MUST KNOW Sardinia has become one of the most famous places in the world for extreme longevity, but the real story is far more interesting than the popular version. The island is often reduced to a few easy explanations: a glass of Cannonau, a bowl of minestrone, some pecorino, strong family ties, and mountain air. Those things belong to the story, but none of them alone explains why certain Sardinian villages produced an exceptional number of people who reached one hundred y

Sicily There are destinations that can be understood in a few days, and there are places that require something more. Sicily belongs to the second category. To visit Sicily is not simply to travel to the largest island in the Mediterranean. It is to enter a territory where thousands of years of history remain visible in temples, churches, markets, fishing ports, archaeological sites, country roads, family kitchens and even in the vocabulary people use every day. Sicily cannot

Sicilian pasta maker Few foods in the world have inspired as much passion, pride, and controversy as pasta. Ask an Italian where pasta comes from, and the answer will almost certainly be immediate: Italy. Ask someone from another part of the world, however, and you may hear very different stories. Some believe Marco Polo brought pasta from China in the late 13th century. Others insist that the Greeks invented it thousands of years before the Romans. A few even argue that ever