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Today’s WSJ reports that Italy’s President Prodi has hired a man known to some as ‘Dracula’ to help collect billions in the country’s collective unpaid taxes. In the story Beppe Severgnini, a social commentator compares Italian and American’s reactions to tax evastion and says there is a solidarity among tax […]
As I drove up from Holyoke this morning, there was a big back-up on the Deerfield exit off-ramp. Because we so rarely ever have traffic jams in our bucolic pocket of the world, I knew at once it was an accident. The statie who flew by me confirmed it. When […]
Today is a high energy day. I’ve got lots to think about and I’m feeling great. The first thing on my mind is an invitation I got yesterday, an answer to a dream I’ve had for a decade. It was from the Ministry of Trade for Colombia–an invitation to travel […]
I found this rack of public bikes right next to Bologna’s city offices. Another city, like Copenhagen, embracing the concept of putting out bikes for citizens to use for free. In Denmark, anyone can pop a coin into the rack and use a bike for about $3.65 a ride. In […]
Besides the more obvious benefits of being about to use a shorter line to check-in, and being able on some flights to actually lie down flat during a flight, the benefits of business class are the people you sit next to. We flew back from Bologna last night and I […]
Sometimes the people you travel with can give you as much interesting information as the local guides. We found this out every night at dinner when our friend Stefano Vaccara would share his thoughts about Italy over glasses of wine and bowls of pasta in Bologna. Our last night found […]
Today’s journey was on a crowded back road to the lovely town of Ravenna, near the Adriatic coast. Since it was Saturday, the autostrada was crowded so our driver chose to take us through small towns from Bologna. Ravenna once had more than 200 churches, we learned from our beautiful […]
Last night we experienced true Italian culture. Sitting in the Piazza Maggiore, the huge square in the middle of Bologna, we enjoyed a program of ballet and modern dance. After one of our group was introduced over the loudspeakers as being a ‘guest from CBS News London’ and the aisles […]
This statue of Neptune is famous because at one time the Pope wanted to cover up the God’s privates…and he didn’t like these squirting mamas either. But today, Bolognese like to have it all show, so no censorship is allowed and the water sprouts from these moms on all four […]
Today we drove over to a neighboring city that, like Bologna, doesn’t get enough attention from American travelers. That city is Modena, where Enzo Ferrari began making his classic sports cars in 1947. Like the market for private jets and oversized luxury vacation homes, the business of expensive cars is […]
This dish will soon be available at La Noce with a new name: ‘Tortellone Testarossa.’
