One of my favourite places in Florence is the Mercato Centrale, also known as the Mercato di San Lorenzo, the largest food market in town. A beautiful glass and cast-iron construction, it was designed over 140 years ago by Giovanni Mengoni, an architect who also built the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
“It happened last summer, around noon. It was a beautiful day and I was just walking out of the Villa Gioli, one of our Trust&Travel residences. I heard a noise coming from the sky, looked up and saw it… A drone!”
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“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.” You will never guess who said that… Albert Einstein.
Here is the story of another great Italian tailor whom I met just a few weeks ago. I was with a good friend of mine, walking down the main street of Castagneto Carducci, a hilltop town in the Tuscan Maremma. At one point, we spontaneously stopped in front of a tailor shop, unsure about what to do. Continue Reading →
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 ago.
“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.” Continue Reading →
No, I did not know what good, real good pasta was until…
Here is the story of one the great gastronomic discoveries of my life. I was dwelling in a Tuscan farmhouse near Mercatale Val di Pesa, a tiny little town located in the well-known Chianti area, between Florence and Siena, and surrounded by olive groves, vineyards and dense woods.
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
This beautiful phrase hasn’t just come right off the top of my head – even though I think it might have if I had been lazing around in a field of flowers with intoxicating scents… No, this is something Pablo Picasso said. Continue Reading →
