I think Pino and I are due for a return to Piacenza (in Emilia Romagna). We have such good memories of our first visit there – when I wrote a note on…
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! Nowadays, if you’re traveling in Italy, don’t be embarrassed to ask to take home your leftovers. Until quite recently, in fact, most Italians would never ask. I think for a couple…
Gina and Mike, Byron and Melinda, mille grazie for having brought such a lovely group along with you for a stay in our countryside apartments. A joy to share Assisi wonders with you…
I’d read an article recently about ten “must-see” small-town stops between Umbria and Florence. The author had clearly never been to Certaldo. On an early February trip to Pisa, Pino and I…
Umbria’s’ mountainous Valnerina – Nera River Valley – unveils splendors at every curve in the road: And at the foot of tiny mountain village Piedivalle, a small restaurant in a pre-fab now…
Poet Gabriele D’Annunzio (1910) called the area around Pisa’s Duomo (cathedral), a “prato dei miracoli” (“a field of miracles”). You know you’re gazing on miracles if you stroll around that piazza in the silence…
For years now, Pino and I have raised our glasses and clinked “saluti!” to each other in Orvieto on December 30th, our anniversary. We’re always there for a couple of days for…
Years ago there were horses munching hay under the stone vaults of that stall but these days, ebullient groups of hungry diners fill the plank tables at La Stalla. The atmosphere is…
Crispy bruschetta with a hardy red wine, tastes of pecorino cheeses, and roasted chestnuts were a buonissimo prelude to Cascia’s January song competition of rural Epiphany-time music, The groups competing in the song contest would…
Actor Willem Dafoe’s comment about the Van Gogh film “At Eternity’s Gate” (at the Golden Globe awards) struck me: “It really deeply affects people because it changes how you see things. It…