“Five-star” denotes a luxury hotel here in Italy but I’ve now baptized Gorga, southern Latium village perched on a rocky outcrop, as a “five-star” town. While Roman friend Iva and I wandered…
Modena’s known for Ferrari and Maserati – balsamic vinegar, too, of course – with Ducatis and Lamborghini produced not far away. But there’s more to the so-called “Motor Valley” of Italy than…
On a recent jaunt, two Giuseppes connected: one is my husband Pino (in southern Italy, “Giuseppino” is the diminutive of “Joseph”) and the other is Beppe, last miller of Tuscany. (Other diminutives…
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…
“The medieval tower leapt straight up into the air when the bomb went off,” Signor Fausto told me, “….and then disintegrated into chunks of rock.” I asked if anyone was hurt. “No,…
We’ll be heading often to L’Aquila now: Pino’s restoration company has just won a bid to restore three buildings there, damaged in the April 6. 2009. As the job will take two…
There are treasures around every corner in Italy. In every village, no matter how small. You’ll find them just off the piazza, hidden away in medieval backstreets, and behind huge wooden doors.…
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…
Call it my need for a “Naples fix.” Or as my Italian friends put it: “una vera passione per Napoli” (“a real passion for Naples”). Whatever. I can’t do without a few…