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.

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

• 1997 Fattoria dei Barbi (Colombini) Brunello di Montalcino – Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino (8/21/2014)
  WIML93

  Tasted non blind.

  Dark garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of leather, anise, dark berries and dark cherries. Flavors of black berries, black cherries and black raspberries. Medium to bright acidity, medium tannin, full bodied. Drink or hold. (93 points)
  

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As the horses and their bare-back riders line up against the starting rope in Piazza del Campo, you can almost taste the anxiety, agitation and adrenaline, rising up from the 40,000-strong crowd. The last few weeks, months and years of planning have all led to this moment. And the next one and half minutes will decide the happiness of one of Siena’s contrade for the year to come and even beyond. This is the legendary Palio di Siena horse race and it’s a spectacle not to be missed!

The Palio dell’Assunta, Siena 2010

The Palio is a piece of living history. The tradition of horse racing in Italy goes back to Ancient Roman days when a pallium, or precious piece of material, was awarded to the winner. In medieval times, the Senese people held races called palii alla lunga through the city streets, with the winner being the first bull…

• 1999 Piero Talenti Brunello di Montalcino – Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino (8/16/2014)
  WIML91

  Tasted non blind at a wine dinner.

  Garnet to dark garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of dried herbs, berries and cherries. Flavors of berries, cherries and raspberries. Medium acidity, medium tannin, full bodied. Drink or hold. (91 points)
  

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Paris has its arrondissements, New York has its blocks, and Siena has its contradas. But a contrada, or district, is not just a geographic designation within the city’s historic walls, it is much, much more serious than that. It is life itself.

Contrada first

The UNESCO heritage city of Siena will host the second of her annual Palio horse races this weekend, on Saturday 16th August, but before we can delve into the history of the race, we first need to understand what a contrada is and why passions run so high at the Palio.

The Palio of Siena

Siena is divided into three main parts, called the terzi, or thirds. These are Terzo di Camollia, Terzo di Città and Terzo di San Martino. These are then divided further into the 17 contradas, or to be more correct contrade (Italian plural), that sit proudly within the medieval walls. The contrade…

Louis Coluccio at Work

One of the things I enjoy most about the Italian wine dinners I host at The Westchester Italian Cultural Center in Tuckahoe, NY is the opportunity to work with my friend Louis Coluccio, the proprietor of A.L.C. Italian Grocery in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Louis prepares the delicious food and I match it with the right wine. For our most recent event, we discussed the food and I selected some of my favorite wines from Campania.

The Wines

Monte di Grazia Bianco IGT 2012, made from the following local grapes: Pepella has only a few large grapes on the bunch, the rest being the size of peppercorns, though they all ripen at the same time. Ginestra, the name comes from the yellow-green color, which is similar in color to the gorse flower. Bianca Tenera (Biancolella) a local white grape. The wine has hints of citrus with undertones of pear…