I think I owe this post to the city that has welcomed me for almost 16 years now. Can you believe it? I’ve spent almost as much time in Pisa as I have in my home village, Civitella Marittima. (By the way, if you have never heard of the latter, you should check this recent article by Alexandra on her blog ArtTrav.com dedicated to art and travel to Italy!).

Today Pisa remembers the tragedy of the first WWII bombing of the city. It was on August 31, 1943.

Few people know that vast areas of the city have been rebuilt over the years. Pisa is a wounded city. It paid an enormous price during WWII: the area was bombed several times, 53 to be precise. The loss of human lives was incredible with 1753 people dead over the course of 2 years. 953 of these people died in the first bombing, which has become the symbol of the atrocity of all war and the day on which Pisans remember those tragic times. Over 200,000 houses destroyed. Factories razed to the ground. Three bridges bombed. The monumental cemetery burnt to the ground. Pisa was not bombed by the Nazis. It was bombed by the Allies.

On that Tuesday, August 31 1943, people heard the sirens as they had other times before, but the common opinion was that the bombings would not reach Pisa. The Allies would certainly not risk destroying such a wealth of historic and art treasures. They hadn’t heard what Eisenhower had said, which was something that went like this: “We are about to invade a country rich in history, art and culture, but if the destruction of a beautiful monument can save the life of even just one American soldier, then, destroy that monument”. For this reason, it was not until the 38 B-17 – or “Liberators” as these planes were called – reached the skies over the city that the local people really realized what was about to happen.

It was also a very unusual time of the day for a bombing: it was midday, when most families were at home having lunch.

There are some moving reports from that day. Unfortunately, none of them have been translated, but if you can read Italian, or you can try using an online translator, here is the narration of the bombing of the train station in Pisa (the date is wrong – it was 1943 and not 1944).

The narration of the witnesses are also incredible, unfortunately they are in Italian too, but if you can understand the language, it’s worth watching this video. And this is a fabulous documentary by Lorenzo Garzella called La Fontana della Memoria:

The “irony” of the whole situation is that only 3 days later, the Italian government signed an armistice with the Anglo-American Allies which might have prevented such a severe bombing of a city like Pisa, which was a very important transportation hub and industrial area.

We should not forget.

And the people who walk through some parts of Pisa thinking that they look “shabby”, as I read in a forum this morning, should remember that those might be the scars of a huge sacrifice that granted freedom to an entire country. And maybe to our present-day society as a whole.

Those badly restored buildings, the few ruins still scattered throughout the city center, the few ugly buildings that have replaced ancient palaces on the Lungarno after the War, well, they are our history.

They should always be our memory.

This is the 9th post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March and that you can read here.

Feels like home

My definition of home follows the English proverb “Home is where you hang your hat”. Home is where I live. Home is where my I have my stuff. Home is where I sleep at night. And when I am traveling, home is a vacation rental that I have rented for a week or two.

I am writing this while staying at a vacation rental in France, going back next week to a house that we have rented for a year in England, while our house in Colorado is rented out to help finance this European adventure. Which of these is home? Right now it is this house in Normandy.

What makes a vacation rental feel like home?

Vacation rentals come in all shapes and sizes, from basic to luxury, but you know as soon as you walk in if it is going to feel like home.

• Someone or something is there to greet me. It is nice to be welcomed by the owner or local representative but we have stayed in places where the key was left under a flowerpot and they still felt welcoming. Tea was set up on the counter or there was a note from the owner or fresh flowers in a vase – something that let me know the house was ready for me.
• A house book helps me understand how things work. I don’t want to spend my time trying to find the owner to ask about garbage, recycling or how the stove works. I want it all written down so I can get the information when I need it. A good house book shows me that the owner cares about their house and wants me to be comfortable.
• Good local information so I can find my way around. Most likely I have never been to the area before. If the owner gives me some insider information – the best places to shop, a few good local restaurants, the best café – that makes me feel like a local.
• The furniture was chosen with the traveler in mind. No orange couch purchased decades ago for the owner’s house and put in the vacation rental when they can no longer stand looking at it.
• The fridge is clean. When we arrived at our vacation rental in England last summer, the fridge was full of half eaten and expired food. Opened bottles of alcohol lined the counter. Dog-chewed shoes were stuffed under the couch. I felt like an intruder in someone else’s house and never felt at home.
• Nice towels. Fluffy from a tumble dryer or stiff from line drying, I don’t care – what is important to me is a nice set of towels left for me.
• There is room for me. I am not house-sitting, I am not staying with a friend – I am renting this place to be my home for a short time. I want room to spread out, to use the house the way I like to live. I don’t want a house bursting at the seams with the owner’s knick-knacks or, even worse, antiques that I worry about damaging. I want room for my things, so I can unpack and settle in.

I appreciate the time vacation rental owners take to set up these homes for travelers, to think about what we need for cooking, to make spaces for us, to hang pictures you know we will enjoy. I would like to thank vacation rental owners who make a home for me.

And to the vacation rental owner who takes the orange couch that they never could stand and dumps it into their vacation rental, I would like to say “Hey, that is my home you are decorating!”

My current home, this vacation rental in Normandy, is lovely. I feel comfortable and at home. My maps and books are spread out on the coffee table. My food is on the shelves in the kitchen. My clothes hang in the closets. This is my home right now and it feels like home to me.

This week’s guest writer

Pauline Kenny is a smart, talented woman who has done much to make the world of slow travel, local travel and vacation rentals main stream, long before it was advertised by some big portals. She founded Slow Travel and now runs Slow Europe a website to help us all in the search for wonderful vacation rentals in Europe. You can follow her around the world on Twitter where she writes both as @PaulineK and @SlowEurope. She also has a blog called Slow Travels and of course you can follow Slow Europe on Facebook. I need to apologize with her for posting her lovely guest post only now, more than a month after she sent it to me… I hope she will forgive my being so… SLOW!

A couple of days ago, I read an interesting blog-post about looking at the place where one lives “through the eyes of a traveler” (read the original post: A Little Tourist… Home Through the Eyes of a Traveler), so when my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, who are visiting from Canada, told us that they hoped to visit a few wineries, we decided to go on a wine-tour in the Maremma with them!

I asked my friend Carlo to help me plan our Maremma wine tour: he owns an agriturismo near here and we always work together to scout the most interesting places in the area for our guests at Casina di Rosa and at his lovely Podere Vignali. We decided on a half-day itinerary with three stops at three wineries in the wine region where we are: the Montecucco D.O.C. wine region. Montecucco is a new denomination, but it is becoming more and more popular with excellent results both nationally and internationally.

Most of the wineries in the area are small, with very few exceptions. I really wanted to visit one of these larger wineries: the brand new winery Cantina Pieve Vecchia. I also wanted to meet its owner, Marco Monaci, whom I had “e-known” for a while… so to speak! We had exchanged messages on Facebook and Twitter and Marcel and I had celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a great dinner at his father’s fabulous restaurant in Campagnatico, La Locanda del Glicine. That’s when we first heard about their project for a winery which could, at the same time, help make the local d.o.c. wine known and work as a venue for events as well.

We left from Civitella around 2:30 pm and headed to the first winery: Vegni Medaglini near Castel Porrona. We chose this winery both for their excellent wines and nice owners but also because we wanted to take a walk in the beautiful Porrona castle after the tasting. It is such a lovely hamlet! And the drive to get there is also very beautiful.

First we visited their vineyards, then we visited their cellar. They explained how they produce their wine and then took us to the tasting room where we tried at least 6 wines (a white, a rosé and a few red wines). They also let us try their grape jelly, which is delicious and perfect to accompany pecorino cheese. The visit was very interesting and I got to buy two bottles of one of my favourite wines, L’Addobbo, a riserva and a regular one.

We left the vineyard and went to Porrona. We took a walk around: the place is just amazing. The hamlet is partly a hotel, with apartments, a swimming pool and a tennis court. The entire castle has been restored and it’s simply picture perfect. It’s like going back in time.

We were already running late after the first stop so we left to go to Le Calle winery, in Poggi del Sasso. They have a nice  little cellar, and a  very pretty tasting room, nicely decorated in a traditional Tuscan style. Very rustic, but done with great taste. However, I did not like the visit there very much. The owner has a 4 month old baby, so we had to wait for 10 minutes before she came down to meet us and then she talked all the time with Carlo in Italian (which left some of the people in our group out of the conversation) and mostly about stuff that had nothing to do with their wines. She let us try 5 wines, but without explaining anything or even talking about them. It was awkward, especially because we had guests who went there in the past and had a great time. Maybe it seemed even worse because we drove quite a while to get to their place, so in the end I was quite disappointed. Anyway, their wines were ok, especially the rosé, of which I bought a bottle that has already been drunk, so it was not a total waste of time!!

We then left to go visit Cantina Pieve Vecchia near Campagnatico. We got there at least one hour later that we should have and Marco was so nice as to wait for us, despite the fact that he had to be at his father’s restaurant soon. The winery is an impressive building, a designer’s joy for sure, in a stunning position at the center of all their vineyards, with great views over the hills of the Maremma.

Marco gave us the tour of the winery. The place is certainly unique: very modern and thoroughly thought out in all details. Another interesting thing is that it is built almost entirely underground so as to have as small an impact on the landscape as possible.

It is also not a small winery: it is quite large and ready to produce a significant number of bottles. They have 7 labels. They are new in the wine industry so they are not working at full regime yet, but the place is clearly ready to become a landmark in the Tuscan wine panorama.

We visited the wine-fermentation room with its enormous, high-tech steel “tuns”, then we moved to the cellar with the wooden barrels. That part deserves a few words of its own. I think it’s a work of art. The room is lit with a light purple light, and at the back a modern designer lounge with tables, lamps, comfortable chairs and a shelf with their wines makes for the perfect venue for chic events. It really is a cool place.

We continued to the new area that they have just finished last month: a top-scale professional kitchen, a conference room for 60 people with wireless connection with the kitchen so that even high-tech cooking classes are possible, open spaces for events, large panoramic windows with breath-taking views of the Maremma. Cantina Pieve Vecchia is a design work of art in my opinion. It’s very modern, but I think it fits in with the environment in which it’s situated very well.

We tasted two of their wines in a lovely tasting room, a white vermentino wine, Campo del Noce, and their top red wine, Chorum. I loved them both and bought a bottle of each one of them. The white vermentino wine will be perfect for tonight’s aperitivo! The other wine will be ideal when the wild-boar season starts again!

Cantina Pieve Vecchia was the perfect last stop of our wine tour in the Maremma, and offered a different view on Montecucco wine production. I expect to hear much about this winery in the next few years and I think they will do great things for the Montecucco wine denomination.

Everybody seemed to have had a great time. All in all I think two wineries would have been enough, and I would have liked to have arranged for a little snack too, to make sure we were not just drinking on an empty stomach. We’ll know for our next wine adventure!

If you are interested in coming on a wine tour with us, contact us!

I am very superstitious, like most of my fellow countrymen I guess! I suppose if you grow up in a tiny village in the countryside of Tuscany you are bound to wonder whether it might actually be possible that… Well, I do. No, actually I don’t… I am sure that some things bring bad luck!!! We say “portare sfortuna” in Italian… in Tuscany, we most commonly use the phrase “portare male“, meaning “to bring about bad things”.

I grew up with a great-grandmother who believed that she was responsible for the death of the Lady she had worked for her entire life, because, one day when the woman was not feeling well, she had inadvertently placed a hat on her bed. She obviously did not wake up the following morning. You see? It must be true. And everybody knows that nothing is as bad luck as a hat on a bed. No wait… maybe a bag on the bed. Yes… placing a bag on the bed is pretty bad.

I know, I know… there are apparently no reasons for that. Rational minds say that it all goes back to the times when if a doctor or a priest came to see you at home – and they would place their bag and hat at the bottom of the bed… – it was not a good sign at all. But who needs a rational explanation?! Everybody knows that no hats or bags are to be placed on any bed at any time, and that’s all one needs to know. No… maybe also that you should not get in the bed from one side and get out of it from another side… yes, there’s that as well.

Or that you should never place a mirror right in front of your bed… you don’t want the devil to watch you sleep now. And if you are so unlucky to have a restless night and wake up and see its reflection by mistake, that’s it. It owns you.

Bedrooms are a difficult place to be in the Tuscan countryside if you are superstitious. And everybody knows that mirrors are tricky objects: break one and nobody can free you of 7 years of disgrace: who needs that?!

Also breaking a bottle of olive oil is pretty serious stuff… that can also seriously jinx your life. A friend from Southern Italy once told me that if you pour salt on the spilt oil, everything will be ok. What?!?! No way. Spilling salt is also a no no in Tuscany! You need to throw a pinch (or better 3) over your shoulder to avoid some serious bad days. Now… I can never remember what shoulder, so I always make sure to throw 3 pinches (a couple of grains are enough) with my right hand over my left shoulder, 3 pinches with my left hand over my right shoulder, and then just to make sure 3 pinches with my left hand over my left shoulder and 3 pinches with my right hand over my right shoulder. The result is that I need to pull out the vacuum cleaner to fix the mess behind me but hey, you do not want to mess with your destiny.

And then there are all those little things you rarely think about but can really make a difference: opening an umbrella inside your house will guarantee some bad weather; walking backwards will make sure the devil pays you a visit; having 13 people at your table has never been a good thing since the Last Supper…  having to deal with the number 17 is also not that good, whereas 13 is good luck (unless it’s the number of people at the table) as it was the winning number for “Totocalcio”, the most popular lottery game in the 70’s and 80’s; and do I even have to mention seeing a black cat cross the street or  walking under a ladder!?!?

Thank God if you step on a poo that brings good luck! Or if you spill wine on a perfectly clean dress or table cloth! Or if you get married on a day when it’s pouring. All things to be hoped for.

This year the minister of tourism jinxed the Palio di Siena too (or so people are saying in Siena anyway). It was already a mess of its own with all 4 “green” contrade racing (Oca, Drago, Selva and Bruco). A rare event, and always accompanied by bad stuff. And indeed, first the president of a French delegation was killed by a stone that fell from a balcony after hanging in there for hundreds of years without ever giving any sign of instability whatsoever. Then a horse was not well, and the contrada risked not racing. Finally, a flag waver hit a Belgian tourist with his flag!!! I mean… how much more proof do you need to believe that Minister Brambilla and the 4 green contrade together are some serious stuff when it comes to bad luck? Well, for tourists at least… but who knows in the end?

Life is a mystery.

It’s been a while since I last sat down and wrote about something. I have had a couple of busy weeks and I’ve also been kind of lazy… Today it’s pouring so it’s the perfect day to be inside and spend some time at the computer! The summer seems to have been shorter than usual this year. Except for the 3 dreadfully hot weeks in July, temperatures have been mild and the storms have started much earlier than usual.

I was reading the newspaper today and I found out about a really cool initiative by the Regione Toscana: an “albo degli antichi mestieri“, a registry of the old trades. The Region has essentially decided to census the people who are carrying on the tradition of some old professions. The list includes 94 businesses at present.

In our area there are several trades that are “threatened with extinction”, mostly in the inland areas around Massa Marittima or on Monte Amiata.

There are two brothers who still make coal out of wood like in the old times, with charcoal piles. I remember seeing the remains of those piles in the woods when I was a kid and it was quite rare back then already.

There are a few mills where the milling process is carried out with the same instruments as 100 years ago. Another farm produces chestnut flour the old way.

A family still breaks in horses in the traditional Maremman style and entertains people with extemporaneous poetry.

Others still press olive oil with the old stone wheels.

Two other guys make vineyard poles out of chestnut wood with old instruments.

But the workshops that fascinate me the most are those of a couple of other craftsmen who still produce bill-hooks, pruning-hooks and other agricultural tools by striking hot metals on an anvil as in the old times. One also makes the hafts in wild heath wood. My goal now is to go visit these places!!!

And there’s more!! In Tuscany, there are still people working tobacco leaves to make cigars; people working straw to make home-made chairs and baskets; people breeding donkeys to carry heavy loads where mechanical vehicles cannot go; people shearing sheep with traditional tools; people who still specialize in gathering pine nuts in the woods; people weaving on old high-warp looms; people who go around singing traditional songs in the various villages; women embroidering precious materials; craftsmen sculpting stone with old tools; people making knives like in the old times.

There is a website where you can see the list organized according to the provinces:

Antichi Mestieri in Toscana – Old Trades in Tuscany

I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I’ll try and make time to visit a few of these people as soon as possible as these old professions need to be supported or we risk losing a large part of our culture.

This is the 8th post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March and that you can read here.

At Home in Italy

Often, I get the question: What is your favorite European country? My answer is always the same.  I like all European countries because they each offer something different.  But the one I’m most drawn to is Italy; it feels like HOME.

For me, home is a place that is warm and welcoming; a place I go to for comfort, acceptance and relaxation.  And there was no better example of ‘home’ than my grandmother’s house.  My grandmother’s home was where the entire family congregated; everyone was welcome and even strangers became family.  Grandma always had something delicious cooking on the stove filling the house with wonderful aromas.  We were encouraged to linger for hours around her kitchen table eating, talking and laughing the day away.

It may sound strange, but upon landing in Rome’s Fiumicino Airport (5600 miles from where I live), I often say, “Ah, I’m home!” And I have found little pieces of “grandma’s house” all over Italy.  Like when I enjoy a dinner at Rome’s Ditirambo and owner Daniel (like a cousin I see once a year) pulls up a chair at my table to catch up on life’s events.  Then there’s Dana (like the sister I never had) at The Library , whom I swap photos and stories with.

No visit to Grandma’s house was complete without a down-home country meal.  For me, Cortona’s La Bucaccia where Romano (like my big brother), his wife, Agostina (a.k.a. my favorite sister-in-law), and their daughter Francesca (like the little niece I’ve always wanted) warm my heart with their hospitality and my tummy with meals that would make Grandma proud!

Staying overnight at Grandma’s was always special. I remember simple things: bed linens crisp from drying on the line, waking early in the mornings to raid the hen house for eggs, and the night sounds of crickets and frogs singing through open windows. Those memories come alive when I arrive at Livernano. Sitting deep inside the Tuscan hills, Livernano evokes the simple life my grandmother treasured.

I miss Grandma. And when I’m in residence in Texas, I am homesick for the open arms of my Italian family, the taste of their fresh homemade cooking, and the simple and beautiful life of their country.  I miss HOME.

This week’s guest writer

Julie Gilley is an European Travel Consultant.  She specializes in creating unique vacation experiences for the independent traveler.  She is the founder of My Far and Away Itineraries and author of the travel blog, Travel with Julie.  She has a passion for experiencing a destination, not just passing through it.

But most importantly, she is a lovely person and a very interesting lady. You can also find her and follow her up close on Twitter and Facebook.

Today the coolest thing happened. I was at the beautiful Fattoria La Pievanella by chance. I was helping out the owner with some translation work when I heard her talk to some American people who had stopped by to ask if it was possible to get something to eat.

Normally, it’s always better to book in advance there (and be prepared for the prices) because the restaurant works mostly for the guests and if the guests choose to go out for the day, the chef gets some time off. As you can imagine, he cannot leave at any other time during the tourist season. Anyway, I went out to help out with the language barriers (the owner is German) and in the end she decided that she could ask the chef to prepare a light lunch for them anyway. She asked me if in the meanwhile I could take them around to see the pool etc. They seemed very nice, so I did.

While we were walking down to the pool, I noticed they had something printed and I asked how they found the place. They told me they had read about an off-the-beaten-path drive in Tuscany online… It was the guest post I wrote for Keith’s Velvet’s Escape Travel Blog!!! There was a  photo of me, my bio etc! It was so weird and so cool at the same time! We had a good laugh!

They had lunch there, and then we took photos and talked a while! It was so funny! I almost felt like a star! LOL

In the end, when I was ready to leave, I guided them along my favourite route around there, to the Castle of Monte Antico. There they stopped to take a walk around and some photos and we said goodbye!

Ah…the power of the web!!! I need to thank Keith once again for asking me to write that guest post and in so doing, for giving me a chance to meet nice people like them!! I hope they will send the photo we took with the print-out of the article!!!

Driving in the countryside is like a therapy against stress for me, especially on perfect summer days like today.

Even when we go somewhere on holiday, driving around is a big part of our vacation. It is not about getting from point a to point b: it’s our way of enjoying beautiful landscapes, stopping along the road to enjoy the views and take pictures, and taking it slow. The drive, for us, is often not just a necessary part of a day-trip: it’s the whole point of a day-trip. We like road trips very much.

I am always a bit surprised when I hear our guests worry about driving in Italy or on winding country roads: that’s the best part of a vacation in Tuscany! Our recommendation is always to take it slow, stop when you feel you need to, and ignore those behind you: do your own thing as you feel comfortable, the world will adjust to your rhythm!

Country lanes are generally a good place for slow drives because there is very little traffic. This morning, on my slow drive through our corner of Tuscany, I only met two other cars.

I left Civitella Marittima and drove towards Grosseto along the E78-SS223. I turned left on a road that I really like, called La Cerreta, which connects the main highway E78 to the road to Monte Amiata (SP64). It’s a road that cuts through the woods and the countryside.

I got on the main road to Monte Amiata and almost immediately turned left passing under an old railway bridge to get onto the Strada Provinciale di Petriolo and followed towards Monte Antico.

The road to Monte Antico is a beautiful drive. It takes you through the prettiest landscapes of Tuscany, with old bridges, fields dotted with hay bales, olive groves, vineyards and sunflower fields. Monte Antico itself is a little hamlet home to less than 100 people, but they can be very proud of their local restaurant, La Taverna di Campagna. They serve both traditional food and excellent pizza, and the owners are the proud producers of one of the best Montecucco D.O.C. wines in the area, Begnardi.

To many, Monte Antico is probably just a group of houses, but I find it fascinating, with its yellow church, and the little train station, which is one of the main stops on the old Grosseto-Siena  railway line. The steam engine train called Treno Natura always stops here. It is one of those places which still bear traces of the old times, when lots of people lived here or in the many farmhouses around this group of houses.

From Monte Antico a picture perfect cypress tree-lined road climbs up to the top of a hill, where the ancient Castle of Monte Antico is located. The castle looks like a fortress from the outside, and it is now a beautiful hotel. It has a lovely courtyard with a well, and breathtaking views over the valley of the river Ombrone.

Driving up to the castle you can enjoy very beautiful views over the hills where our village, Civitella Marittima, is located, and over the surrounding vineyards, nestled among the cypress trees. It’s really pretty. Coming closer to the castle, the old church of San Tommaso, now a theatre, welcomes you to this fabulous corner of the inland hills of the Maremma.

That’s right. Most people don’t have this image of the Maremma in their head. They believe it’s a flat area by the coast. Not at all. The inland areas are quintessentially Tuscan, with rolling hills, vineyards giving way to olive groves, giving way to woods and fields. It’s Tuscany at its best.

I really like the short stretch of road that from the Castle of Monte Antico takes you back to the old Leopoldina road. The road is one of my favourite places near here. I wrote a post for the Velvet Escape Travel Blog about it. The views area amazing!

I drove as far as Fattoria Nuova Pievanella, one of the most beautiful countryside villas in Tuscany. It’s a holiday farm with rooms and apartments, a tennis court, swimming pool, gym, paths through their grounds and a restaurant. But most importantly it is in a stunning location. It’s the perfect romantic retreat in the Tuscan countryside.

I turned around and drove back down to Monte Antico, along the road that runs below the castle. There are a few spots where one can stop and enjoy the view over the hills towards Civitella. The fields have just been harvested and the hay bales are still there: so pretty!

I got back to the old Strada di Petriolo, also known as the “ancient salt road”, because it was the old road that led from Siena to the sea and ensured the salt supply to the city. There are plenty of spots to stop here, and I did stop quite a bit, and took some really cool photos of some hay bales on the top of a hill!

The road is wider than the other one so it’s an easier drive. It is also busier but I still only met two other cars. Most of the fields have been transformed into vineyards over the last few years, since the creation of the Montecucco DOC wine region.It’s very beautiful, especially the part which overlooks the Castle of Casenovole and Monte Amiata.

I then turned left to take the road that goes down to the ancient Ardengheschi Abbey and finally leads back to the village passing by the old village fountains.

A perfect way to spend a Sunday morning in Tuscany!

Here is a photogallery with 62 photos I took this morning. To see them in a larger size, please click on the box with an arrow symbol in the bottom right corner of the gallery. Thank you. They are also available on Flickr.

This itinerary (avoiding the highway) is also perfect for expert cyclists and for horseback rides and walkers.

This is the seventh post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March and that you can read here.

At Home in the Kitchen

I could define my way of traveling as “from kitchen to kitchen” .

I spend big part of my (little) free time dreaming about  our next family holiday. A dream holiday must include amazing cultural experiences, plenty views, lots of relaxation and above all great food.

For relaxation I like a comfortable room with an individual touch and interesting surroundings. I adore funky designer hotels. You see, I live in a quaint bed and breakfast atop an emerald green Umbrian hill, I need something different once a year.

Fig 1: a bizarre Bangkok hotel where we stayed a couple of years ago, definitely it does not look like a home, but my daughter thought it was the best

However, after we have dealt with our  yearly supply of urban craziness, we tend to return to what we are used to, small homey B&Bs where people talks to us, we are hardly ever disappointed.

Fig. 2 This is what I am used to, my home

As for food, I am not interested at all in those funky-foamy-fusion-vertical concoctions. I need real, recognizable, local food. Preferably flat on the plate.

Everywhere I go, home food is central to my travel experience. Food is a focus of family life. Therefore savoring basic, every-day food is an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the local culture, its rhythm and needs.

Fig. 3 Bruschetta: a plate of toasted crusted bread drizzled with fragrant olive oil, the quintessential Umbrian food  (Photo E. Hazard)

How do I find home food?

1) I get informed. What’s special and what’s best in the season when I will be there. I am appalled by some Italian travelers who are so happy to find good lasagna in Bali. I stay away from international food.

2)  I try to visit friends who live in interesting places. Friends are obviously  an invaluable source of local information. My friends tend to be foodies, I wonder why.

Fig. 4 By visiting a local market you get to know new and seasonal ingredients. Here is where I buy my vegetables in Assisi

3) I cross-check tips from local bloggers, guidebooks and review sites for small, family run restaurants, cafes, bakeries, markets, deli shops, etc. These places also make for good people watching.

4) I join a family-style cooking class. Yes, that’s what  I do professionally and – I must admit – it’s nice to be that one who’s pampered. If one does not have local friends, it’s a polite way to obtain seating at someone’s home table anywhere in the world.

Fig. 5 Spending time in someone’s kitchen is a way to experience another home away from home

5) I ask the hotel’s concierge and nearby shopkeepers to indicate their local food joints.

That’s how I plan my holidays. When I get somewhere I generally have a pretty good idea of what will happen for lunch and dinner. And snacks. And breezy breaks at leafy cafes. In between, we even try to do some sightseeing.

This week’s guest writer

Letizia Mattiacci is a first of all a dear friend. She is a generous, smart woman, incredibly passionate about her work.  She is the owner of the Agriturismo and Cooking school Alla Madonna del Piatto , near Assisi in Umbria that she runs with her husband Ruurd and her delightful daughter Tea. After a career in insect ecology and plant chemistry she has turned to studying the magical flavors of authentic Italian home food. She teaches much appreciated cooking classes. You can find her recipes, cooking tips, beautiful images and stories about Umbria in her blog. Our “incursions” to her kitchen (and to her table) are the best evidence of her cooking skills!  She is also on Twitter as @MadonnaDP and on Facebook.

The fact that we own a vacation house in Tuscany might simply look like a job to some people. To us, though, it’s often much more than that.

It’s a funny feeling, especially for me, but I guess for my husband Marcel too in a way. Casina di Rosa is the house where my great-grandparents raised their family, my grandfather Gino’s family, after actually building it with their own hands. My mother was born there (and I mean right there), and so was my uncle. I have grown up knowing that that was my greatgrandmother Rosa’s home for as long as she could live on her own. And now it is a holiday rental in Tuscany… but to me offering Casina di Rosa does not  equate selling accommodation, it’s actually like opening my family’s home’s doors to our guests.

We have tried to make it comfortable and pretty. But mostly, we hope we have managed to preserve the fact that it is a home.

For this reason, when we meet our guests on Saturdays, it’s always exciting and worrying at the same time. There is always a funny feeling inside of me that makes me worry about whether they are going to like it or not, or whether they will enjoy spending time in the village or if they will rather think we are a bunch of hilly-billies and how can people ever live like that!? For me, it’s like opening a door on who I am and on where I come from, on my life, my culture and my history.

I obviously love my village and our little home: it inevitably does get personal.

Most people, luckily, end up loving both the house and the village: and that is enough to make me happy, because it makes me proud. It is hard to explain.

And then, there are those special cases in which our guests really get to experience life in the village: they participate in local events, they mix and mingle with the locals, and contribute to the local community in many ways. When we are lucky enough to meet these people – and the first sign that that is the case is when others in the village ask about our guests and tell us that they “hanno fatto amicizia“, they made friends -  then I know my “heritage” is in very good hands!

When those guests leave, it’s like saying goodbye to friends, and you wish they will be back. I told you: it’s not a job. It’s getting to know people, opening the doors of your home and connecting.

And I think, recently, we have been very lucky.