Arrivederci, Abruzzo!
At the famous Pelino Confetti store and museum Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life – Anna Akhmatova Well, you missed a great trip! Thanks to everybody who helped make this one a smash: Novelia, Vittoria, Amalia and Nonna Aida, Katy and Susanna, Antonella and all the Santacroce family, our guides Danilo and Francesco,…
An East Hampton State of Mind
And when my spirit wants no stimulus or nourishment save music, I know it is to be sought in cemeteries: the musicians hide in the tombs; from grave to grave flute trills, harp chords answer one another. ― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities My birthday happened to fall on the weekend that just past and we wanted to do something special, so we…
The 2015 Sweet Sulmona Tour: See what you’re missing?
History, food, architecture, more food and cooking in the green heart of Europe September 25 – October 4, 2015 Piazza Garibaldi: Sulmona among the mountains It’s too late to join me on this small group adventure under the glorious skies of one of Italy’s most beautiful regions. But we’ll be going again in 2016. Hope you can come! Meanwhile, here’s what…
Calling All Book Clubs!
Just a reminder that I’m available to come to your book club or community group (especially Italian-oriented groups) to talk about my book and/or my experiences as a traveler and travel planner in Italy. Here’s the scoop: Readings & Presentations I’d love to come to your book group or other organization to discuss and read from my book, Up at the Villa:…
Campo 78 + Unbroken + A Box of Old Photos
I tried to be the perfect daughter, but my Daddy died anyway. — LDJ That is a sentence that I have written before, but which has gone no place. I even tried it once in poetry: To my Father in Fiji, 1942 Francesco Dini In this picture you are twenty The smallest in your unit by far Certainly the only…
There’s No Place Like Home Away From Home
Italy will always have the best food. — Diane von Furstenberg It started out so simply: Get a few friends together and talk about Abruzzo. Let’s show them pictures of our apartment in Sulmona. And then let’s wow them with some food and wine from the region. Want to sell Sulmona? Use a shot like this one! Before you could say…
Campo PG 78
There was never a good war, or a bad peace. — Benjamin Franklin It was raining the day we went to visit Campo PG 78. The PG stands for prigioneri di guerra, prisoners of war. We were told that students from the liceo (high school) would be helping to lead the tour and that they might speak a little English.…
Why Sulmona?
For us to go to Italy and to penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery, back, back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness. — D.H. Lawrence We get asked that a lot — both stateside and even in Sulmona, from…
Will Fly for Cheese
Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures. — M.F.K. Fisher I’m off to bella italia soon and one of the things I’ve been thinking about — especially since I just wrote a guest blog post about Sulmona and food for L’Esperta — is cacio e pepe. It’s…
Audacious!
This amazing collection shows the dynamic nature of contemporary wood art. The pieces are at times difficult to reconcile with our expectations about the look and feel of wood. — Dean Lahikainen, the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Art Hal Metlitzky, Double Helix, 2012 (6,500 pieces of wood). The Montalto Boheln Collaction. c. 2014, PEM. Photo by…
Travel Tips Newsletter
Every once in a while, Linda posts useful gems about mustn’t-miss travel info. Group travel? Packing? Where to go? What happens when an emergency strikes?
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