Piazza Duomo in Trento

Gotta say it. We really like Trentino. I know it is extremely superficial to make such sweeping generalizations based on a couple of days' experience  and a limited number of personal encounters. But to us (so far), Trentino is the best possible combination of Italian charm, warmth and taste (both stylistic and culinary) and German/Austrian efficiency, cleanliness and purposefulness. Getting that combination right is fortuitous. It could have turned out like Hell in the famous joke
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It's time to say auf wiedersehen Deutschland and benvenuti Italia.
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Munich is going to force us to rethink what we think about Germany.
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It's our second day in Germany and as we begin to shake off the effects of jetlag (this will likely take two or three days) we begin to make those keen insights that our readers have come to expect. I hope it won't seem too presumptuous of me to be making sweeping generalizations and authoritative statements about a country that we have been exposed to for less than 36 hours, but that is why my readers pay me the big euros.
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Mein Gott! Never would I have imagined that I would restart the chronicling of our Italian adventures from Germany. But this morgen as we landed in fog shrouded Munich, our five week adventure, most of it to be spent in Italy, began in earnest. Or perhaps in Ernst.
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Wow! What an incredible last 30 days!

In early January we were visited by our good friend Simone Proietti-Pesci, the chef-owner of the fabulous restaurant le Delizie del Borgo in Bevagna,
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“Grazie, Perugia!” Such are the final words from international jazz superstar (obligatory adjectives around here these days) Herbie Hancock, as he and his band thank the huge crowd at Santa Giuliana Arena,
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As we have been writing for years, the Italian experience is an incredibly powerful and multifaceted one. It is simply impossible to identify one single experience or image that completely sums up this country – the food, the warm, friendly people, the art, its history as a worldwide empire and as a leader in a political, artistic and cultural renaissance that transformed the western world, Italian design and style, the passion of its artisans. When we set out to design a logo for our Italian import company
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A week ago we arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, relatively fresh considering the long, multi-connection flight that brought us from Asheville, North Carolina. The travel had been smooth, however, and without much ado we arrived in Umbria a short while after landing.
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