Life at the villa

Oct 21, 2024
Trust&Travel Blog: New Look, Same Hidden Gems

After 15 years of sharing Italy’s best-kept secrets, we’re thrilled to unveil a fresh new look for our Trust&Travel blog. Our redesign focuses on what matters most: ...

Chef Hiro preparing food on white plates using chop sticks
Jul 13, 2024
A Japanese Private Chef in Tuscany: Passion, Perseverance, and Pasta

Hiro Shikata arrived in Italy in 1995, after working in kitchens in Japan and an Italian restaurant in Singapore. After a stage in Sicily, he travelled up the boot and soon found h ...

Dec 25, 2021
SUCCESSION IN ITALY

Have you watched Succession yet? The HBO series about the powerful but dysfunctional Roy family has kept many of us up late. Season 3 has just been released and part of it was film ...

Apr 15, 2019
PAOLO AT THE PALAZZO

You never know what life has in store for you… Years ago, when I lived in Florence, I met and became friends with Paolo Fiumi, a then budding architect. At that time, though, ...

Jan 24, 2019
A RINGSIDE SEAT IN VENICE

At any time of the year, our Palazzo Ca’nova Borsato apartment offers a breathtaking view of the Serenissima’s Grand Canal. But during the world-famous Carnival, this view beco ...

Jun 25, 2018
A Musical Feast in the Heart of Tuscany

One of Tuscany’s most intimate and charming festivals turns 30 next month. No small feat for a chamber music festival in Italy today! Founded by Benedetta Origo, the owner of Vil ...

May 29, 2018
The Baroque Beauty of Sicily

Reminiscing about Sicily, the great David Herbert Lawrence once wrote: “Anyone who has once known this land can never be quite free from the nostalgia for it.” Nicknamed “God ...

Mar 12, 2018
High water in Venice

I had been to Venice a hundred times before, at least, and never, ever had I witnessed the phenomenon which I had been reading and hearing about for more than twenty years. And the ...

Feb 22, 2018
A Dog’s Dolce Vita

My mother had a little smile: “Katharina, I would love to spend another holiday in Italy. But I worry about Daisy…” Daisy… the cutest wire-haired dachshund on Earth! ...

Dec 20, 2017
Trust & Travel and Instagram, Arm in Arm

Good news, I’m starting to be “with it” as far as social media are concerned. You may remember the article I posted in late August about the Trust & Travel Instagram acco ...

Sep 13, 2016
Olive Harvest Week in Tuscany

Let’s start with a little quiz… The “thing” is edible, naturally liquid, and can taste of sage, artichokes, bananas, peppers, tomatoes or freshly cut grass. And when it is ...

Aug 6, 2016
Play it Again, Alan

La Foce… This name, and the superb Tuscan estate which it designates, have now become familiar to you if you have been a regular reader of this blog. Trust & Travel was actua ...

May 30, 2016
A Feast for the Eye and the Blessed Memory

It was last summer, during my very first visit to the Ca’nova Palazzo. At one point, escorted by the delightful owners of the premises, I walked into one of the spacious rooms an ...

Mar 7, 2016
Our New Exciting Adventure in Venice (1)

Even though we still have to give the project the finishing touches, I can no longer wait to share this with you. We’ll soon be adding to our rental catalogue three beautiful apa ...

Mar 30, 2015
Hovering over the History of the Villa Gioli

“It happened last summer, around noon. It was a beautiful day and I was just walking out of the Villa Gioli, one of our Trust&Travel residences. I heard a noise coming from t ...

Oct 8, 2014
Fine, Very Fine Cuisine Again!

Italian food, one of the great wonders of the modern world! One of my great passions too, as you probably know by now. Today, I’d like to tell you about a one Michelin star resta ...

Jul 15, 2014
Concert Night at the Castello di Potentino

  “As I sit at the piano, says Mark Springer, the feeling takes hold of me and I start to play a melody which is very direct. It shifts interestingly between major and minor ...

Apr 22, 2014
Not a bad job after all!

Phew! I’m a little out of breath. I have just spent a week running around Italy! And now I am at the Venice airport waiting for my return flight to Paris and thinking: “Gee, it ...

Feb 6, 2014
The hot air balloon competition – Conversation with country estate owner Francesca Papafava – Part 3

Attentive readers will not have missed the fact that I have continued my conversation with Francesca Papafava; owner of the Country Estate Frassanelle. We discussed the topics of h ...

Jan 23, 2014
One of Sardinia’s Secret Stories

Last year, I went to spend a few days at our Villa dell’Orso in Sardinia. Featured in our Trust&Travel rental catalogue, this villa is situated at the northern tip of Sardini ...

Nov 21, 2013
Conversation with country estate owners: Francesca Papafava, Part 2.

In the last but one Blog, that perhaps you have read, in a one-on-one conversation, Francesca Papafava describes the history of her Country Estate and imparts a few insights in to ...

Nov 3, 2013
Tuscany’s Liquid Gold

At about this time of year, every year, when the days are getting shorter and colder, Tuscany is busy extracting its highly prized “liquid gold”: the extra virgin olive oil. Th ...

Oct 14, 2013
Conversation with country estate owners: Francesca Papafava – Part 1

I recently visited Francesca Papafava at her country estate, Frassanelle. Francesca grew up in Milan and decided 10 years ago to manage the family property and this was what we tal ...

Oct 8, 2013
Tiepolos in the Plural

“You are going to love the place, I told my sister, after my brother and I picked her up at the Venice airport. –        I’m sure I will, she replied. Judging from the ...

Jun 10, 2013
An Appetizing Menu and Venue

As some of you, dear readers, might remember, I started last week’s article by quoting a few words by Benjamin Franklin. This week, allow me to cite the great Virginia Woolf: “ ...

Concert in the Courtyard at la Foce
Apr 8, 2013
Music Magic in Tuscany

My father and I were simply mesmerized, like under a spell. We looked at each other with a funny smile, and then stood up to join the applauding audience. ...

The sumptuous Villa Corsini is usually closed to the public.
Mar 27, 2013
A Rare Occasion – The Private Gardens of Palazzo Corsini in Florence

If you happen to be in Florence in May, there is a special event you must make sure not to miss. This year again, from May 16th to May 19th (Thursday to Sunday), the 19th edition o ...

villa in tuscany with internet illustration
Feb 5, 2013
Emergency in Tuscany

Sunday morning. I’m having a lie-in and am sleeping like a log. Sheer bliss. My mobile phone, on my bedside table, rings. I wake up with a start and answer the call. “ Hello? ...

Barchessa Valmarana
Dec 20, 2012
A Little History of the Veneto Villas

Villa… A word that calls to mind images and lifestyles which very few people would turn their back on. Here is how the Oxford English Dictionary defines “villa”: A countr ...

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