Author Gayle

Mark Twain once said ‘the Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo’ and it’s hard to disagree, especially here in Florence where we’re surrounded by the work of the man who was himself described as ‘Il Divino‘. We’ve been awestruck… Continue Reading →

Significant life changes require a bit of getting used to. Take retirement, for example; having spent a lifetime building a successful career, the thought of giving it all away can be daunting and ‘life after work’ means making some significant… Continue Reading →

In a city that boasts some of the world’s finest museums and galleries, there’s one spectacular current exhibition that’s not being held in any of them. It’s the blockbuster, limited-season show that is Autumn in Tuscany. This week we spent… Continue Reading →

Autumn is white truffle season, and that’s cause for celebration in those few parts of Italy where this rare and precious delicacy is found. Of the more than 60 truffle varieties that exist around the world, Italian white truffles are… Continue Reading →

In 1716 the boundaries of what was already this country’s premier wine making region were officially decreed. 300 years later the Chanti Classico area of Tuscany is regarded as the birthplace of modern Italian wine making. In reality though, wine… Continue Reading →

Before we arrived here this week, Greg and I worked out it had been more than ten years since our last visit to Florence. That’s hard to believe because, as many of you know, Florence is a city that seems… Continue Reading →

Duccio Fontani grows aromatic herbs on his organic farm just outside Castellina in Chianti, about an hour south of Florence. On the third Sunday of each month Duccio loads up his van and heads north to sell his products at… Continue Reading →

Today is our last day in Bologna. We’re three months into our wonderful Italian adventure and it’s time to move on. If you asked us whether those three months have flown, we’d say yes – and no. You know that… Continue Reading →

Mantova’s self-indulgent Prince Frederick II Gonzaga liked the good things in life. So much so that in the early 1500s Frederick ordered construction of a magnificent pleasure palace where he could indulge himself, his mistress and his friends in il… Continue Reading →

At exactly three o’clock each afternoon at a monastery on the edge of the city of Ferrara, a small convent of nuns files into their private chapel. The Sisters of the Order of St Benedict have been praying in that… Continue Reading →