As some of you, dear readers, might remember, I started last week’s article by quoting a few words by Benjamin Franklin. This week, allow me to cite the great Virginia Woolf: “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Continue Reading →
My father and I were simply mesmerized, like under a spell. We looked at each other with a funny smile, and then stood up to join the applauding audience. Continue Reading →
If you happen to be in Florence in May, there is a special event you must make sure not to miss. This year again, from May 16th to May 19th (Thursday to Sunday), the 19th edition of the Artigianato e Palazzo annual exhibition will be held at the same exceptional venue where it has been taking place since its creation. For its visitors, this event is always a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Sunday morning. I’m having a lie-in and am sleeping like a log. Sheer bliss.
My mobile phone, on my bedside table, rings. I wake up with a start and answer the call.
“ Hello? Continue Reading →
Villa… A word that calls to mind images and lifestyles which very few people would turn their back on.
Here is how the Oxford English Dictionary defines “villa”: A country mansion or residence, together with a farm, farm-buildings or other houses attached, built or occupied by a person of some position and wealth; in later and more general use, a residence in the country, or in the neighbourhood of a town, usually of some size and architectural elegance and standing in its own grounds.
This week, for the half-term school holidays, my family and I are staying at one of the two houses of our Trust & Travel Il Fontanile estate in Tuscany. We like to come here once in a while when we need to have a little break from our urban, hectic life.
Are you like me?… Do you often look back nostalgically to an authentic, romantic past? Are you fond of structures that have kept the patina of times gone by? Are you easily sent into raptures by places and monuments which radiate sheer drama?
At a recent dinner party, a friend of mine introduced me to Cassius, her young lively nephew.
“So tell me, young boy, I asked him, what would you like to be when you grow up?
– I want to be a pope, he replied with a straight face. Continue Reading →
“How about letting our little friend here perch on your hand?
– Um… well… Is he in a good mood?”
The “little friend” whom Stefania was introducing me to was a healthy falcon with a sharp beak, long claws and big fierce eyes. His name was Naggy or Narghile, something like that. Continue Reading →
