Founding Fathers
Filippo Mazzei's ties to Thomas Jefferson made an Italian into a revolution insider.
Cinema ‘Slipshod’
Eager for a 1960s comeback, Alfred Hitchcock once turned to Italy, but unsuccessfully.
So far as war allows
Even half-a-century later, the Battle of Monte Cassino divides war historians.
“A rather good thing”
How the lynching of Italians in New Orleans ripped open racial and ethnic scabs.
Io due settimane pazzo’
Vittorio De Sica, maker of "Bicycle Thieves," had little tolerance for Hollywood endings.
Two women
Even in her twilight, Sophia Loren radiates a beauty that has come to represent Italy itself.
Un Ragazzo di Strada
Carlo Collodi's original Pinocchio was about forging a social order for the new Italy
West-buster
Sergio Leone: The man who put the bad into Clint Eastwood (and even Henry Fonda).
A pound of flesh
Ezra Pound opened the door to Eliot and Joyce, but slammed it on himself.
Magical neorealism
How 1950s Rome life gave a Nobel literature laureate his 1950s mojo.
One patriot’s games
How "art nationalist" Vincenzo Peruggia made off with the world's most famous painting.
Il Bard
What if Shakespeare, the acknowledged master, were actually Florio Crollalanza?