Michele Mari won the 2026 Strega Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary award, with his novel I Convitati di Pietra (The Stone Guests) at a ceremony in Rome’s Piazza del Campidoglio on Wednesday. Votes cast by the prize’s jury of more than 600 members of the cultural world were counted live.
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As Simone Verde’s ambitious redesign of the Botticelli rooms at the Uffizi draws international praise, Florence’s licensed tour guides are raising pointed questions about who the changes are actually for. Perhaps the real question is whether a museum generating nearly €62 million a year in revenue can afford to ignore its customers’ experiences.
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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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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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A major fresco cycle concealed for centuries has been uncovered during restoration work at Casa Leopardi in Recanati.
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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 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 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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A second-century AD domus (townhouse) has been unearthed beneath the boys’ gymnasium of the Liceo Scientifico Cavour in central Rome. The dig reveals frescoes, mosaics and stucco decoration of exceptional quality.
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One of Italy’s most celebrated hidden treasures is once again on display at the Siena cathedral. The extraordinary inlaid marble mosaic floor is uncovered for visitors for a limited period each year.
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