Vatican launches five-year restoration of Raphael’s Loggia
A team of 20 restorers is to use laser technology on one of the most significant projects in the Vatican Museums’ history – Raphael’s Loggia.
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Category: Culture
Pope Leo XIV tells writers their work is essential to humanity
International delegation of writers including Strout, Robinson and Foer meets Pope Leo XIV as Vatican publisher LEV marks its centenary.
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Amerigo Vespucci sails for New York to mark US Independence
Defence Minister Crosetto announced Tuesday that Italy’s iconic training ship – Amerigo Vespucci – will be in New York harbour for the 250th anniversary of American independence. It carries a message about the depth of the two nations’ bond that transcends current political turbulence.
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On This Day: death of Luca Pacioli, ‘Father of Accounting’
The Franciscan friar, mathematician and friend of Leonardo da Vinci – Luca Pacioli – died on 19 June 1517 in the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro where he had been born. He left behind a legacy that still shapes the way the world does business.
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Meloni calls Book Fair’s anti-Fascism pledge ‘censorship’
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has attacked the Più Libri Più Liberi book fair after organisers announced that publishers must sign a declaration affirming anti-fascist and constitutional values to participate in the December 2026 edition. She called the requirement she called simple censorship.
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On this day: poet Giacomo Leopardi dies
On 14 June 1837, Giacomo Leopardi — poet, philosopher and one of the most original literary minds in the Italian tradition — died in Naples aged 38. He was the victim of the cholera epidemic then sweeping the city. In a life marked by physical suffering, intellectual isolation and serial heartbreak, he produced a body […]
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Fresco cycle discovered in Giacomo Leopardi’s library
A major fresco cycle concealed for centuries has been uncovered during restoration work at Casa Leopardi in Recanati.
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Venezi formally contests La Fenice dismissal
The conductor Beatrice Venezi has declared her sacking null and discriminatory, launching a legal challenge against the opera house that fired her before she ever raised a baton as its musical director.
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On this day: death of composer Arrigo Boito
On 10 June 1918, Milan lost one of the most singular figures in Italian cultural life — Arrigo Boito. He was a composer who nearly destroyed his relationship with the country’s greatest opera composer, then went on to make him immortal.
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On this day: Death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante’s muse
On 8 June 1290, Beatrice Portinari, a young woman whose brief life would shape one of the greatest works in the history of literature, died.
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