Young children and summer holidays involve some degree of planning to keep it stress-free. I don’t know about you but summer holidays for me go something like this: kids get up, eat breakfast, slowly pull on their clothes and then are bouncing off the walls, desperate to get out of the house. I inevitably make…
Where in Italy is a great place for families to spend the Christmas holiday?
Venezia (Venice) has many names and faces. It is known as the city of romance, a UNESCO city of culture rich with breathtaking architecture and art, the City of Water with its canals crisscrossing the city, the City of Masks as shops display the city’s characteristic carnival masks year-round, as where the orient meets Europe…
6 easy recipes for a busy week
The euphoria of having the kids back in school has worn off and the malaise of homework and the PTA has set in. The premonition of free time has been a mirage. Meal planning looks something like this at the beginning of the week: Monday: braised veal with risotto Tuesday: beef braised in Barolo with…
Need a gift idea for Father’s Day?
Wondering what to give your father for Father’s Day? The recipe below is great for small children (they are great at picking leaves) and adults alike to prepare, does not take much time and is a homemade gift from the heart that will remind him how loved he is each time he uses it. It…
Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day (Festa della mamma) is quickly approaching in many parts of the world, including Italy on May 10th. This day is dedicated to the lady who survived many a sleepless night to care for you when sick, prioritised you before herself, always turned a sympathetic ear when life seemed bleak, cheered you on through every…
3 Steps to Plan the Perfect Italian Holiday
Overcome the winter blues by planning a trip to Italy this year. Want to stay in a hotel characteristic of the area run by friendly locals who make you feel instantly at home? Nothing ruins a trip more than staying in a carbon-copy hotel in the wrong neighbourhood run by drones. Don’t miss out on…
Top 8 reasons to visit a forgotten corner of Italy: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is an exotic part of Italy with a distinctive Slavic flair. The cuisine is unique in its extensive interweaving of sweet, savoury and spices such as gnocchi di susine (sweet plum dumplings) which are served as a first course, the same as pasta. The geography varies from crystal blue Alpine lakes and the…
What do Italians eat for Christmas?
Italian holiday foods are often symbolic as well as delicious. Dishes served on the day before a religious festival such as Christmas Eve, known as La Vigilia, are meant to purify the body before the rich holiday foods. The Christmas season starts in Italy on 6 December with the birthday of Saint Nicola…
Why do people from 180 countries come to a village in Lombardia on the same day every year?
Every year around the 24th of June, people from 180 countries around the world convene at Solferino, a tiny town of 2,000 inhabitants south of Lake Garda in Lombardia. Solferino is surrounded by farmland and has a beautiful Mantuan square, Piazza Castello (so named because there used to be an 11th century castle here). The…
The idyllic family holiday destination
We took the boys and my father on a tour of northern Sardegna and found it to be, like many places in Italy, extremely family friendly. The location was potentially even more appealing to us because living in a large metropolis like Hong Kong, we were sensory deprived. Our ears were full of the sounds…
