I did it, at long last! Wandering about the streets of Rome on Italy’s iconic motor scooter, the Vespa!
I had been dreaming of this since I had first seen, as a child, the 1953 romantic comedy film “Roman Holiday”, in which the beautiful woman I was lucky enough to call my godmother, Audrey Hepburn, drives through the Eternal City astride a silvery, fidgety Vespa.
My mother had a little smile: “Katharina, I would love to spend another holiday in Italy. But I worry about Daisy…”
Daisy… the cutest wire-haired dachshund on Earth!
Last month, I got into my car early in the morning, on a Tuesday, and drove down to the lovely medieval town of Assisi, situated in the very heart of Umbria.
I had a lunch appointment with my good friend Rebecca Winke, the writer who joined us for our recent Instagram event in Venice. She has a beautiful place of abode in Assisi’s historic town center.
– No kidding, Chiara: Sandri has reopened?
– Yes, Katharina. I was there just last week!
– When did it reopen?
– Well, a couple of years ago, I think…”
My jaw dropped.
Good news: all roads lead to Rome and, in some cases, will take you back to your starting point before the end of the day!
I experienced this two or three times last summer. After an early morning swim in the Tyrrhenian Sea, I hopped on a train, spent the day in Rome – combining business with pleasure, – and returned to my Mediterranean seaside just in time for the sunset extravaganza.
It is no secret among my friends that I am a little old-fashioned when it comes to communicating via social media. I still get on the blower a great deal (the smart version) and am more likely to send emails than text messages through Facebook or Twitter. In fact, if you happen to be one of our Trust & Travel clients and partners, you may have noticed that our Twitter account has evaporated – I could never quite get the hang of it!
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, the island where Saint Francis of Assisi spent forty days as a hermit in the early 13th century. Continue Reading →
Are you planning to take a holiday, for the very first time, in an Italian villa or farmhouse? If so, chances are that, at some point during your stay, you will run into a small outbuilding within sniffing distance of your temporary place of abode: an old wood-fired bread oven.
“And that is how Italians are. So terribly physically all over one another. They pour themselves one over the other like so much melted butter over parsnips. They catch each other under the chin, with a tender caress of the hand, and they smile with sunny melting tenderness into each other’s face…”
Last week I got a telephone call from my friend Jessica in New York, who had holidayed in one of our Trust & Travel villas in the spring of 2014:
“You won’t believe this, Katharina: I have just received a traffic violation ticket from my Italian car rental company. It says: “Unauthorized access to a ZTL area”. That was last year in Siena, a year ago! How can this be possible?
– I’m afraid it is, Jessica. A year’s delay is not unusual.
– And I’ve looked up “ZTL” on the web and guess what I’ve found: Zone Teatrali Libere, Free Theatre Zones! What is this? Did I inadvertently drive through a theatrical performance?”
