italy

Between Paganism and Catholicism: Italian religious traditions

Italy is an extremely religious country, for better or worse. And it stands to reason – the Vatican, center of the Catholic faith, is in the hearth of our capital city, Rome. However, Italian history is way older than Catholicism, and so are our traditions. And these traditions are hard to die. So when Christianity became the main religion in the peninsula, instead of erasing the ancient gods and the pagan magic, it twisted them in order to accomodate them… Leggi tutto »Between Paganism and Catholicism: Italian religious traditions

‘Disgusting’ Italian foods.

Italian food is renowed around the world for being delicious. Everybody knows the joys of sinking teeth in a slice of pizza, or savouring a yummy pasta dish. But traditional Italian food can often be… quite strange. Here I want to introduce you to some ‘disgusting’ Italian dishes, the ones you can only eat while roaming the streets of Italy, the traditional foods that doesn’t make it to the restaurants. Ready? Go! 1.  Pani câ meusa A typical dish from… Leggi tutto »‘Disgusting’ Italian foods.

Italian dialects

Italian language developed in Tuscany during the Renaissance, and was slowly adopted as the ‘official’ language (replacing Latin) in the rest of the peninsula. However, other languages were spoken by the common folk: what we call dialects, distinctive for each region and often each city of Italy. According to Wikipedia: Italy is in fact home to a vast array of languages, most of which are Latin-based, lack mutual intelligibility with one another, and have their own local varieties; In many… Leggi tutto »Italian dialects

Witches of Italy

Italian folklore is full of creatures and sprites with magical powers, but the most powerful of all are without any doubt the witches. Historically, women labelled as witches were tried by the Inquisition on charges of devil worshipping, but there are different, older traditions concerning these women and their powers. In Piedmont, we have the masche, my favourite type of witch. Tradition has it they are immortal women capable of changing into animals and plants, or astral projecting. In order… Leggi tutto »Witches of Italy