Editorial posts for: Alessandro Gandolfi

The Making of a Revolution #1 5

Libya - The Making of a Revolution #1

The militias of Shabab, or revolutionary youth, which fought against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces for control of Libya in 2011, could hardly be called an army. They lacked a proper command chain, uniforms, sophisticated weaponry and military skills, and yet they stood up to the national army and kept advancing towards Misratah and Tripoli.As the militiamen […]

60-Year-Old Rider 6

Italy - 60-Year-Old Rider

Around Milan Laura delivers all kinds of things, and always on her bike, getting herself in shape for her trip around the world

The Rivers 10

Italy - The Rivers

Going to the beach is sure to be complicated in the first summer in the time of Covid-19. Many, in fact, are choosing to head to the river instead.

Life Is Now 14

Italy - Life Is Now

Managing childbirth amidst fear, loneliness and uncertainty during the pandemic

Gas Chamber Delhi 17

India - Gas Chamber Delhi

The Indian capital is the world’s most polluted city. And the consequences are disastrous

Syrians in Limbo 20

Lebanon - Syrians in Limbo

They have fled the war in Syria. There are more than a million. But Beirut does not consider them refugees

Pure Tokyo 25

Japan - Pure Tokyo

The second you scratch the surface of modernity, you discover centuries of rigorous education in harmony and respect for social position

Reliquiae 31

Italy - Reliquiae

Whether real or fake, relics of saints are powerful objects of worship

Kommunalka 50

Russia - Kommunalka

Soviet collective households in the noble palaces of Saint Petersburg have not disappeared today

Nogales Crossroads 57

Mexico - Nogales Crossroads

Americans who want to have fun and save on their dental surgery come here: “The oddest frontier – wrote Paul Theroux – I have ever seen”

Verdi Is Alive! 58

Italy - Verdi Is Alive!

Son of an innkeeper from the Parma region, became the most famous Italian music composer of all time

In the Rice Triangle 60

Italy - In the Rice Triangle

A perfect network of ditches, streams and small canals ten thousand kilometres long: here is the “European China”

Plastic Mania 61

South Korea - Plastic Mania

In Seoul, beauty is an obsession and a scalpel the easiest way to obtain it. A business of over five billion U.S. dollars a year

African Cape Canaveral 77

Kenya - African Cape Canaveral

The African Cape Canaveral? It’s in Malindi, Kenya, a few degrees south of the Equator, amongst sandy white beaches and coconut palms. Here, in the Sixties, the first European satellites were launched into orbit and for more than twenty years, Italy continued launching rockets into space. Then the Europeans moved to French Guiana and the […]

The Princess of the Andes 78

Peru - The Princess of the Andes

Vicuña’s wool is the fiber of the rich. It is worn by the wealthiest men on earth, the only ones who can afford a coat worth thirty thousand dollar. Five centuries ago, there was only one man in the world who had the right to wear it: it was the Inca king, the ruler of […]

The Forgotten Sertão 79

Brazil - The Forgotten Sertão

It’s the other Brazil, the anti-Amazon, the poorest and most arid region in Latin America. The Sertão, the Brazilian outback, is twice the size of England: part sea, part desert and part steppe, where life is hard and poverty is rife in the streets. Half of South America’s poorest inhabitants live here, in the Sertão, […]

Bye Bye Petroleum 81

Saudi Arabia - Bye Bye Petroleum

What will the Saudi Arabia of the future be like? The reformist and open-minded Arabia of King Abdullah, sovereign for the past four years, or the austere and conservative Arabia of the Muslim Ulema? I tried to imagine it, travelling from the capital,Riyadh, to the desert of the Nabataeans in the north, and down again […]