Italy

For three generations, the Soban family in Valenza, Northern Italy, has been handcrafting and refining their gelato recipes and serving them up to happy customers at Gelateria Soban. Master gelatiere Andrea Soban continues to expand his family’s legacy, winning prizes for his world-class gelato and publishing a book, “Making Italian Gelato.” In this episode of…

In Burano—a tiny island 4 miles from the city of Venice—the ancient art of ultra-fine, hand-sewn lace somehow remains alive. And so does the equally ancient culture surrounding it. Our correspondent visits with the master craftswomen of Burano to learn their history, their secrets, and the prospects for their future.

Inside some Italian prisons, female inmates are using discarded fabrics to handcraft a range of goods to sell, and learning valuable job skills—literally stitching up their lives behind bars.

Inside some Italian prisons, female inmates are using discarded fabrics to handcraft a range of goods to sell. By learning valuable job skills and life skills, these women are literally stitching up their lives behind bars.

The late Butch Morris, a figure from the outer edges of jazz, reimagined conducting as a form of composition, coining his own word for the combination of the two.

As automation spreads, even into the world of fine art, an American sculptor proudly holds the barricades with the tools, techniques, and even the marble source used centuries ago by Michelangelo. Which side will prevail?

Many cultures have enjoyed the playful freedom that one feels after donning a mask. But no place has taken it to greater extremes, both elegant and diabolical, than Venice. A tour of the world of Venetian masks, and the annual Carnival mega-party they have inspired.

In a tiny town on Italy’s Northeastern coast, the Marchi family printworks may be the world’s last shop to produce handmade, rust-printed textiles from raw hemp, using a massive stone press dating to the 1600s.