The Italy Now Podcast
Taking you behind the headlines and into the field with veteran journalists Alina Trabattoni and Sabina Castelfranco. Each episode immerses you in the reporting process itself, from discovering stories on the ground to conducting real-time interviews and unscripted discoveries that reveal the authentic Italy across travel, food and wine, art, culture, business, and beyond. This isn't polished news - it's authentic, unfiltered storytelling as it happens.
Episodes
Trombetti, the Roman who taught machines to translate with the heart of Translated
We speak to entrepreneur Marco Trombetti just days after being named one of Italy's newest Cavalieri del Lavoro honourees. He tells us how he went from studying astrophysics in France whilst chasing the origin of the universe, to building Translated with his wife Isabelle Andrieu in 1999, right when nobody else thought internet translation was worth building.What makes his story stand out is his r
Lost in storage, found in a lobby, Rome's hidden art comes home to a hotel
In the lobby of Rome's Hotel Mediterraneo, guests check in under the gaze of a second-century marble goddess, hidden for decades. She spent over thirty years locked in a museum storeroom before anyone thought to bring her out. We meet Tracy Roberts, founder of Love Italy, who's on a mission to get Italy's hidden art off dusty shelves and into daily life through her project Arte Fuori dal M
Lemons, cliffs & drones, the future of Amalfi's terraces since 1825 takes flight
We climb to a terrace clinging to a cliff high above Amalfi, in the Valle dei Mulini, where Italy's brightest lemons are still picked by hand. Italy's brightest lemons are still picked by hand, knee and back. We meet Salvatore Aceto, whose family has worked these near-vertical slopes since 1825, seven generations of a job so steep and punishing that he sometimes struggles to explain how it was
Frescoes, algorithms & monsters, inside Venice's Palazzo Diedo art show
We step inside Palazzo Diedo in Cannaregio with curator Adriana Rispoli, where Berggruen Arts and Culture has staged Strange Rules. Berggruen Arts and Culture has staged Strange Rules there, the first curatorial reflection on protocol art ever mounted in Italy. Beneath restored 18th-century frescoes, algorithms run underfoot.Adriana walks us through new commissions from Matt Dryhurst and Holly Her
Sea, stone & vines, the rebirth of Aeolian wine one windblown harvest at a time
We climb to Tenuta di Castellaro, 350 metres above the sea, where founder Massimo Lentsch rebuilds Aeolian wine vine by vine. Founder Massimo Lentsch is rebuilding Aeolian viticulture here, vine by vine.He tells us how a volcanic archipelago once known for its wines came close to losing them altogether, and what it has taken to bring the vineyards back to life on this windblown stretch of rock and
Sunsets, sulphur & silence, inside Vulcano's most discreetly luxurious hotel
We meet Pierpaolo Tiretti on the Vulcanello promontory at Therasia Resort, Sea and Spa, a design-led Aeolian retreat with a storied past. The design-led Aeolian retreat occupies a piece of Italian television history. The villa was once the hideaway of Mike Bongiorno, the man who effectively invented Italian TV, and his celebrity rolodex laid the groundwork for what is today one of the islands'
Bread, voices & emotion, the family that gives Italy's monuments a voice
We meet Ilaria D'Uva in Venice, where she has just given a voice to the city's Naval Museum, work heard by two million people a year. Two million people a year already hear her words at the Duomo of Milan, the Pantheon, Pompeii and Assisi. She grew up, as she puts it, on bread and audio guides, the daughter of the man who created Italy's very first audio guide in 1959, after Florence said no a
Inside Venice's newly restored Procuratie Vecchie, a palace reborn on Piazza San Marco
We step inside Procuratie Vecchie on Piazza San Marco in Venice, a 500-year-old palace closed for five centuries, now reopened at last. It reopened in 2022 after a complete restoration by David Chipperfield Architects.Emma Ursic, CEO of The Human Safety Net Foundation, tells us how Generali transformed this extraordinary space into a global home for social innovation, reaching more than 1.3 millio
Marianne Borgo's Cannes roots and her deep Italian family ties to an Italian count
We meet larger-than-life French actress Marianne Borgo in Cannes, practically born into the festival her uncle helped create. Her uncle was one of four men who, on a train back from Venice just before the war, decided France needed a festival of its own.But Marianne's heart belongs equally to Italy. She tells us about her grandfather, an Italian count who gave up everything to follow a young S
Music, peace & diplomacy, putting female composers back on the world's stages
We meet Veronica Sabbag in Cannes at the World Women Foundation, once a diplomat, now a champion of music. The Brussels-based international lawyer and former EU diplomat left twenty years of conflict management to pick up a different instrument of peace: music.She is the founder of United Voices for Peace and the force behind Global Women in Music, a project born with the United Nations Symphony O
Venice, lineage and cinema, an Iranian American filmmaker comes home
We meet Sohrab Mirmont at the World Woman Foundation during the Cannes Film Festival, preparing to shoot his new film in Venice. He's preparing to shoot his new film in Venice with the cinematographer who once worked alongside his uncle, the late Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami.The producer behind Riddle of Fire, which premiered at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes edition 2023, tells us how
Terra Amara's Selin Yeninci and her Italian love affair, from Cannes to Sicily
We catch Turkish actress and producer Selin Yeninci in Cannes, fresh from a panel appearance and her second turn on Verissimo. She's also fresh from her second appearance on Verissimo, where Italian audiences welcomed her as one of their own. As Saniye in Terra Amara, the Turkish drama that ran for 121 episodes and travelled to more than 150 countries, she became a household name from the Amal
Ideas, islands & impact, the Berggruen Institute settles into Venice's Casa dei Tre Oci
We sit down with Lorenzo Marsili, philosopher, writer and founding director of Berggruen Institute Europe, inside Casa dei Tre Oci. We meet him inside Casa dei Tre Oci, the 1911 artist's studio on the Giudecca that is now the Institute's European home.Marsili explains why a global think tank founded in Los Angeles chose Venice over Berlin, Paris or Rome, and how three Venetian buildings ha
Luca Vullo and the secret language of Italian gestures, catalogued and explained
We sit down with Luca Vullo, actor, director, author and cultural ambassador, who has catalogued over 250 Italian gestures. He explores the gestural language beneath Italian speech, a second grammar that makes Italy unlike anywhere else on earth.Luca has spent years cataloguing and teaching the more than 250 recognised Italian gestures, touring his one-man show La Voce del Corpo from San Francisco
Wind, wheat & 260 shapes, the philosophy behind Gragnano's pasta tradition
We travel to Gragnano, a hilltop town outside Naples, where pasta has been made in this unique microclimate for over a century. Here, Pastificio Di Martino has made Pasta di Gragnano IGP for over a century, in conditions unlike anywhere else on earth.Giuseppe Di Martino walks us through 260 handcrafted shapes, each one designed not for beauty alone but for the precise company it will keep on the p
Stone, whitewash & soul, inside Potenti, Puglia's most poetic masseria yet
We arrive at Masseria Potenti near Manduria, a 16th-century fortified farmhouse turned one of Puglia's most beloved destinations. A family's dream of sharing their corner of Italy has quietly grown into one of the region's most beloved destinations.Maria Grazia Di Lauro and her daughter Chiara Tommasino tell us how a holiday home became an agriturismo by accident, shaped entirely by the gu
The Antinori dynasty and the future of Italian wine in Chianti and beyond
We sit down with Albiera Antinori at the Forum della Cucina Italiana in Manduria, the 26th generation of a storied wine family. The 26th generation of Italy's most storied winemaking family talks dynasty, disruption and the long view.She tells us how Tignanello broke every rule of late-1960s Chianti Classico, why wine and food are inseparable in Italian culture, and what a 27th generation is a
Love, madness & Lecce baroque, restoring Palazzo Maresgallo stone by stone
We sit down with Miriam De Rienzo Gazzola at Palazzo Maresgallo in Lecce, a residence saved from decades of ruin. This sixteenth-century residence, rescued from sixty years of abandonment, is now one of Puglia's most extraordinary boutique hotels and art spaces.Miriam tells us how she and her husband Lionel gave up two years of their lives to a restoration that their own architect told them wa
From the field to the fork, reviving Senatore Cappelli wheat in Puglia's Salento
At Tenuta Donna Anna, a working country estate in Salento, Carlo Cascione grows Senatore Cappelli, an ancient wheat variety. Carlo Cascione and his family grow Senatore Cappelli, an ancient variety of wheat that nearly disappeared in the twentieth century, mill it themselves, and turn it into pasta shaped by hand at a table where guests from across the world come to learn, to eat, and find themsel
Vines, a dowry & 300 families, inside Puglia's oldest wine cooperative yet
We step inside the cellars of Produttori di Manduria, the oldest active wine cooperative in Puglia, founded by 300 families in 1932. More than 300 grape-growing families have tended the same ancient vines here since 1932.Anna Gennari, who leads hospitality at the cooperative, tells us how Primitivo arrived in Manduria as a bride's dowry in the 19th century and grew into one of Italy's most
Gold, glory and Byzantium, inside Ravenna's breathtaking church of San Vitale
We step inside the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna with Professor Robin Cormack, one of the world's leading Byzantine art experts. He's one of the world's leading authorities on Byzantine art and author of Byzantine Art for Oxford University Press.Standing beneath some of the most breathtaking mosaics ever created, Robin explains why this small city in Emilia-Romagna holds a place in art h
Jeans, fame & Toni D'Angelo's documentary about his father Nino's rise
We sit down with Toni D'Angelo, director and son of singer Nino D'Angelo, to talk about his documentary Nino, 18 Giorni. 18 Giorni, the documentary that took him back to his father's extraordinary rise from poverty in Naples' San Pietro a Patierno to stadiums at Wembley, Madison Square Garden and the Olympia in Paris. The film's title refers to the 18 days Nino missed at the start of Toni's life,
Art, Valentino and Venus, inside Rome's most talked-about exhibition yet
We go inside Palazzo Mignanelli in Rome, where a new exhibition called Venus has just opened, running through May 2026. It's staged by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti, running through May 2026 and bringing together art and fashion in spectacular style.Curator Pamela Golbin walks us through the most breathtaking pieces, from the vision behind the show to the surprising c
Stone, sky and silence, saving the medieval village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio
We speak with Daniele Kihlgren, the man behind the regeneration of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a medieval village in Abruzzo. This medieval village in the mountains of Abruzzo, once crumbling, is now a new model for Italian hospitality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fettuccine, fame & family, the three generation story of Alfredo alla Scrofa
We sit down with Mario Mozzetti at Alfredo alla Scrofa in Rome, birthplace of fettuccine Alfredo, three generations on. There, the art of mantecatura has been passed down through three generations.The third-generation owner of Alfredo alla Scrofa tells us how this iconic dish conquered the world, from Hollywood legends to Masterchef Turkey, and why the secret is still in the hands.It's a love
Introduction to Italy Now, a new podcast telling real, unfiltered stories from Italy
In this introductory episode we unveil the blueprint to the Italy Now podcast, and meet the team behind the microphone. Meet us, understand our approach, and get a glimpse of the stories ahead. Consider this your press pass to the real Italy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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