In 2015, floral tapestries will carpet the winding backstreets of Spello and Assisi on June 7th, the date of the Feast of Corpus Domini. The united work of all ages for weeks before. I am already counting the days. What wonders were created in 2014! (See below). Read more on Assisi floral passione Read about…
Talla is most famous as the birthplace (maybe! – a debate…) of Guido Monaco, late 10th-c Benedictine monk, regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) and writer of Micrologus, a key medieval musical treatise. You might not head to Talla in the Tuscan Casentino Valley to hunt for the house of Guido…
Stroll the path under towering poplars, beeches and firs along the Nera River just outside Scheggino perched on a limestone outcrop and you might think that you’re in a national park in North America. You certainly seem worlds away from the gentle landscapes of silvery olive groves and emerald green vineyards cloaking the Umbrian hillsides…
You know you’re headed towards Rieti’s peperoncino festival, Rieti, Cuore Piccante, as soon as you cross the Velino River and enter Via Roma: huge green and red chili peppers meet in a sort of triumphal arch over the street (and you’ll see people coming towards you with peperoncini plants in their arms, on their way…
If it weren’t for the eye-catching bright red and white umbrellas spread out over the outdoor tables surrounded by scarlet begonias, you might drive right past what seems to be a nondescript little shack just off the main road passing Rieti. But pull into the parking lot near the trucks of savy workers who know…
When you head to that small slice of paradiso, aka, the island of Ventotene (south of Rome, near the island of Ponza), you’ll want to make a list before you leave on “not-to-miss experiences.” Your list should include: – swim every day as much as you can in the turquoise waters off the jutting lavic…
Pino’s first trip to the tiny island (3 km x 700 m) of Ventotene this August and my fifth but we’re in synch on island eating: Ristorante da Verde on Piazza Castello is this island’s best eating spot, for “rapporto qualita’/prezzo”, as Pino puts it. Not easy to translate but here’s the idea: fair relationship…
After you get off the hydrofoil at the Ventotene port, you’ll head up the switchback of inclined ramps, flanked by the typical flat-roofed Mediterraean stuccoed houses of pastel colors. Anchored fishing boats, visiting sailboats rock on the ruffled waters of the Roman port below. The ramps end in Piazza Castello dominated by the imposing four-story…
As you get off the boat after your trip out to the island of Santo Stefano – or around the perimeter of Ventotene – you don’t have to go far to satisfy that hunger gnaw. Right across from the boats rocking at the Ventotene dock, head down a few steps into the grotto (once carved…
“They were born here – all my three children were,” Antonio (“Tonino”) Aniello replied with an impish grin when I asked him how long daughters Francesca and Teresa – serving customers at the counter – had worked with him here in his Ventotene bakery. Opened in 1953 by his father Gioacchino, Antonio started flanking his…