I was recently having a drink with a group of Italian friends, in the Maremma. We were talking about seaside holidays when, at one point, our lovely Simonetta asked us: “Which wo ...
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 ...
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 ...
Carry a chestnut in your pocket and you’ll never run out of money… No, this is not a piece of advice that I’m trying to give you. It’s a German saying: Eine Kastanie in der ...
Let’s start with a little quiz… The “thing” is edible, naturally liquid, and can taste of sage, artichokes, bananas, peppers, tomatoes or freshly cut grass. And when it is ...
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 ...
In the heart of Tuscany lies a magnificent town which is exceptional in many respects. Founded by the Etruscans in the first millenium BC… Home to a historic center that has ...
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. ...
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 ...
“In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy”… William Blake, the great English poet and painter, wrote these words two centuries ago. ...
If you like good coffee, as I do, the brandname Illy must be familiar to you. Last August, during a concert given in Tuscany by Mark Springer, I was introduced to Francesco Illy, a ...
Last week, I had a glass of wine with friends who had spent their August holidays in Tuscany. Unsurprisingly, a great part of our conversation centered on their Italian respite: ...
Let me tell you a secret: in my family, we are all big addicts. To the point of being incurable. There is one Italian dish we can never get enough of: the pici all’aglione. T ...
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 ...
Oscar Peterson once said: “I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.” I have always loved the piano; ...
“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 ...
– 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 ...
In vino veritas. This is Latin and it means: “In wine there is truth”. Yes indeed, there is truth in wine, and a lot more as well – design, intent, know-how, genius and life! ...
Like the Seine in Paris, the Thames in London and the Styx in the Underworld, an old dignified river flows across the city of Florence, dividing it, inevitably, into two river bank ...
Cogito ergo sum… Fluctuat nec mergitur… Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant… How is your Latin these days? You don’t have, I guess, that many opportunities to practice ...
“Katharina, this Casalferro wine is absolutely divine! whispered to me one of my neighbours at table. – Divine indeed, I replied, and coming from the oldest winery in Italy, be ...
Last week, I was tidying up a cupboard in my Parisian flat – it needed it badly – when I stumbled upon a small ceramic vase I had bought at Lucca’s antique market a few years ...
“Katharina, this wine is absolutely divine! – Well, it’d better be, Jonathan. I have never paid that much for a bottle of wine! – Oh! Is that so ...
Victor Hugo once wrote: “Dear God, how beauty varies in nature and art! In a woman the flesh must be like marble, and in a statue the marble must be like flesh.” ...
It was in June, last spring. My husband, daughter and I were in the Maremma, and friends of ours were visiting us with their two children. One morning, we decided to go to the town ...
“Buona bruschetta, Katharina! – Buona what? – Buona bruschetta! You’ve never heard this before?!” No, I had never heard this greeting phrase b ...
I have mentioned Tuscany’s highest mountain, Mount Amiata (1738m), several times in some of my previous articles. I have never told you, however, about its neighbouring Monte Lab ...
“The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.” Benjamin Franklin I have never discovered a constellati ...
Being in the Garden of Eden… This is how I felt the first time I came here years ago, and this how I feel again today. A warm, bright, soothing day in the heart of the Maremma. A ...
