ONE: VENICE, OFF-SEASON Off-season Venice: by all means, travel outside summer season or Carnival week (unless you have tickets to one of the official balls, then you simply have to throw it all in). Venice is so full of tourists that you can hardly call any time of the year “off season”, but I discovered that La Serenissima is only serene in winter, and maybe some blissful days in early spring or late autumn. Check this out for Venice in winter. The wind in the lagoon may be chilly at times, but you’ll discover a truer, more fascinating face of Venice. TWO: A ROOM WITH A VIEW A room with…
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Tuscany wine to be: Mamma mia, Vendemmia!
September arrives, bringing with it the familiar anticipation of Vendemmia – the grape harvest in Toscana. The calendar, naturally, fills with the usual wonders: exclusive wine tastings, the joy of community harvest, explorations of the hallowed cantine, local fairs honouring Bacchus, intriguing mystery tours, and the pranzoni – those incredible, seasonal feasts. This year, however, due to particular climatic eccentricities and hot weather, vendemmia takes place sooner than usual. The forecast hints at a historically low yield, yet promises extraordinary grapes, albeit in very limited quantities. Heatwaves and extreme conditions have resulted in smaller, often atypical grapes, with significant quality variations even from one vineyard to the next. Follow the…
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Best Open air Opera for the happy few
If you’re a classical music enthusiast or an opera lover, you must have been to the Covent Garden or La Scala once or twice. But I discovered something that beats even the gilded interiors of Opera Garnier: the outdoor grandeur. Dream big: an ancient theater with view of the volcano, a huge lake stage or a musical terrace where you can see the sun rising 315 m over the sea. THE FINDS Arena di Verona Opera Festival Witnessing world-class opera performed in a nearly 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater, with a cast of thousands and massive sets, is an absolute treat. The atmosphere is magical and the audience is electric INTEL: Teatro…
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A ROADTRIP THROUGH CHIANTI CLASSICO
GREVE AND MONTEFIORALLE Coming from Florence, Greve in Chianti is the natural gateway. The town grew around its triangular Piazza Matteotti, still lined with arcades and food shops, and its market tradition goes back centuries. This is where you start thinking about lunch before it is actually lunchtime. Go shopping. Antica Macelleria Falorni, established in 1729, is the obvious destination for Tuscan charcuterie: salame di cinghiale, finocchiona, prosciutto and other cured meats. But don’t stop at the butcher. Look into the small alimentari and wine shops around the piazza for pecorino, local olive oil, cantucci and bottles from the estates you will be passing later. Then make the short detour…
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BUT FIRST WE FLORENCE IN STYLE
It is that time of the year. Grape harvest season means Toscana for the happy few. Two weeks of the slow, artful, almost timeless happiness in the Tuscan countryside. But first we Florence in style. When Stendhal visited Florence for the first time, he experienced a one-time feeling: a mixture of amazement, beatitude and exhilaration that proved literally overwhelming. He was dizzy and confused and sick with emotion, while physically incapable of leaving the city. I felt it too, my first time in Firenze: the allure, the wonder, the perfect beauty and the inconceivable happiness of just being there. You know that special tension you feel when you’re desperately in love,…
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With love, from CHIANTI: 300 years of Chianti Classico
On Sept. 24, 1716, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de’ Medici officially delineated the borders of the Chianti wine region. Which basically makes him a personal favorite and a hero. Him and Barone Ricasoli, of course. Cosimo had quality control teams patrolling the vineyards in the area and made sure that no other wine outside this blessed realm could be called Chianti, ever again. A predecessor to what would become the modern Denominazione d’Origine Controllata (DOC) and DOCG wine labelling system, the Grand Duke’s act was the first of its kind in Europe. Genius. 300 years later, thehappyfew couldn’t have missed the celebrations. On September 24, 2016, there…
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Val d’Orcia And The Ideal City
One fine day, the Architect looked out of the window to see the future; he saw a utopian landscape of pale green fields and pure skies, rolling into forever. Then he took a brush and four colors and started painting: pale yellowish green for the fields, dark green for the cypresses, azzuro for the skies and warm brown for the roads and the farms. You think I’m being rather corny, poetic with a touch of mysticism. I can be all that, but today I’m merely factual. The Val d’Orcia, another world favorite of the happy few, is a region of perfect landscape south of Siena, included in the UNESCO World…
