Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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Over the next few days, leaders of the Catholic church from around the world will gather at the Vatican to mourn — and also, to prepare for the Conclave.
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Unlike Germany, which after World War II underwent a rigorous de-Nazification effort, pride, rather than shame, is the emotion many Italians feel for the symbols of the country's fascist past. -
After years of legal wrangling, the sprawling Roman villa filled with masterpieces from antiquity to the Renaissance will hit the auction block Tuesday with a starting price of $534 million. -
Imagine taking in the splendor of the Sistine Chapel without packs of tourists. That experience can be had now for those who set aside COVID-19 fears to visit the reopened Vatican Museums.
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A new musical seeks to present a different side of the emperor, known best for fiddling while Rome burned. But some historians object to what they see as the commercialization of Roman heritage.
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The stars of the opera world are joined by well-known names from pop and rock music in Modena, Italy, for the funeral of tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Although he was never as popular in his home country, Pavarotti achieved worldwide fame as the man who brought opera to a new audience.
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A medieval mural in the town of Massa Marittima in Tucany, Italy, is causing controversy and amusement: the 12th century fresco, first uncovered only a few years ago, depicts a tree whose "fruits" are very unusual: its branches are filled with phalluses; below, a group of women are stretching their arms up to pick them.
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A trial is under way in Rome against the Getty Museum's former curator, Marion True, who is charged with knowing that the museum acquired antiquities looted from Italy. The government also has made a proposal to the Metropolitan Museum for the return of certain illegally acquired pieces in return for loans of work of equal value.
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Scores of buildings, paintings and sculptures throughout Italy are deteriorating, as state funds to preserve them lag. A nonprofit foundation is trying to shock Italians into taking responsibility for their unique art heritage.
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An American architect has designed a glass and marble museum that will house the 2,000-year-old Ara Pacis, Rome's "Altar of Peace." It will be the first structure added to the Eternal City's ancient historic center in seven decades.
