Italy
The challenges of being an England supporter in Italy
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna My fiery Italian wife Carla is not just a passionate patriot but also a devout Catholic, and…
Will Italy's Euro win lead to a baby boom?
Could Italy’s triumph on Sunday result not just in a trophy for the azzuri, but a baby boom for a…
England, Italy and the power of national pride
As an Englishman in enemy territory I am lucky that love is a more powerful emotion than patriotism otherwise after…
Wine by the jug in Venetian Venice
We were discussing travel, that forbidden delight now tantalisingly close. Where would be our first destination? Forswearing originality, I chose…
Europe’s reckless caution over AstraZeneca
The first smear campaign against AstraZeneca, when Emmanuel Macron falsely claimed at the start of the year that the jab…
Portrait of the week: Tributes to Sarah Everard, rows over AstraZeneca and Nokia cuts jobs
Home A Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, 48, was charged with the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who…
The EU's ugly vaccine nationalism
We have to rid the world of vaccine nationalism. No one is protected until we are all protected. And we…
Can Italy's arch Eurocrat save his country?
The world these days is so blasè about the destruction of democracy that no one even thinks it worthy of…
Can 'super' Mario Draghi save Italy from itself?
In the aftermath of the financial crash, two ‘Super Marios’ came to Italy’s rescue. Mario Draghi, then president of the European…
How Argentina conquered Malbec
When Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor of France in 1852, he unwittingly kickstarted quality wine production in Chile and Argentina.…
Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat
Laura Freeman is transported by J.C. Volkamer’s astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus
Every scene Sophia Loren isn’t in feels like a wasted one: The Life Ahead reviewed
The Life Ahead stars Sophia Loren, and if there is one reason to see The Life Ahead it is this:…
A cautionary tale about how democracy can subvert itself: Bunga Bunga reviewed
Italy has long captivated romantics from rainy, dreary, orderly northern Europe. Goethe, Stendhal, Keats and Shelley all flocked to Italy…
Britain’s bizarre Italian travel guidance
Here’s a tip. When the Foreign Office advises against going somewhere, hop on the next plane. The mandarins have advised…
Soave, an original sin-free wine
‘The Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day’: surely one of the most beautiful images…
Italy’s Achilles heel: corruption and cronyism
Tim Parks is a seasoned, incisive observer of football, the railways, work, domestication and plenty more in his adoptive country…
How to get into a club and on to a plane
Disaster struck the Young family last Friday. My 12-year-old son Charlie woke up with a temperature. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t matter,…
How Britain lost the war against coronavirus
The art of corona warfare
Covid statistics are just politics by other means
Statistics is the continuation of politics by other means, to misquote Clausewitz. One hundred and fifty years after the crushing…
Have we been fighting a very different disease to China?
One of the great mysteries of coronavirus is how the epidemic has become much more severe in Europe and North…
I’m recovering – but I glimpsed the coronavirus cliff edge
So I’ve had the virus. Or rather, I think I have. Ordinary mortals can no longer get tested by the…
Italy gave China PPE to help with coronavirus — then China made them buy it back
China has tried to restore its image after lying to the world about the seriousness of its coronavirus outbreak, but…
Spain and Italy have been abandoned by the EU
If ever there was a time for the EU to show the benefit of belonging to an economic bloc with…
The evidence on Covid-19 is not as clear as we think
There is still plenty we don’t understand about the virus
Life under lockdown: Italy is being consumed by panic
Italy is being consumed by panic