Finding comfortable accommodations with wonderful amenities is always great luck for the weary traveller or the adventure bound explorer. When these come with stunning views and an extremely hospitable family running the show, well you’ve won the “perfect vacation” jackpot! And so it was when we came upon ,,Tenuta del Poggio Antico last September: the perfect
High atop the Amalfi coast sits one of the most beautiful and unique perches from which to see the wondrous view below. Ravello, a small and exquisitely charming mountain town has throughout the centuries enraptured and seduced countless visitors, inspiring not only artists but all that would be mesmerized by the spell of its vistas. Getting
I can only tell you that the air is perfumed with the sweet tang of lemons; that the heat of the splendid sun warms the skin like the comforting touch of a mother’s embrace; that the blue of the sky is of a cerulean hue, not quite turquoise, not quite azure, but the complexion of
I am still relishing the lightly crisped homemade gnocchi in that delectable stracchino sauce sprinkled with sweet corn niblets and thinly shaved truffle resting on top. In fact, this morning I am burning ----"Ardo" in Italian,---- (although the name is a nickname of Chef Marotta’s son,) with the rediscovered excitement I experienced just a while back
Not all journeys are physical; at times we find ourselves travelling within ourselves, discovering, slowly, realities hitherto unknown. It is that metaphysical pilgrimage that perhaps, even if taken only once in our lifetime, leaves us irrevocably changed. Not by coincidence, I found myself drawn to that book on my library shelf, that I had not picked
The cuisine of Sicily is unique and exceptionally varied, and no wonder; it is the culinary reflection of all that Sicily is----a land closely linked to historical events dating back to the Ancient Greeks, and cultural and religious influences of numerous peoples like Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Islamic, Norman, Catalan, and Spaniard. Over and above this,
I think that for my whole life, at least from the time that I started losing myself in books, I looked for a place that existed in my imagination; a place of well-defined shapes but blurred colours and indistinct shadows; a place of real tangible structures but illusory backdrops----where the irrefutable world might coexist with
It’s Sunday morning. An early breakfast of a brioche and a cappuccino at the bar facing the Duomo, and we’re off by taxi to the Stazione Centrale, Milano’s inner city train station. One last look over my shoulder as we pull away stays with me as a snapshot in black and white of looming spires
The shortest follies are the best, according to Pierre Charron. I would have to agree with him. Last year in December I took a short trip to Bologna with my son, and I am still reveling in the delightful memories of that adventure. So when the opportunity came up again one late fall day this
Summer is over. The last of the blooms in the garden are languishing, and fading in colour; still, the sky, a dull grey, fails to quell the fiery reds, musty browns and ochres of the trees. This concert of colours lifts the spirit; a last minute reprieve before winter sets in. I’ve been hard-pressed to