The Year of Families
Every year is different at Insider’s Italy. Looking back over 37 years and thousands of independently designed itineraries, I have never noticed a particular pattern […]
In Memory of Carlo Petrini
Friends, the Insider’s Italy blog continues, but today’s posting is on my Inside Italy substack. Please visit and read. Buona lettura ! https://open.substack.com/pub/insidersitaly/p/in-memory-of-carlo-petrini
Happy Birthday Rome ! (MMDCCLXXVIII)
Rome celebrates 2,778 years today. Happy birthday, my beloved birthplace. You truly do not look a day over MMDCCLXXVII. Festivities filled the weekend ! Around […]
Robert Stark Photography
Since many of the photographs feature Italy, and as I planned all the trips that inspired these scenes, it is no stretch for Insider’s Italy […]
The day the bells do not ring
The only day of the year when the bells do not ring in Italy is today, Good Friday, and it is startling to realize how […]
Palm Sunday in Italy
Much of Italy awakened this morning to the sound of church bells. In the early hours of Sunday, when the Roman streets are still and […]
San Giuseppe in Italy: Where Fathers Are Celebrated in Pastry
If my birthplace, Italy, is my motherland, what is my fatherland? Perhaps we cannot speak of a fatherland in Italy, but we can certainly celebrate […]
Luxury Italy Travel Reconsidered
A recent article in the The New York Times described the expanding world of ultra-high-end travel : private islands, emergency beach restyling, hotel rooms altered […]
This Is a Good Time for Italy
While the snow keeps falling on the east coast of North America, Italy goes on being Italy. This is a good time for Italy. I […]
The Right House in Italy
For families or friends traveling together, renting a private home in Italy is one of life’s great pleasures … provided the house is truly right. […]
San Valentino in Terni: Discovering Italy Beyond the Usual Path
In the rather undescript Umbrian city of Terni, February 14 is not a commercial spectacle but a true local festa. The city honors San Valentino […]
Scenes from a Neapolitan Presepio
There are many things I collect — Parmesan knives, earrings decorated with fruits, vegetables or flowers, and Italian-made silk scarves. But nothing gives me more […]
Italy, from the Inside
Insider’s Italy has been designing individual journeys through Italy since 1989, long before ‘bespoke travel” became a buzzword. As pioneers in the field and with […]
At the Last Address
I have three homes: Rome, my birthplace and central home, where I have spent most of my life and keep my studio; the Netherlands, in […]
Snowmageddon. Not in Italy.
Snowmageddon. It doesn’t need to be this way. Nearly everywhere in Italy this month, the weather invites you outdoors. In some regions, it is so […]
Florence That Lifts the Spirit: Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, and the Power of Art
There are many proven ways to start a new year with renewed energy. Unsurprisingly, all of them involve Italy. And outstanding planning. The one I […]
La Befana and Epiphany in Italy: Food, Family, and the Final Feast of the Holidays
This is the busiest night of the year for La Befana. She is flying through the sky on her broom. There is no point in […]
Florence After Christmas: Why January Is One of the Most Magical Times to Visit
Lest you think that the holidays are over in Italy : you are quite wrong. The country celebrates until Epiphany, on January 6. And until […]
An Insider’s Puglia
The deep southern region of Puglia is an area of particular Insider’s expertise. Here the ancient Appian Way reaches the sea, and crusaders once embarked […]
Our Neapolitan Master Tailor
In Naples, in a two-room atelier in the heart of the city, one of the few remaining Neapolitan traditional tailors works away. He first picked […]
Insider’s Italy : Olive Oil Season — And a Dowry at Alitalia
In the days when one could still carry liquids onboard planes, I rarely flew between my Rome and New York Insider’s Italy offices without at […]
An Anniversary for Brunelleschi’s Dome
“On August 30th, the dome was closed and furnished, and all the bells of Florence rang, and the Te Deum laudamus was sung, thanking the Lord for […]
Chiuso per Ferie (An Insider’s Italy Rome in August)
As summer wanes and Romans slowly return to their city rhythms, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit one of my favorite times on […]
Insider’s Italy: A Fresco, a Peach, and the Art of Looking Closely
There is no single perfect fresco, but if there were one that most touches me at this moment, it is this. Still Life with Peaches […]
Buon Ferragosto !
Italy wide, everyone today celebrates Ferragosto. This ancient festival — ” feriae Augustae” in Latin — was decreed a multiple-day holiday throughout the Roman Empire […]
Spring in Italy Begins with a Poppy
What is it about poppies ? From my earliest childhood I have loved them, even though they have for decades eluded me when I have […]
Back to Italy
When I was not even one, my father, mother and I sailed on the Leonardo da Vinci from Naples to New York. It took five […]
Rome Through the Eyes of ‘Bicycle Thieves’: Honoring Enzo Staiola and Italian Neorealism
Today was the funeral of one of the last living connections to Italy’s Neorealist cinema movement. Enzo Staiola, the child actor at the heart of […]
Since 1989 : Personalized Italy Travel Planning with Insider’s Italy
While others are sweltering amongst the cruise boat and day trip tourists on the Amalfi coast, you instead are just a few kilometers away, on […]
Raise the Curtain on 2025 !
A sympathetic friend once said : “When I’m not in Italy, I cannot stand to think that the country starts the new year without me.” […]
The Perfect Walk After Lunch in Florence
While the light is still tender, we take our perfect post lunch walk. Down from Pian de Giullari, where Galileo lived there from 1631 till […]
Buon Ferragosto !
Italy wide, everyone today celebrates Ferragosto. This ancient festival — ” feriae Augustae” in Latin — was decreed a day of holiday throughout the Roman Empire to […]
Where am I going in September and October ?
I have so often written in these Travel Letters about this, but I can’t help myself. Despite living here nearly all of my life, the […]
Italy in the Fall
When the first pine nut falls from the Roman umbrella pine tree, I know that fall is on its way in Italy. Fall, when the […]
Twelve Days in Italy (“Pace e Bene”)
St. Frances of Assisi greeted his brothers with Pace e Bene. Peace and Be Well. Talking to you, my clients, during your travels, I hear you, […]
Longing for Italy
There are moments when I am not in Italy and when I am overwhelmed by a longing for it. As you review the photo essay […]
Chiuso per Ferie (An Insider’s Italy Rome in August)
As summer wanes and Romans slowly return to their city rhythms, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit one of my favorite times on […]
Happy New Year !
Happy New Year to our new friends and our old ones ! More than ever, in 2018 we are longing to share our Italy with […]
The Joy of Preparing for Italy
When I first begin working with our Ultimo service travelers, I give them what I require first when I plan my own trips : wonderful […]
Intensity of Flavors
When I have been away from Italy for more than a week or so, I am all the more struck by the differences on my […]
Primavera !
Spring is here ! In Rome, we are celebrating with vignarola, which is spring in your bowl, a combination of artichokes, peas, fava beans, spring […]
Italian Father’s Day
Italian Father’s Day falls today, in coincidence with the feast of Saint Joseph, an older dad whom it is nice to celebrate with various wonderful […]
Memories and Holidays : The Presepio
Everyone who celebrates Christmas has Christmas memories. Mine go back more than 40 years and are nearly all memories in Rome. And most of them […]
What makes an Insider’s Italy City Hotel ?
Perhaps it is easiest to explain by introducing you to one that has all of the criteria. It is smaller rather than larger. It is […]
It’s the Journey not the Arrival that Matters, Italo !
An announcement is made, while we’re en route, that the train will be delayed by 30 minutes to an hour. Alas, it hasn’t happened yet […]