Jackie's latest guest article for US online magazine Sixty & Me looks at some of Italy's most spectacular festivals. Dating back to medieval times, Italy’s Palios traditionally involved horses or other animals in a competitive racing challenge but, over the...
For the first time in 2024 the prestigious Tour de France cycle race will start in Italy. The "Grand Départ" as it is known will happen in Florence on Saturday 29th June, from the historic centre of town. The first two stages will take place in the Apennines...
2023 marks 100 years of Verona's stunning summer opera festival. It was in 1913 that the famous production of Aida was staged to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its composer, Giuseppe Verdi. After that performance, an annual opera festival has...
Saturday 16th July saw us exhibiting at the National Geographic Traveller Food Festival in the Business Design Centre in London. We were part of the Italian National Tourist Board stand for the event and talked to visitors from far and wide about our hiking...
If you've never joined one of our annual Palio tours in Siena in August, your ideas about this horse race might be a little sketchy. As the race has been cancelled for the last two years due to Covid restrictions, 2022 promises to be more exciting than ever...
The Verdi Festival - Parma Each year in October the small city of Parma marks the anniversary of the birth of one of it's most famous sons, composer Giuseppe Verdi. A series of performances of selections of his work are organised at the town's Teatro Regio, and...
Autumn is a great time to visit Italy, not only for its colourful landscapes and cooler temperatures, but because this is a season full of Sagre. A Sagra is a local festival, the origin of the word coming from the Latin word sacrare, (to consecrate), because in...
2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, one of Italy's greatest literary figures. He was a poet and moral philosopher and best known for the epic poem The Divine Comedy, which made a lasting impression on the worlds of literature,...
The Giro d'Italia is a multiple-stage bicycle race held each year in Italy. Along with the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, the Giro forms a key element of the cycling world's Grand Tours. It is usually held during late May and early June and we often...
Nothing quite illustrates the atmosphere of Christmas in Italy as effectively as the saying ‘Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con i vuoi’. In other words, ‘Christmas with the family, Easter with who you like’. But while family rules, food comes a close second: eating is what...
At the end of our Medieval Umbria tour we find ourselves in the stunning town of Gubbio. Next year it happens that we will be there on the final Sunday in May which means we will witness one of its most historic and spectacular events. The Palio della Balestra is a...
Our Parma, Tuscany & Cinque Terre tour takes us to the Slow Food town of Borgotaro in the hills of Emilia-Romagna at the time of year when the locals are celebrating the Sagra del Fungo Porcino. This is an annual festival (2012...