Eager for a 1960s comeback, Alfred Hitchcock once turned to Italy, but unsuccessfully.

Even half-a-century later, the Battle of Monte Cassino divides war historians.

How the lynching of Italians in New Orleans ripped open racial and ethnic scabs.

Vittorio De Sica, maker of "Bicycle Thieves," had little tolerance for Hollywood endings.

Even in her twilight, Sophia Loren radiates a beauty that has come to represent Italy itself.

Carlo Collodi's original Pinocchio was about forging a social order for the new Italy

Sergio Leone: The man who put the bad into Clint Eastwood (and even Henry Fonda).

Ezra Pound opened the door to Eliot and Joyce, but slammed it on himself.

How 1950s Rome life gave a Nobel literature laureate his 1950s mojo.

How "art nationalist" Vincenzo Peruggia made off with the world's most famous painting.

What if Shakespeare, the acknowledged master, were actually Florio Crollalanza?