Just outside of the massive medieval walls of Castiglione del Lago, walk up the “little steps (“le scalette”) to a wooden terrace shaded by a wide cream-colored awning. “Osteria Le Scalette” in…
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During late May and June, enjoy the best in simple local cooking (at enticingly low prices!) and ballroom dancing with “the locals” at a sagra. Which one and where? That depends on…
It’s not just for the “aria fina” (“good air”) that you stop at the Agriturismo Aria Fina in the mountains on the Basilicata/Calabria border near the mountain town of Mormanno. Although we…
When you’re ready for the best in “farm-to-table” eating (called “kilometro zero” in Italian), head to the medieval hilltown gem of Scheggino on the Nera River for dinner at Osteria Baciafemmine where…
It’s been a good year for wild asparagus, a springtime delicacy which transforms a frittata, risotto or pasta sauce into a regal feast. Pino and I had good luck foraging in early…
The north Casentino valley tortelli di patate aren’t made with just any potato: the key ingredient is the Chetica potato, a red-skinned round tuber of rosy-toned white flesh, cultivated at 500 m.…
If you look up as you stroll the narrow back alleyways of Naples, you might see an elderly lady leaning out of a window, lowering a basket or a plastic bucket to…
You know you’ve found Ristorante/Pizzeria Marino near the Naples waterfront if you spot chef Salvatore crumbling bread crusts for the pigeons out front. (They flock near the front door after lunchtime for…
Just below Assisi, in Santa Maria degli Angeli, the guild of St. Anthony (Compagnia di Sant’Antonio) was formed at the time of the construction of the seventeenth century Basilica, built over the…
The milling of the just-picked olives calls for a celebration. Pino called up Peppa as soon as the mill confirmed a date for the pressing of our olives: “Portiamo l’olio per la…