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 Leone, Montelparo – Compact Boutique Hotel With Much More
A Wine Lover’s Break to Hotel Leone, Montelparo, Marche. What happens when you follow your dreams? For Tim and Madeline Jones you end up with a stunning boutique hotel in a picturesque and unspoilt hilltop village in Marche. It just so happens that the hotel was once a Palazzo, part of the village of Montelparo. […]
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 […]
Alba White Truffle Fair
Hunting the white truffle in Alba: The International Alba White Truffle Fair is one of the main events showcasing Italian luxury gastronomy of the Langhe-Roero region. Listed as a UNESCO cultural landscape since 2014, the region is known not just for the rare white truffle but for fields of hazelnut trees and for vineyards cultivating […]
Perfect Pesto
Italians do it better – Pesto World Championships, Genoa, Italy: It stands to reason that Italians should make the best Pesto in the World. A simple fusion of two kinds of cheese, garlic, basil, olive oil, pine nuts and salt sounds on the face of it like something that could easily be recreated anywhere. But, […]
Vicenza – Birthplace of Palladian Architecture
Vicenza – Laced with History and Thriving with Life: It was over ten years ago that I first briefly visited Vicenza, for not much more than a lunch break, while we were travelling from Venice to Lake Garda. I was totally charmed and vowed to return. By chance, at the time I was planning this […]
Living the Dream at the Lido Palace Hotel, Lake Garda
The Lido Palace Hotel, Riva del Garda: What makes a hotel ultra luxury? For me, it’s end-to-end perfection – a place where from the moment you reach the entrance you are living the dream. The perfect setting helps too and Riva del Garda, a small town in the northern part of Lake Garda, is a […]
Exploring the Italian Riveria – Part 2: out and about in Liguria
A Ligurian Adventure: What is there to do in Liguria and the Italian Riveria in March? The week we stayed there, the forecast was for rain all week, so we planned and packed for all eventualities, but were incredibly lucky. We only saw rain on our final day in France, and managed to be inside […]
Exploring the Italian Riveria – A Stay at Liguria Holiday Homes in Pigna Part 1: The house and Pigna
Medieval Magic at Pigna, Liguria and the Italian Riviera: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a medieval house? In odd moments of musing, I have, but my thoughts never encompassed something as old on the outside, but complete with all modern day luxuries on the inside, as the house […]