Gumbo and Other Italian Feasts
We have enjoyed many Italian, and not so Italian, feasts with Myra. ...
Vanquishing the Tramontana
Fiendish Wind We’ve been having a struggle with the weather this week. We started the week with snow, which was beautiful and magical and we loved it. Then the sun came out and it was clear and bright and we loved it. With the sun came the wind. It...
Seasonal Perspectives
One of the things we were looking forward to when we moved here was to experience the seasons. We’ve been coming to Italy for 25 years, so we’ve seen snippets of every season, but to witness the changes crosses a threshold between visiting and living. We got here in...
The Baths Up the Road
We visited Bagno di Romagna recently, a small village near here known for its thermal springs. Bagno di Romagna is a Roman town and became an important stop on the route between Rome and Ravenna. The thermal springs are a cozy 116 degrees year round. I can imagine that...
A Food Review
We’ve had many great meals that I would like to share with you. Some of them have even been at home. We’ve been cooking a lot as we start our winter hibernation. Hope you enjoy! Dinner at Michelangelo and Rossella’s This is always a treat, but this time was...
A Celebration for the Senses
One of the things I love about living in Anghiari is that it’s a small town with a big city vibe. It’s rare to go for more than a few weeks without some event or celebration. And they almost all center around food, which makes it even more appealing...
Road Trip
We took a road trip recently to the Adriatic coast. We’ve decided that now that things are somewhat settled for us, we should take an overnight trip about once a month. We’d like to go to places we’ve never been, but since we’ve been traveling here for over 20...
Germans and Italians
Germans and Italians have a history. Well, Germans and a lot of people have histories, but the one with Italy is complicated. They’re neighbors, but completely different in their worldview. They’re both European, but with very different sensibilities. They both flirted with Fascism, then took very different path forward. ...
A Gift of Grapes
It’s grape harvest time here. We’re really not in wine country, but everywhere you look you see rows of grapes. We even have some in our backyard. Ours are white grapes and are very sweet. Almost like a muscadine. I don’t know grape varieties, but would like to learn...
Sunday in Florence
One of the absolute best things about living where we do is that we are less than two hours from Florence, one of the greatest cities in the world. To finish up my birthday week, we decided to spend the day in Florence just because we could. We had...