Italy
The joy of six
Why I’m glad to have five children, with a sixth on the way
Winter Diary
A few days ago I went truffle hunting in Piedmont. It’s been a bumper year for white truffles in northern…
Letters
The state of Italy… Sir: Ambassador Terracciano’s letter (Letters, 1 November) about Nicholas Farrell’s article (‘The dying man of Europe’,…
No safe haven
Britain’s appalling record on refugees is a moral failure, and national disgrace
Letters
Italy’s to-do list Sir: You would expect a long letter of rebuttal by a piqued senior diplomat in response to…
Italy takes the stress-test booby prize as the old Spanish fox emerges the winner
Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…
Remember the Negroni Index? At last I’ve found a market that never stops rising
This dispatch comes to you from Venice — where I arrived at sunset on the Orient Express. More of that…
The dying man of Europe
Italy is in terminal decline
Diary
‘Please God, make me good, but not yet.’ I know the feeling. As I get older and more deeply retired,…
Talking himself into madness
‘There are the Alps. What is there to say about them?/ They don’t make sense. Fatal glaciers, crags cranks climb,…
The final crossing
Italy’s decriminalising of illegal immigration has acted as a green light to boat people, and the journey is a deadly one
The treasures of Turin
Laura Gascoigne enjoys a grand tour of Italy’s former capital city
Long life
As the holidays draw to a close, Italian newspapers have been reporting with perplexity and distaste on the outlandish behaviour…
The inspirational and the sublime
‘I recollect nothing so much as a solemn — bright — warm — fresh landscape by Wilson, which swims in…
Long life
It’s much more stressful to live in the country than in a town. There are always threats of one kind…
Long life
At the time of the armistice of September 1943, when the kingdom of Italy formally transferred its allegiance from the…
Old Harry’s game
Harry’s Bar is a dull pale box. This is remarkable in Venice, which is a hospice for dying palaces, held…
Maths and masterpieces
The Indian inspiration with which Piero della Francesca created ‘the greatest picture in the world’
Florence Notebook
Florence was in fog the day I arrived. Its buildings were bathed in white cloud, its people moved as though…
Letters from Christmas Past
This is a selection of seasonal letters from The Spectator’s 185-year archive, now online at archive.spectator.co.uk. The emblem to the…
Long life
The Italians are often thought of as being unpatriotic, and one can see why. They relentlessly denigrate their national institutions,…
Italians for Maggie
The Circolo Culturale Margaret Thatcher, which wants to institute an Anglo-Saxon Tory party in Italy, has a plan
Letters
Absent friends Sir: Alec Marsh (‘Welcome to Big Venice’, 10 August) accurately observes that Londoners are priced out of central…
Long life
The Italian shop assistant accused by Oprah Winfrey of showing racial prejudice towards her in a shop in Zurich has…
Nature vs nudists
How a little bird saved my favourite beach
