Fun with kids

Two rolling shutters by artist duo TUTA
Jun 25, 2024
Street Art in Grosseto

When in Maremma, I often stop in Grosseto for a quick lunch or a bit of shopping. On my last visit, I noticed many ‘for rent’ signs stuck on empty storefronts in the town centr ...

Jun 7, 2024
My latest discovery: dry gardens in Tuscany!

Psst, I am working on the restoration of a very exciting villa in the Bolgheri area. I can’t tell you more for the time being, but the history and the location are really excitin ...

Jul 4, 2023
A great museum for families with kids

A model railway museum in Florence? A friend took her grandchildren and can’t recommend the new HZero museum enough. ...

May 11, 2022
Canoeing on a Tuscan river

The Italian coastline does not need an introduction. But have you ever explored one of the country’s rivers? After 30 years in Italy, I finally ventured onto the Ombrone River in ...

Feb 3, 2020
ONE OF SIENA’S HIDDEN TREASURES

On October 5 of the year 1554, more than 250 orphans were bluntly expelled from the Republic of Siena. The city had been under siege for 9 months and its government decreed that th ...

Jul 31, 2019
BIKING ALONG THE TYRRHENIAN SEA

Some day – hopefully in a not too distant future – we’ll be able to cycle along the Mediterranean coast on a dedicated bike path that will stretch from the Eternal City all t ...

Apr 23, 2019
TESTING WATERS IN TUSCANY

Ah, springtime!… Longer days, blooming trees, twirling swallows and, above all, – I may have mentioned this to you before – my very first swim of the year in the Mediterr ...

Apr 1, 2019
RECYCLED CYCLING IN ITALY

Last week, thanks to the downloadable Mobike app, I spent a whole day whizzing through Florence on three or four bicycles – which I used one after the other, not simultaneously, ...

Feb 4, 2019
IN DAYS OF OLD AND OF NEW

San Gimignano… A lovely Tuscan town famous for its 13 medieval “tower houses” – and which I invited you, in a previous article, to visit in the much quieter wintertime. But ...

Jan 24, 2019
A RINGSIDE SEAT IN VENICE

At any time of the year, our Palazzo Ca’nova Borsato apartment offers a breathtaking view of the Serenissima’s Grand Canal. But during the world-famous Carnival, this view beco ...

Sep 28, 2018
The extraordinary Palio of Siena

You have always wanted to attend Siena’s famous Palio, but never did because of the dense crowds and stifling heat that come with it when it takes place, in the heart of summer? ...

Sep 10, 2018
An Autumn Swim in the Mediterranean

They are everywhere… Over the last twenty years, the monotonous Monobloc – a lightweight stackable polypropene chair, often white in colour – has proliferated like mushrooms ...

Aug 28, 2018
Venice Architecture Biennale

The 2018 architecture biennale runs through to November 25. The program is based on the theme Free Space which has been put forth by Irish architects and Biennale head curators She ...

Jul 23, 2018
A New Generation Festival in Florence

In Italy, the patronymic Corsini has long been a household name, especially in Tuscany and in Florence, where the Corsini princely family has been playing a leading role since the ...

Oct 12, 2017
An Electrifying Ride in the Chianti

Shortly after starting to work at Italy’s oldest winery, during the first years I spent in the bel paese, I was already dreaming of touring the bucolic Chianti region on one of t ...

Sep 12, 2017
They Are Simply Everywhere!

Oh, look Mummy, there’s a mosquito sagra around here! Can we go? Pleeeaaase! This was two years ago, in August. My family and I were leisurely driving through the Italian provinc ...

Aug 13, 2017
A Sparkling Gem in the Tuscan Archipelago

Until a few years ago, when we happened to be sojourning, my family and I, in the Maremma, an excursion on the Isle of Giglio used to be one of our favourite day-trip options. Then ...

Aug 1, 2017
Trasimeno Lake Dream

I have never tired of the view… During the day, the waters of the majestic lake are often peaceful and turquoise blue, and in the distance stands out the hieratic Isola Maggiore, ...

Jul 16, 2017
A Cool Place to Visit this Summer

The Leaning Tower of Pisa… Who has not seen it, at least in pictures, and tried to imagine what it feels like to be at its top, precariously tilting some 50 meters above ground?! ...

Mar 16, 2017
Off the Beaten Tracks in Italy

I came to a dead stop and rubbed my eyes in total disbelief… My friend Rudston, here, in the heart of a remote hamlet of Sardinia? The last time I had seen him, it was in Paris m ...

Feb 13, 2017
A Ghost Abbey in the Heart of Tuscany

Where on Earth had we landed?… A frolicsome sprite, hidden somewhere behind a decrepit stone wall, replied to me in a hushed voice: “In the depths of the Middle Ages, in a ...

Oct 10, 2016
Seaside Bliss in Capalbio

A lunch at the beach… Few things in life make my family and I as contented as sharing a nice seaside meal with our best friends. My daughter and her young accomplices enjoy the b ...

May 30, 2016
A Feast for the Eye and the Blessed Memory

It was last summer, during my very first visit to the Ca’nova Palazzo. At one point, escorted by the delightful owners of the premises, I walked into one of the spacious rooms an ...

Mar 16, 2016
The Best Time to Enjoy the Maremma Park

I must have told you once or twice, in previous posts, that the Maremma Regional Park in Tuscany is one of my favourite nature reserves in the whole of Italy. ...

San Galgano abbey no roof
Feb 15, 2016
The Tuscan Abbey without a Roof

Some road works seem to take forever to be completed… Have you ever had that feeling? This is the case with the still unfinished Superstrada 223 linking Siena to the city of Gros ...

Nov 4, 2015
Where Do the Children Play – PART 2

In my last post, we began a roundup of interesting things to do in Italy when you are parents with children. We had a close look at three of the activities which I particularly rec ...

Oct 19, 2015
Where Do the Children Play – PART 1

Well I think it’s fine building jumbo planes, Or taking a ride on a cosmic train, Switch on summer from a slot machine… Do these lyrics ring a bell? They are from a great C ...

Oct 7, 2015
Paolo, the Tuscan Fisherman

Do you remember Talamone, this little harbour town lying on the Southern coast of Tuscany? I told you about it in a previous blog post. Well, true, this was almost two years ago, s ...

Jul 13, 2015
Florentine Wax Anatomy and Taxidermy

“Hey, look at this one, Mummy! Is that a hippotamus? – A hippopotamus, darling. Yes, it is. – He looks angry! – Well… yes. Or he may just be yawning…” For my daug ...

May 26, 2015
Behind the Scenes of Siena’s Palio

  – Mummy, I want to “vote” for the Leocorno, my daughter told me with big round eyes. – The Unicorn? You want to support the Unicorn team? – Yes! And George says he ...

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