Recognize the beautiful view in a recent Calzedonia television ad featuring Julia Roberts? That’s because it was filmed here in Florence.   Roberts was seen walking around Florence in late July, working on an unknown project. That project has been revealed to be for Calzedonia. The ad for the clothing store shows Roberts in front …

The southern Italian city of Matera in Basilicata has beaten a group of other Italian cities to win the award of European Capital of Culture for 2019.   Matera, known as the “City of Stone” for its UNESCO-listed historical center, won the prestigious title over Cagliari, Lecce, Perugia/Assisi, Ravenna and Siena.   The European Capitals …

A new app that allows travelers to book a porter has come to Rome’s Termini Station and will soon be coming to Florence’s Santa Maria Novella. It costs between €6–8 to book a porter to help carry luggage across crowded platforms, notorious as sites of luggage theft. The porters currently wear bright yellow jackets with …

A new Apple Store is due to open in December in Piazza della Repubblica, with an inauguration expected before Christmas. The new mega store will be located in the former BNL bank building and comprise five levels. Apple’s arrival in Piazza della Repubblica has been some years in the making; in 2012 then-mayor Matteo Renzi …

  Pedestrianization of the city continues with plans for both Oltrarno and Piazzale Michelangelo to be car-free in 2015.         Piazza del Carmine’s famous carpark will be reduced to the piazza’s perimeter by January 12, clearing the center for use by pedestrians. City officials anticipate that the piazza will already be more pedestrian-friendly in …

A dazzling newly lit Sistine Chapel is shining after three years of preparations. The innovations enable the frescoes to survive the rigors of mass tourism, as the Vatican seeks to reduce the number of visitors to the chapel and the time of each visit.   “Visitors to the Vatican Museums are going to be offered …

A 70-year-old Italian Canadian woman recently returned a first-century AD terracotta roof decoration that she stole from Pompeii. The woman repented her theft of the antefix – a carved vertical slab blocking the covering tiles of an ancient roof – from a colonnaded courtyard behind the theater at the archaeological site in June 1964 during …

  The University of Pisa has devised a new and patented method of extracting extra-virgin olive oil.   Designed by agricultural scientists at the University of Pisa led by Professor Gianpaolo Andrich, the innovative technique uses dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to achieve a nine percent average higher yield (17.4kg instead of 16kg of product …