We all know about the three "Magi" who brought gifts to the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. However, hardly anyone knows the little-told story of Artaban, the Fourth Magi, who never made it to the manger and who never appears in nativity scenes.

Nevertheless, he did embark on the journey with the other kings, bearing precious stones. On the long voyage, guided by the stars, he came across the needy he wanted to help, who diverted him from his final destination, away from the ...

Rufina, December 1971

- Granny, why’s it called "Russian salad"?

- What a question! Because they make it in Russia.

- The Russia where Yuri Gagarin comes from?

- Who?

- Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space on 12 April 1961 aboard the capsule Vostok 1 and…

- ...Away with you! I don’t know anything about that, but I do know that Russians make this salad and if you ...

The only other issue that elicits such passion (forget politics) is soccer. When faced with discussions about “traditional” cooking, people start taking sides and the truth becomes sacrosanct depending on your point of view. In so doing, the cooking habits of an entire country, which for centuries struggled to put food on the table, become gospel, recorded for whatever reason by one institution or another to guarantee something that cannot be ensured. Culinary "traditions" are frozen in local customs, or ...

The word “Befana” probably comes from a poetic take on Epiphany, when the divine figure of the Baby Jesus in the manger appeared to the Magi. This visitation is celebrated on 6 January.

The old woman, La Befana, as she’s known in Italian, originates in that dreamlike world somewhere between Father Christmas and The Three Wise Men. The moral draws a line between girlhood and the first signs of adulthood as the Befana is someone who judges, rewards and punishes children, depending ...

We baby boomers remember what happened in the Punic Wars because it was the first world issue that we tackled at primary school and because this bold stuff of storybooks was imprinted on our young minds. Who doesn’t remember Hannibal and Hasdrubal, the elephants, the Battle of Capua, the galleys, and Scipio Africanus? Who wasn’t impressed by Delenda Cartago, which divided the good and the bad?

Shuffling through the many images, we recall the ferocious Punics ...