The American in Italia

When I was a kid in Rome of the 1970s my family often trekked to the summer seaside at Ostia. For my father, the short trip had all the ingredients of a sacred rite. The real family vacation [...]

My first born son Leonardo turned nine on April 29. I sometimes think the last nine years of my life have been all about him and his seven-year-old brother Nico. That’s 15 birthdays in all, which [...]

A few months ago I started organizing dinners in which I teach people basic wine and food pairings. The meals go late and long at a Rome restaurant and are designed to give people a sense of [...]

In 1988, Rome-born comedian Carlo Verdone released “Compagni di Scuola,” or “Classmates,” a movie about a group of former students who get together 15 years after their [...]

Nearly 700 a day, or about one every two minutes — and I’m not talking about how many people buy bottles of wine or book a winter holiday getaways. I mean the average number of home [...]

Holiday season hits the Lori household just as I think I’ve finally managed to work off everything I ate the previous Christmas. Holiday reunions are a staple of central and southern Italy [...]

Italy is inimitable. The food and wine are unrivaled. So are the beautiful cities and their storied art. The natives are mostly goodhearted. The climate is ideal. But Italy is also disorganized, [...]

A wine list is a sacred document to a professional sommelier. It’s also a calling card for any topnotch restaurant. Training aspiring wine masters means toughening your selection process. I [...]

Five years ago, on crutches after a soccer mishap, I had to hobble from Rome to Washington, D.C. to catch up with my wife and two kids who were already vacationing in Maryland. It began [...]

Life has moments when you have to make decisions on impulse. It’s like the movie “Sliding Doors” — do you or don’t you make a dash for closing subway doors? Until one [...]