Author Gayle

Back home in Brisbane, there’s a thing we like to do from time to time that we call ‘Tourist Sunday.’ It’s when we imagine ourselves as tourists in our own town and do something we wouldn’t normally do – take… Continue Reading →

Our visit to Dozza reminded us that there’s good street art to be found here in Bologna, too – right in our own neighbourhood, in fact. In the heady days of the Roman Empire, Via del Pratello, a narrow street about… Continue Reading →

The mediaeval village of Dozza, about 45 minutes southeast of Bologna, is one of Italy’s most beautiful. That’s not simply our opinion – it’s official. There’s a designated list of around 330 or so Borghi più Belli d’Italia, and Dozza… Continue Reading →

Some might wonder why we’d be in Italy in August, the hottest month of the year. It’s a good question; the answer is a simple one. We specifically timed our trip to be in here in summer, partly because the… Continue Reading →

The small village of Solomeo in Umbria is home to Brunello Cucinelli, that icon of Italian fashion and style. It’s also where his company is based and where around 800 of its employees live. Brunello Cucinelli, the eponymous brand established… Continue Reading →

It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at our accommodation somewhere in the Umbrian countryside. We were on day one of a short road trip out of Bologna and had headed for Solomeo, a small village southwest of Perugia. By the… Continue Reading →

We’re in Bologna, the remarkable city we consider to be our ‘home’ here in Italy. And, in a happy coincidence, we returned exactly six years to the day that we first landed here. Franco and Patrizia’s little home in Via… Continue Reading →

Here’s a question: what do Ernest Hemmingway, a thousand shards of glass and the Ligurian coastal town of Rapallo have to do with us being in Italy? As it turns out, quite a lot. In 2014, we were trawling through… Continue Reading →

Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan. The great cities of Italy are among the best-known and most-loved in the world. But there are also the countless small towns and villages – most of which we’ve never heard of – that make up… Continue Reading →

There’s a mystery in this part of Italy that has to do with an extraordinary collection of statues known as the Statue Stele di Lunigiana. ‘Stele‘ are defined as stone slabs bearing an inscription or design and serving as monuments… Continue Reading →