Big brother Murano may be more famous, but deliciously quirky Burano can certainly hold its own, with exquisite lace, fresh seafood, lemon bussole and vibrant colours.

Assisi from a bird’s perspective…
See the storm clouds? The weather is about to take a turn for the worse, and I’m one of the lucky few who gets a bird’s eye view of Assisi.

A Taste of Italy: pizza in Rome
Taste Italy is a new series of Italian restaurant reviews done over the course of my stay in Rome and Umbria for the TBU conference. First out: fab pizza in Rome

Urbino – a secret Italian hilltop town
Central Italy has three provinces: Tuscany and Umbria are well-known, Le Marche less so. Each has a hilltop town listed among UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. Tuscany has San Gimignano, Umbria has Assisi, and Le Marche has Urbino. Its remarkable legacy of independent Renaissance culture is the reason for inclusion on the list. Just like Marche [...]

Pizza night in the Italian countryside
Today is Thursday. I wish I were at La Tavola Marche, a wonderful agriturismo and cooking school in Le Marche, one of Italy’s least known regions. You see, every Thursday, Ashley and Jason Bartner organizes pizza night at their agriturismo. And it doesn’t hurt to have a chef in charge, a chef with years of [...]

La Befana, witches and Rome’s Christmas Markets
Forget Father Christmas and Santa Claus. In Rome, la befana rules. Christmas market at Piazza Navona A few years ago, on an impulse, I took my then 5-year-old to Rome a few days before Christmas. The main attraction at the Piazza Navona Christmas market seemed to be witches. They were everywhere, laughing wickedly, madly – [...]

Blog carnival: Your favourite place on earth
It’s my great pleasure to host the 10th Lonely Planet Blogsherpa Carnival. For this edition, I asked my fellow bloggers: Which is your favourite place on earth? Is it a country, a city, a village, a beach, a hut, a mountain, a hotel? Do you return all the time – or do you dream of [...]

Lodging review – Casolare di Remignoli, San Gimignano, Italy
Casolare di Remignoli Located in the hills about 5 kilometres from San Gimignano, Casolare Remignoli is an ideal base for exploring Tuscany. Florence, Siena, Vinci, Monteriggioni and Volterra are all less than ½ hour away. Italian country roads, especially the small, unpaved ones, aren’t always clearly marked. As a result, I got lost a few [...]






