Posts tagged Tuscany

The Wine Is Always Finer On The Other Side of the Fence

1 year ago

by Michael in Culinary, Lazio, Tours, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

TweetI’ve been wanting to write about this for ages. Not about wine actually being better on the other side of the fence, but the impression that it is. We take groups to wineries in Tuscany and the surrounding regions several times a week, and once you have done it enough, you can’t [...]

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Olive Garden cooking school in Tuscany?

1 year ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head, Tuscany

TweetUpdated 02/2010 Olive Garden is one of those places that really sets my blood to boil. Every time I hear the word ‘Hospitaliano’ I begin to cringe and twitch. When I hear them say ‘When you’re here, you’re family’, I can’t help but visualize the corporate offices of a chain with [...]

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The FAMILY feeling of our vacations explained

2 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Food, Personal, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany

TweetOur future guests often ask me what our tours are going to be like, and I try to explain the feeling of ‘family’, and how it is so different than anything else out there. Oddly, it is a difficult thing to explain, especially since our future guests are little more than strangers on a [...]

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Cooking & Touring Tuscany, Umbria & Lazio Italy in 2008, a look back

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Festivals, Food, Lazio, Music, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

Tweet7 months, 17 tours, 56 cooking classes, 144 guests and over 35,000 miles of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio are behind us. That was the 2008 season for us at Culture Discovery. As with last year, after coming back to the US, I have gone into video mode. Here is the first video I have [...]

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Recession-proof your vacation with Culture Discovery Vacations

3 years ago

by Michael in Tours, Travel Tips

TweetWith so much uncertainty ahead with the economy, skyrocketing fuel prices, and the drastic drop of the Dollar against the Euro over the past couple years; many people have been concerned about planning travel. In fact, during the 2008 season, most of Europe has seen a sharp drop in [...]

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The Blindfolded Chef – Ceci Soup Challenge

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Personal

Tweet Last week Paola wanted to teach Alyssa, our 18 year old daughter, how to make Ceci Soup. She was saying it was so easy that she could do it blindfolded. As we laughed at her, she insisted that she could, so I ended up betting her $100 that she couldn’t. What started out as a stupid [...]

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A little more Olive Gardening Laughter…

4 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head, Tuscany

TweetFace it, I’m back in the states for a few months, so I just don’t have much material for the blog these days. I mean, when I am in Italy, I could write several posts a day, but I am sitting here in Florida, what to contribute to THIS blog? That said, little things catch my [...]

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The Wine Harvest – Making wine in Italy

4 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Festivals, Food, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

Tweet I remember my mother telling me about her move to Southern California, and how excited she was the first time she picked an orange off a tree and ate it right there. I was thinking, like… ok, big deal… you need to get out more! But then again, she was from New York, and I had [...]

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Would you have a second home in Italy?

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Travel Tips

TweetIt used to be that when I would come to Italy, for the first few days, people would see me and give me a huge ‘welcome back’. That was then. I would come here once a year in the summer and spend a month to six weeks here. Michael and Paola are here… it must be summer, right? Big [...]

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The 40th Annual Chestnut Festival (Sagra delle Castagne) Schedule – 2007

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Festivals, Lazio, Tours

TweetThe 40th Annual Chestnut Festival (Sagra delle Castagne) Schedule – 2007 Every year, during the first two weeks of October, Soriano nel Cimino hosts a festival that surrounds the chestnut harvest. This festival is done on a large scale, and attracts thousands of people from [...]

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Slow down and let your vacation happen

4 years ago

by Michael in Tours, Travel Tips

TweetHave you ever been on a vacation and come home having the feeling that you need a vacation from your vacation? Have you ever phoned home and said something to the effect of ‘We’re exhausted, but we’ve seen this, and that, and that, and that, and that’? When you plan trips, do you [...]

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Living Mangers in Italy

5 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria

TweetA tradition in Italy during Christmas time is the living manger. Many towns go way beyond a simple manger scene, and produce a full scale reproduction of Bethlehem. What makes it so special in many cases, is that they have the landscape and existing structures to really make it [...]

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How do they get the flavor out of the food in the states?

5 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Food, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head, Travel Tips

TweetI’ve been back in Los Angeles for a week now, and last night we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner for the first time since I got back. This may not seem like a big deal, but for us it is always a tragedy. The restaurant was Pomodoro in Woodland Hills. I don’t want to say it [...]

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Cattle Call in Rome versus an Italian country sunrise

5 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head, Tours, Travel Tips

TweetI’ve been here for 5 days now and have had no time to write as I have been so busy working on our apartments. However, yesterday I took my cousin to see Rome. After all, she has never been to Italy and it is less than an hour away from our house. It’s late October… we are pressing [...]

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Having a craving for Grilled Flesh

5 years ago

by Michael in Culinary, Culture, Food, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head

TweetGrilled Flesh… YUM! When I lived here in Soriano, I was, quite simply, ‘The American”. In fact, the immigrant population of the area consisted of me, two Brits and a Brazilian. Outside of that, nobody spoke a word of English. My, how things can change over the course of 20+ years. A [...]