LuminosityItalia

By Mariella Radaelli LuminosityItalia To the discerning, Italy is not only a boot, but also a luxury shoe. Today the country produces 30 percent of the finest shoes in the world, with brands well-known to the well-heeled and some that have become famous as the preferred choice of the renowned and even infamous. Tycoons, presidents and stars often strut their stuff in Italian shoes, finding talking common points over which Italian footwear maestro is truly the best. But in some ways the modern Italian shoemaking tradition did start with a boot. After Napoleon’s forces captured Milan in 1796, the little general needed his cavalry boots replaced. Napoleon was so happy with boots made by Milanese craftsman Anselmo Ronchetti that he was named the emperor's official shoemaker. Napoleon is said to have ordered a new pair from highly regarded Milanese shoemaker Anselmo Ronchetti, who measured the French emperor’s foot at a glance and 48 hours later delivered a brand new pair

By Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli The Cave Bianche: A suggestive eco-design  hotel  that  brings harmony, a sense of serenity and  peacefulness  to guests. LuminosityItalia Italy has long been renowned for its miracles in stone. From Roman amphitheaters and aqueducts to Michelangelo’s David, the people from this mountainous land have produced creations that made history. The Latins converted the untamed into cultivated spaces, laying claim to new territories.“Urbem latericium invenit, marmoreal reliquit,” Emperor Augustus stated proudly, meaning that he found a Rome of bricks and left behind a city marble. Stone is masterfully integrated into Italian culture, shown to perfection in the pietra d’Istria Orsera that provides 80 percent of the pavement and decor of Venice, including the Ponte dei Sospiri. But is not only the past that yields wonders of stonework. Today a host of artists, architects and artisans continue to find expression in the native rock. Fully associ

By Mariella Radaelli and Jon Van Housen LuminosityItalia Compared to the Amalfi Coast, its bustling neighbor in Italy's province of Salerno, Cilento might seem like land that time forgot. Long stretches of its beaches remain untouched by mass tourism and a time-honored way of life continues in its countryside, where medieval borghi largely stand in their original state and small agricultural operations hand make sublime artisanal products. But it is certainly a land remembered in the long sweep of history and myth. It is where Palinuro fell in love with the cold-hearted nymph Kamaratòn, where some of the best temples of Magna Graecia were built and remain, and in much more modern times, where the Allies first invaded mainland Europe in WWII and created their own legends with the names of Cilento’s hamlets and villages attached. Blue-on-blue beauty of sea and sky in Palinuro . And that underdeveloped state could be its greatest asset. Home to Blue Flag – or entirely pristi

By Mariella Radaelli With its modern architecture, Recco seems out of place on the picturesque Italian Riviera. Yet it is remarkable in its own right as a paradise for food. Tucked into a thyme-scented hillside, the sea town of the Golfo Paradiso borders the slow-paced fishing village of Camogli and is only a two-hour drive from Milan. While Camogli, shortened from Case delle Mogli, got his name from the women who watched over the town while their husbands were at sea, Recco’s name originates from the Romans who called the borgo “Recina”. When I was a child I used to walk with my mother from Recco to Camogli every morning during our August vacation. To me Camogli meant buying fish directly from the fishermen, while Recco meant fantastic recipes. Both were summer retreats for the Milanese whose families have returned for generations for their annual dose of sunshine, focaccia and trofie. My father picked Recco because it was “the capital of Ligurian cuisine”. And still it is.

By Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli When the hardy residents of Livigno gave a cask of wine to the Capuchin friars of Bormio in the 8th century to gain autonomy for their high valley, they couldn’t have known they were setting a precedent that would continue down through the ages, even up until today. Isolated far from the centers of power that variously controlled Italy, surrounded by the Alps and a crossroads for smugglers, Livigno enjoyed the independence of benign neglect and thrived on trans-mountain trade in the centuries that followed. The Austrian Empire confirmed its autonomy in the 18th century and the government of Italy upheld the tradition in 1910, granting the commune tax-free status. Today Livigno’s duty-free prices for gasoline, alcohol, tobacco and a range of other commodities draw visitors from across Italy and even adjacent Switzerland and Austria. Livigno in summer But the Lombardy mountain village has an attraction that makes it even more alluring. The

By Mariella Radaelli Yuan Yuan, Shu Huan  and Cristiano Bortone at the China Film Forum in Venice. With China on track to overtake the U.S. as the biggest movie market next year, European filmmakers are increasingly working with Chinese partners. The 73rd Venice International Film Festival, which ran until Sept 10, featured a rich edition of the China Film Forum on Sept 2, a collateral event that opened with a Sino-European content lab. Twelve projects in the forum from China and Europe benefited from tutors, including writers Yuan Yuan and Shu Huan, one of China's most in-demand screenwriters and author of the blockbuster hits Lost in Thailand and Lost in Hong Kong. Shu is working on the script for My Best Friend Andersen, the first China-Denmark production, based on the works of 19th-century writer Hans Christian Andersen. The project, a fantasy romcom primarily targeted at Chinese audiences, is backed by Zentropa China. Yuan is the screenwriter of last yea

By Mariella Radaelli A constellation of little hamlets comprise the commune of Framura, an atmospheric, somnolent village perched on a rocky outcrop rising from the Ligurian Sea. Though the authentic beauty in La Spezia province is just a 15 minute-train trip from Monterosso and the Cinque Terre, Framura is actually the “anti-Five Lands” that might not even crop up in your average guidebook. This little slice of coast and its hamlets of Anzo, Ravecca, Setta, Costa and Castagnola have no real nightlife and shows no sign of developing into a major tourist destination. Its ancient features and social fabric are unaltered. No real nightlife and no sign  of developing into a major  tourist destination. We found Framura’s special atmosphere was ideal for recharging our batteries through the flow and the rhythm of natural time. Atop the hamlet of Costa on Monte Serro sits an imposing torre di guardia. The Carolingian tower overlooks the village with stunning views of the plains below:

By Mariella Radaelli Only a 15-minute drive from Bergamo, the small picturesque town of San Pellegrino Terme still boasts the hot springs and stunning architecture that made it a star-studded spa capital in Europe during La Belle Epoque. But for decades it was a shadow of its once-illustrious past. After years of isolation and a transient population, today it is ready to revive itself and rediscover its authenticity as an Art Nouveau phoenix rising from the ashes. A pleasant walking tour reveals a series of stunning buildings in the flowing style of Art Nouveau: crisp curvilinear patterns on still-elegant facades facing the Viale Vittoria, the beautiful boulevard along the river. Residents now fully embrace the importance of Lo Stile Liberty – the Italian term for Art Nouveau – with many successful renovations in the proximity of Ponte Vecchio, which itself dates back to 1430. The Grand Hotel was once the choice of European royalty. But the star attraction is the Gran Casinò desi

By Mariella Radaelli Only 20 miles from Milan and yet a world apart, the solid heart of Lombardy beats to its own timeless rhythm in the pretty hilltop village of Montevecchia, a place where old traditions live on unabashed in a breathtaking setting where cheese meets wine at the center of the Brianza lecchese. There are no global brands in sight, no cybercafes or fast food joints, instead trattorias and chic rustic restaurants that offer revisited regional cuisine. Ancient pathway amid vineyards leads to a rustic trattoria. Photo: Fabrizio Radaelli Rich in rural buildings, courtyards, churches and votive chapels, the Montevecchia area has for centuries been a favored holiday destination for the Milanese, particularly those in need of weekend countryside escape. As many visual artists and musicians today flee the city for more serene locales, a number choose to live atop the village surrounded by Curone National Park because it is only half an hour’s drive from Milan yet of

By Mariella Radaelli Italy has been in the news recently for the high-profile purchase of legendary soccer clubs by Chinese investors, but it isn’t solely corporations that are buying. Wealthy and middle-class Chinese individuals are also grabbing a slice of La Dolce Vita, or the sweet life, for which Italy is renowned. Over the past 18 months, Chinese nationals have poured 600 million euros into Italian real estate, according to Andrea Faini, CEO of World Capital Group, an international real estate consultancy headquartered in Milan with offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The real estate expert, who is also business advisor to the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, works closely with Chinese investors and banks such as Bank of China and China Construction Bank, which recently opened a new branch in Milan to facilitate transactions.  Another indicator of robust Chinese activity is that “Agriculture Bank of China considering opening a branch in Milan”, says Faini. This stately home in

By Mariella Radaelli Some say beauty is simple. But others contend it’s complicated. Can it be both? To enter into the sensuous curves of a Dolce & Gabbana design is to experience a complicated kind of beauty, like exploring the majestic landscape of Sicily with its Baroque towns, monasteries, quiet roads, rich soil flourishing with orange and lemon plantations, its white sand beaches. The iconic couture house literally portrays Sicilian Baroque through expressive, sexy clothes that have the energy and imagination of the south of Italy, where the architecture takes the most complex forms — a style that even “baroqued” the Baroque, adding extra elaborate ornamentation to facades of buildings. Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce Co-founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana enter their office in Milan in the company of their two Labradors, one black and one chocolate. They instantly create a friendly and playful atmosphere. I reached the famed Italian design duo at their of

By Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli For all his Machiavellian maneuvering, Silvio Berlusconi could well have been the one blindsided in early June. As the 80-year-old former Italian prime minister continued the latest protracted negotiations over the sale of the AC Milan football club, this time to a group of Chinese investors, cross-town rival Inter Milan was sold to Suning Holdings Group, the home appliance chain headed by Zhang Jindong, China’s richest man. The 80-year-old former prime minister is preparing  to sell his famed soccer team. The move took many by surprise as the deal was consummated with no prior fanfare. Posters promoting Inter Milan and Suning were up the next day in the Beijing metro. With a reported June 15 deadline looming to finalize the sale of AC Milan, Berlusconi checked into a Milan hospital for heart surgery. It was just the latest turn in a saga that has seen Berlusconi appoint his then-29-year-old daughter to run the club, and a dec

By Jon Van Housen  Warm, sun-drenched and picturesque. and Mariella Radaelli The sun is not the only radiant energy in the picturesque Sicilian seaside town of Castellammare del Golfo — it was recently voted among the friendliest cities in Italy as its time-honored way of life, warm welcome and scenic setting at the foot of Mont Inici in Trapani province draw increasing numbers of domestic and international tourists. It is the kind of picturesque Sicilian town where you’d either like to buy a house, spend your honeymoon or simply enjoy a vacation. Everything is built of ivory-colored stone, blinding in the sun and contrasting splendidly with the endless blue of the sea and sky. Less known than the nearby tourist hotspots Favignana, Erice and San Vito Lo Capo, Castellammare del Golfo seems to simply try harder. Its grocers, butchers and restaurateurs offer their local products and fare with a smile and a story about the town or their many relatives living in the U.S. One of si

By Mariella Radaelli Luigi Tinelli arrived in America in October 1836, but he was far from an average immigrant. All his life he was a man of impassioned action – a political activist for the unification of Italy, a lawyer, a bright entrepreneur in silk production and porcelain, a diplomat and a soldier in the American Civil War.  He walked in two continents with honor and honesty, but such commitment would result in banishment from his beloved homeland and send him to the New World. Luigi Tinelli was a colonel in Union forces during the American Civil War. Born in 1799 to a noble Milanese family in Laveno on the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore, he was arrested by Austrian soldiers in Milan in 1833 for his participation in the republican movement La Giovane Italia. After two years in prison, Tinelli was sentenced to death, but his punishment was then commuted into perpetual exile and he was deported to New York aboard an Austrian ship.  Tinelli’s patriotic sent

Joe Medicine Crow died on April 3 at the age of 102. Continuing the ongoing effort at LuminosityItalia to bridge languages and cultures, editor Mariella Radaelli has another feature on American life in Treccani, Italy’s most prestigious history and culture publisher. In this piece, Mariella tells the story of Joseph Medicine Crow, the last Crow Indian war chief, who died on April 3 this year at the age of 102. With a direct oral history stretching back to the Battle of Little Big Horn through his step-grandfather White Man Runs Him — who served as a scout with Gen. George Armstrong Custer — Joe was a noted historian on the period. He qualified as a war chief through his actions as a U.S. soldier in Germany during WWII. Story  here (Italian)

By Jon Van Housen and Mariella Radaelli A short sail from nearby Trapani Today the sun-kissed island of Favignana off the northwest coast of Sicily is popular with tourists from across the globe, but in August, 1943 it had visitors of another kind – U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division who arrived on a fishing boat chartered for $3 in nearby Trapani. Ready for a fight, they instead found the pleasant sounds of water lapping against the rocks and gulls overhead. With no opposition they made their way inland and eventually found an Italian colonel emerging from a farmhouse. Through interpreters they learned he was willing to surrender his garrison of 437 men and three large guns trained on the port of Trapani  20 miles distant. But according to a written account by military historian William B. Breuer there was still a matter of honor to settle. The colonel would not hand over his men, weapons and ceremonial sword to a soldier of lesser rank. Returning t