Generally I don’t have bookings for guided tours in February: for me, February is dedicated to making videos, writing on my blog and exploring Italy. When Pino must head off somewhere to…
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More than once Pino’s construction company has taken on restoration tasks in the nearby region of Le Marche (the Marches), just to the east of our region of Umbria. When I am free,…
After learning about the straordinario Maceo Angeli in a guided visit to his medieval home (January 2023), I was taken over by a veritable “Maceo passione.” I simply needed to know more about this extraordinary assisano (who…
Before the end of January, 2023, I hadn’t realized what might be right behind the wooden doors of the pointed-arch medieval entryways in pink and white local limestone, lining Assisi’s winding medieval…
When to come to Umbria? Our region, “Italy’s green heart,” entices all year round with exciting festivals highlighting every single month of the year. Join me for an unforgettable guided hill town…
Assisi’s school children well-know the significance of that Giorno della Memoria (“Day of Remembrance” (or “the Day of Memory”) – and a good group participated this year in Assisi’s annual January 27th…
(Photo above thanks to Assisi News – www.assisinews.it) You might consider St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of animals but Italians well-know that this honorific appellation belongs to St. Anthony Abbot,…
La Festa di Santa Lucia is celebrated December 13th, the shortest day of the year and in fact the name of this 3rd-century martyr saint of Siracusa in Sicily signifies “promise of…
Pasticcerie (pastry shops) in Sicily are veritable altars of culinary history. One of these “culinary altars” is certainly Pasticceria/Bar Gardenia, a splendid showcase of culinary creations in Cardillo, a nondescript borgata (small suburb, an outcrop)…
Near Pino’s childhood home in Cardillo, a small Palermo borgata (small suburb, urban outcrop), a grandissima pasticceria/bar, Pasticceria/Bar Gardenia, draws in customers from all over. The tempting goodness on rows and rows of shelves does it:…