This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 190 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here. Did you get the word play on “Big Parma”? Like “Big Pharma”? All credit for the title and the cover story goes to contributing writer Kevin Raub. Parma, with just 200,000 …
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. About four miles southeast of Parma in the middle of nowhere – “Culonia,” as the Italians might say (roughly translated, “the ass end of nowhere”) – there’s a small trattoria facing the countryside that might catch your eye if you happen to be driving by (it’s a …
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Hidden in the province of Parma, the Labirinto della Masone is a place to get lost. And then found. The art collector and designer Franco Maria Ricci created the park consisting of a museum, a publishing house, exhibition places and halls for parties, surrounded by bamboo mazes. …
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. As I zip up the A22 motorway towards Bolzano, I can’t shake the sinking feeling I have about my choice of accommodation. You see, when you book as many hotels, Airbnbs and privately managed apartments as someone who writes travel guidebooks for a living, your sixth sense …
This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 190 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here. Like all of us, I venture to guess, I never feel like I spend enough time in Sicily. Just like the rest of Italy, it would take several lifetimes to peel …
This article originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. “I want people to smell Sicily!” Agronomist Dario Rinaldi is mixing me a G&T with his signature gin, Ginacria, one of several showstopping craft gins he produces at his Nissoria-based Nystura Distillery in the central Sicilian province of Enna (Nystura is the ancient name of Nissoria). Rinaldi canvasses this swath of …
This article originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Silence and illusions loom in the middle of the Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Wood”) of Bomarzo in the region of Lazio. In 1552, Pier Francesco “Vicino” Orsini created this labyrinth of walking paths and larger-than-life sculptures. Neptune, giant dragons, an enormous elephant and a sitting mermaid wait to greet you …
This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the April/May 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 190 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here. Hello from the high seas! I am currently sailing with Regent Seven Seas on a European journey from Italy to Greece and Turkey. My heart is, as always, in Italy and …
This is an excerpt for Episode 1: Andrea Bocelli’s Tuscany from the Dream of Italy Season 3 Travel Guide. Get your own PDF copy here. We visit the seaside home of famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli in Tuscany to learn how this region has influenced Bocelli’s life and music, exploring his deep faith and love of dogs and visiting the …
This is an excerpt for Episode 1: Andrea Bocelli’s Tuscany from the Dream of Italy Season 3 Travel Guide. Get your own PDF copy here. Alpemare Beach Club, which the Bocelli family owns, welcomes guests with a palette of soothing nature, fresh air and elegant luxury on a private beach. A pine forest at the property’s edge complements the landscape …
