This article originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Find the main article here. When Shannon and Scott Kircher, a dynamic young couple, who found great success with their Anguilla hotel Frangipani Beach Resort were looking for a new challenge, they set their sights on Tuscany. In record time, especially by Italian standards, they have transformed …
Borgo 69: Elegant Villa Suites (August/September 2022)
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Find the main article here. Bringing my senior wire fox terrier to Italy with me for the first time, I wanted to comfortable place for him to adjust the first few days. I shouldn’t have worried as Borgo 69 checked every box, not only for him but …
Three Tuscan Boutique Getaways (August/September 2022)
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Tuscany…there’s a reason so many of us keep returning to this special swath of land again and again. While I love exploring every corner of Italy from north to south, Toscana exerts an inexplicable hold on me, I have to admit. Tuscany isn’t just one landscape or …
Italy’s Memorable Mountain Moments (August/September 2022)
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. The Italian Republic was forged from numerous, often culturally diverse city-states and maritime republics that were once autonomous countries. Nowhere in Italy is that more evident than the still autonomous, often German and/or Ladin-speaking regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, the mountainous far north that was actually part of …
Craft Beer in Italy: Barrel-Aged Bliss in Tuscany (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Read about additional Italian craft beers. Less than three miles outside the impeccably gorgeous, UNESCO-listed village of Pienza, surrounded by the storybook scenery of Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, brewer Samuele Cesaroni convinced his parents to let him build an outbuilding off the family agriturismo and start a brewery, Brasseria …
Craft Beer in Italy: A Brettanomyces Bonanza in Bologna (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Read about additional Italian craft beers. While very Italian things like tomatoes and white wine have an acidic flavor profile, sour things—in the English sense of the word—aren’t traditionally common in Italy. Bambini aren’t eating sour candy, limes aren’t used for much of anything, lemonade isn’t common. But …
Craft Beer in Italy: The Highest Microbrewery in Europe (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Read more about additional Italian craft beers. Few things in life are as satisfying as a well-earned cold beer. The scenic Rifugio Lavarella mountain lodge and brewery awaits hikers at 6,725 feet above sea level, an impossibly gorgeous two-hour trek from Pederü Berggasthaus in the alpine Alto Adige …
Craft Beer in Italy: Lombardy’s Hoppy Heartland (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Read about additional Italian craft beers. Due to space considerations, breweries are most often located in industrial areas on the outskirts of cities, and Alder Beer Co.’s American-inspired taproom is no exception. Twelve miles north of Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, it occupies a former Pirelli tennis ball factory …
Craft Beer in Italy: Hophead Heaven in Padua (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Read about additional Italian craft beers. If you’re accustomed to the type of taproom adventures found in America’s greatest beer cities (Portland, Asheville, San Diego, Denver), all roads lead to Padua in Italy. Crak Brewery has cultivated two of Italy’s best brew experiences by focusing on freshness, ambiance …
Rome’s Iconic Pine Trees (April/May 2022)
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. In ancient times, Rome’s famous stone pine trees, also known as umbrella pine trees or Pinus pinea in botanic terms, were revered symbols of spring and immortality. A legend from Roman mythology details the story of the god Attis, who fell in love with the goddess Cybele …