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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Right-wing movements favoring anti-immigrant platforms have gained ground in much of Europe. Italy is no exception. Some neo-fascist groups are aiming for parliamentary seats in next year's election. -
The survival of Civita di Bagnoregio has grown more uncertain as erosion eats at the base on which it sits. But tourists — 850,000 expected this year in a town of 10 — may pose an even greater threat. -
The Benedictine monks of Norcia are known for their chart-topping album of Gregorian chants — and their beer. They're donating proceeds to rebuilding efforts, and helping the Umbrian town recover. -
Can you drink cappuccino after breakfast? Should you take espresso in a cup or a glass? Italy, perhaps the spiritual home of coffee, has much to say about when and how to enjoy it.
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There's been such a surge of migrants to Italy's shores that it is threatening to close its ports to non-Italian vessels carrying migrants. More than 12,000 migrants arrived the last week of June.
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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 president made the remark after the pope presented him with a medallion featuring an olive branch. "I give this to you so that you can be an instrument of peace," the pope told him. -
Pope Francis is in Egypt for a two day trip during which he hopes to strengthen ties with Muslim leaders and also give support to Egypt's ancient Coptic Christian sect, which has been the target of deadly attacks in recent weeks.
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Bannon has made common cause with those in the Vatican who resist the pope's liberal moves. Francis' supporters worry that after Trump's victory, the pope is a lonely progressive on the global stage. -
Italy is an art theft playground. An elite police squad combats the illicit trade in antiquities and art, but the chase is still on for a stolen Caravaggio painting — No. 1 on the most-wanted list.
