Time passes quickly as you wait in line for fresh seafood at the stand of Claudio in Palermo. Pino, his longtime Palermo friend, Nino, and I joined the waiting customers there on…
Spello, che bello! Yes, a medieval hilltown gem, famous for the area olive oil, the famed wine cellar there and the splendid Renaissance fresco….. What a view of Spello as you approach…
I was contemplating the views spreading out all around us…. …..sitting in front of our agriturismo (farmhouse B&B) in the Sibiillini mountains in the Marches region. Appropriately called “Alti Pascoli,” (“High Pastures”), the agriturismo is perched at 830…
In elegant ancient Roman garb, blonde-haired Greta told me with pride about her performances in Bolsena’s July 24th celebration of the lake-side town’s patron saint Cristina, I Misteri di Santa Cristina (those scenes…
Medieval gem, Gubbio, is a favorite tour destination for me….. – and turned out to be a favorite of the tours I offered Judy and Grady during their late-April week here. As…
In the difficult years following World War II, in the working class district of Naples, i quartieri spagnoli (“the Spanish quarter”)…………many a creative napoletano became adept at the art of arrangiarsi (literally, “to arrange…
Crowded and colorful, bustling, energetic, and animated, gritty and crumbling – no panoply of words can ever describe Naples’ Quartieri Spagnoli. The street network of the “Spanish district” was set out in the 17th-century…
When recently in Naples, our napoletani friends, Roberta and Adriano, knew I was eager to see more of the “undiscovered Naples.” Roberta decided where our explorations should start: at the Basilica della…
A stroll amidst the botteghe of the presepari (creche-scene artists) in Via San Gregorio Armeno in Naples is quite simply an immersion into a showroom of superb Italian craftsmanship. In the splendid presepi napoletani (Neapolitan creche…
Perched on a double-crested hill overlooking the Tiber River, Umbria hill town Todi – “the world’s most livable city” – commands distant views in every direction. Its “livable” appellation was attached to…