As in much of the globalized world, the pandemic has become a battle not only of health, but politics as well. Italy has struggled with COVID for two years. The introduction of the Green Pass has marked a turning point in strategies adopted by the Government. In April 2021 the European Union created the Pass which is a certificate with […]
Author: Dario Pio Muccilli
Gender designation in Italy, by Dario Pio Muccilli
Italian linguistic scholars were caught off guard by a wave of criticism of the lack of a neutral form in Italian to call non-binary people, who feel discriminated because of it. While a solution to this has not been agreed upon, proposals include the usage of a schwa (a backwards ‘e’)or an asterisk to replace the ending vowel, which for […]
Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian Museum, by Dario Pio Muccilli
There are few things more Italian than the canals of Venice. They’re so rooted in the common consciousness that despite their relatively small area, they’re so representative of its appeal all around the world. The same appeal that back in 1948 moved Peggy Guggenheim, maybe the greatest art collector in the twentieth century, to buy a noble palace, Palazzo Venier […]
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Support for Belarus is complicated, by Dario Pio Muccilli, reporting from Italy
As Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was greeted last July 28th by POTUS in the White House, a new signal of support was granted by the US to the Belarussian opposition which is struggling against the country’s dictator Lukashenko. Despite this, her struggle seems not to have strong ties with the Belarussian territory itself, where the president Lukashenko is making scorched earth in […]
Italy becomes supernormal! by Dario Pio Muccilli
What’s nowadays mostly marking the return to the so-called normality in Europe after the outbreak is the UEFA European Football Championship, a tournament played every four years. The tournament was scheduled for last year, but…. That is why the championship is still called EURO2020 despite happening this year. The structure of the whole event sees 24 national teams competing match-by-match […]
LGBT rights still a fight in Italy, by Dario Pio Muccilli
Italy’s LGBT community is in turmoil because of a great controversy a would-be law is causing. The DDL Zan (DDL stands for decree) is a bill which would create new categories of crime based on sexual and gender discrimination, adding to the already existing hate crimes punished by the Italian state. Alessandro Zan, the signatory of the law and an […]
The Shroud of Turin once graced Savoia’s Royal Palace
If there’s something that strikes foreigners coming to Europe more, that surely is the huge glazed royal palaces that span across the continent’s most remarkable cities. Turin, a remarkable west of Milan, lays its foundation in Savoia’s Royal Palace, a Baroque style building that housed the Savoia dynasty. The dynasty ruled from 1561, heading only a Duchy based mostly in […]
VACCINE MIGRANTS, by Dario Pio Muccilli
As all the world knows Italy was the first western country to be harshly hit by the pandemic. It is now facing a challenge that could soon affect other nations: the vaccination of migrants. In the Boot that we call Italy there are roughly six million transient workers. As of yet there is no plan in pace to vaccinate this […]
Protests against the monarchy rock Spain, by Dario Pio Muccilli
Monarchy is often regarded as the old-fashioned setting of Disney stories, but where it is the current form of government there is no valiant prince or happy ending. In reality even kings fall into sin, like happened to former Spanish king Juan Carlos I, who, six years after his abdication was found guilty of bribery. He collected $78 million from […]
Italy is a beautiful wine country, by our overseas correspondent Dario “Pio” Muccilli
The beautiful Langhe landscape, part of Piedmont in Italy, is a prized destination of tourists from all over the world, who come here to walk through the hills shaped by centuries of growers’ activities, to eat great dishes like Plin pasta, but, mostly, to taste the incredible wine here produced from the local Nebbiolo grapes, the Barolo, Langhe’s most precious […]