by Lucy Gordan | Apr 17, 2023 | Travel, Travel blog
On April 14th, in the late afternoon, the press office of the Vatican Museums sent out notice to Vatican-accredited journalists stating that again this year, for the tenth season, the Museums would be extending their hours on Friday and Saturday evenings until October...
by Lucy Gordan | Dec 27, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
You are a “nose”; what exactly does that mean? “Nose” is a nickname for a perfume maker; a person gifted with a particularly developed sense of smell, who is capable of combining mentally different smells to create unique essences and...
by Lucy Gordan | Nov 1, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
Naples is world famous for pizza, coffee, crèche artisans and music, both operatic at its magnificent 18th-century Teatro San Carlo and popular songs with lyrics in Neapolitan dialect sadly without a venue. That changed on October 15th when La Fondazione Trianon...
by Lucy Gordan | Sep 26, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
Tucked away in a narrow inlet since ancient times, the small coastal town of Minori is located directly below Ravello, the more famous hill-top town beloved by Wagner, who wrote “Parsifal” there, and by many writers: Gide, E.M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence...
by Lucy Gordan | Jul 3, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
Off-the-tourists’-beaten-track, the Aventine, one of Rome’s seven hills, is one of the Eternal City’s most peaceful, least commercial, and elegant residential neighborhoods, but nonetheless with several sights worth a visit. Last year 15 members of the Foreign Press...
by Lucy Gordan | Feb 6, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
Two years ago and again last year the Director Eike Schmidt “invited” married couples from all over Italy to celebrate the wedding anniversary of Agnolo Doni and Maddelena Strozzi, “La Festa dei Doni”, on January 31 by visiting the Uffizi at half price. Last...
by Noreen Kompanik | Jan 22, 2021 | Contents, Travel
All-inclusive vacation stays were something I was never really interested in— especially when it comes to dining. I’m all about experiencing the food culture of a destination. But then, I experienced the all-inclusive dining plan at Cancun’s Grand Fiesta Americana...
by Lucy Gordan | Jan 21, 2021 | Travel, Travel blog
On January 17th Massimo Osanna, the former and still the interim Director General of Pompeii’s excavations until a new one is appointed, as well as the soon-to-be Director of all of Italy’s State Museums, was a guest on Sunday evening’s popular TV talk show “Che...
by Lucy Gordan | Oct 14, 2020 | Travel, Travel blog
Born on September24, 1954 at Alba, the small city in Piemonte famous for wine and truffles, Oscar Farinetti is THE maverick entrepreneur of Italian food and cuisine. In January 2007 he founded “EATALY” opening in an abandoned Carpano Vermouth factory in Turin’s...
by Scott W. Clemens | Aug 30, 2020 | Travel, Travel blog
The Lake District has inspired some of England’s most beloved poets and authors, including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. I never imagined that world still existed in the 21st century, but I found it in Rothswaite in Borrowdale, at Hazel Bank Country House...
by Lucy Gordan | Jul 28, 2020 | Travel, Travel blog
For several years now I’ve received the annual online guide from the non-profit Association Ospitalità Religiosa Italiana (Italian Religious Hospitality) (www.ospitalitareligiosa.it), headquartered at Via Molina 10 in Varese, a city in Lombardy northwest of Milan,...
by Lucy Gordan | Mar 6, 2020 | Travel, Travel blog
This year the world is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death with exhibitions in London at both the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in Paris at the Louvre, and in Washington D.C. at the National Gallery. However, the mega-show, to...