What’s lesser known is that Sophia’s younger sister, Maria Scicolone, also had beauty and talent. She sang with Frank Sinatra, who asked her to audition for one of his albums with the promise of a sparkling career. In stepped the green-eyed monster of a mother who, evolving into a state of jealousy over Sophia’s success that should have been hers, forced her to turn down the opportunity.

One of the major lessons from Venice involves commitment. At several points in Venetian history, most notably the Battle of Lepanto, one sees a major lesson about strategic commitment. Namely, the failure of many Venetian captains to join the fray prevented the Ottoman losses from being greater. While this tactic may have prevented a loss from becoming a rout, it also stifled the ability to capitalize on a victory.

They crept into Bologna, the first of the cities of the north. There were recruits here too. Very far from the dove-grey university, down a long stark warehouse avenue, they were being marched by military police. There was no band here, no gold and blue officer, no priest. There were women, girls to ancient, a ragged pack of shawls and dirty aprons, shrieking and throwing what came handy, from cabbage stalks to bricks, at the police. Pretty often, the recruits got hit as well.

For example, in Italy, she found vegan selections on the “contorni” portion of the menu — salads and vegetable side dishes. In France, she dined on lentil stews and ratatouille, which are vegan and commonly available. And in Latin America, the beans and rice were generally meatless. If your New Year’s resolution included a switch to a plant-based diet, then advice like Coleman’s doesn’t come a moment too soon.

If life in a sprawling castle sounds appealing, visit this 1,500-acre Italian estate owned by descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte. This restored medieval castle accommodates groups from 15 to 30 people, who enjoy the privacy of a private home coupled with the safety, security and amenities of a luxury hotel. Le Torri di Bagnara has an official hotel license guaranteeing the highest standards, setting it apart from other Italian villa rentals. The estate boasts an infinity saltwater pool, stone barbeque, and vegetable gardens.

The streets of Paris are lined with cafes and museums. In Rome, you’ll find roads that predate Julius Caesar. But only Venice has streets of water. In his new photography collection, Monumental Venice, Jacques Boulay aims to capture the essence of a city that’s unlike any other. Through huge, panoramic landscapes and intimate, contained portraits, Boulay seeks out (and finds) what makes Venice Venice.

Italy may have been unified since the mid-19th century, but visiting just several of its major cities is enough to make it obvious that cultural homogeneity is virtually nonexistent. My mini-tour of the country began in Naples, capital of the southern Campania region and my home base for exploring the nearby archaeological sites and coastal towns, and concluded in Venice, the revered cradle of modern democracy.

Entr'ouvert originates in our desire to integrate photographic images of different origins into diptychs, whose nature is to shed new light on their constituent parts. The combination of the images chosen here shows the relation between man and the urban or rural landscape, the relation between ‘internal’ (the intimate dimension) and ‘external’ (the social dimension). It is our wish to avoid whatever narrative might originate from the single images used in the diptychs : there is no story, there is no text. 

Continuing the tradition of films that capture the magic and mystery of the Eternal City, the most famous of which are Federico Fellini’s“Roma” (1972), William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday” (1953) and Roberto Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City” (1945), Woody Allen’s new film, “To Rome with Love,” is his own portrait of of Rome. In an ode to the Italian capital as well as to Italian cinema, Allen adopts a structure more similar to that of Fellini in “Roma” with a series of loosely connected episodes. Through these stories, Allen pays homage to the city’s beauty, energy and its knack for absurd situations

The annual Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) has been attracting increasingly larger and more youthful crowds of silent film enthusiasts to Pordenone, Italy. Inhabiting a media culture in which portable film screens feel more and more like sensory extensions of one’s own body—from the iPod Touch to the all-encompassing, visceral thrills of 3-D IMAX—it is nothing short of spectacular to witness a hand-tinted, science-fiction film from 1902 manage to fill Pordenone’s palatial Teatro Verdi to the limits of its capacity.