No one is sure where and when it started, but many wonder why it continues. Is Italy responsible for the Big Light—the single, blazing overhead bulb—or just plagued by it? For a place that’s home to so much influential design, and the radiance of chiaroscuro in 15th-century oil paintings, it’s odd that Italian homes, restaurants, and bars are so brightly lit. Walk through Florence after dark, or along the Baroque corsos of Sicily, and you’ll pass trattorias with appealing menus, antique wood paneling, and vaulted ceilings, but they’re illuminated like emergency rooms.
“When you eat in a restaurant at night, it’s never in the most romantic light, and certainly not flattering for a photograph,” says Violante Nessi, a fashion designer from Bologna.
