Joe and Patricia Gartman have spent the Christmas seasons from 2017 to 2019 in Italy. Here are photos from their time in Verona in 2019 A prosperous modern city of medieval squares, Verona has several historical claims to fame. It’s the town where Romeo and Juliet lived, loved, and, alas (spoiler alert) died. It’s where […]
Joe and Patricia Gartman have spent the Christmas seasons from 2017 to 2019 in Italy. Here are photos from their time in Sorrento in 2018. Perched on top of sheer cliffs, high above the Bay of Naples, Sorrento provides an abundance of picturesque charm, history, views, cafés, summer sunshine and lemon-scented air. It’s also the […]
Joe and Patricia Gartman have spent the Christmas seasons from 2017 to 2019 in Italy. Here are photos from their time in Venice in 2019. Those who are tasked with decorating Venice for Christmas have a challenging job: it’s difficult to park a boom lift in the middle of a street to hang lights if […]
Joe and Patricia Gartman have spent the Christmas seasons from 2017 to 2019 in Italy. Here are photos from their time in Turin in 2017. We arrived in Turin early in December. There was a huge advent calendar set up in Piazza Castello. Every night the fire brigade arrived with a truck-mounted cherry picker to […]
Joe and Patricia Gartman have spent the Christmas seasons from 2017 to 2019 in Italy. Here are photos from their time in Rome in 2017. When the City of Rome’s official Christmas tree – a72-foot Norway spruce from Trentino – was erected in Piazza Venezia on the 8th of November, it was shockingly bare of […]
Turn Christmas leftovers into the perfect party starter with this panettone gastronomico recipe by Mario Matassa. This savoury take on the classic sweet panettone has in recent years become a fashionable antipasto in Italy, often served before Christmas lunch. Alternatively, prepared in the days after Christmas, I see it as the perfect vehicle for a good […]
We go behind the scenes of an Italian Christmas with Mario Matassa as he explores the rich and austere festive food and traditions of Italy… To describe a celebration of food as both ‘rich and austere’ might seem something of a contradiction. Yet I can think of no more apt a description of this, the […]
Mario Matassa reveals the secrets of Italian festive food. Though Christmas Day provides the climax of the occasion, the Christmas Eve feast provides the perfect opportunity to warm up for the big event Photos by Mario Matassa Festive holidays are always special occasions in Italy, and none more so than Christmas. In a country where […]
Free of the summer’s foreign tourists, but no less lively, Sorrento is a beautiful place to be at Christmas – here’s why it’s a perfect festive destination… Words and photos by Fleur Kinson The Christmas period seems to come earlier and earlier in Britain, with shops piled high with gifts, tinsel and crackers long […]
For a true taste of Italian Christmas, you can’t beat a slice of classic (or flavoured) panettone – here are seven to help you decide which one to serve this year The origins of panettone go back to Roman times, but it was the bakers of Milan in the early 20th century who made the […]