VENICE, Italy — When Gasparo Contarini surveyed the political chaos of Italy’s city-states in the 1500s, he grew somber: “It…
A Refiner’s Fire: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (The Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries, 33) By Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press,…
I have read about the Coliseum of Rome since I was a pre-teen interested in Roman history and civilization. I…
Older and more mature now, in matters of the heart I have come to the same conclusion as Dave Barry,…
You’ve almost surely seen the famous photograph taken from space of the Koreas at night. North Korea is almost totally…
Dictators rarely have happy, quiet deaths surrounded by family and friends after a long, happy life. Instead, death tends to…
You might be forgiven for assuming that Italy, the cradle of Catholicism and Western Christianity more broadly, is a Christian…
When we think of Rome in the ancient world, we tend to think of the massive military empire that eventually…