Online Italian travel guide for your next Italian vacation including culture and heritage.

New Year's Eve traditions in Italy
posted Sunday, December 27, 2009 |

New Year's Eve in Italy, or La Festa di San Silvestro, or Capodanno, is celebrated like most Italian holidays, that is, with the emphasis being on family and food. Most of the towns in Italy will have a big fireworks display. The main dinner course is usually lentils or "lenticchie", along with a spicy sausage, or "salsiccia".

Pictured below is a young woman preparing for New Year's Eve in Italy. Read more...

Sexy Italian model preparing for New Year's Eve in Italy. Wearing red lingerie or red underwear is supposed to bring good luck.

Labels: capodanno, festa di san silvestro, italian red underwear, lenticchie, new year's in italy, new year's traditions, salsiccia

Vin brule', or mulled wine, perfect on a cold winter night
posted Tuesday, December 22, 2009 |

A popular Christmas-time tradition in Italy is to make some vin brule', or mulled wine, especially on a cold winter's night. It is actually popular all throughout northern Europe...To read more including the recipe, click here!

Labels: mulled wine, vin brule recipe

Panettone recipe, an Italian Christmas tradition
posted Monday, December 21, 2009 |

One of the Italian traditions during Christmas-time is to make some panettone, or the Italian version of fruit cake.....only a lot better! Here is a panettone recipe one of my site visitors submitted a while back. Enjoy!

Labels: italian christmas tradition, panettone recipe

Traditional Italian Christmas treat, Torrone
posted Friday, December 18, 2009 |

Here is a recipe for a traditional Italian Christmas treat, torrone. Literally this means "big tower". More...

Photobucket

Labels: italian christmas treat, torrone

A quick real-world Italian lesson
posted Sunday, December 13, 2009 |

One of the things I love about the Italian language, other than it's phonetic beauty, is that it can express thought and emotion very simply and very precisely. Here is an example of a display I saw on a recent trip in Catania, Sicily. It is for the Italian Alzheimer's Association of Italy (A.I.M.A). Looking at the picture below:

AIMA

MALATTIA is the Italian word for disease.

ONLUS stands for: Organizzazione Non Lucrativa di Utilita' Sociale. In other words, the purpose of their organization is not for "lucrative" intentions (Non Lucrativa), but instead for "social good" (Utilita' Sociale). Similar to a non-profit organization. Let's now look at the slogan:

NON DIMENTICARE

CHI DIMENTICA

When I saw this slogan, I immediately loved it for it's simplicity and precision - it goes right to the heart of what the Italian Alzheimer's Association is about:

DON'T FORGET

THOSE WHO FORGET

Chances are, you probably know of someone that is affected by this disease, or perhaps passed away from this disease. Let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers this holiday season, and pray that one day scientists will be able to discover a cure for this awful disease.

Labels: italian alzheimer's association, onlus

Italy's World Cup Draw, Group F, South Africa, 2010
posted Sunday, December 6, 2009 |

The World Cup Draw was held this past Friday, and to everyone's surprise, Italy is not bracketed in a "group of death"! That distinction belongs to Brazil (Group G) and France (Group A). Italy will play in Group F along with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. Italy, unless they under perform, should come out on top of this group, even though they are notoriously slow-starters.

Coached by Marcello Lippi, Italy will look to become only the third defending champion to repeat. Italy did so in 1934 and 1938; Brazil won back-back titles in 1958 and 1962.

Here is Italy's schedule for the World Cup in 2010 to take place in South Africa (first time on the African continent).

June 14th, Cape Town
Italy vs. Paraguay

June 20th, Nelspruit
Italy vs. New Zealand

June 24th, Johannesburg
Slovakia vs. Italy

Forza Italia!

Labels: italy world cup schedule 2010