowing from Italian taps is hailed as a miracle
One of my fantasies has come true, but alas — for somebody else, not for me. Slashfood explains: When a woman in Marino, a small Italian town south of Rome, turned on her kitchen tap, she got a spurt...
View ArticleFound: Tomb of the general who inspired ‘Gladiator’
From The Independent: Found: Tomb of the general who inspired ‘Gladiator’. Natural disaster makes for great archaelogy. Pompeii and Herculaneum we owe to the fury of Vesuvius – and today Italy’s...
View ArticleBag designed by Leonardo Da Vinci
From discovery.com: Leonardo Da Vinci: Bag Designer. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an artist, inventor, scientist, architect, engineer, writer and even a musician. Now we know that he was also a...
View ArticleSanta Maria Maggiore
Oooh, it’s Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, in one of those Quicktime panorama things. Give it a moment to load, then click, hold, and drag your mouse in any direction. Amazing, isn’t it? Zoom in on any...
View ArticleEtruscans: migrants to Italy?
From the New York Times: DNA Boosts Herodotus’ Account of Etruscans as Migrants to Italy. Geneticists have added an edge to a 2,500-year-old debate over the origin of the Etruscans, a people whose...
View ArticleDrawing Rome from memory
Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic savant. Here he’s shown drawing the Eternal City, having seen it once from a helicopter. You’ll want to see Stephen Wiltshire’s website, too – read about his life, his...
View ArticleRoman towns built on astronomically-aligned grids?
From discovery.com: Roman Towns Built With Astronomy Ancient Romans built their towns using astronomically aligned grids, an Italian study has concluded. Published recently on the physics Web site,...
View ArticleRoman remains threaten metro
From the Guardian: Roman remains threaten metro. A planned hi-tech driverless underground railway line set to bring desperately needed transport links to the historic heart of Rome has run into a...
View ArticleCracks threaten Rome’s majesty
From the BBC: Cracks threaten Rome’s majesty. The Emperor Augustus said he found Rome a city of brick – and he left it a city of marble. But 2,000 years on, the cracks in his legacy are beginning to...
View ArticleRoman temple found under president’s house
From Monsters and Critics: Roman temple found under president’s house. An Italian archaeologist says he believes that the presidential palace in Rome is sitting on top of a temple to the Roman god...
View ArticleMore clues in the legend (or is it fact?) of Romulus
From the New York Times: More Clues in the Legend (or Is It Fact?) of Romulus. The story of Romulus and Remus is almost as old as Rome. The orphan twins were suckled by a she-wolf in a cave on the...
View ArticleMozzarella di bufala
One of the things I miss about Italy is the bocconcini made from water buffalo milk — mozzarella di bufala. It’s splendid, and almost impossible to get in Canada, from what I’ve seen. (Of course you...
View ArticleAqua Tofana: slow-poisoning and husband killing in 17th century Italy
From A Blast From the Past: Aqua Tofana: slow-poisoning and husband killing in 17th century Italy. The story as it is commonly told is this: Aqua Tofana was the creation of a Sicilian woman named...
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