Silvio Berlusconi is a very big chip off an old and sprawling block.

First Rutelli, now Veltroni: Rome’s mayors seem poised to go 0-for-2000.

Political promise has two sides. Barack Obama speaks to the second.

Did I know the song "When a Man Loves a Woman"? Corinne wanted to know.

I built the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, and sank them both. My part in a larger cause.

There are recovered antiquities, like Greek urns, and real artifacts, such as Naples.

Crying has less to do with showing feelings than public confusion about to behave when embarrassed.

With the start of the 2008 presidential election campaign, Italians are again turning to the United States for a show.

Rome 1985: An year-end cocktail party, an important man, and a presence that can come to harm.

Bottom line, Italy’s is far too clever for its New York and London critics. It plants its own diseases.

Ian Fisher's Italian critique is an embroidered version of John Peet's.