Arturo Galansino is the director of one of Europe's most dynamic contemporary art museums, Palazzo Strozzi, in Florence. His first exhibition with Ai Weiwei became the most visited contemporary art exhibition ever held in Italy, and his recent Mark Rothko exhibition drew more than 300,000 visitors, the most in the palazzo’s history. A self-confessed country boy from Piedmont, he studied Caravaggio in Milan and spent more than a decade abroad at the Louvre, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy before coming home to Italy in 2015. When he isn’t curating, he’s show-jumping.

In this episode, Arturo talks to Isobel about dialogo, “dialogue,” and why a museum should be a conversation rather than a lecture. He shares the day hundreds of protesters came to the palazzo after a deadly fire, how Fra Angelico’s frescoes set Rothko on the path to abstraction, and his favourite farmyard expression for wasting time. What has Italy taught him? That history isn’t a burden. It makes your life better.

Host: Isobel Giles
Produced by Italy Segreta

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Scott Schuman is the photographer behind The Sartorialist. A sporty kid from Indiana, he discovered fashion flicking through GQ in a drugstore at 12, and fell for Milan through pictures of Giorgio Armani cycling to work in a suit. He wanted to be a designer, studied costume design and spent years in fashion showrooms, but didn’t pick up a camera seriously until his late 30s, when, as a stay-at-home dad, he started The Sartorialist. It took off almost immediately. Twenty years and six books later, he lives in the city that first caught his eye. His latest book, Milano, carries a foreword by Armani, the hero he was always careful never to get too close to.

In this episode, Scott talks to Isobel about sprezzatura, “something almost perfect and a little messed up,” and why the real thing can’t be faked. He shares the Sunday morning he leapt out of a taxi to photograph Armani, the street corner where Milan’s best-dressed cyclists fly past his lens, and why the Milanese would rather you didn’t sweat at the gym. What has Italy taught him? That you can have a small life and a beautiful one.

Host: Isobel Giles
Produced by Italy Segreta

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Isabella Ducrot was born in Naples in 1931, on a hill crowded with churches, and raised on a religion that taught her mostly guilt. At 17 she fell ill with tuberculosis, which her mother insisted she keep secret, and by 30 she considered herself a spinster. So she left for Rome, where nobody knew her, and took a job answering the phones at IBM. There she met Vittorio Ducrot, who told her not to bother with drawing or writing, but who made her feel, for the first time, that she existed. Over 60 years of marriage they travelled the world, with Isabella hunting for antique textiles in markets from India to Afghanistan. She began painting in her 50s, and at 90 the art world finally took notice. Her work now hangs in museums from Oslo to New York, and at 95 she still paints every day in her studio in Rome.

In this episode, Isabella talks to Isobel about trama and the threads that hold a long life together. She shares why Neapolitans never hurry, why she believes tenderness chose her rather than the other way round, and the Neapolitan song behind her painting of a sleeping lover. Her lesson for every woman? Life truly begins at 60.

Host: Isobel Giles
Produced by Italy Segreta

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Amber Guinness grew up in a crumbling farmhouse outside Siena, where she was bathed as a baby in a frozen water barrel and learned to cook from a mother who never used scales. Her parents spent years bringing the house back to life, feeding the builders with long, improvised lunches along the way. After her father died, Amber, then 24 and entirely self-taught, decided to fill the house with people again. She co-founded the Arniano Painting School and found herself cooking for 15 people three times a day. Guests kept asking for the recipes, and these became three bestselling cookbooks: A House Party in Tuscany, Italian Coastal and Winter in Tuscany. She now lives in Florence with her husband, the journalist Matthew Bell, and their young son, Milo.

In this episode, Amber talks to Isobel about quanto basta, “just enough,” and why it’s a philosophy for life as much as for the kitchen. She shares stories of the local cook who looked at her as if she were mad for weighing flour, the four-year search for the perfect meatball recipe, and her three-year-old’s olive oil tasting at nursery. The one lesson Italy has taught her above all else? A stressful day should be punctuated with a good lunch out.

Host: Isobel Giles
Produced by Italy Segreta

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From fashion photographers like Scott Schuman to artists like Isabella Ducrot, Talking Italy sits down with everyone from astronauts and athletes to directors, actors, chefs and designers. Some were born here, some came for work, some came for love and never left.

Each conversation is shaped by a single Italian word. That word becomes the way in: a trigger for memory, association and the stories that rarely surface in public. From what it means to orbit the earth and ache for Italy, to carrying the weight of a nation onto a tennis court, each episode opens a window onto a life lived through Italy, and sometimes in spite of it.

New episodes every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow now so you don’t miss the first one.

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