This week, for the half-term school holidays, my family and I are staying at one of the two houses of our Trust & Travel Il Fontanile estate in Tuscany. We like to come here ...
At a recent dinner party, a friend of mine introduced me to Cassius, her young lively nephew. “So tell me, young boy, I asked him, what would you like to be when you grow up? – ...
“How about letting our little friend here perch on your hand? – Um… well… Is he in a good mood?” The “little friend” whom Stefania was introducing me to was a ...
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” This beautiful phrase hasn’t just come right off the top of my head – even though I think it might have if I had been laz ...
My obsession with good food and restaurants should be somewhat familiar to you by now, I guess. Well, we all have our little failings and addictions, don’t we? This week, I’d l ...
Here we are for the third and final episode of the Origo family epic. Historically, a dark and trying one for both the family and the country. From June 1943 to June 1944, Italy ke ...
In my last post, I undertook to tell you the story – well, to outline the story, I should say – of the Origo family. A family who has played a key part in my life, as I said. S ...
I was only 19. And already in love with Italy. Images and Shadows, an autobiography by Anglo-Irish author Iris Origo, kept me company during the long hours I spent on the Tuscan be ...
“Phew! We got there, at last!” You left home early this morning and have been travelling all day. Now it’s the evening and you have just arrived at your Trust & Travel de ...
Even though he tried, over the phone, to sound calm and composed, I could descry in his voice and tone that he had been thrown off his usual balance ...
You like Italian cuisine, don’t you? Of course you do. Wish you could cook some great Italian dishes yourself? ...
When I go to Frassanelle – one of the estates featured in our Trust & Travel catalogue, – I sometimes turn into a cavewoman. Or a “grottowoman”, to be more prec ...
If I have always had a passion – and, I think, some flair – for design and interior decoration, I most certainly owe it to my dear Mom, who was an accomplished expert in these ...
