The city of music

Of all the affectionate nicknames given to Bologna, ‘La Grassa’ is perhaps the most famous. Already in the Middle Ages, its reputation for the best food led to it being known as ‘the fat one’ and toda

‘I’ve never been a particularly esoteric person,’ Nicola Benedetti tells me as we sit down to talk following the press launch of her third Edinburgh Festival. And yet, as she explains the theme of thi

When did you first hear about Ponte? I discovered Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro when I was 18, and instantly fell in love with it. When I got to know the libretto in English, I realised just h

Is a ring of 36 cherubs excessive? Perhaps, but those are only the ones around the southern Italian city of Lecce’s Basilica of Santa Croce’s rose window; I count dozens of additional cheeky winged ba

Shop of the month Bennison Fabrics, No 16, ...

Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, bargained, cajoled and went behind her family’s back to get what she desired. Meet 16th-century Italy’s most formidable collector