Archive

Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, Modena In the vast stadium of fluorescent light, the cars look like glowing orbs of style. Raised on low platforms, each machine is given a respectful space from the others. Despite the name, this is not a museum. This is more a shrine… and everything is set up to allow visitors ...

Ferrara, Italy It was early in the morning when the earth shook Ferrara awake. Nature has no regard for history, for architecture or for heritage. The planet is bigger than them all and it strikes indiscriminately. The day after the earthquake struck Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, at 5.9 on the richter scale, I visited the ...

Parma hams and culatello They’re hanging from the ceiling, bat-like, smelly and dusty. In the darkened basement you feel like they could suddenly come alive, turn on you in a swarm and leave you with no defences. They look menacing – partly because of the dimly-lit and enclosed environment, partly because of their resemblance to ...

How to make Italian pasta If someone had suggested making pasta to me previously, I would have reacted the same way as if someone had recommended getting a bank loan, going to a car dealership, buying a car, getting it registered and getting it insured just so I could drive down to the shops to ...

Mosaics in Ravenna, Italy Luca Barberini places the small piece of marble into place carefully but with the ease of an experienced artist. He reaches for another as he chats with me, the motions as natural as breathing. Centuries have passed since the first mosaic makers of Ravenna but the tradition lives on – right ...

Living in Bologna, Italy Every few weeks I seem to find a city that I think I could live in for a while. These decisions are always accompanied with pronouncements to anyone nearby. “You know what? I think I could spend a bit of time here. It’s got a great vibe about it,” is normally ...

The best balsamic vinegar In the attic, up several flights of stairs of this old farmhouse, are the barrels. It’s in these barrels that some of the best balsamic vinegar in the world is being made. A process that’s been passed down through generations is taking place. It will take care, patience and years. But ...

Maestro Luigi Tagliavini “I was born on October 7th, 1929,” Luigi Tagliavini tells me. It’s the start of one of his stories. “My pregnant mother had waited and waited and I didn’t arrive. Finally, on October 6th in a theatre in Bologna, Rossini’s opera Cinderella was played and my grandmother said to my mother ‘the ...

Who would go to the Lamborghini Academy? I’m not sure exactly what I expected but it wasn’t this. When you think about the kind of people who might go to an exclusive (and not cheap) Lamborghini driving academy in Italy, you think young playboys and middle-aged men going through middle-aged crises. You don’t think of ...

Driving tips from Lamborghini Max Venturi has a name designed for speed. It’s no wonder he’s ended up as Lamborghini’s chief test driver and driving instructor. He’s the kind of guy who spends his days behind the wheel of a 350 km/h car and has been featured on television shows like Top Gear. Now, today, ...