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 – […]
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 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 […]
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 […]