Category Archives: Private Italy Tours

Private Italy Tours, Uncategorized

Sassi Italy Tours Ahead of the Curve!

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You might recall a ways back we speculated that the declining situation for Greece might end up being good for American travelers to Italy?  Seems CNN finally got the memo.   By the time you’re traveling this fall or winter if you haven’t already booked a trip, you might be doing even better as some speculate the dollar/euro exchange rate might approach parity.

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/economy/2015/07/13/greece-deal-reached.cnnmoney/

We’ve in recent quarters seen rates approaching $1.45 per euro, so it’s quite a relief to look forward to trips where you can more or less take the Euro figure listed on a menu or a product and not have to do any math in your head to know how many dollars it’s costing you.

Private Italy Tours, Veneto

Ghost Island in the lagoon

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From the vaporetto on the way to Burano, a unique fixer-upper opportunity.  Sassi Italy Tours now accepting proposals from qualified suitors to help adopt this island and restore it.

Private Italy Tours

Need One Of These!

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Italy Is Calling!

Book a trip with Sassi Italy Tours between now and the end of August for travel to be completed between now and June 2016, and we’ll throw one in!  Mention this blog post.

Florence, Private Italy Tours

lights of florence

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Stop whatever you’re doing and watch this video shot from above Firenze, and see why it’s one of our favorite cities in the world.

Italian Food, Italian Wine, Private Italy Tours, Venice

Craving Some Cicchetti

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And if you knew how good the smoked swordfish wrapped robiaola, pickled herring, and olive oil and herb soaked artichoke hearts were here, you would be too!  Nothing beats a cicchetti bar off the beaten path a bit in a quiet Venetian neighborhood for a pre-dinner snack and bicchiere di vino!

Come find this place with us.

Italian Wine, Piemonte, Private Italy Tours

Fun with wine and google, Arneis edition!

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Tonight a lighter white seemed appropriate as it’s hot and humid, and our friends at Sovereignty Wines had just the ticket lined up:  the Arneis from Azienda Agricola Matteo Correggia, by way of Canale, Italia.  As always, we want to explore where our wine comes from:

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The Roero district is nestled between Bra and Asti, with the Azienda lying just to the southeast of Canale town.

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The Matteo Correggia azienda comes into view from above, with the lovely terra cotta roofs you’d expect to see in Northern Italy dominating the landscape, along with rolling hills of grapes and trees.  Yes!

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Looks like the estate has had to do some terracing and landscaping recently, but it’s lovely nonetheless.  Almost every parcel of land that could be used for viticulture is indeed being used, and it makes for a lovely set of textures.

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The front door view is wonderful.  And if you scroll on Google Maps a little closer to Canale town proper, you see some lovely hilltop estates.  All this beauty, great wine, and a view of the Alps?

Added to the bucket list!  Hope to visit this azienda soon.

Some lovely shots on their FB page as well:

Private Italy Tours, Venice

Acqua Alta!

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Found on the Guardian, a century of pictures of Venice during high water periods.  For the record, no, don’t go swimming in Piazza San Marco during high water.  Please.  Putting aside the microbial soup you’re swaddling yourself in, it’s not much more respectful of the place than the tourists who’ve been spotted camping in tents in piazze, locking padlocks on bridges, carving their names into monuments, or doing some of the even more unmentionable things tourists have done to behave badly in Venice of late.  They put those temporary footbridges up for a reason!

Venice Flood 1927

Private Italy Tours

What Will The (Likely) Greek Default Mean For Your Travel Plans?

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As you might have read, the Greeks are looking likely to default on credit obligations, and the ramifications for the EU are going to make for interesting watching over the next week.  So if you’re planning on joining us in Italy in the coming months, what does it mean for you?

tsipras

Instability is always worrisome for the financial sector, but for the Western traveler to the EU, the news might actually be good.  If you’re buying euros with dollars in coming months, your dollar might just go that much further.