Overcome the winter blues by planning a trip to Italy this year. Want to stay in a hotel characteristic of the area run by friendly locals who make you feel instantly at home? Nothing ruins a trip more than staying in a carbon-copy hotel in the wrong neighbourhood run by drones. Don’t miss out on…
Top 8 reasons to visit a forgotten corner of Italy: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is an exotic part of Italy with a distinctive Slavic flair. The cuisine is unique in its extensive interweaving of sweet, savoury and spices such as gnocchi di susine (sweet plum dumplings) which are served as a first course, the same as pasta. The geography varies from crystal blue Alpine lakes and the…
One good reason to eat lasagne today
Today is la Befana in Italy, otherwise known as the Epiphany. It marks the last of the 12 days of Christmas which begin on December 25th (Christmas Day). It is also a feast day to commemorate the visit of the Three Wise Men (Magi) to bring gold, frankincense and myrrh to the birth of Jesus…
One of the world’s most beautiful drives: Strada delle Dolomiti
Green valleys are dotted with yellow, pink, purple and white wildflowers. Towering over are awe-inspiring mountains of sheer rock. Charming wooden houses straight out of Hansel and Gretel peek out from behind trees. Each twist of the road brings an even more spectacular panorama into view. This is the Strada delle Dolomiti (the Great Dolomite…
What do Italians eat for Christmas?
Italian holiday foods are often symbolic as well as delicious. Dishes served on the day before a religious festival such as Christmas Eve, known as La Vigilia, are meant to purify the body before the rich holiday foods. The Christmas season starts in Italy on 6 December with the birthday of Saint Nicola…
My top 7 foodie wish list for Christmas
1. Maria Grammatico’s Bitter Almonds cookbook We visited Erice in Sicilia this year after being told by many Sicilians that one of their best pastry chefs lived there and was named Maria Grammatico. Eastern Sicilia is the most famous for the pastries as it the Arabs, who introduced their art of pastry to Sicilia, had…
Why do people from 180 countries come to a village in Lombardia on the same day every year?
Every year around the 24th of June, people from 180 countries around the world convene at Solferino, a tiny town of 2,000 inhabitants south of Lake Garda in Lombardia. Solferino is surrounded by farmland and has a beautiful Mantuan square, Piazza Castello (so named because there used to be an 11th century castle here). The…
Franciacorta: Champagne’s younger sister
Franciacorta, located to the west and south of Lago d’Iseo in Lombardia, is a sea of neatly arranged rows of green covering 6,000 hectares. It is a peaceful oasis in which grows Italy’s answer to Champagne. Great wine is often grown in areas of great beauty and Franciacorta is no exception. There are 80…
The Italian Lake District: Lago di Como
We spent a few weeks wandering along Lago di Como, Lago d’Iseo and Lago di Garda. We drove through fields of corn and rice, forests and vineyard after vineyard. Throughout we found a patchwork of wineries and farms. We started from Milano stopping off at Tarantola restaurant hidden in the woods. The woods themselves…
Taste the real Sardegna: Gastronomic adventures
Many people flock to Sardegna for the perfect blue skies and spectacular coastline, opting for seafood in the Mediterranean heat but I think this is a mistake. They are overlooking the tradition of this pastoral island and the unique culture of the Sardinians. We stayed at a farm hotel (agriturismo) near Alghero called Sa Mandra,…
