Write & Tour in the Veneto: It’s Word/Play Week!

Travel the Write Way Presents

Word/Play Week

May 23 – 30, 2011

(The writing workshop week that’s not just for writers!)

Hosted by Linda & Tim Jenkins

Word One

Have you ever written in a real palazzo? Or eaten in a restaurant that still features recipes from the Middle Ages? Or marvelled at buildings with Palladian windows — that were actually used by Andrea Palladio? We’ll do this and much more on our Word/Play Week in May.

Join us for six nights in Verona, Italy for an unforgettable experience. Our small group (no more than 15 people) will stay in a boutique hotel right near Piazza Bra, one of Verona’s most vibrant and historic neighborhoods. And we’ll be just a five-minute walk from the spectacular Palazzo Castellani, where we will let our creative juices flow in three morning writing workshops and enjoy a grand farewell dinner. But I’m getting ahead of myself . . .

During the week, we’ll have some amazing adventures, including trips to Padova (Padua) and Vicenza. This is the Italy that most Americans don’t get to see. And we’ll see it in comfort, together, with our writers’ eyes and a passion for fine food and unique exploration.

Highlights of the week

  • Daily writing prompts and three morning-long workshops with guided exercises and sharing
  • All breakfasts, 4 lunches and 3 dinners (with wine) included
  • One day devoted entirely to local food & wines, including a cooking class
  • A visit to two wineries
  • Guided tour of Verona, including Piazza Bra, Piazza delle Erbe, the Arena and more
  • Guided tour of Vicenza, including Palladio’s Rotunda and Valmarana
  • Guided tour of Padova, including the world-famous Scrovegni Chapel
  • A visit to the storybook village of Valeggio sul Mincio
  • Guided tours with local English-speaking guides
  • Van transportation to all sites
  • Six nights in a comfortable, well-situated hotel with private baths and Wi-Fi
  • Welcome dinner and farewell dinner
  • Time to explore Verona on your own and enjoy a few meals of your own choosing

This one-of-a-kind week costs only $1,950 per person, based on double occupancy in a double room with private bath. (Airfare not included.) Single supplement is $300, bringing the total to $2,250 for a single.

Proposed Itinerary

(subject to change, based on openings, schedules, etc.)

Monday, May 23

  • Arrive at your home away from home — Hotel Torcolo — in the afternoon
  • Take some time to explore your environs or rest up after your flight
  • Join us for a festive welcome dinner with wine at a nearby restaurant. Meet your fellow travelers and get a preview of what’s in store for the week.

Tuesday, May 24

  • Breakfast at the hotel
  • Our first writing workshop at Palazzo Castellani
  • Lunch at a local restaurant with our guide
  • Guided walking tour of Verona
  • Free time in Verona before dinner
  • Dinner on your own — or a surprise!

Wednesday, May 25

  • Breakfast at the hotel
  • A day devoted to local food and wines: we’ll leave around 9:00 and head for the Valpolicella hills
  • At the historic Trattoria Dalla Rosa Alda, Signora Alda will open her kitchen to us and lead a lively and informative cooking lesson
  • We’ll have lunch together, eating the traditional dishes that we prepare
  • In the afternoon we’ll visit two wineries
  • Back to the hotel — if we feel like dinner, we’ll find something on our own

Thursday, May 26

  • Breakfast at the hotel
  • Our second writing workshop
  • Around noon, we’ll leave for Borghetto Valeggio sul Mincio, a truly charming and historic village along the Mincio River
  • We’ll have lunch (weather permitting) outside, along the river at the fabulous Antica Locanda Mincio (the setting, rain or shine, is to die for)
  • After lunch, we’ll tour the Parco Giardino Sigurtà, just a stone’s throw from Lake Garda
  • We’ll return to the hotel and either have dinner on our own — or a surprise!

Friday, May 27

  • Breakfast at the hotel
  • A day devoted to two great cities of the north: Vicenza and Padova
  • We will first go to Vicenza to meet our guide and tour Palladio’s masterpieces, La Rotunda and Valmarana, as well as other notable sites
  • We will have lunch on our own in Vicenza
  • Then we will visit the university town of Padova, have a guided tour and see Giotto’s incredible frescoes in Cappelle degli Scrovegni and the Basilicia del Santo
  • Back to the hotel and then to a Veronese  resturant for dinner

Saturday, May 28

  • Breakfast at the hotel
  • Our final writing workshop
  • Lunch together at a nearby restaurant
  • Free time in Verona, pack for tomorrow’s departure
  • Gala farewell dinner at Palazzo Castellani & sharing of our writing work

Sunday, May 29

  • Depending on your departure times, breakfast at the hotel
  • Check out time 10:00 a.m.

Additional Information

Transportation

Airfare is not included in the price of $1,950 ($2,250 for single) and, since you will be coming from various parts of the world, you will have to find your way to either Milan’s Malpensa airport and take a train to Verona’s Porta Nuova station or fly directly into Verona from a European city and take a taxi to the hotel. Additional transportation information will be provided when your down payment is received. It is strongly advised that you purchase travel insurance, and your travel agent can recommend some reputable companies.

Payment

To reserve space on Travel the Write Way’s Word/Play adventure, a non-refundable deposit of $750 is due by March 15, 2011. Checks or money orders are accepted, payable to Travel the Write Way, LLC. Completed registration forms will be required along with your deposit. The balance of the cost will be required no later than May 1, 2011.

For more information, or to book your space on this unique Italian journey, please complete the contact form.

About Linda Dini Jenkins

Linda is a freelance business writer, author and writing workshop facilitator. Travel is her passion, so writing stories about her travels just comes naturally. She loves to bring old friends and new friends to Italy and show them the unexplored and unusual and she writes an almost-weekly blog about travel and writing.

She is the author of Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband (that would be Tim) and  Journey of a Returning Christian: Writing Into God and has been published in a variety of books, newspapers and literary magazines. She is also the author of the one-act play, “Things I Never Told My Mother” and is co-author, with Barbara Worton, of the highly acclaimed play, “If I’m Talking, Why Aren’t You Listening?”

Linda travels around a lot but currently lives in Midlothian, Virginia with her husband, Timothy and Maxine, the Wonder Dog.

Hope you can join us for this Word/Play adventure!

Buon viaggio!

01/12/2011

Arrivederci, 2010!

New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  — Mark Twain

You have to admit it: 2010 was a strange year.

  • The economy’s not much better for us little folks, even though Wall Street is having a banner year (with banner bonuses, no doubt)
  • We witnessed the largest oil spill on record in the Gulf of Mexico this year (please, God, keep disasters away from Louisiana and Mississippi in 2011 — they’ve had enough!)
  • Haiti got hit with a deadly earthquake — and is now struggling with a cholera epidemic
  • There was that volcanic eruption in Iceland that messed up both the air and the air traffic for quite some time
  • We’re still at war on two fronts after nine years and nobody has given me a really good reason why
  • At least the Chilean mine disaster had a miraculous, happy ending
  • Then there was the Tea Party
  • And Sarah Palin shooting Alaskan animals on TV
  • And WikiLeaks
  • And, of course, Silvio Berlusconi, the “teflon” Prime Minister

What can I say?

My husband, being the child of an all-English father and a half-English mother, inspired me this year to include Christmas crackers (“bon bons”) on our dinner table on December 25th. It was very cute to see Tim and his mother and our friends wearing colorful tissue paper hats and opening their little toys. What was not so cute was the fact that I had to present my i.d. to the check-out lady at my local Target in order to buy them — Christmas crackers are considered to be in the same class as weapons! My driver’s license is now on file there. Happy Christmas! I’m not amused. A strange year . . .

I made it to Perugia!

But 2010 brought some very good things for me, too, a lot of it involving travel of some kind:

  • I went back to Salem (MA) twice and realized how much I miss it and how much it has become home for me
  • I got to stand up for my friends Sharon & Jerry at their brilliant wedding in Williamsburg, Virginia
  • I spent 10 days in San Francisco with Tim; we got hooked and now claim it as our own
  • I got my ESL/TOEFL certification — and even an advanced certification in teaching Business English (anybody in Italy need an English teacher??)
  • Alain de Botton wrote to me to thank me for my review of his grand book, The Art of Travel
  • I gifted myself a long weekend at The Porches writing retreat — and wrote!
  • Thanks to My Mélange, I won a copy of 30 Days in Italy — I’ve never won anything before!
  • I had a great time working for my old company, Thomson Reuters, doing a full-time contract gig (which extends through January — yay!)
  • Finally, I got to fulfill a long-time dream and took myself to Umbria, going as part of the Dream of Italy Umbrian Harvest Tour

So all in all, a strange year, but with some terrific highlights for me.

Here’s to hoping that 2011 will see us being a little kinder to each other, a little less contentious, a little more receptive to other points of view. Here’s to hoping that the unemployment rate improves, that more people find affordable housing, that no one goes hungry and that we learn to share better. Here’s to lower gas prices, shorter lines at the airport, cleaner air, less greed and more love in the world. Oh — and of course, here’s to more travel and exciting destinations!

Buon viaggio  e buon anno!

12/31/2010

Dream of Italy — I do!

Kathy McCabe, Editor and Publisher of the informative — and beautiful — travel newsletter, Dream of Italy, is my guest this week.  Over the last eight years she has published nearly 80 issues, each one chock-a-block full of stories about Italian culture and essential “insider” travel tips for the Italophile and first-time traveler alike.

She’s an experienced travel planner and I recently had the pleasure of accompanying her on her first Umbrian harvest adventure. Read what Kathy has to say about travel, leaving France for Italy and fox terriers!

Did your parents take you traveling as a child? Are they responsible for your getting bitten by the travel bug?

Yes, they did and they deserve much of the credit for putting me on this path. I think it is such a gift to give children exposure to other cultures and places, especially during their most formative years. When I was 10 years old, my parents took advantage of the “new” budget airline People Express (anyone remember them?) and took me to London. I fell madly in love with Europe, history, travel and everything that goes along with it.

When did you first go to Italy and was it love at first sight?

Technically, I first stepped on Italian soil during a short trip around France when I was in college. I was traveling with a friend and we decided to take the train from Nice to Santa Margherita Ligure over the border in Italy. We spent the day and evening exploring Santa Margherita and Portofino and I was completely and totally smitten.

You must understand, I was quite the Francophile at this point, studying international relations with an emphasis on France. Poor France never had a chance after that one day and night in Italy. I remember how we ate gelato in a little piazza as the townspeople took their evening passeggiata. It was the first time I had the feeling I was in an old-time Italian movie. I’ve definitely had the feeling more than a few times since then.

The next summer, I convinced my mom to come back with me to Italy right after my college graduation. We did Venice, Florence, Rome and the Amalfi Coast. I haven’t missed a year since and now visit two or three times a year.

What is your favorite region of Italy and why?

This is a dangerous question. It is kind of like asking about favorite children! That said, I will say that my favorite city is Rome, followed in a close second by Torino. I think Turin and the region of Piedmont are still so “under the radar” and well worth visiting. Some of the best food and wine I have had in all of Italy — and I have been to just about every region — has been in Turin and Piedmont.

I’m fairly partial to southern Italy and often say if I had the money I would buy a house near the water (three-quarters of the region is surrounded by ocean) in Puglia – another of my favorite regions. There are farms with vineyards, olive trees and vegetables, separated by neatly constructed stone walls. The giant olive trees, several feet in diameter, twisted and towering, are startling. Puglia is famous for its trulli, small conical buildings made from limestone, first built in the 13th century and are  unique to this region.

As a long-time subscriber to your newsletter, I am always amazed by the depth and breadth of information that comes packed into each issue. How do you get your story ideas?

I’d say the majority of my story ideas come from my own travels to Italy, but I also have been lucky to have some great writers (including Matt Tyrnauer  from Vanity Fair) pitch me with ideas from their own travels. I strive to provide information that can’t be found elsewhere or that is presented in a new way. More than 40% of Dream of Italy’s subscribers have been to Italy six or more times. They are always looking for something new – new restaurants, hotels, exhibits, stores, cooking classes, etc. And I’m always looking to bring my readers educational and authentic experiences that they can take part in or recreate.  They want to experience the “real” Italy and interact with everyday Italians.

I had the pleasure of taking part in your recent small group Umbria Harvest Tour and it was wonderful. Most Americans tend to go to Rome or somewhere in Tuscany — why did you choose Umbria? (I’m glad you did!)

Kathy, tasting fresh Umbrian olive oil

I had been to Umbria several times when, several years ago, my friends the Menards invited me to their newly purchased villa – Fattoria del Gelso. It was harvest time – late October/early November and this is one of my favorite times to visit Italy (what is considered the “off-season”). We had such an amazing week eating, drinking, eating more, drinking more – no really, wine tasting at vineyards, truffle hunting, visiting an olive mill.  I don’t remember running into any other Americans while we took our day trips. This is the real Italy and really jives with Dream of Italy’s mission.

For years, subscribers have been asking for me to personally run some small organized tours and Dream of Italy’s Umbria Harvest Week was my first tour.  I think, as you know, it was an incredible success! Our guests were shedding tears on the last night because they had such a phenomenal time and totally bonded with fellow members of the group.

Will you be doing this trip (or others) again?

Dream of Italy’s Umbria Harvest Week will be held again in November 2011. There’s a possibility I may offer another small group tour in 2011, as well.

I know you love Fox Terriers and that you recently lost your very special doggie, Cooper. Will you be getting another one and can we see a picture?

Thanks for asking about the incredible Cooper Leonardo McCabe. Who would have guessed 10 years ago that this little guy from the New York Avenue shelter in Washington, DC would have such a great impact on my life?  He was so incredible and had a voracious appetite for life and food – he was surely Italian in a former life.

Finney, the happy dog, with his new owner 

When Cooper passed away in August, I worked with American Fox Terrier Rescue to establish The Cooper Fund to help homeless and abused fox terriers.  In conjunction with Dream of Italy, we held a very effective fundraiser in the early fall and have something even bigger in the works (and related to Italy) this winter.

Recently, one of the tireless American Fox Terrier Rescue board members – Debi Drake – knew she had the right little guy for me. His name is Phineas, or Finney for short. He’s two years old and is so sweet and playful.

How can people get in touch with you to (a) subscribe to Dream of Italy or (b) to learn more about upcoming small group trips?

A subscription to Dream of Italy comes with a number of benefits, including Italy travel discounts, and you can find out all about them on our subscription page. The Umbria Harvest Week details will be posted in January. Folks can always follow me on Twitter or Facebook for all kinds of Italy travel advice, giveaways, deals, etc.

Thanks, Kathy!
Buon viaggio!

12/16/2010

Bella Bevagna

Where the heck is Bevagna? — Tim Jenkins, responding to my text that we had arrived

Millstone in the light, Bevagna

Four of us were being driven from Rome’s Fiumico airport towards what would be our home away from home for a week in Cannara, just outside of Assisi, in Umbria. We were tired, and it was only 9:30 in the morning, and we were trying to be civil to each other, despite the long flight over and the fact that none of us had gotten very much sleep. Our sweet driver, Aldo, had piled our luggage into the back of his SUV-taxi and was carefully negotiating us around all the twists and turns required to get us out of the airport and onto the highway.

After a while, I smiled when I saw the sign on the A1 for Abruzzo. It made me realize that I would be coming back again in a scant six months, taking that very turn off the road to head to yet another adventure. Never had I had back-to-back trips to Italy like this. Life was good.

But we passed it by in favor of the signs to Assisi. It would be a two-hour drive to the agriturismo, La Fattoria del Gelso, so we settled in to admire the scenery and get to know each other a little. Two of the gals were friends, having met on a prior trip. One flew in from southern California and the other, from Memphis. The third lived in New York City, and then there was me, a native New Yorker now living in Virginia. We were all about the same age (anything over 50 strikes me as being in the same demographic group these days) and seemed very compatible. The week would bear that out; we became fast friends.

Aldo pulled off the secondary road we’d been driving on for a while and made the turn towards Cannara. Winding around what had recently been fields of sunflowers, the famous Cannara onions and other agricultural products, we saw one of those amazing Italian sites: a cemetery, protected by poplar trees and fronted by a huge stone structure with a formidable gate. We would go later in the week, and be awe-struck by the elaborate crypts and mausoleums and the loving care shown by the survivors of these tight-knit families.

Aldo made a quick left turn just past the cemetery and drove us down a stand of cypress trees for about 1/4 mile to our villa. It was beautiful. A stone farmhouse originally built in the 1700s and recently refurbished to be an 8-bedroom, 8-bath sight for sore, tired eyes. The owners, Bill and Suzy Menard — Americans from Maryland (more on them in a later post) — were mighty lucky to have found this place, with its good farmland, welcome swimming pool and close proximity to the best Umbria has to offer. The problem was, it was too early to get into our rooms.

We were about to head off to the village of Cannara on foot, when Marco, a prince of a guy who helps run the place when Bill and Suzy aren’t there, suggested instead that Aldo take us into the nearby town of Bevagna. He said that Cannara would be pretty much closed down at this time of day and that it didn’t offer too many options for lunch — which we were in desperate need of. So we piled our suitcases in the living room and climbed back into the taxi for our adventure in Bevagna.

A very, very old fountain

The historic little town of Bevagna sits in the province of Perugia in the central part of Umbria. Both it and Cannara are on the flood plain of the Topino River (remember Topo Gigio, kids? Topino means little mouse). Bevagna, population approximately 3,000, was originally an Etruscan settlement and then a Roman outpost called Mevania, and the Roman walls and mosaics were evident all around town. We entered through the Porto Foligno, the town’s main entrance, which leads to the central square, Piazza Silvestri. There are three churches in Bevagna, including the 13th century church of San Francesco (he’s pretty big around here) which includes a stone (on the wall, protected by a grate) that is said to be the one St. Francis stood upon when he preached to the birds.

Bevagna, it turns out, is in the middle of white truffle territory and is also an enthusiastic purveyor of the region’s tasty Montefalco Rosso wines. As it was getting on towards lunch time, we walked around town to find a suitable spot. We found one, not yet open, that looked incredible and, as we later learned, is one of the premier foodie destinations in the region. Redibis (which means “I shall return” in Latin) is part of the boutique hotel L’Orto Degli Angeli and many of the dishes offered at Redibis are taken from the 100-year-old recipes of the current owner’s great grandmother, Caterina. How often do you get to enjoy fine dining in a building that is 20 centuries old? How often do you get to experience classical Umbrian recipes interpreted by a young, hip, accomplished chef? How many times do you get to stay in an historic hotel in an historic town — and even attend cooking classes? Stop thinking and, if you’re anywhere near Bevagna on your next trip to Umbria, go. I know I will.

Me and Simone

With Redibis closed, we went off to find Aldo’s suggestion — La Delizie del Borgo, a small, friendly looking place right on Piazza Garibaldi. We arrived around 11:45 and were told we were “un troppo presto” – a little too early — but were advised to make a reservation and to come back in 45 minutes, which we did. We took time to walk around the town, going into churches and climbing up and down the very up-and-down streets, taking pictures. When we returned at 12:30, they were ready for us. The owner, Simone, escorted us to a table and before long, he learned that we were staying at Bill and Suzy’s place, which made all the difference. Suddenly we were no longer a bunch of silly americani who ate way too early — we were friends. He told us that he’d be coming to both New York and Washington, D.C. in a few weeks for some cooking adventures with the Menards; we exchanged cards and told him to give us a call when he arrived.

Turns out we ordered Simone’s favorite red wine, a Montefalco Rosso 2007, and he offered to bring out some of

Le Delizie del Borgo

the local specialties for us rather than have us order from the menu. We soon learned that Umbria is not only the “green heart” of Italy, but it is also Italy’s breadbasket. We ate the local Torta di Testa and all kinds of other white and whole grain breads slathered with chicken liver pate, olive tapenades, olive oil and garlic. There were plates of cheese and salami and even shaved white truffles. At one point, Simone brought to our table a small baking dish covered with a damp white napkin. When he pulled back the napkin, he revealed a bounty of fresh white truffles, worth I can’t imagine how much. He made us smell the cloth and the truffles, each one of us, because they are as precious as gold. Never has mustiness smelled so rich! For dessert, he offered us cantucci (mini biscotti cookies), which we dipped into small glasses of the local Sagrantino Passito di Montefalco, a sweet wine rather like Vin Santo. And before we left, Simone gave us a bag of rich nut and fruit cookies that we shared with the rest of the group on our last night.

It was quite a first day. What began as a jet-lagged slog to an unknown village ended, like so many Italian adventures do, with new friends, a new outlook and a full tummy. By now we were all excited to meet the rest of the group, so when Aldo returned promptly when he said he would, we climbed back into the van and drove back to Cannara, already armed with a fresh new story to tell.

Buon viaggio!

11/17/2010

Gone Umbrian

The traveler who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women under it. — E.M. Forster

As you read this, I am somewhere in Umbria — “the green heart of Italy” — with about a dozen other folks. We will visit Assisi, Deruta and Perugia. We will drink the deep red wines and experience the harvests in these places. November is a magical time to be in Italy, away from the harsh summer sun and the madding summer crowds. There is a different tempo here now, as the temperatures cool and most of the tourists are gone. And November offers a price advantage, too; shoulder seasons are always less expensive and rooms are more available. For me, this is the trip of a lifetime. I have wanted to go to Umbria for years but somehow, other regions of Italy always jumped ahead in the queue. Not that I’m complaining.

Of course, I’m sorry that Tim isn’t here with me. He’s on his own adventure right now, driving through Nashville and on to Cincinnati and back. He’ll have stories to tell, and I’ll probably tell them.

Meanwhile, here is a four-minute video that some of you might not have seen when I first posted it last year. It’s of my 60th birthday trip to Lombardia/Emilia Romagna/Veneto last September. This is the work of my remarkably talented friend, Richard Buckley. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJXVadOiEA

Buon viaggio!

11/10/2010

Seeing Red

One of the essential skills for a traveler is the ability to make a rather extravagant fool of oneself. — John Flinn

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in Italy on the first day of your vacation? The choices are clear: from where we are, we can go to any of the great Shakespearean cities — Padova, Verona, Mantova — or we can take a longer trip to romantic Venice or even drive up to the lakes. Yes, the choices are many, and the consensus comes quickly: Screw culture, art and architecture! We want to see the Ferraris! And so we sped off, that first day, eight of us in two cars, driving the hour or so west, towards Maranello.

The new red shoes

First stop? The Ferrari Store, of course. Not exactly where you buy the car itself, but just about everything else that could possibly carry that “prancing horse” logo. There were shirts and jackets and children’s clothes; journals and watches and beverage holders of all kinds; there were fancy shoes and skis and even model cars. As I was choosing from among a half dozen spiral bound notebooks, I looked up to see my husband in the shoe department. Now, Tim is not a souvenir buyer and he always looks for a bargain. So what the heck was he doing asking for help in the Ferrari Store shoe department? (Definitely not the place to find a bargain!) I quickly picked out a journal and went over to see what he was doing. And then I saw them: a gorgeous pair of Ferrari-red leather sneakers. On his feet. Made by Puma, these were real beauties. And I knew he had to have them. The one thing I’ve learned about Tim after all these years is that, aside from pottery and the occasional 200-year-old chair, the one thing he really has no resistance against is good-looking shoes. So the very first souvenir of our trip was bought by the person least likely to buy a souvenir. We were off to a good start.

After about an hour, we all decided we’d bought everything that we were going to

A bevy of Ferraris

buy, and went off in search of The Ferrari Gallery. Now, this place surprised even me. All that red. All those shiny sports cars — antique ones, late model ones, displayed both on the ground and running up walls. You could touch them, look into them, read all about them. I thought we’d spend half an hour there and move on. I was wrong. Even the most girlie-girl among us was enthralled. And there was much to be enthralled by: along with the dozens of classic red Ferraris were silver Maseratis and one special baby blue Alfa Romeo that was to die for. We looked a little, then had lunch in La Caffetteria and then went back and looked some more.

The beautiful Alfa Romeo

About 20 minutes south of Mantova (Mantua), Maranello has a lot to offer. The main destination is, of course, The Ferrari Gallery, which lays out the legend of the Prancing Horse Team. It’s open every day from 9:30 – 6:00 p.m. and tickets are required. In the Piazza Libertà near town hall you’ll find the monument to Enzo Ferrari which was put there in 1998 by his son, Pietro, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth. And speaking of monuments, there’s also a “Prancing Horse” statue near the Via Grizzaga roundabout, which has stood there since 2003 in celebration of Ferrari’s victory in the Formula 1 (F1) World Championship that year. Other attractions include the Galleria del Vento (Wind Tunnel) designed by Renzo Piano to simulate the real-life experience of the F1 cars (no visitors allowed); the well-used Enzo Ferrari Auditorium which, during race week, opens to all the fans who want to attend the free showing of the F1 race; the Villa Rangoni Machiavelli Park and the Madonna del Corso Cultural Centre. And while Maranello is most noted for being the “City of Ferrari,” it is also famous for its excellent Emilian cuisine. A worthy day trip, by anyone’s calculations.

Did we make fools of ourselves in Maranello? Probably. But we had a ball. Best of

Making a fool of myself, happily

all, while we thought we were doing something especially for the “guys,” it turns out we were all equally won over by the sleek, winning machines and the story of Enzo Ferrari and the legacy he created.

Buon viaggio!

11/03/2010

Haunted Happenings

Salem, Massachusetts: Tough on crime for 300 years. — Our friend, Rev. Steve Silver


Ellen's handiwork

It happens early every October in Salem. First, Ellen Talkowsky and her able crew tie dozens of dried corn stalks to all the light posts downtown. Orange ribbons, of course. Then the banners go up along Essex Street and the pedestrian mall. Then there’s a certain anticipation in the air, both good and bad. Here they come . . . the haunted houses that stay up for a month, the fried dough and sausage stands, the tarot readers and other assorted psychics, and the tourists. Tens of thousands of them every weekend, culminating in 100,000+ on Halloween night itself. Salem is still trying to get used to this.

Salem’s Haunted Happenings began as the brainchild of one Bob Cahill, a Salem resident and state representative in the mid-1970s. He (with the help of a few neighborhood kids) started by scaring the bejeesus out of people at a new attraction in town, the Witch Dungeon Museum. Around 1982, Cahill finally got to meet with the Salem Chamber of Commerce and “Haunted Happenings” was institutionalized. It has grown every year and is now one of the most important “events” in town.

As a ten-year resident of Salem, I can tell you that this success is met with mixed

Beautiful Bott's Court

emotions by the locals. Yes, it’s great for revenues and for showing off the city to tourists. But it also impacts the downtown neighborhoods negatively in terms of parking, noise and garbage. More importantly, the “witch” business has tended to overshadow the “real” history of this special community — the maritime history, the importance of Salem as a trader in luxury goods, the literary history of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the intellectual and artistic history of the Essex Institute and the Peabody Museum, the critical contributions of Nathaniel Bowditch, whose navigational books are still on every naval ship in the world, and the incredible housing stock that survives in countless neighborhoods around town. And did you know that Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call here? Or that the Lyceum Restaurant (where the call was made) was the site of an original lyceum, attracting many of the world’s most well-known speakers? Well, the list goes on, right up to modern times — Salem is also the home town of one Jack Welch, former chairman/CEO of General Electric. Not bad.

Along Essex Street

So when the residents here are confronted with nothing but tourists dressed up in witch and ghoul costumes for the better part of a month, they have to grin and bear it. After all, if you dig deep enough into the Salem Witch Trials, you will see that they had very little to do with actual witchcraft. And that nobody was burned. Probably hundreds of books and videos are for sale around Salem dealing with the subject — Bob Cahill has written several of them. Try to find a reliable account — from the Peabody Essex Museum, for example— if you want to read about it.

The Great Kearney Pumpkin

This year, the Haunted Happenings Parade launched the season on October 7 and there’s no stopping it. Every day there’s something to do — witch history, pirate history, haunted houses, theatrical events, psychic fairs, and so on. Here are a few of my favorites:

Dolci at Adriatic Restaurant

There’s still time to go. Get a taste of New England fall and the madness that is Salem in October. It’s wonderful, really. And the restaurants and shops that have sprung up since we left five years ago are astonishing. It’s a special place year-round that goes a little crazy for a few weeks every year. It’s allowed. It’s lived through more than most places and has forgotten more history than most cities ever knew. There. I’ve said it. I love Salem. Go see it!

Buon viaggo!

10/20/2010

R & R @ #JRWC

Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped. — Lillian Hellman

Sometimes, after all the creating and rewriting and hair-pulling, we writers need a little R&R. By which I mean we need to get away for a few days to be surrounded by other writers, learning about the craft, exchanging ideas and getting re-energized about going back to the otherwise pretty isolated world of putting one word in front of another. For me, this meant going to the James River Writers (JRW) Conference in Richmond last weekend. It was my third JRW Conference, and they keep getting better and better.

As a native New Yorker who had lived in the Boston area for some 15 years, I wasn’t expecting much of a literary community when we moved down to Richmond five years ago. Boy, was I wrong. The Poetry Society of Virginia, for example, is the second oldest State Poetry organization in the U.S., founded in 1923 at The College of William and Mary. A newcomer by comparison, James River Writers was founded in 2002 by a group of well-known professional writers, among them David L. Robbins, Dean King and Phaedra Hise. The Writers Conference debuted in 2003 as a two-day affair to provide seminars and lectures for both aspiring and working writers. Over the past eight years, it has becoming a state-wide phenomenon.

And JRW itself? It has grown to host a year-round calendar of literary events, including the monthly Writing Show and Writers Wednesday get-togethers, writing contests, and the annual Virginia Arts & Letters LIVE. This year, JRW was even the recipient of an NEA grant. All in all, it’s a great supporter of central Virginia’s literary community.

At this year’s conference, I was once again in the difficult  position of having to choose between a group of great  panels. Really, I need to clone myself. But I had to choose,  and so I did. My final answers were: Writing Religion with  Kristen Swenson, Zachary Steele and Susanne  Cokal; Writing in Multiple Genres, with Silas House,  Michael Olmert and Jason Howard; Memoir, with Melissa  Sarver, Jason Howard and Margaret Edds; The Art of the  Interview, with May-Lily Lee, Harry Kollatz and Phaedra  Hise; Writing About Nature, with Stephanie Pearson,  Jason Howard and Meg Olmert; Changes in Publishing,  with Lucy Carson, Joseph Papa and Jeff VanderMeer; and Publicity through Social Media, with Lauren Oliver, Joni Davis and Joseph Papa. Add to that several plenary sessions and the very helpful “first pages” critique session and you’ve got an informative, exhausting and — somehow simultaneously — exhilarating 48 hours.

So now I’ve got business cards to file, authors and agents to contact, websites to look up, books to read, tweets to tweet, query letters to craft and — most importantly — new words to write. I’m leaving for Boston and Salem today and will be there until late Sunday, during which time I will have lots to think about. I’ll leave you with some of the more delightful/telling/disturbing comments I discovered in my notes and a helpful list of the “go-to” sources of inspiration, especially for nature writers.

But first, tell me: where do you get your inspiration? How do you kick-start your imagination? What do you do for R&R? Let’s share some ideas to help each other . . .

“Being a writer is not something you should turn on; you should have to turn it off.”  Silas House

“Our lives are defined by what’s outside.” Silas House

“A lot of people don’t see nature anymore.” Meg Olmert

“[As writers] we have no idea what we’re doing . . . but just keep plugging along.” Meg Olmert

The “go-to” sources for grounding and inspiration:

  • “Self Reliance” by Emerson
  • Anything by Thoreau
  • The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
  • Anything by Mary Oliver
  • Anything by Wendell Berry
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Buon viaggio!

10/13/2010

Lusting for Books, Lusting for Travel

If you have the choice of going to Alaska or reading about Alaska, read about it. — Annie Dillard

No offense to Alaska, but that was the reminder we got at last week’s James River Writers Writing Show event on research. All of which is to say that whether we’re writing about travel or reading about travel, we’ve got to do the homework. And that sometimes the reading is better than the travel itself. And now, thanks to America’s über-librarian, Nancy Pearl, we have the resources to read right at our fingertips.

You probably recognize Ms. Pearl’s name from NPR’s Morning Edition program, in which she recommends books and talks about the adventure of reading. She was the person responsible for the internationally-acclaimed program, If All of Seattle Read the Same Book. She’s written several helpful and well-researched books: Book Lust and More Book Lust, two volumes of thematic book lists to help answer the question, “What to read next?” There’s also Book Crush, which does the same thing for young adult readers and has a companion journal volume so that kids and teens can write about their favorite books and stay connected with the stories and characters long after the last page has been turned. All good stuff.

Until now, we travel writers and armchair travelers had to search to  find stories for our background research or escape reading vis-à-vis  the places we wanted to go. But no more. Sasquatch Books has just  published Ms. Pearl’s extremely useful and broadly scoped Book Lust  To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and  Dreamers.  In it, she provides titles and authors of what she considers  to be the best of both fiction and non-fiction literature concerning  place and the idea vs. the reality of travel. Specific countries (Holland,  Nigeria, Turkey), cities (Boston, Hong Kong, Leningrad) or types of  travel challenges (train travel, crossing oceans in tiny unmotorized  boats, walking in unpredictable places) are all covered in this 300-  page treasure trove. I believe it’s a must-have for anybody who’s  curious about travel or the art of travel writing.

Of course, I picked it up to see what she recommended for the Italian  traveler/travel writer, and I wasn’t disappointed. Moreover, I was  delighted to see that I had read many of the volumes she recommends and am also delighted to learn that I have many more to read. Some of my favorites of Ms. Pearl’s recommendations for La Bella Italia are:

Parma:            Playing with Pizza (John Grisham) & The Charterhouse of Parma (Stendhal)

Rome:              The Seasons of Rome: A Journal (Paul Hoffman)

Sicily:              The Leopard (Giuseppe di Lampedusa) & Sicilian Odyssey (Francine Prose)

Venice:            Venice Observed (Mary McCarthy)

Verona:            Anything by Tim Parks!

But Ms. Pearl takes us farther afield, as well, recommending books about Wales, Finland, Zambia, the Galapagos, Guernsey, Afghanistan and Wyoming, among other locations. She also touches on travel to imaginary places and traveler’s tales in verse. And in the section on Vietnam, I was gratified to see one of my favorite authors, Tim O’Brien, included with three of his titles, most especially The Things They Carried.

Pick up Book Lust To Go and do some armchair traveling yourself. Even better, use it to do some deep reading in advance of your next trip!

Buon viaggio!

10/06/2010

#SIBA10, Daytona Beach FL

All Southerners are required to have a layover in Atlanta on their way to     either Heaven or Hell. — Conventional wisdom at SIBA

We just got back from SIBA — the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance trade show, held in Daytona Beach, FL this year. It was a great show. Great  Little Books, LLC had a nice presence there and we met tons of terrific people. The bad joke is that two days later, people are still trickling back to their homes and home book stores . . . all having to go through Atlanta during a night or two of bad weather. It took us more than nine hours to fly from Daytona to Richmond (VA) and, although we had a good time, we could have been somewhere a lot more interesting than Florida and not taken as long to get home!

I’d been through Daytona Beach years ago on a family vacation. My parents had a soft spot for the town, since they lived there right after my dad got out of the Navy in 1945; he finished his tour in Daytona. Mom waxed poetic about being able to drive the car on the beach. And looking back, she always laughed at how often they had to eat lobster, since lobsters were still considered something of a junk fish at that time and they were not living high on the hog on Dad’s service salary. Too bad; pass the lemon and butter, please.

Me at the booth

Anyway, here I was, with Tim and three boxes of books, eager to set up our exhibit booth and get on to the business of attending some workshops on Friday and then talk to booksellers on Saturday and Sunday. Daytona Beach is a quiet town in September. Our cab driver said that the economy was being hit hard: real estate market, job market — everything. And with the exception of a few race weeks (when the population of the town doubles, to 400,000) and the annual Spring Break chaos, the city did not seem to be doing very well. And in September, the tourist level was way down and the only business usually came from a few conventions. This week, that would be SIBA.

We checked into our hotel, the Plaza Resort & Spa, on North Atlantic Avenue, unpacked and

Memories

immediately went out on the beach to discover where we were and where we could find lunch. The wind was howling, there was intermittent rain and it was hot. Felt like Bermuda. But this was not Bermuda. Bermuda would not have the amazing Sling Shot ride or a huge Ferris Wheel planted near one of its beaches. Nor would it have the bevy of amusement rides or a tacky-but-popular thatched tiki bar that was actually called The Tiki Bar. We found a place called the Ocean Deck and went in. Good views of the water (some people swimming in the ocean, despite the pretty fair-sized jellyfish) and a typical beach menu. We had lunch and talked to a friendly and knowledgeable time-share person named Nicole who happened to be sitting at the next table. It’s amazing what you can learn when you open up to people. My fish and chips were good and Tim’s grilled ahi tuna over greens was very good. We hope Nicole passed her SCUBA test!

A classic!

On the way back to the hotel, we strolled along North Ocean Avenue and ran into a most amazing place: Stamie’s Smart Beach Wear. What was the attraction? How about a 19-foot-long Jantzen diving girl sign over the door? Created out of fiberglass, this diving girl is one of six made in 1959 and it has been the trademark of Stamie’s since 1965. Jantzen — the iconic brand worn by every major star of the silver screen, including Esther Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe — turned 100 this year and long ago lived up to its slogan, “The suit that changed bathing to swimming.” It was a real pleasure to talk to the daughter of the original owners of Stamie’s, a Jantzen Swimwear destination in Daytona for more than 50 years. While we were there, her mother called to check on sales — she’s 96 years old. That’s what I call dedication. Stamie’s is a real treasure, and if you get to Daytona, do not miss it!

Aside from the Ocean Deck, the other restaurants that we tried were all along Seabreeze Blvd., adjacent to the hotel. This is a block filled with clubs and it must look like one of the hotter circles of hell during busy season. We were lucky: they were opening just as we were going back to the hotel.

One night we ate in Sapporo, with its stupefying Floating Sushi bar. You sit at the bar and there’s a stainless steel moat in front of you with small wooden boats tied together with wire. A selection of sushi, vegetables, fruit or dessert is placed atop each one and the flotilla makes a continuous loop around the moat. Each plate of food is color coded and you pay according to how many plates of which color you have stacked up at the end of the night. Wild.

The next two nights found us at the wonderful Lime Restaurant, Chef Matt Rosa’s Caribbean/

A little Lime light

American/Tapas delight. Tim had the best calamari (grilled, not fried) he’s ever eaten and the grilled salmon atop spinach salad was out of this world. And, let’s face it, you gotta love a restaurant that features a good selection of rums, Cockspur and Gosling’s Black Seal among them. To top off the evening, the Tres Leches cake was incredible, all those different milk products lending their flavors and moistness to the cake. Olé!

But the most amazing thing about Seabreeze Blvd. is a small art gallery located near Lime. Called Aberrant Art, this is the brainchild of one Barry Kite, a collage artist/poet/actor originally from Chicago, whose pieces hang in a variety of museums and private collections, including that of guitarist Ron Wood. I’m at a loss to describe his art, other than to say that it combines social and political parody via the “re-positioning” of historical art pieces and contemporary imagery. The Chicago Sun-Times calls it, “comical, irreverent, blasphemous marriages of fine art and, often, campy pop icons.”

Some of the images are PG and funny: think Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte.”  Then picture a parking lot filled with black and white Volkswagen Beetles, separate the characters in the Seurat painting and call it “Sunday Afternoon Looking for the Car.” Other images are either very racy or just much more disturbing, and need to be seen to be appreciated for the thought-provoking pieces they are. This is not for everyone, but if you bring your appreciation for art and your suspicions of pop culture and politics, you’ll probably be fine.

So what about the book show? You never know how these things go. I hope our books sell like crazy. We certainly brought them to the attention of lots of booksellers who seemed to be interested. It’s our mission: to bring great little books to the people who want them. We’ve got four now, and if you go to our website, you’ll find them. I learned more about the wonderful world of Tweeting and may have found, as a blogger, a bookstore here in Virginia to “get in bed with,” as the show’s campaign says. We shall see.

My most favorite discovery at the show? A little book by Lane Smith (author of The Stinky Cheese Man) called It’s A Book. Read it if you know someone who’s getting caught up in the electronic book craze. My least favorite moment of the show? A breakfast at which an audience member, who said she was a Christian, publicly berated a speaker for “taking the Lord’s name in vain too many times” in his novel. She said this after noisily tearing pages out of his book during his speech.

These are some crazy days, but we find grounding and meaning in the words we read and write, the places we go, the people we meet and the memories we carry with us. Have a good week. See something wonderful, then write about it.

Buon viaggio!

09/29/2010

Italian Tours

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Led by author and blogger Linda Dini Jenkins and her husband, Tim, Travel Italy the Write Way tours are small group, intimate experiences where the locals take the lead. Linda and Tim have forged strong relationships with winery owners, cheese and olive oil producers, chefs, hoteliers, ex-pats and others who, together, will give you an experience you’ll never forget. LEARN MORE…

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Italian Vacation Rental Abruzzo

If you’re looking for an exceptional self-catering experience, consider Casa Linda in the heart of old Sulmona, one of the most beautiful small cities in Abruzzo. Less than two hours from Rome’s Fiumicino airport, Sulmona has everything you need for a relaxing holiday. It’s also close to the beach and skiing/hiking areas. Casa Linda is a charming, well-appointed apartment, lovingly restored by one of the area’s preeminent architects, just steps from the Cathedral of San Panfilo at the edge of the Villa Communale (city park). LEARN MORE…

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Writing has long been Linda’s passion, and she started writing about Italy nearly 20 years ago. Travel Italy the Write Way combines her love for Italy with her love for travel writing, blogging, and finding new ways to tell about the experience of travel in both prose and poetry.

Even if you can’t travel with her in person just yet:

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FROM THE BLOG

The First Time I Saw Italy

Linda Dini Jenkins - 01/30/2018 - Travel story - 0 Comments - book / Fiesole / Florence / Italy / mezzogiorno / Siena / Sulmona / travel
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.  — Cicero   It’s true. I’m at it again. I’m writing a book. This public admission is what I am counting on to inspire my getting to the finish line in my lifetime. It is not a travel book, per se, but the excerpt here is a story about travel. About the first time I agreed to go to Italy. About how the decision changed my life. About how I have come to love the south. I hope you enjoy the story. And if you’re inclined to come with me and Tim to see what all the fuss is about the Mezzogiorno, we’ve got a…
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