Dante Alighieri in a Wide Brown Land*
On the hill beyond Canberra’s lake we do not find ourselves in Dante’s dark wood. Instead, the hundred carefully nurtured forests of the National Arboretum …
Italian Identity
Alessandro Manzoni and the Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi)
Alessandro Manzoni is a talented story teller and a perceptive observer of character. His novel, the Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) has been celebrated as a gem of Italian …
Muslim Lucera and the Holy Roman Emperor
Truth is stranger than fiction, it is said and so it is for the story of Muslim Lucera. It is a story entwined with the …
The Fifty-Three Known Forefathers of the Italian People: Latest Discoveries
This is a story about Italian y-DNA. But putting it that way is misleading. For there is not a single coherent story of “Italianness” that …
Italy’s Day of the Dead
Signora Maria of Castellaneta observes: “… the dead are our brothers, our children, our husbands, our parents… they cannot be monsters”. Her comment captures the essential …
“Tutti fratelli”: Solferino, Italy and Humanity’s Wounds
Henri Dunant had come to Italy on business. But when he arrived in northern Italy he instead witnessed the Battle of Solferino. Here the armies …
Dante and the Invention of the Italian Language
“Italians speak Italian”. It seems obvious. Yet not too long ago neither were there any “Italians” in the way we understand it today; and nor …
Forgotten crimes and the sack of Rome
The sack of Rome in 410 AD hastened the emergence of a new post-Roman world and eventually, over the course of fifteen centuries, the birth …
Italian Stories: From the Godfather to the Fortunate Pilgrim
This story is written from Australia: far from Italy. Yet for me these two places will always be connected, for I was born in one …