Why do I love Ventotene? “Let me count the ways…” as Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it. This island’s kaleidoscopic colors are certainly one of the enticements. Scroll through the rainbow hues: [slick-slider…
Every Ventotene stay means daily visits to the Aiello Forno (“bakery”). As I walked in this visit, past the refrigerator with ice-cream cakes and turned towards the cash register, I’d hoped to…
The Feast of Santa Cristina, patron saint of Bolsena, is celebrated con passione by all the townspeople at the end of July. A festival not to miss if you’re near Lake Bolsena…
…and on roll the lazy days on the magical island of Ventotene, passed in reading, walking the alleyways, savoring the seafood creations – and not only! – of the chef at Ristorante…
Returning to the tiny island of Ventotene – off the coast, just south of Rome – is always a bit like coming home. I feel it as soon as we stepped off…
Not far from us, Gualdo Tadino, of pre-Roman origins, perches like a silent sentinel on a forested hilltop. A few buildings miraculously survived the devastating 1751 earthquake: one was the frescoed 13th-century…
Late afternoon on a breezy summer Sunday, Pino and I set out for Arezzo, a favorite southern Tuscan city. It was the first Sunday of the month, the day of the Fiera…
Just south of Parma, the region of Reggio Emilia is best associated with parmigiano reggiano cheese. And not only: if you’re a teacher, you’ve probably studied Reggio Emilia’s innovative early childhood education…
When heading off on vacation to the seaside – either the Mediterranean coast or the Adriatic – Italians must leave behind their center of town life, the main piazza, but they simply…
Even though I’ve been speaking Italian for more than half my life, words still flee me; at times, I feel that my perception of the exact translation of a word is imprecise.…