Often, when people think of Lake Como, their mind conjures up images of sumptuous historic villas and luxurious gardens – and rightfully so. There’s an embarrassment of riches, mostly clustered between Como and the central portion of the lake: think for instance of Villa del Balbianello (where they filmed a scene from Star Wars Episode […]
Naples doesn’t do subtle. Everything in the Southern Italian city is about abundance: if you’ve been there before, you’ll certainly know that food doesn’t come in small doses, nor with light preparations. And if Baroque is one of the arts that best encapsulates the city’s spirit, Naples has also made a name for itself for […]
The church of Santa Croce is one of those monuments that never ceases to amaze me, no matter how many times I visit; and truth be told, I plan on spending some time there each time I’m in Florence. There are so many reasons as to why it keeps luring me back: for one, this […]
We’ve been out on the road this year…. a lot. At half-time on 2019, our trotters are worn smooth, and it’s time to take stock. The pictures above flooded my inbox when I naively wrote to our planning team to ask for a few shots from recent research trips. I was struck by the awesome […]
Nowadays, Negroni is one of the most popular Italian aperitifs in the world, but its origin is steeped in legend. According to tradition, Count Camillo Negroni invented it in Florence in 1919, when he asked the bartender at his usual watering hole (Caffè Casoni in Via de’ Tornabuoni 83, now closed) to fortify his Americano […]
Luisa, the newest addition to Trufflepig’s planning team, begins her Sounder career, like her days, with a strong Roman coffee: The Bad The belief that coffee in Italy is something extraordinary is very deeply rooted in popular culture worldwide. But, truth be told, this is more myth than fact. Not all coffees are created equal, […]
Quit your job. Tell your friends. Dust off your résumé and fire up your arrabbiata recipe. We’re hiring a new Italy planner. This is a full-time position within our award-winning European planning team, handling our trips to Italy and beyond. Excuse me: handling our highly-orchestrated, unusually pungent, exceptionally quirky and universally acclaimed trips to Italy and beyond. That’s more like […]
In Palermo, the driving is best left to the natives. I can only surmise that local licence holders have genetically mutated to remain placid in this perpetual game of chicken. Motorists bicker with their horns like an island of squabbling siblings. In the big city, our advice is: call a cab. Palermo aside, I confess […]
We may be a tiny travel company (with a great big nose) but when Conde Nast Traveler magazine published its “2017 Top Travel Specialists” list last week, we blushed hot pink to see that Trufflepig has more experts listed than any other outfit. Our very own Dan, Rudston, Tyler and Sebastian, for Italy, Spain, Southern Africa and Myanmar. CNT describe them as “the […]
My first tag was in Bangkok (I write that as if I did more, but there was only one lame attempt). It was premeditated, illegal, and fun as hell. It was lame because I couldn’t even come up with my own tag idea, I bought a book of pre fab stencil tags in the Hong Kong airport and […]
Newsflash: I’ve been scouring Southern Italy of late and to be completely frank, I’ve got it bad for Sicily….really bad. So bad that my family and friends are convinced I’m about to end up married to the mob. Magari! Someone recently said, ‘if Sicily were a song, it would be ‘amore’…” and who’s to argue […]
Italian kids are cool. They drink wine-tainted water from toddlerhood. They have mad ball handling skills from the pressure of containing the soccer ball within the piazza. Lessons in risk tolerance begin on Daddy’s lap in the backseat of Nonno’s car (see photo). From here the risk exposure progresses incrementally until one day these no […]
Just north of Lucca lies an unexplored corner of Tuscany, hideout and holdout of traditional artisans, old-school craftsmen, unreconstructed farmers, folksy flavours, and all-round fulsome fascination. Squeezed between the Serchio River valley and the Apuan Alps, the Garfagnana region is way off the beaten track despite being well within striking range of both Lucca city […]
Trufflepig is hiring. That’s right, we’re looking for a bright spark to join our Ferrari-red and on-fire Italy planning team. To be more precise, we’re looking for a location scout, mountain guide, pasta chef, natural diplomat, story-teller, lyricist, software whizz, sartorial advisor, permaculturalist, historian, painter, eater, drinker, dreamer, taster, guzzler, sharer, giver, listener, lecturer, cartographer, empathist, […]
48.8 million hectolitres of wine…now that’s what I call a buzz-inducing bumper crop. In case you haven’t heard: in 2015 Italy surpassed France as the world’s largest wine producer. Mon Dieu! What’s one to do upon hearing such historic news? Well, obviously, you embark immediately on a celebratory road-trip deep into the Chianti, to get […]
A resurgence of interest in this little-known region of southern Italy is underway, spearheaded by the sassy sassi of Matera. Last year Matera silenced the critics by beating out better-heeled northern rivals like Siena and Ravenna to be chosen as European Capital of Culture for 2019. The run-up to 2019 is likely to generate a […]