Ciao from Pistoia. Guest post: from Michela Ricciarelli – a professional tour leader who, in addition to working for some of the leading food tours operators in Tuscany, can be hired to help you plan your own holiday or to lead gourmet, art or fashion tours of the area. An authentic medieval town located in […]
Wines of Le Marche and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto
Guest Post by Madeline Jones from Hotel Leone – Le Marche Wines Introduction Last year, when we could travel freely, I was lucky enough to visit Hotel Leone in Le Marche and to meet Madeline and her husband Tim. I LOVED the place and was hoping to return this year. Sadly that looks unlikely – […]
Hotel Leone, Montelparo – Compact Boutique Hotel With Much More
Wine Lover’s Break to Hotel Leone, Montelparo, Marche. *Stop Press* as you might expect, the team at Hotel Leone are tackling the challenges to the tourism industry with typical positive thinking. They have a fabulous payitforward crowdfunding campaign so that you can help them out AND save money when we are all able to […]
Day Trips from Florence
Exploring Tuscany – Town and Country Day Trips from Florence. Why would you want to take a day trip from Florence? There’s a wealth of things to do in Florence, the capital of Tuscany. It’s known as the ‘cradle of the Renaissance’ for good reason. The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, surrounded […]
Conti di San Bonifacio hotel – Review
A luxury boutique Tuscan wine resort and hotel – Conti di San Bonifacio. Ever since reading Lampedusa’s The Leopard in my twenties I have wanted to be an Italian aristocrat of noble lineage. However, the Count of San Bonifacio got there first and his family line can be traced back for over 1000 years whereas […]
Five top places to visit in Basilicata, southern Italy
Exploring the beautiful region of Basilicata, southern Italy Basilicata, a beautiful region in southern Italy, is one of the lesser known parts of the country but, as I discovered recently, certainly somewhere worth exploring. The stunning hilltop towns and villages rise above verdant green valleys. This region is very mountainous with the Dolomiti Lucane mountain […]
Hotel Antica Torre di Via Tornabuoni n.1 in Florence
A Room With A View – Florence. E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View opens with a very proper English young lady, Miss Lucy Honeychurch, and her priggish cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett making a trip to Florence. On arrival at their pensione they discover that their room doesn’t have a view of the […]
Three Tasty Treats to try in Garda Trentino
Gastronomy and Garda Trentino – Lake and Mountain Food: Of all the countries I’ve visited, Italy has the most marked regionality. Travel from one village to another and you’ll learn that the bread, biscuits or pasta is made differently in each. This is OUR way – and of course it’s the best Seems to be […]
Tuscany – Castles and Cuisine – Gaioli in Chianti
Hotel Castello di Spaltenna, Gaioli in Chianti – Tuscany: Someone asked me what the best meal I had eaten in Tuscany was, and I still can’t find a sensible answer. We tried a wide range of food. From family restaurants full of Italians on Liberation day to small bars. The food we brought from […]
To Tuscany
Exploring Tuscany: This is going to be a very, very brief post with a thank you to the people from To-Tuscany for their fabulous competition. I am just back from a wonderful week in Tuscany where thankfully the weather was considerably better than the UK. We stayed in a lovely hilltop hamlet, a collection of […]