Let me start off by saying that Dalla Zita is not a secret spot. While it feels like a secret spot, as it may be a touch difficult to find (mostly due to the lack of signage out front), the spot seems to be extremely […]

  Italy is a country of history, art, and tradition. Skills and family businesses are passed down generation to generation. The members of the Biagiotti family of Pienza are one such family. The family now boasts three generations of blacksmiths. In the early 1900s, Alfredo Biagiotti (the grandfather) […]

The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son. This, I’m sure, is exactly what Enrico Scrovegni was worried about. Maybe that was good, as this was the impetus for him to build The Scrovegni Chapel and to commission Giotto to decorate it. […]

On a recent road trip to the Veneto region of Italy, Pete and I decided to spend a few days in a city neither of us had been to before: Padova, or as English speakers call it, Padua. Padova claims to be the oldest city […]

Unfortunately, there was not a lot of sun on our Sunday in San Marino. The day started off raining, raining to the point that Pete looked at me and said, “let’s leave and go home to Umbria”. I somehow managed to get him to agree […]

The Vasari Corridor is a 1-kilometer long self-portrait gallery. Originally, when started by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, artists were commissioned to paint their self-portrait for the collection; but the Vasari collection got so famous that artists who arrived in Florence would show up at the gallery […]

Starting its life as an Etruscan town originally named Corsignano, Pienza (renamed in 1462), is located in Tuscany on the road from Montepulciano to Montalcino. It is located smack dab in the middle of the famous wine towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino – about 15 minutes […]