March 31 With fuel prices at an astounding $9 per gallon for unleaded, slightly less for diesel, the Romans are leaving their cars parked and taking public transportation. What used to be a white knuckle drive into the heart of Rome from the airport is now a breeze, with very few vehicles on the road […]
Category Archives: Italy Tours
Italy Tours
Tour Opportunities for October
March 5, 2012 European Focus founder and guide James Derheim is available during the beautiful month of October, a perfect time to explore most of central and southern Europe. October is prime season and is usually booked far in advance. The days are mild and the kids are all back in school with no major […]
Postcard from the Sudtirol
The ancient village was razed to the ground to make way for a large reservoir. All that remains of the 13th century church is the tower, poking up like a ghostly reminder from the waters.
Eating Gelato in the 1600s?
We were stunned the other day when we noticed this relief of what we are certain is a young woman enjoying an ice cream cone on one of the support pillars of the Doges Palace, Venice. We wondered if it was pistachio or cherry?
Visiting a glass factory on the island of Murano, Italy
Dennis and Melissa Cain of Rockwall, Texas wanted to purchase a piece of glass art from the gallery of Murano Vitrum in the San Marco district of Venice. They’d spotted a beautiful piece on a stroll the evening before, and we returned on Friday, July 15 for a closer look. We met salesman Ivan Liguori. […]
Civita di Bagnoregio
This lost village on a high, crumbling hilltop was founded by Etruscans over twenty-five hundred years ago, but has seen its population dwindle to just fifteen residents over the course of the 20th century. Cività was the birthplace of Saint Bonaventure, who died in 1274. The location of his boyhood house has long since fallen […]
Skip the lines in Florence with a little preplanning
We always feel so terrible as we walk past the long and winding line to see the statue of David in the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence. Yes, we truly feel sorry for the tourists who are burning up valuable sightseeing time waiting in the summer heat, fanning themselves with whatever they can come up with […]
Pizza in Bella Italia
Where does one find the best pizza in Italy? In the mom and pop-owned and operated Trattorias of Italy. We found one the other day in Bolsena, not far from our homebase in Orvieto. The Cain family loved their margarita pizzas while the rest of us had lasagna, or a salad or a seafood starter.