Deborah and Frank have designed the ideal itinerary…With a trip of this caliber, the richness of the history, art, literature and place are a given.
“This was the ideal trip”
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011“The Best Picture”
Thursday, October 27th, 2011Piero della Francesca is an artist well loved more than well known. Had his work been as transportable in the literal sense as it is in the figurative, his name would be as popularly recognizable as his contemporaries – Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Masaccio or any of the Italian masters of the Quattrocento (1400’s) but much [...]
2012 Itineraries
Friday, October 7th, 2011Our 2012 itineraries offer you the opportunity to visit Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche, as well as the Veneto and Po Valley and to enjoy these legendary places in a wholly unique, culturally sophisticated way – with access to places and to people that make our tours like no other. If you haven’t already done so, [...]
Still Lost in a Fresco Cycle
Friday, September 30th, 2011Every day I get lost in a reverie of some memory of last summer. Lately I keep thinking of standing on the scaffolding in Santa Croce, face to face with the figures in Agnolo Gaddi’s frescos, seeing them just as they were when the artist created them in 1380. While it is unforgettable to be [...]
Vicenza, the Golden City of Palladio
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011Recently, we were at the Italian Embassy for a presentation on Palladio’s I Quattro Libri by the Director of the Centro Internazionale Studi di Architettura, and we chatted with him about our upcoming trip. Vicenza is such a beautiful and noble city
Rondine al Nido
Friday, February 11th, 2011Of all the varying accounts of the multiple saints named “Valentine”, why we call February 14th Saint Valentine’s Day and how it became associated with love, I prefer the story that February 14th was the day birds (in my story, swallows) chose their mates. The rest is far too complicated and decidedly unromantic and swallows [...]
Buon’ Anno!
Thursday, January 20th, 2011Buon’ Anno! We hope your new year is off to a great beginning. We had a splendid trip to Florence with a great group of travelers. San Marco, the Gozzoli chapel, the Academia, San Lorenzo, the Uffizi, the Pitti, the Bargello, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, the Brancacci Chapel…and so much more. Just being in [...]
Cold Winter’s Night or Tu Scendi dalle Stelle
Thursday, December 16th, 2010Auguri! Molto freddo! That summer like fall lulled me into a false sense of suspended time. I didn’t even post my Columbus Day menu. Now it’s mid-December, dark by 4:30, Christmas approaching, and two days later off to Florence. I won’t complain about any of that since all of it fills my head and heart [...]
A Due Piedi
Monday, October 25th, 2010Or on my own two feet. Physical therapy does wonders and it seems miraculous to be going up and down stairs again. The crutches are gone, the wheel chair returned and life is nearly back to what we call normal. I learned so much from this experience that I want to keep. I’ve often said [...]
Arrivederci, Eatalia.
Sunday, August 8th, 2010Arrivederci, Eatalia. What happens when you spend a six weeks in Italy and are literally sedentary the entire time? True, I had to go up and down 32 stairs daily on crutches in our apartment building. Mercifully, the sedia ascensore (stairway chair lift) covered the other 8 flights. I would have been the Strega of [...]