Country Archive
Our Best Italian Meal (Among Many)
Date: 11/12/2004From our home base in Rome we drove to Piemonte, in north-west Italy
Read OnBargains in the Toe of Italy's Boot
Date: 11/08/2004If you haven't been this far south into Italy's boot, you don't know what you're missing--or how cheap this country can be…
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The agriturismos of Sicily
Date: 11/01/2004
Arguably the finest no-frills, made-by-human-hands food in Italy is available at what are called agriturismos. Everything that comes to the table is produced either right outside the window of the restaurant or just down the road. I went to Casa dello Scirocco in Lentini, Sicily, on a recommendation from a local. "There is no menu," the Signora of the house warned us. "We start with a sack of antipasti." She wasn't kidding. The waitress wheeled out a cart and began to fill every available square inch of the table with plates.
Read OnThe Perfect Beach
Date: 10/26/2004"Tropea's white-sand beaches were recently given a perfect score by an Italian environmental group that rates Italy's beaches for natural beauty, pollution, tourist facilities, and noise levels..."
Read OnThe Perfect Beach
Date: 10/25/2004Tropea's white-sand beaches were recently given a perfect score by an Italian environmental group that rates Italy's beaches for natural beauty, pollution, tourist facilities, and noise levels.
Read OnGilded Leather, Florentine-style
Date: 10/15/2004The district of Santa Croce, considered Florence's best shopping area for leather goods, has been home to the School of Leather for decades.
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Gilded Leather, Florentine-style
Date: 10/15/2004"Beyond the sacristy of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, is an aged dormitory that once housed Franciscan friars. Today this dormitory serves as the Scuola del Cuoio, or School of Leather..."
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Via Francigena-trekking the highway to heaven
Date: 10/01/2004
Early Christians believed there were three roads to Paradise. The first, the Camino de Santiago, meanders 500 miles across northern Spain. This has been trekked by millions for centuries, on their way to pay homage to the remains of the apostle St. James in Santiago de Compostela.
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