The other day, my friend Jean – who runs a series of Italian language immersion trips in Italy – admitted that she was still struggling with the correct usage of the conjunction finché in Italian. Surprised that I hadn’t already cov...

Card games hold a special place in Italian culture. Walk into any bar from the Alps to Sicily, and you’ll likely spot a group of people gathered around a table, studying their cards with the seriousness of surgeons preparing for an operation.

We play cards at Christmas, at the beach, at the park, on long train rides — basically anywhere there’s a flat surface and ...

Imagine you’re in Venice, leaning dangerously off a vaporetto to capture the perfect shot of the Grand Canal (hard to resist, I know), when the ticket controller rushes over shouting: Non è sicuro!(It’s not safe!).

Then, in full tourist mode, you book a local guide for the afternoon. Don’t worry, your hotel receptionist reassures ...