Radio Big World APS - Italy

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A famous bull mosaic at the centre of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan now requires substantial restoration after being worn down by tourists honouring a tradition involving its delicate body parts. As the legend goes, visitors who grind their heels on the bull’s testicles and spin three times in place are guaranteed good fortune and destined to return.

Over time, the crowds twirling clockwise for luck have carved, by May 2026, a small crater into the bull’s “lucky spot.”

“Thousands of people every day have performed the famous heel‑spinning gesture,” city councillors said. “The pink tiles that form its testicles are being worn away.”

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"Tronco annodato" (Knot trunk) by German/American artist Rainer Gross, located in the Arte Sella open-air art park in Trentino, Italy.

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A frame from the exhibition-show "Magnificent" held in Sala d'Arme di Palazzo Vecchio (Firenze) in 2015

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1 oz .999 copper Italy-themed round, issued by GSB Canada Gold & Silver Bullion, 2026

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In 2014 artists Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves created a series of maps made entirely out of the foods for which the countries and continents are known.

“Exploring new places through the food you eat is often a portal to the cultural complexities of that place,” Hargreaves told TIME in an email. “While we know that tomatoes originally came from the Andes in South America, Italy has become the tomato king. These maps show how food has traveled the globe—transforming and becoming a part of the cultural identity of that place."

All the other maps - TIME

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Rome in Terracotta: a scale model of ancient Rome, made entirely of terracotta using selective laser sintering (SLS)

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Hugh Hayden, Huff and a Puff, Island of Saint James (San Giacomo), Venice, Italy. Photo: Jacopo Trabuio

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Propaganda car used for the Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the 1958 Italian general elections. The reference is to Sputnik, the satellite launched into orbit by the Soviet Union the previous year.

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Late afternoon at the loggia bar of Hotel Palazzo Guadagni, Florence. That light ....

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From inside a courtyard, Milan. By Marco Bottigelli.

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The interior of the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, built with LEGO bricks by Luca Petraglia, on display in Chieri (Turin).

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Lambretta Scooter Poster by Pietro Vera (1963). It says: two wheels of happiness.

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Sophia Loren posing for her cookbook In the Kitchen with Love, published in 1972. The shot is purely for the sake of composition. There is no way an Italian nonna would present a dish of eggplant fusilli bucati served like that—not now, and not even in the ’70s.

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Handmade tortellini by Ripiena Italian Restaurant in Brisbane.

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Group of Orders and Decorations of Umberto II (1904 - 1983), king of Italy for a very brief period in 1946 — from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946.

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Inner cloister of the former Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio, which now houses the Giorgio Cini Foundation, one of Venice’s major centers for arts, humanities, and cultural research, combining historical preservation with contemporary scholarship.

The venue is located on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, directly facing St. Mark’s Square across the basin.

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A selection of Italian cheeses on display at Slow Food Cheese Festival in Bra, northern Italy.