I like on the table,/when we’re speaking, the light of a bottle/of intelligent wine. — Pablo Neruda If you’ve been to our house in the last three years, chances are you’ve had a glass of wine or two from the Abruzzese winery called Pietrantonj. Because three years ago is when we discovered we were madly in love with the region,…

First of all, let’s get one thing straight. Your Italy and our Italia are not the same thing. Italy is a soft drug peddled in predictable packages, such as hills in the sunset, olive groves, lemon trees, white wine, and raven-haired girls. Italia, on the other hand, is a maze. . .  Italy is the only workshop in the world…

If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant? — Martin Scorsese We’ve been working feverishly here to put together a food and wine-oriented tour for you — with just enough history and even a little down time — to keep you all enchanted. Of course, it’s Italy, so how could you not be enchanted? Here’s…

I love places that have an incredible history. I love the Italian way of life. I love the food. I love the people. I love the attitudes of Italians. – Elton John  A good friend of mine has traveled to Italy with me a lot. A few years ago, when she announced to her co-workers that she was going to…

The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again — George Miller It all started with a crazy idea back in Sulmona in the fall: What if we brought over our two chef friends and did a few cooking classes? Would Americans go for it? Would Novelia really board a plane for the…

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went — Will Rogers The rain on my window was hard one day last week. It pounded in a rhythm of threes — tap, tap, tap — that gave me pause. I stopped what I was doing and listened. Tap, tap, tap. It…

The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches —  e.e.cummings I came to New York for a writing and theater weekend and got a blizzard named Jonas instead. The writing went pretty well, actually, but Broadway was shut down Saturday night, along with the tunnels, the subways and buses, the airports and then George Washington Bridge. If you wanted to get here you couldn’t and if you were here and wanted to get out, you’d better find a friend or a hotel room. Do I like it because it means “apple” in Italian? I’d gotten a great deal on my favorite little hotel in New York, so I was well taken care of. And right across the street is one of my favorite places to eat. I am sitting at a table there as I begin to write this. I have been coming here to the Café Un Deux Trois since the 1970s when I lived another life in the advertising business. Few things have changed except that there is a still little shot…

The holidays stress people out so much. I suggest you keep it simple and try to have as much fun as you can. —Giada De Laurentis  Hah! — LD Jenkins ‘Tis the season of distress. Too much to do, too many people wanting a piece of your time, and this damned upcoming holiday week, which has become so far removed…

Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much. —Sir Walter Scott Ciao a tutti! Some of you have indicated an interest in joining me and Tim for our next tour of Italy. I’m still working out some of the details, but I can tell you this much right…

Life is a combination of magic and pasta. – Federico Fellini There will surely be pasta. And lenticche soup. And a little meat, I suppose. Sausage, salumi, maybe a little lamb. I’ve heard rumors of a truffle sauce. I can’t wait to see what comes of it. The “it” is so exciting: our friends Novelia and Peppe from Sulmona are…