About 12,000 years ago, a nomadic shepherd somewhere in the Mediterranean poured his day’s milk into a sack made of a calf’s stomach before a long journey, only to open it a few days later to find that the milk had solidified and the substance
Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday and ends the following week on Easter, is celebrated throughout Italy. After the 40 days of fasting and abstinence of Lent, the Florentines treat Easter unlike any other holiday. In Florence the tradition of the Scoppio del Carro is the big hit—
In modern day Italy, the celebration of Natale (Christmas) has it’s own unique flavour, combining pastoral traditions, traditional cultural rites, influences from Northern Europe, and a strong spiritual context to mark the important event. Although Italians have adopted some of the northern European traditions, the season is