Valencia: festivals, culture, sport, gastronomy, nightlife... Valencia: Capital of Paella, home to The Holy Grail, boasting sunny beaches where you can swim most of the year round, bursting with funky architecture, this vibrant city is not to be missed. You will soon see why Spain’s third … [Read more...]
Palermo Sizzles with Culture, Art, History and Gastronomy
Palermo is the Italian Capital of Culture for 2018: Founded by the Phoenicians, once belonging to the Roman and Byzantine Empires, ruled by the Arabs, the Normans and the Spanish, capital of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire for a short time, Palermo has a real mosaic of history. … [Read more...]
Carnival Time in Viareggio!
A thought-provoking spectacle of colour, irreverence, satire and entertainment: "Rifiuti da Incubo" which roughly translates as "Nightmare Waste" is supposed to be a comment on the laws that force restaurants to throw away excess food and the taxes and bureaucracy which prevent chefs from … [Read more...]
A Night at the Opera – Italian style!
Flamboyant, emotional, dramatic - Italian opera is so unapologetically...Italian! It is surely no coincidence that opera, with its flamboyant, emotional and dramatic style, was born in Italy. Opera is the perfect medium for appreciating the beauty and musicality of the Italian language and … [Read more...]
Liquid Gold – La Raccolta (Olive Harvest) in Tuscany.
It's Autumn in Tuscany, and time to harvest the olives! It’s autumn in Tuscany and, once again, time to get the nets out and prepare for La Raccolta - the olive harvest. La Raccolta in Tuscany normally takes place between October and December, before the olives fall from the trees, but it is … [Read more...]
Food, Glorious Food. A quick guide to eating in Italy.
Italian food is an institution: don't let its unwritten rules catch you out... Oscar Wilde once said,“ I can’t stand people who do not take food seriously.” He would have been perfectly happy with Italians. Italian food is an institution and one of the main attractions for overseas visitors. It … [Read more...]
Siena – The Soul of Tuscany
No trip to Tuscany is complete without seeing Siena, Florence’s historical rival According to legend, the city was founded by Senius and Aschius, the sons of Remus and nephews of Romulus, boys saved from the Tiber river by a she-wolf, who were the main characters of Rome’s foundation myth. Senius … [Read more...]
Piecing together Ravenna’s mosaic of attractions
Is Ravenna the best place to live in Italy? Despite being recently voted "Best Place to Live in Italy" by a leading newspaper Il Sole 24 ore, proud possessor of 8 UNESCO sites, burial place of Dante and home to Byron for a couple of years, Ravenna is strangely neglected by … [Read more...]
Liverpool- “A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For All”
Liverpool,"Queen of the North", is famous for a lot more than the Beatles The city that Carl Jung described as “the pool of life” certainly breathes vitality, warmth and enthusiasm difficult to find elsewhere. It is surely no coincidence that the street connecting two of Liverpool’s biggest … [Read more...]
Hidden Tuscany: Pistoia – An Insider’s Perspective.
Local resident Sarah Humphreys gives you the inside story on this Tuscan gem: In the words of Cristina Taddei, local archaeologist and historian, “ Pistoia is one of the few towns in Tuscany that still belongs to the past.” Largely overlooked by tourists, Pistoia is a well-preserved medieval … [Read more...]