Fabaceae or leguminosae are enormously widespread, stretching to the remotest corners of every continent, even Greenland. The word fabaceae derives from the Latin faba, meaning ‘bean’, which ranks among the oldest cultivated legumes.

The botanical name of the broad bean is Vicia faba, of which different varieties can be identified on the basis of the size of their seeds. One particularity of the plant lies in its rootstock, whose surface is covered in a number of chunky nodules, ...

They number among the most elusive mysteries of the sea. Besides the Leviathan, the Titanic and the Bermuda Triangle, we have the trabocchi. 
No one knows exactly when they first appeared. The oldest records of their existence go back to around 1400 with the biography of Pietro da Morrone, better known to history as Celestine V, pope for a mere five months: he is remembered largely thanks to Dante, who singles him out as chief among cowards. To him, the founder of the Celestine order, are attributed the carved words: ...

Speaking as someone who has been able to look from both sides of the camp, these old-new – erste-neue, as they say on Italy’s Austrian border – shows and exhibitions have had a slightly different impact this year. Different, but no less important than what we were used to before. Pre-Covid socials will never be forgotten, but in some way feel consigned to the pages of history.

Memory is selective. It’s a bit like a cobbled street: some cobbles ...

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