A late eighteenth-century hilltop monastery near San Marcello in the Marches region is undergoing an astounding resurrection. And all thanks to the restoration skills of Pino’s team, Impresa Edile Giuseppe Alagna, on…
Pino often has quite a jaunt to bid on stone restoration work in distant sites. If I’m not booked for a tour on the day he’s headed to an area I’ve never…
Enroute to a wedding celebration near Reggello, south of Florence, we stopped for an espresso in a whisper of a town along the winding road skirting vineyards and olive groves, Cascia di…
The ash-gray jagged mountain peaks backdropping Tagliacozzo accent the pastel palette of this Abruzzo town’s elegant neo-Renaissance palazzi. Encircling the main piazza’s fountain with obelisk in the center, the graceful multi-leveled buildings…
We’d been to Pisa years ago when our children were small. I can’t even remember if we explored much more than Piazza dei Miracoli. Yes, that “Piazza of the Miracles” is certainly…
As our ferry pulled out of Portoferraio, port city of Elba, I thought about those few days we’d had there on this glorious island and they seemed condensed to just fleeting, pleasurable…
On one of our meanders on the island of Elba, we followed twisting roads skirting wooded mountains, ending up in the tiny port town of Rio Marina on the eastern side of…
When you’re on the island of Elba, you’ll want to get both viewpoints of this Tuscan island: views from Elba’s winding coastal roads skirting chestnut forests and views of Elba from the…
Destination for late August seaside break? The island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast. Afternoon ferry ticket purchased at the port city of Piombino, we were ready for our first seafood lunch…
Snails are served up not at the proverbial “snail’s pace” but with zip and verve by the earnest young wait staff at the August food festival near Bevagna starring snails, la Sagra…