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Castel del Monte, Frederick II's octagonal castle, alone on its hill in the Murge, Puglia

My private Italy: Castel del Monte, the stone crown of Puglia

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If you are travelling in Italy, there is a good chance you are carrying a small copper coin worth one euro cent, and on its face, stamped in miniature, is the building I want to tell you about today. Millions of people hold it every day without...
Italian leather workshop with handmade bags and tools

My private Italy: Italian leather and the Italians behind it

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In Florence, the streets still remember who used to work in them. Walk out of Piazza Santa Croce towards the river and read the white marble plaques on the corners: Via delle Conce, the street of the tanneries; Via dei Conciatori, the street of...
White and black Italian truffles on a wooden board

My private Italy: His Majesty, the Truffle

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I remember the first time a guide let me hold a white truffle before it went into the scale. It was heavier than I expected, cold, faintly damp, and it smelled like nothing I could name — garlic, hay, wet earth, something almost animal...
Crowd filling Piazza del Campo before the Palio

My private Italy: The Palio, dreaming twice a year in Siena

The Palio di Siena is a horse race run twice a year, on 2 July and 16 August, around Piazza del Campo. Ten of the city’s seventeen contrade compete, their jockeys riding bareback for three laps, and the prize is a painted silk banner, the...