TV Review: Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy

I have to confess to being more than a little late to the party. The first series of Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy to be shown in UK earlier this year has achieved almost cult status amongst its fans. Is there anyone who hasn’t watched and loved it? And now, to this blogger’s great delight, […]

Read More

Tuscany 2019: Return to Florence

I’m in Tuscany for a week, starting with 3 nights in Florence. I loved coming back here a couple of years ago after a long break so much, I wanted to return again soon. I’m staying in the lovely Hotel Cellai again. My morning flight from Heathrow took me to Pisa. There is an airport […]

Read More

Genoa 2018: Dinner at Osteria di Vico Palla

Home to Christopher Columbus, the port city of Genoa, the 6th largest city in Italy, has a long and impressive maritime history. And down in the old port – Porto Antico – you will find many restaurants serving up traditional Ligurian food. When I booked the trip and saw my hotel was close to Porto […]

Read More

Panzanella – Tuscan Bread & Tomato Salad

I’ve always had a bit of an addiction to good bread. I can remember as a toddler standing with my grandmother at her local bakery (she looked after me while my mother worked) waiting for their shop to open and taking home a still-warm bloomer loaf with poppy seeds on top. In Italian delis in […]

Read More

A Weekend in Turin

Why go? There are lots of good reasons to make Turin a city break destination. It’s a city rich in history (it was the first capital of a unified in Italy in 1861) with beautiful architecture, magnificent piazzas (squares) and 18km of lovely arcades lining the main streets. It is an important economic and industrial […]

Read More

Insalata Caprese

This one is for Antonio who apparently had ‘one of the worst Caprese ever’ in New York a couple of nights ago. How can you mess it up? he asked. In their book Two Greedy Italians, Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo speak of it being ‘one of the most famous of Italian dishes’ but warn that […]

Read More