Category Archives: Private Italy Tours

Italian Wine, Piemonte, Private Italy Tours, Uncategorized

Fun With Wine And Google, La Morra Edition

1 Comment

We’re going to be exploring some Lugana and Piemonte wineries this fall whose wines we enjoy, and one of the ones we’re hoping to visit looks simply extraordinary; we managed to find a ridiculous deal on the Tenuta L’Illuminata Tebavio from 2004 a few months back when our friends at Sovereignty.  Taking a look at their website, we can see this is definitely one for the bucket list…beautiful.   So where does this lovely Barolo hail from?  Let’s see:

Tebavio 1

Just to the west of La Morra and southwest of Alba, you can see that Tenuta L’Illuminata is located in the foggy, hilly, verdant heart of Piemonte’s prime nebbiolo real estate.  Diving in:

Tebavio 2

 

Looks like it’s almost walking distance from downtown La Morra, a beautiful hilltop town of about 2400 lucky folks.

Tebavio 3

 

A little driveway, terra cotta roofs, a pool…and lots and lots of well-trained vines neatly nestled in the rolling hills.  Yes.

Tebavio 4

 

Time for a leisurely stroll in that sea of green.

Tebavio 5

 

This doesn’t look too bad at all.  Can’t wait to see it in person, but for now the Google Earth views tell us what we need to know:  this place needs to find its way onto any Piemonte itinerary.

Tebavio 6

Lake Region, Private Italy Tours, Veneto, Venice

Great Documentaries On Venice

Leave a comment

Thought of posting this the other day when word of Leonard Nimoy’s condition was public, but held off hoping he’d get better.  Unfortunately today we learned that was not to be.  But it’s a great way to remember that iconic, sonorous voice of his, enjoying this informative documentary about how and why Venice was built.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V10VqGUG7j8

We all have to go sometime, and seeing Venice before you do is almost mandatory.

Italian Wine, Lake Region, Private Italy Tours, Veneto

What Is Prosecco, Anyway?

4 Comments

Not just any sparkling white wine from Italy, mind you.  This is a quick but insightful piece on what exactly prosecco denotes.  We’re planning on doing some more exploring of this region soon and will have reports…stay tuned!  Thanks Dream of Venice for posting this.

Penny Sadler Valdobbiadene

(Photo by Penny Sadler).

Private Italy Tours, Venice

Love This Canal Pic

Leave a comment

Brooke took it last year, and it’s still one of my favorites.  She posted it on our FB page, but I like it so much I’m reposting here.  A view no discerning traveler will ever tire of:

brooke canal pic

Art Instruction, Private Italy Tours, Renaissance

Nan Wood Surveys The Front Range: Sassi Drawing’s Latest Gem

Leave a comment

Sassi Drawing and Sassi Italy Tours proudly present the latest masterpiece from Raphael Sassi.  It will be displayed at the Carla Massoni Gallery in Chestertown, MD beginning next week.  In addition to guided tours for aspiring artists and drawing from the masters, Raphael is available for private commissions.  Contact him here or at @SassiDrawing on Twitter and Facebook.

Italian Food, Italian Wine, Private Italy Tours

Fun With Wine And Google, Verdicchio Addition

Leave a comment

We are forever bugging our friends over at Sovereignty Wines to expand upon their Italian white wine selection (they have a good one already, but one can never be too careful, eh?) and they graciously keep us trying new labels all the time.  They were nice enough to source Belisario‘s Le Salse, a DOC verdicchio from Matelica.  Is verdicchio trebbiano?  Is turbiana trebbiano?  Is trebbiano in central Italy the same as in Lugana?  The Internet speculates on this subject at great and fascinating length.  All we know for certain is that this straw yellowish green wine is perfect with seafood and grilled or sauteed veggies and rich cheeses.  So where is it from?

Here:

Belisario 1Matelica is found in a valley in the Marche region about halfway between Ancona and Perugia.  Cantine Belisario is found in the heart of this ancient city:

Belisario 2

Upon a closer look, this is certainly a place that looks like it’s worth exploring!

Belisario 3

So what do Matelica, and specifically Belisario’s location, look like according to Google at the ground level?  Not disappointing in the least:

Belisario 4

 

In addition to the post war modern warmth of the place and knowing that the wine is good, the suggested images Google offered up served as invitation enough to dig further; pretty soon Matelica and Cantine Belisario have made their way onto our list of places to investigate in person, and soon.  See what we mean for yourself:

Belisario 5 Belisario 6

 

When we visit, we’ll take in the Apennine Mountains off in the distance, and then we’ll take in the enoteca here, which looks amazing.  If we’re not heard from for a long time, it’s because we took a job in the winery.  More tempting employment we cannot imagine.

 

 

 

 

Art Instruction, Private Italy Tours

Oil Painting by Sassi Drawing

Leave a comment

Visual arts master, portrait artist extraordinaire, and visionary behind Drawing from the Masters Raphael Sassi has unveiled his latest work, an oil painting commission.  His use of light and emotional honesty captures his subjects very spirit in such a way that you expect him to jump out of the tub at any moment.  Amazing.

Bathtub portrait

Private Italy Tours

A Wonderful Writeup On Doug Sassi

Leave a comment

This was tweeted to us tonight, and we think it does a great job of capturing Doug’s essence, and what makes Sassi Italy Tours more than a little unique in this business.doug pic

Florence, Italian Food, Italian Wine, Private Italy Tours

Fun With Google Earth And Wine, Badia e Coltibuono Edition

Leave a comment

One of the more lovely treats Doug Sassi brought home with him from recent set of tours was a bottle of Badia e Coltibuono’s Chianti Classico.  The 2010 is a perfect expression of the Sangiovese/Canaiolo blend style and the strong nose is instantly transportative, reminding the taster of the sights, smells, and tastes of Italy.  Not content to just imagine?  Let’s dig in via Google Earth:

Badia 1

As you can see they enjoy a woodsy area of Tuscany northeast of Siena and south of Florence–the heart of the Chianti region.  This is the sort of place that has made traveling authors swoon for generations, and end up finding a way to move there.  It’s not an accident.  Scrolling in:

Badia 2
Italy isn’t a huge country (about the size of California), but it still makes more wine than any other country by a long stretch, and it is because they still respect the old ways of doing things while managing to incorporate them and improve upon them with modernity.  Because they live predominantly in well developed and livable urban centers, they can preserve these large swaths of wine producing country nearby the big cities–they have managed to avoid suburban strip mall sprawl in a way that we Americans have not.  Moving in:

Badia 3

To get there from the main road, you have to navigate through that lush Tuscan forest.  Does not sound like a chore to me in the slightest.

Badia 4

Now you’re talking.  I love the pool nestled on the property by the entrance to the woods.  As you can see from the higher up shots, most of the grape growing appears to happen a bit further out.

Badia 5

Well, that’s awful.  Cannot imagine any of our clients will want to go here.  🙂  But just to make sure, we will go inspect the place personally to make sure it is up to snuff and report back shortly.  If we are not heard from in six months, send risotto, porcini mushrooms, prosciutto, and help in the form of wine fund replenishment….as we’re likely to offer to pick grapes and handle the landscaping for free and possibly sell off everything we own in order to get to live here.  Wow.

Badia 6

Imagine touring this place, tasting their wines, and then taking a bottle for a walk in the woods here.  You too will be looking for a black market organ harvesting operation to sell a kidney to in order to expatriate yourself here.  It looks that amazing.

The kicker:  they offer a cooking school and overnight accommodations, and a restaurant that opens March 15th and runs through early November.  Sounds like a place worth investigating.

Italian Wine, Private Italy Tours, Rome

More Fun With Google Wine Tours…Lazio Edition

Leave a comment

Tonight we did some broiled tuna steaks with radicchio and capers in olive oil, and I thought it called for some vino bianco for the sauce.  A quick trip to Sovereignty Wines was required, and I noticed they had a special on Seiano Bianco, a dark straw colored IGT offering from a little town called Teverina in the Viterbo area, just south of Orvieto.  It’s on a ridiculous sale for a price I won’t even mention, but expect to pay $9 or so on average.  11.5% ABV, and very much the right wine for a dish like this.  As you can probably guess, after dinner we were dying to learn more about the village where this came from.

seiano 1

As you can see above, looking up Teverina gets you to the rolling hills east of Lago di Bolsena, a glacial lake carved into the Lazio countryside.  Let’s click onward:

seiano 2
Looks pretty agrarian with a decent sized town at the core.  You’ll notice it’s right on the edge of what’s considered Lazio and what’s Umbria.  Neat.

seiano 3Lovely.  The city center comes into view, as do some rows of local vineyards tucked neatly into the hillsides.  Time for a street view:

seiano 4

As you meander down a few clicks from where the offices for Seiano are reported via Google, you arrive at a little bend in the road where the local vino is sourced.  Check out those well-trained grapes growing on the sun-drenched Lazio slopes with Umbrian hills in the background.  Another town that looks like it’s worth a visit.  Checking out the rest of the town, you can’t help but love the narrow decidedly *not* SUV friendly streets:

Screen shot 2014-11-09 at 9.49.57 PM

This place looks pretty livable:

Screen shot 2014-11-09 at 9.53.10 PM

The hills off in the distance from the city center:

Screen shot 2014-11-09 at 9.59.50 PM

To borrow from Tony Bourdain, this place does not suck.

Screen shot 2014-11-09 at 10.09.34 PM

A side benefit–if you were to make it here, you’d be a short jaunt from Orvieto (also known for great white wines, which, if you’re reading this, you probably already know), and not too much further south to go explore the Tivoli Gardens.

EDITED TO ADD:  Looks like the wine makers run a small overnight accommodation that looks very, VERY inviting.  If you want to go, Sassi Italy Tours can get you there.  Let us know.