Inarea

The story of the Suez Canal isn’t actually modern history. The Romans themselves had tried with determination to facilitate transportation across the Mediterranean. Pity, though, that the isthmus they built wasn’t as determined as them and silted up during the Byzantine Empire. In later times, Napoleon also became obsessed by the Canal idea, but was … Read more

The word “diet” comes from the Greek and can be translated as “a way of life” and there’s no doubt that the Mediterranean one is a series of one-way streets that all meet up at what is, according to UNESCO, “the foundation of the cultural identity and continuity of communities”: mealtime. To better grasp this … Read more

Friulan is one of the few Italian dialects to enjoy the status of ‘language’, and if there’s one word that’s banished from a Friulan dictionary, that word is “Tocai”, a wine which used to represent an entire community. At the origin of the word’s forced withdrawal is its assonance with the name of a Hungarian … Read more

Apparently, when Monet’s “Water Lilies” were displayed at the Orangerie in Paris, only lovers in search of a secluded place for their rendezvous flocked to the exhibition. The artist died a year before seeing the paintings installed, thereby probably saving himself the disappointment of also seeing them unappreciated. And yet he had spent a lot … Read more

“Make kindness the norm” is today’s slogan. An objective that can be best achieved by random acts of daily kindness until, good deed after good deed, we find ourselves steeped in it. It’s only then that we’ll be able to spread our surplus positive spirit around. In the meantime, all we need to do is … Read more

We don’t often think of it, but automobile designs influence the way we see the life of a city. The T1 Volkswagen camper is a point in case, the concept of which is credited to a Dutch importer of Volkswagen “Beetles”. It’s a known-fact that anything destined to become iconic has to be characterised by … Read more

It’s a night like any other and a young man is wandering through the streets of St Petersburg. His only problem is that he’s a dreamer: that’s why the discrepancy between expectations and reality always ends up with the undeserved advantage of the former. In his fantasies he’s a pleasure-seeker, but not much good at … Read more

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s lifelong vexation was that he had soared to fame with Sherlock Holmes, though he would have preferred to achieve worldwide literary fame as the author of historical novels. His frustration reached such a point that he even decided to kill his famous detective off – though he revived him in the … Read more

During the 28 years in which the Wall was up, the Brandenburg Gate was situated in East Berlin where it was the pride of the GDR. To the point that when American President Kennedy visited in 1963, red banners were hung over it to prevent him from looking at that part of the city. Fast … Read more

They say that shortly after receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, playwright Luigi Pirandello quickly packed his suitcase and left for Prague where he had arranged to hold a conference at the Italian Institute of Culture. An episode like that is emblematic when one works in artistic or creative fields: an important contract or an … Read more