Every year since 2000, the Pantone Color Institute has selected a color of the year—a color that captures the current global mood while also offering comfort, hope and a focus for the year to come. For 2026, the honor went to Pantone 11-4201, also known as Cloud Dancer, described as “a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection.”
Italy has long understood this language. A slower pace and time for contemplation are two hand-in-hand benefits of spending some time in the bel paese. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to highlight parts of Italy through the lens of Cloud Dancer. While some might lament Cloud Dancer is just white, if you really look, white is rarely flat, and, in Italy, it is is full of meaning!
Scala dei Turchi, Sicily
Along Sicily’s southern coast, the Scala dei Turchi rises from the Mediterranean like a natural sculpture, its chalk-white marl shaped into soft, flowing steps by centuries of wind and sea. In the early morning or at dusk, the cliff glows, absorbing and reflecting light in subtle ways. Standing here, you understand white not as absence, but as form and movement.
Baccalà Mantecato, Venice
In Venice, white takes on a culinary form in baccalà mantecato, a silken spread of salt cod whipped with olive oil to a cloud-like consistency, traditionally served on toasted bread or soft polenta. This is one of my favorite things to eat when I am in my old stomping ground, and, in some ways, it doesn’t feel like I’m back until I have a couple cicchetti (shown here) and a glass of something fresh and bubbly. Definitely worth a try “when in Venice”.
Cortina d’Ampezzo, The Dolomites
In winter, Cortina d’Ampezzo is enveloped in layers of white—snow-draped peaks, frost-kissed forests, and crisp alpine air. It is a dramatic and expansive white that invites stillness and awe. This year, Cortina will be co-hosting the Winter Olympics, along with Milan, which means there will be more movement than stillness this particular winter, but the excitement in the air will make it glow all the more.
Ricotta, Throughout Italy (with a nod to Sardinia)
Across Italy, ricotta appears in countless forms — folded into pasta, baked or squeezed into desserts, served fresh with honey or herbs. Its soft whiteness signals freshness and immediacy, a product meant to be enjoyed close to its source. Ricotta embodies an Italian philosophy we return to again and again: when ingredients are good, little else is needed. Quiet, nourishing, and honest — Cloud Dancer in edible form.
Trulli, Puglia
Scattered across the countryside of Puglia (or found in a dense network in Alberobello as shown in the image above), the whitewashed trulli feel both ancient and dreamlike. Built from limestone and washed in brilliant white to reflect the southern Italian sun, they blur the line between architecture and folklore. Here, white is practical, symbolic, and deeply rooted in place.
Traveling through Italy in PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is an exercise in attention. It asks us to notice texture over color, light over contrast, meaning over excess. From Sicilian cliffs to Alpine peaks, from humble ingredients to ancient architecture, Italy reveals how the simplest of things can hold history, emotion, and place.
