As I recall from the Nova special on this on PBS a few months back, experts are pretty sure Brunelleschi used a series of ropes from the floor (similar to the first theory examined in this video), making some of this seem a bit dated. But nonetheless a great peek into the genius of the man who made one of the world’s great structures a possibility.
We have many tours lined up for this fall, but still have some openings–come see it with us!
What you can do to help this situation: make sure the Carnivale masks you buy aren’t made in China but are locally made. Spend a couple extra bucks! It’ll be worth it to make sure the Venice you remember is there for you in the future. Get off the beaten path a bit to get that gelato or espresso; support a local merchant instead of a tourist trap. Your taste buds will thank you in the end and you’ll see more of the city. Visiting the city? Get there by plane to a water taxi or via the train, and avoid cruise ships that motor through the shallow lagoon damaging local ecosystems and the infrastructure of Venice.
It seems in the future tourism will be Venice’s only real economy, and the Venetians have accepted as much–but that’s ok in a way. It’s a city built to serve the curious tourists of the world and it can handle this task gracefully, but visitors should and can have a hand in preserving La Serenissima.
If you can’t be in Venice everyday (and unfortunately who can who isn’t lucky enough to be a Venetian) it doesn’t mean you have to go without a taste of the Veneto. Hardly! Those lucky enough to have wandered in Venice have probably seen locals sipping at wine glasses with a curiously citrusy colored fizzy beverage and wondered what it is; for those who haven’t tried one, well…you simply must! The Aperol spritz or Venetian spritz is just fantastic as you cook your pasta or relax in the shade.
Aperol is a light bitter aperitif; mix in a one to two or three ratio with dry prosecco and garnish with an orange or clementine slice and add a splash of club soda. Ridiculously delicious way to send out summer and enjoy a small taste of Venetian goodness without the plane or train ride.
Look at the hue on that…fantastic.
Region: Sicily, Italy
Grape: 50% Insolia and 50% Grecanico
Price: 35$
Being a wine nerd has its perks, now I know some producers name, and I get very excited when I see one of their wines I never had on a restaurant menu. This past Tuesday I was dining at a reputable Italian restaurant in Harvard Square and I was giddy because I saw earlier that they had a COS wine I never had.
I have reviewed several COS wines this past year, including their Nero d’Avola or their Cerasuolo di Vittoria. All excellent wines but I was particularly impressed by their Pithos Bianco. A white wine that was the most original thing I ever tasted, they used maceration and fermentation in clay amphoraes to bring character to the traditional Sicilian grape varieties. When I saw the other white from COS on…
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As always, Signor Scicolone does it correctly!
We spent my birthday weekend in the Hamptons at the home of our friends, Ernie and Louise De Salvo. Louise is an excellent cook and Ernie and I have the same taste in wine. 
We started with lunch on Saturday with zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies in a batter and deep-fried. This is one of my favorite foods and I have it whenever I am in Rome. With this we had a wine from a producer I did not know but it was a perfect combination with the flowers because it is a wine with a depth of flavor,hints of citrus fruit and good acidity.
Trebbiano d’Abruzzo “Fonte Canale” 2011 100% Trebbiano d’Abruzzo from old vines from Tiberio. The vineyard is at 300 meters, there are 2,500 vines /hectare and the training system is the tendone (vines form a canopy to protect the grapes from the sun). Harvest…
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…to the videos page. I love the one of Brooke learning to make authentic tiramisu from Mama Isa in Padova. Be sure to make a cooking class part of your Italy adventure!
This is a good thing. Italy’s already fantastic-by-comparison-to-the-US train system means we can very cost-effectively schedule tours around where the best airfares are; you can pick the departure and arrival cities that make the most fiscal sense and get to and from pretty easily regardless of the cities you’re actually going to visit for the most part. This will make it even easier to take in more of the regions you want to see while being picky about where to fly to and from.
The Italian Ministry of Transportation and the Italian State Railways signed an agreement to provide high-speed railways links between the airports of Rome, Milan and Venice.
Pursuant to the agreement, the Railways will have to start the evaluation phase before the end of the year. The Ministry will formulate its guidelines and provide the required financial resourced in the beginning of 2015.
The railway ring was required by the United Arab Emirates flagship airline Etihad as a precondition to pump fresh money into the embattled Italian flagship airline Alitalia.
Looks fantastic…look forward to exploring this place.
My favorite road in the world! The road toLa Foce, home of Iris Orego and her beautiful house and gardens outside Montepulciano, Italy ! Enjoy!
The Road to La Foce, Italy
Dear Venetians: rest assured these folks are *not* Sassi Italy Tours clients. Venice is not a campground where you break out a portable stove or backwater where you drunkenly engage in uhm…adult behaviors in public. It’s not a sunbathing beach (the Lido isn’t that far by ferry, people). It’s a unique connection to the past, a living museum you can walk around in, but please don’t ruin the magic for others while you’re doing so.
Sassi Italy Tours 