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Musings on the differences between Italian and British weddings
At an Italian wedding, food is more important than speeches – and confetti isn’t something you throw, it’s something you eat! First published on From Our Own Correspondent, BBC Radio 28…
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Italy’s dying breed of wild-mussel divers
With over 7,000 km of coastline, it’s not surprising mussels are such a popular dish on Italian menus. While Mediterranean mussels are nowadays farmed in nets in the sea, there’s one…
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Bologna’s Leaning Tower
Bologna is famous for The Three Ts: tortellini, towers and tits. Incredibly, you can’t say ‘tits’ on American radio and Inside Europe is rebroadcast on many NPR stations, hence the beep.…
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Breaking the silence
In a culture based on vendettas and fear of reprisals, on the Mafia code of silence, Pino Maniaci rebelled by very publicly turning this culture on its head. He produces a…
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Where vegetarianism is an exotic illness
Emilia Romagna is a region in northern Italy famous for its fine charcuterie, which can make avoiding meat dishes there particularly challenging. One of the nicknames of my adoptive town is…
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Stolpersteine: one victim, one stone
In the 1990’s German artist Gunter Demnig created a project to commemorate the victims of Nazism: ‘Stolpersteine’ or ‘stumbling stones’ — small brass blocks set into pavements. He’s on the road…
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