Ciaotraveler

Are you in love with extra virgin olive oil as much as I am?  I use it almost daily for salad dressings, cooking, pastas and in my health products.  Having traveled in Italy, I prefer to have authentic Italian extra virgin oils. Over the past 5 years there are substantiated reports that our oil isn't really virgin after all, as much as 70% imported oils have been compromised.   Evidently the richest extra virgin olive oils can be as valuable as illegal drugs. What?  Does this mean we'll have mad chemists breaking bad extra olive oils?  So what's the truth about extra virgin olive oil?  Some of the most delicious olive oils I've used in Italy are from Sorrento and the Tuscany regions.  Sicilian olive oils seem to be the ones they're focusing on regarding fake extra virgin products.  My Tuscan and Southern Italy olive oils and some of the Italian style foods we love it on...yummy! But you be the judge.  Here's some a...

If this bicycle could talk, it would probably tell a very interesting story.   We spotted this chic bike in Cortona.  Thank you for over 150,000 views.  See my Cortona post here .

My friends and I recently took another trip to my favorite country of Italy (second to the USA of course). When we go, we always want to make the most of our days so we plan day trips.  During this ten day trip we went to Rome, Florence, Cortona, Venice, Fiesole, Milan, Lake Como (Bellagio & Varenna) Lake Lugano, Switzerland and Bergamo .  If you're interested in these beautiful places while moving at a faster pace please continue to read this post. If you don't immerse yourself in the culture of any town, you're not going to appreciate all that it has to offer.  However, you can still experience a town by seeing sites in the day and dining out in the evenings.  We start by meeting at the airport early morning in a major city such as Rome.  We've done this before because we have different airline mileage programs and different departure cities.  We usually have lots of airport or flight stories to share.  Any first time ...

Not many places can capture a perfect view of Florence and the  Duomo cathedral like Fiesole, Italy .  Just 15 minutes up the hillside from Florence, Fiesole is rich with history. Conquered in 283 B.C., there are Roman ruins and historical churches as well as the breathtaking landscape to admire.   It's worth taking the afternoon to visit this quaint, pristine town.    I love the blue door we saw along the walk around outer Fiesole. Getting to Fiesole Take the local bus #7 from downtown Florence San Marco Square and you'll be in Fiesole in just minutes.  Surrounding the hillside are olive and other fruit tree farms to see along the way.   Once the bus lets you off at the main square, take some time to walk directly up the road to the right of the square and walk the perimeter of the town.  This will lead to one of the best views of Florence you'll see.   If you'd rather skip the view and walk to the ruins, go di...

                                                                                     Cantalena church 1274 rebuilt in 1426 The charm of Cortona is well known especially since the "Under the Tuscan Sun" movie was filmed here.  We took a day trip out of Florence to visit Cortona and it was one of the least crowded towns we visited, possibly since it was a weekday in October.  Cortona is a favorite of ours and worth visiting.  The photo above is along the road driving up to the old town.  We took the train from Florence to the Cortona station and then a shuttle bus up to the old town (about 10 minutes).  We spent most of the day in the town.  This is just some of the scenery we passed along the way to the town...  ...