An American woman in Puglia: A dream come true
It’s a major adjustment from the U.S. to Italy and from Italy to Puglia. For transplanted New Jersey girl Annamaria Borelli, it’s a life she always dreamed about.
Search Results for: Puglia
Traveling in Italy: Trip to Puglia reminds me of why I live here but caution flags rise
Traveling in Italy is only a dream for Americans. For us living here, it’s a wonderful reality. However, a trip to Puglia shows caution from the coronavirus remains.
Puglia wine tasting brings back memories of long coastlines and purple-red wines
Wine Tastings of Rome, a terrific Meetup group that could only have a more attractive name if Beyonce held its sign, brought in wine makers from around Puglia to one room at the Hotel Imperiale. Built in 1895, the Hotel Imperiale is as elegant as it sounds. It’s a gold palace with small balconies overlooking tree-lined Via Veneto, perhaps Rome’s most glamorous street where its rich and famous once preened for panting fans and fought with prying paparazzi. Walking into the snow-white interior, I felt thankful I wore a sportcoat as “retired journalist” and “elegant” aren’t usually found in the same sentence. The Hotel Imperiale makes you at least try to look the part.
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Puglia journal: Italy’s inane bus system can’t spoil romantic meal next to 700 skulls
SUNDAY, MAY 13 – LECCE, ITALY Mussolini vowed he’d make the trains in Italy run on time and he did. Now Italy needs another fascist to work on the buses. I’m in Lecce 40 euro poorer after the “deficiente” (moron) here three days ago sold me a bus ticket from Otranto to Lecce when there […]
Puglia journal: Trip to gorgeous Adriatic beach is a true recycling affair
SATURDAY, MAY 12 – OTRANTO, ITALY There’s a bottle of ice cold water near my laptop that I would’ve given five years off my life or my left testicle last night if it was available. I’m so dehydrated I don’t know if I felt worse this morning or yesterday when I had the vicious hangover. […]
Puglia journal: The Puglia milk run consists of seven connections and 11 hours
FRIDAY, MAY 11 – OTRANTO, ITALY I take back anything good I’ve said about Italian wine. They don’t need preservatives and phosphates, the mine fields of American wine, to produce a nuclear explosion in your frontal lobe. I’m writing this with one eye closed. It’s to lessen the pain from a savage hangover from the […]
Puglia journal: Cold beer, a quiet outdoor cafe and view of Adriatic = Kodak moment of foreign travel
THURSDAY, MAY 10 – FOGGIA, ITALY There are certain times in a person’s travels when they find the perfect corner of the planet at just the perfect time. The Foggia train station McDonald’s, where I’m writing this, is not one of them. However, yesterday afternoon I had one of those moments – no, hours – […]
Puglia journal: A day at beach a quiet respite from celebration of Santa Maria di Marino
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9 – VIESTE, ITALY For a tiny beach town, this place is as loud as Fort Lauderdale over spring break. It’s the celebration of Santa Maria di Marino, the patron saint of Vieste. I think every town in Italy has a patron saint, but I’ve never seen one as beloved as this Santa […]
Puglia journal: Vieste a romantic hideaway on the spur of Italy’s heel
TUESDAY, MAY 8 – VIESTE, ITALY Sometimes in travel you find yourself in such an idyllic place that you think you’re the only person in the world this happy. This is one of those times. I’m on the rooftop of Rocca Sul Mare, my hotel here high above the Adriatic Sea. The rooftop is barebones, […]
Pecorino, orechiette, fusilli, pesto define Puglia’s “poor cuisine”
VIESTE, ITALY — I walked down the street with a jump in my step, a parch in my throat and a hunger in my stomach. It’s remarkable how much appetite you build lying on an Italian beach. Plus, it’s a lot of stress. No. 35 sunscreen or 15? Dante or “The DaVinci Code?”?And, when in Puglia, […]
Molise: Italy’s least-visited region a great birthday present
If you’ve never heard of Molise, don’t worry. Few have. It’s by far the least-touristed of Italy’s 20 regions, getting only 482,000 visitors in pre-Covid 2018. It’s 55 percent mountains and the rest is mostly rural. It’s not set up for tourists. But for the adventurous — and the hungry — it’s a terrific place to discover another side of Italy. The countryside is beautiful and the food and wine are unique and excellent. It was a great birthday present to myself.
Amalfi Coast and Valentine’s Day: A match made in Italian heaven
Italy and Valentine’s Day just go together, don’t they? We went to Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast, romantic at any time but double it on Valentine’s Day. We took a room overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, drank Campania wine in lively piazzas and shopped for ceramics in one of the ceramic capitals of Italy. Vietri sul Mare doesn’t get the hype that Positano and Sorrento get but it’s worth a weekend, particularly on Valentine’s Day.