Friday Reads: A Year at Hotel Gondola

A Year at Hotel Gondola by Nicky Pellegrino

Friday Reads: Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners by Kristin Harmel

Friday Reads: The Girl in the Glass

The Girl in the Glass by Susan Meissner

One Night in Italy

We've recently begun a brand new year. I’ve also begun an exciting new chapter in my life as I ease into retirement. With this newfound freedom to do the things I enjoy, I plan to include more reading. And since I don’t have any travel plans for 2018 I was having trouble coming up with inspiration for future blog posts. Then it came to me! I’d signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge and set a goal of 52 books. As I work my way through an overflowing bookshelf of armchair travel fiction, I’ll feature some of these novels on my blog along with photos of locations mentioned in the stories. I’ll begin with One Night in Italy, by Lucy Diamond.

My 5 Favourite Food Moments

I love to try different foods while visiting other counties. Even within individual European nations there can be so many different regional cuisines. It was a difficult task to narrow my choices down to only five, but here are some of my favourite food moments in France and Italy.

1.  Beef Bourguignon in Beaune, France

Home to grazing Charolais cattle and sun-drenched vineyards, the region of Burgundy was the ideal place to try the local specialty, Boeuf Bourguignon.

Boeuf Bourguignon, Beaune

My 3 Favourite Gardens

In honour of Mother’s Day on Sunday, I’d like to revisit three of my favourite gardens in France and Italy. These are special gardens filled with colourful flowers but they also have elements that make them unique: musical fountains at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild; Chinese white peacocks on Isola Bella; and spectacular scenery at the Gardens of Augustus.

3 Scenic Hill Towns

Some of the most scenic towns I've visited are those that are perched high atop a hill. These towns offer great views of the surrounding countryside and medieval buildings add to their charm. From Provence and the Cote d'Azur in the south of France, to the region of Tuscany in Italy, here are some photos of my three favourites.

Eze Village, France

Insight Coach Tours

How lucky am I? I’ve been to Italy not once, but three times. On my first trip in the 1980s I travelled alone with a Eurail youth pass and a copy of Europe on $20 a Day. I saw some amazing things but the memories, like my old photographs, are fading and there’s no one who can fill in the blanks. My daughter came along on my most recent trip and now we can reminisce together for many years to come. The escorted group tour with Insight Vacations was also much more carefree than that first solo journey.

My Venetian Palazzo

After nine days of travelling through Italy we arrived at our final destination, the legendary city of Venice. I’d been here once before and was deluged by rain so I had high hopes for this visit. Under sunny skies we said farewell to our motor coach and boarded a water taxi. Then we cruised through scenic canals to the grand palazzo that, for the next two nights, would be my home.

Arrival in Venice

The 6 Neighbourhoods of Venice

From this old map of Venice you can see that the city is shaped like a fish with the Grand Canal winding through its centre. The city is composed of 118 islands, more than 400 bridges and a complex network of canals. And the whole is divided into six neighbourhoods, or sestieri.

Map of Venice, Vatican Museums

Opera and Shakespeare in Verona

This week I’m back to my posts about Italy, picking up in the north as we journey from Lake Maggiore towards the Adriatic coast. At mid-day we stopped for lunch in  the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Verona, a city best known as the setting for Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet as well as its Roman ruins and summer opera festival.

The Verona Arena

Italy's Champagne: Franciacorta

If I asked you to name three great sparking wines your first answer would probably be Champagne, which is produced in France. More serious wine aficionados might also mention Cava, which comes from Spain. Italy too has a rising star from the Lombardy region and it's called Franciacorta.

Franciacorta, Italy's Champagne

Italian Lakes: Lago Maggiore

Throughout the month of April I was busy participating in the A to Z Challenge. Now I'm returning to my regular posts about my trip to Italy last summer. My last post at the end of March was about two resort towns on the Italian Riviera, Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure. From there we travelled north to Lake Maggiore– not as glamourous as nearby Lake Como where George Clooney owns a villa but lovely all the same.

Lake Maggiore, Italy

"Z" is for Zucchini

I was intrigued the first time I saw zucchini in a European market (Cours Saleya in Nice). Next to the green vegetable so commonplace in North American kitchens was a smaller version sprouting a yellow bloom and I could only imagine how it would taste. 

Zucchini Blossoms at the Cours Saleya Market, Nice

"Y" is for Year

If I could spend an entire year in Italy, how would I pass my time? What a wonderful dilemma that would be! There’s no shortage of interesting events going on all year long: music, sports, religious celebrations, and festivals for everything from crickets to truffles. Here’s a small sampling of events taking place in Italy for every month of the year.

"X" is for X-Bones

The Skull and Crossbones is a familiar symbol likely first used by the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages. Today the symbol is a warning of poison (or pirates) so you probably wouldn’t expect to find the image adorning a church.  But the Skull and Crossbones also represents a religious order, the Brotherhood of Death and Prayer.

Pirate Symbol: Skull and Crossbones

"V" is for Vivaldi

One of my favourite composers is the Baroque genius Antonio Vivaldi who hails from the city of Venice. I love his stirring set of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. If you’d like to listen to my favourite concerto, follow this link to a performance of Spring on YouTube. 

"U" is for Unicorn

The Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa is a hotel built for 19^th century travellers on their Grand Tours of Europe. This is where Ernest Hemingway recovered from his war injuries and Winston Churchill honeymooned. So why does this luxury hotel on northern Italy's Lake Maggiore display the symbol of two unicorns?

"T" is for Taxi

The taxi is a convenient – but sometimes confusing –method of transportation for travellers in a strange city. In London you can flag down a passing taxi on the street; in Paris you should look for the nearest taxi stand. I don’t even know what Uber is all about. And sometimes your taxi may not be quite what you expected.

"S" is for Souvenir

When planning a trip I always give thought to the souvenirs I’d like to bring back. I want items unique to the region I’m visiting but they should also be easy to pack. And every time I look at these treasures they bring back happy memories of my travels. Here are three special souvenirs I brought home from Italy last summer.

Ceramic Bird, Capri