Italia magazine

I’m so delighted to welcome you to the new issue of Italia!. The days are getting longer, we have a spring in our step and the sap is rising… Plans demand to be made and decisions taken for those 2020 Italian trips on our radar. I hope our enthusiasm

A team of archaeologists at Pompeii have been carrying out restoration work on the site’s Central Baths (Terme Centrale) and now the area is open to the public for the first time in decades. The renovations were part of the urgent and large-scale wor

Located at the eastern edge of the northern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, on ancient trade routes that crossed land and sea, Trieste has always been a fairly prosperous place and a melting pot of cultures and traditions. It was there befor

Our apartment on Via Andrea Doria was near the Vatican, and only a step or two from Cipro metro station; but to reach the area around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon, it was easier to take bus 492. Or rather, it was easier if the bus arrived on time –

It’s a misty winter’s morning outside Tintoretto’s house in Cannaregio. Here at the tall, pink house on Rio della Sensa the great painter would kiss his wife goodbye and promise to account for the money she had given him for his day. When he’d return

Silk from Como has dressed the rich and famous, film stars, presidents, royalty, and even popes. It’s what this beautiful town at the most southwesterly point of Lake Como is famous for – well, that and the views of its lakeside villas that make it a

Start with a couple of nights in the town of Como itself. This should give you plenty of time to visit the silk museum and see the rest of the town. Don’t miss the Duomo, commonly described as the last Gothic cathedral built in Italy, and do take a w

DISTANCE 6km (3¾ miles) START/FINISH Foro Boario car park, Orvieto WALKING TIME 2hrs DIFFICULTY Grade 1-2 (easy-moderate) ASCENT/DESCENT 270m/270m (886 ft) ACCESS Foro Boario car park is located on the lower, southwest side of town, and can be reache

➤ SERVES 4 ➤ PREPARATION 10 minutes ➤ COOKING 20 minutes If you love creamy mushroom sauces, this vegetarian pasta dish is the one for you. When I was filming the latest TV series I prepared it at the Tuscan winery Casa al Vento for my friends France

Simply grilled vegetables, milky white balls of buffalo mozzarella, spaghetti with tomato sauce, pasta e fagioli (pasta with beans), clams with linguine, melanzane alla parmigiana, torta di ricotta, babà al rhum (just one in a long list of pastries),

The straight lines of the motorway from Pisa airport take a more sinuous turn and, leaving the asphalt greys behind, the colour palette softens to a patchwork of restful greens punctuated by sentry-like cypresses. We climb higher into Tuscan hills th

➤ SERVES 8-12 ➤ PREPARATION 40 minutes ➤ BAKING 40 minutes • 55g unsalted butter• 6 large free-range eggs, beaten• 140g caster sugar• a few drops of pure vanilla extract• 140g Italian 00 flour• 100g shelled and skinned pistachio nuts, ground FOR THE

Nebbiolo is, quite rightly, Italian grape royalty. The source of the majestic Barolo, it is highly strung, as befits its pedigree, and notoriously difficult to grow. It buds early, so is prone to seasonal frosts, and ripens late. Its name is thought

Bristol-based Mareka Sampson (pictured with her son Blake) owns a three-bedroom country house two miles from the sea halfway between Alghero and Bosa in Sardinia’s northwest. She spends a month there in the summer and makes shorter visits at Easter a

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean, and only marginally smaller than Sicily. In contrast, however, its population is not much more than 1,500,000, making it comparable with Northern Ireland in this respect. The most densely po

‘Capolavoro’ means ‘Masterpiece’, and this Marche property lives up to its name. A completely newly restored 220 sqm stone farmhouse, plus a 40 sqm cottage. Excellent build quality and terrific interior design touches including original beams, old co

Established in 1545 as a medicinal plants teaching garden, and considered to be the origin of botanical gardens, the Orto Botanico Padua has evolved into a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a leading authority on the world’s plant kingdom. Affiliated to

www.adr.it Rome-Fiumicino, aka Leonardo da Vinci, is Italy’s busiest airport by far, though with facilities like touchscreen information terminals it’s all negotiable. It is linked to the central railway station, Termini, by the ‘Leonardo Express’. R