There are two wines of importance that come from the Cinque Terre, but there is only one king: Sciachetrà, a straw wine of such goodness and scarcity that you can spent 100 bucks on a half-bottle of the stuff. The other, the crisp white Cinque Terre DOC, can be […]
cinque terre
The US has everything one could imagine in terms of natural beauty: mountains, rivers, deserts, forests, beaches, oceans, bays, cliffs, plains, lakes, islands, geysers, swamps, and moonscapes that rival the best to be found worldwide. That’s one of the reasons that so many Americans don’t travel outside the US. […]
For those of you passionate about cycling or who are just interested in another aspect of Italian cultural/sporting phenomena, the Giro d’Italia is one of those can’t miss experiences. While less famous than the Tour de France, the Giro is nonetheless one of the top-tier events on the international cycling […]
This weekend we had a group of 23 high school students from Parma here in Levanto for an outdoor field trip in the Cinque Terre. We spend a lot of time promoting our field trips specifically because they get the kids outside and moving, which is good for everyone. This […]
Five months of flat, glassy, waveless, imperturbable sea. The World Longboard Surfing Championships in Levanto came and went without a ripple on the water, leaving competitors listless and bored. The Mediterranean looked like a pond. Now, as it always has been and always will be, it is reborn. And it’s […]
Over the past few months, I’ve had the luck to meet two of the more interesting and traditional winemakers in the Cinque Terre: Walter de Batté and Luciano Capellini. In many ways, they each exemplify what it is that we at Voyager are trying to bring to our clients: a […]
Because my last entry seemed so unbelievable to the American public, I thought I would follow it up with another little tidbit about health care in Italy. Though not of any relevance to those traveling in Italy, nevertheless, the way in which Italy deals with pre-existing medical conditions may still […]
Italians like to complain about the workings of their government and the quality of public services, and in many cases, there’s a lot to complain about … but not the health care. I have been in love with Italian health care from day 1 in Italy, and I’ve always been […]
Perhaps my favorite annual ritual in Italy is that of going around buying wine in demijohns directly from the producer and bottling it myself. It is a process that feels intimately rural, exquisitely traditional. Before wine became the billion-dollar snooty affair that it is, wine was simply something that everyone […]
This week, we’re highlighting the “Upper Route” of the Cinque Terre, a spectacular trail that runs 17 miles from Portovenere to Levanto high above the villages of the Cinque Terre and the coastline below. And we got some help in promoting it with Seattle Backpacker’s Magazine. Rather than repeat myself […]