Italy With Pleasure: tours of Italy

30/05/2024

Icons of Italy, the Vespa motorscooter and the olive tree

09/05/2024

With the current geo-political climate becoming increasingly devisive we can find a wonderful model of multiculturalism in 12th century Sicily. This photo is of a royal edict, inscribed on a stone tablet in Latin, Arabic and Greek. Here the Norman rulers oversaw a society that had populations speaking Arabic, Byzantine Greek and Latin. Palermo became a centre of knowledge, engaging scholars to disseminate scientific and philosophical texts drawing from all three cultures.

24/03/2024

Strolling through the countryside along aqueducts - this is our Puglia Walking Tour

28/01/2024

Our happy group with our guide Riccardo in the town of Erice, in Sicily, high above the coast and ready for a couscous lunch, which is the culinary specialty of this Arab-influenced western end of Sicily.

22/11/2023

The 'terrace of infinity' in Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast. Set amongst the formal gardens of Villa Cimbrone, a residence dating back to the 11th century, this is one of the best places for views on our Amalfi Coast Tour

06/10/2023

The village of Barolo in Piedmont - a food lover's paradise, this region is home to arguably the best wine, cheese and chocolate in Italy. Our Piedmont Tour is scheduled for September 2024, don't miss it!

Italy With Pleasure Piedmont tour is unmissable for food lovers – indulge in our chocolate session in a historic cafe, enjoy lunch on the stunning Isola Bella island and walk through vineyards in Barolo.

27/09/2023

Beautiful days on the Amalfi Coast, part 2

27/09/2023

Beautiful days on the Amalfi Coast, part 1

08/06/2023

Countryside walks amongst dry stone walls and trulli, this is Puglia in the spring

15/01/2023

Rome’s most well preserved temple is not in the Roman Forum, where you find a few pieces of columns at best. The elegant Temple of Hercules is both beautifully proportioned and completely intact. Built in the 2nd century BC, it has remained complete as it was converted into a Christian church in the Middle Ages (and therefore not plundered for the stone). Next to the Temple of Hercules is the rectangular Temple of Portunus.

This area alongside the River Tevere is called the Forum Boarium and was ancient Rome’s cattle market. Looking away from the river you see the Arch of Janus, which is where merchants plyed their trade in its shade.
If you visit here you’ll also notice that this area is a slight depression. The story of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, has them floating down the river in a basket of reeds. This low corner used to be a swampy bend in the river and it is here that Romulus and Remus came ashore, drifting into the reeds.

13/09/2022

Have you tried the wines of Mt Etna? Here our Sicily Tour group is visiting a vineyard on the slopes of Etna. If you're a lover of pinot noir you'll find the Etna red wine made from nerello mascalese grapes quite similar. The wines here benefit from the combination of volcanic soils and altitude, which gives them their combination of power and elegance.

19/08/2022

Here we are having lunch in a restaurant cut into solid limestone. This was once part of the town bakery - it was more efficient to have one large wood-fired oven serving a neighborhood, so people would bring their dough here for baking, marked with their own symbol for identification. Now the space continues the culinary tradition as a high quality restaurant in the town of Ostuni

30/05/2022

The fresco in the Great Hall of Galleria Colonna in Rome - often missed when people visit Rome, but it is well worth a visit

14/05/2022

Dining Sardinian style....the final night of our tour, enjoying the sunset in Alghero

12/05/2022

On our tour of Sardinia this week you find our group here in a nuraghi, a bronze age structure unique to this island. You can see them there waving from inside it!

07/04/2022

A taxi stand in Venice.....better than uber!

03/03/2022

it is time to start planning your next trip to Italy. With the pandemic easing, entry requirements to Italy have just got a whole lot easier (specifically, just a vaccine certificate is fine, no pre departure testing is needed). Bring on the Italian summer!

24/10/2021

12/10/2021

When visiting Italy remember the 'bella figura', even the street is a catwalk

03/10/2021

A grocery store in Sorrento - how does this compare with your local supermarket?

13/09/2021

Meet the very stylish couple, Ciro Biondi and his English wife, Stephanie, who now run the Azienda Agricola Biondi. Ciro originally trained as an architect but the call of the family estate on the slopes of Mount Etna was too strong - understandably - and so he returned to his roots. Stephanie and Ciro now produce around 22,000 bottles of wine per year from their three small vineyards, totalling six hectares, just north of the village of Trecastagni.

The Biondi family have owned vineyards here since the 17th century but it was with Ciro’s return in 1999 that the fortunes of the estate, which had become a little run down, were turned around.

BIONDI Azienda Agricola
+39 347 501 1310
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PRWNFoDKDqKQMn1M9



Image courtesy of

06/09/2021

Alongside the church of Santo Spirito in Rome is what is known as a ’baby hatch’. This is a place where babies could be left, anonymously, to be cared for. The use of baby hatches began in 1198. At that time it was relatively common for unwanted babies to be abandoned, often by the River Tevere nearby. So at that time the pope ordered that these baby hatches, or foundling wheels, be installed in churches. It worked a bit like a revolving door. The baby would be place in it from the outside, the cylinder would be turned to take the baby safely into the church, and a bell rung to alert the people inside.
Later this type of baby hatch or other safe havens for unwanted infants began to spread to other places. Interestingly, there are some new versions of this system being implemented today. So what was a medieval idea still has a place in the modern world.

31/08/2021

Delfina Island, off the coast of Positano, the dolphin island

27/07/2021

To visit some of Italy's archaeological sites you need to swim. This is the site of Baiae, one a luxurious Roman resort town located near Naples. After being abandoned and with the subsidence of the coast during the subsequent centuries, we now have a series of mosaics underwater, enjoyed by scuba divers and the local marine life.

24/06/2021

Here's some great news for a change....

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/us-tourists-can-now-travel-to-italy-without-quarantining

As of Monday, American tourists can travel to Italy for the first time in over a year.

22/06/2021

During the summer solstice, a special phenomona occurs in some of the ancient churches, such as in the Basilica of San Nicola in Puglia. The sun is perfectly aligned so that light is beamed through the rose window directly onto a corresponding mosaic in front of the altar. A moment where nature and art combine. This church was constructed in the 13th century, and shows both how accurate their astrological observations were, and the way this was integrated into their public buildings.

24/05/2021

This wine, Rampone, is made by Gianni at I Pastini winery near Locorotondo in the Valle d’Itria, Puglia. The wine is made from a variety called Minutolo. This vine had almost died out because it produces grapes that are quite small and therefore less economically viable. However, Gianni has persevered with this variety and with the increasing demand for wines of differing character it is proving very successful. The wine has a beautiful straw colour, almost with hints of green. On the nose there is a delicate bouquet of peach and passion fruit and on the palate it is dry with citrus flavours. This is a wine that I would strongly recommend - try it with seafood, a staple of Pugliese cuisine.


I Pastini Srl
Strada Cupa Rampone Zona A, 74015 Martina Franca TA, Italy
+39 080 431 3309
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zhM2Z9VkJcAGuzzh6

24/05/2021

This is Gianni Carparelli who, with his family, runs the I Pastini winery near Locorotondo in the Valle d’Itria, Puglia. A local boy, he left to study enology in Florence but came straight back. His Pugliese roots are reflected in the wines he produces, a very successful blend of traditional grapes and modern techniques.


I Pastini Srl
Strada Cupa Rampone Zona A, 74015 Martina Franca TA, Italy
+39 080 431 3309
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zhM2Z9VkJcAGuzzh6

24/05/2021

Those of you who have travelled with us in Puglia may remember this winery.....

The I Pastini winery is in the middle of the Valle d'Itria. This small area in Puglia in southern Italy is stunningly beautiful. The land here is divided into small plots and is intensively cultivated for a variety of crops. However, before the land can be used the stone has to be cleared and there is a lot of it. This means that there is always a surplus available and you will see it in the many thick dry-stone walls running across the landscape. It was also used to construct the round conically-roofed little houses called trulli.These were built to avoid property taxes as by removing the keystone when the taxman called the whole thing would collapse only to be rebuilt on his departure. Well, that’s the legend and the locals are sticking to it.



I Pastini Srl
Strada Cupa Rampone Zona A, 74015 Martina Franca TA, Italy
+39 080 431 3309
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zhM2Z9VkJcAGuzzh6

06/04/2021

These days the Colosseum is not known as a green space, but in the period leading up to the 1800s it was like a botanical garden. Abandoned for centuries, the interior had become overgrown. In 1850 there were 420 species of plants found there. And incredibly, many of the plants were not found anywhere else in Europe - only in the Colosseum. It is thought that all the African animals brought in to do battle inside the arena brought the seeds with them and left them inside. With the passing of time, along with a unique microclimate within the Colosseum, a thriving and varied garden was established there.