photos to come! Breakfast at Zagreb’s Hotel Esplanade is a five-star affair. Every uniformed staff member in the dining room says hello amid a sea of white tablecloths under the chandeliers, and there’s sparkling wine and fresh-squeezed orange juice chilling at the buffet if you care to start the day with a mimosa. Out on … Continue reading »
Filed under Travel …
Greetings from Zagreb, Croatia, first leg in this week’s Survivor-meets-Amazing-Race press trip. The first test was the night flight over. No more business class for me … it was back of the Air Canada bus with mystery beef, a lousy selection of movies we couldn’t hear through the earphones provided and a truly uncomfortable seat … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia – Arrivederci
All of Agrate knows when I come to visit. I’m the stranger who sets the dogs barking when I walk by their gated homes. Most of the time I don’t even see them until there’s a sudden surge of furred energy toward the gate and the roar begins from some Doberman or mutt, lab or … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia: On the road
We left first thing in the morning and set the Tom Tom for Borgo d’Ale, home of asparagus. At 130 km an hour and hardly any traffic, we arrived in 35 minutes via the autostrada. The 5-euro toll was a bargain Toronto should consider. We passed perfect rows of fruit trees and grapes, perhaps table … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia: radicchio to riso
As I ate breakfast, at a lazy 9:30, Remo was already busy preparing lunch, chopping leftover cooked veal for his tomato sauce and wandering out to the garden to collect a firm savoy cabbage and leaves of dark red radicchio, chopping them in a fine julienne for salad. At 10:30 we had our first cappuccino … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia: Pasqua to Pasquetta
Another cool grey day, but the forsythia are blooming and the magnolia buds are swelling, so spring is definitely in the works. We did make it to church in yesterday’s glorious sunshine. The streets flowing into the central roundabout turned into a parking lot and every pew was filled, though there can’t be more than … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia: Village life
The rain has stopped, for now, leaving the fields green and the daffodils blooming in time for Pasqua, though it’s still cold enough for a winter jacket. Twelve degrees tomorrow, they promise, but it may be short-lived. Inside, by the stuffa, the enclosed wood stove that heats the main floor of Remo’s sprawling split-level house, … Continue reading »
Letters from Italia
March 28 Arriving in Agrate When I showed my 75-year-old brother-in-law my blog, with its photo of fennel, he looked bemused. I can’t blame him; when fennel is part of your DNA and grows in your garden, why would you write an article about it? Even after a night in business class, day 1 was … Continue reading »
Tropical Boot Camp
Shape Up in St. Lucia Dreamscapes Fall/Winter 2012 issue 8 a.m. St. Lucia time. My four-poster bed with the thigh-high mattress is so comfortable I’ve slept in and missed tai chi class. As I open my balcony door to yet another blue-sky day framed by ocean and green hills, the last of the early-morning keeners jog by, … Continue reading »
DIY vanilla a bust
It’s been more than six months since I filled a glass bottle with Ketel One vodka, added a vanilla bean split in half, tightened the cap and left it in a cool, dark place – the basement – to infuse. The bottle and bean came from the Hawaiian Vanilla Co., a hilltop plantation on the … Continue reading »
