The patron saint of Italy, animals, ecology and tapestry makers, St. Francis was born in Assisi, a town in the region of Umbria, reputedly on September 23, 1181 or 1182, to Peter Bernadone, a wealthy cloth merchant, and his wife Pica de Bourlemont, a noblewoman from Provence in France.

Don’t start the new year with a resolution to diet. Instead, head to your nearest bookstore or click on the internet to purchase the two recently published must haves for every Italophiles’ library and kitchen shelf.

I've lived in Rome for more than 50 years and had never heard of, much less visited, Palazzo Colonna, until last November when the Culture Group of the Foreign Press Association was invited on a tour there.