Rudston Steward (our Italian guru) has let us in on a couple of his favourite hotels in Sicily, for the big spender and for the little spender. Or why not stay at both to see everything this Mediterranean isle has to offer? High: Grand Hotel Timeo 550 USD and up When you think about a “top […]
It’s tough to satisfy the interests of multiple generations at the same time, let alone while on the move around a new country. Italians embrace the family, however—both their own, and yours. I recently asked Rudston (our expert in all things Italiano) why the country is such a great one for families to visit together. […]
Sometimes the simplest ingredients can pack the biggest punch of flavour. We bet your breakfast was not this tasty. Where: Piemonte, Northern Italy What: Fried egg topped with white truffle shavings. It’s pretty hard to screw up an egg. But to make one of those devils truly sing is no small thing. Crowned with razor thin curls […]
It’s research week at Trufflepig, with so many of our Pigs arriving home or departing soon for their specialty destinations. Rudston has just returned from an unlikely combination of Italian cities you may not have paired on your own. Before we talk nitty gritty on our latest Italian conquests, however, a few words to properly […]
Few places can match the swagger and flash of the Amalfi Coast; the stretch of the Costiera between Positano, Amalfi and Ravello boasts some of the finest hotels and most spectacular hiking and boating in Italy. Folks around here are a proud bunch. It goes way back (as these things often do in Italy), to […]
Venice is many things—carnival theatre, great art city, water wonderland, wannabe independent republic, gastronome haven, romantic getaway. But what distinguishes La Serenissima is something far more magical and strange: it makes people disappear. So much travel these days is overly scripted, boring, predictable—especially in crowded destinations like Venice. Which is why Venice is my favourite […]
As if being perhaps the most photogenic valley in Tuscany were not enough, for good measure the Val d’Orcia packs a knockout foodie punch: Vino Nobile wine and pecorino di Pienza cheese. The Val d’Orcia is the quintessential Tuscan landscape: wide open skies, rolling hills lined with immaculate cypress trees, swaying fields of grain elegantly […]
It’s official: I’m a Sicilian junkie. The Aeolian Islands have cast their seductive spell on me. I am now suffering from acute Summer Withdrawal Syndome, and have been salivating over Salina ever since the day I left. I keep going back to the bewitching Aeolians. The stark volcanic landscape is stunning, the sea sparkling, the […]
No matter how nice, polite, and evolved we think we are, it’s in our nature to want the best experiences for ourselves. When we get them, sometimes we even stoop to our baser instincts and brag. Today, we have some fine bragging rights to offer you. At Trufflepig we are the kings and queens of […]
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we dine: Slow Travel is alive and kicking in Piemonte. Not everyone knows that the Slow Food movement was born in the small Piemontese town of Bra, back in 1986. It was founded by Italian food journalist Carlo Petrini in protest against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy […]
Last week I died a truffle-hunting death and went to gastronomic heaven: the annual white truffle fair in Alba. There is no better introduction to the often-overlooked region of Piemonte than Alba’s truffle fair. The local tartufo bianco is Italy’s ultimate gastronomic prize: an elusive seasonal delicacy shrouded in gourmet mystique. Very expensive and unspeakably delicious. For […]
If you like to think about food as much as you like to cook it, eat it, grow it, discuss it, find it, dig it up, hunt it, forage for it, bottle it, ferment it or even shoot it, read on: we have the trip for you. La Petraia is a bio-dynamic field-to-fork agriturismo high up […]
Halfway to the sea from Montalcino, where Tuscany gets a little wilder and a little less visited, the Castello di Vicarello is tucked away at the end of a country lane, and is as good as any small hotel we’ve ever visited. With four suites and one villa, it’s a small, personal place. The thousand […]