Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring
It is the Miradolo Castle near Pinerolo, a fascinating small town at the entrance to the Chisone Valley, at the foot of the Alps, southwest of Turin.
Even though Tuscany is a very popular tourist destination – which is perfectly understandable since it is so gorgeous! – and places are usually quite crowded in the region, there are still some lesser-known areas that are very beautiful and full of things to see and discover.
Whenever I go somewhere, I always make a point of finding interesting historic villas – and possibly beautiful gardens – to visit. One of my favorite houses in Italy is Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan while one of the quirkiest and most eclectic ones I visited recently is Villa Grock in Imperia, not far from where I live.
Liguria is a wonderful region and, even though some of its areas are quite famous among tourists (ever heard of Cinque Terre?), there are still a lot of hidden gems that very few people know of. Sometimes even locals have no idea certain places exist and so it’s always a pleasure to discover them.
I have been to Triora, which is famous for being il paese delle streghe, to Apricale and Perinaldo, two lovely perched villages in the west of the region, to Verezzi and its scenic beauty, to Bussana Vecchia and its unique story, and to many other interesting places but there was one village I still had to cross off my list: Seborga.
In fact, the Langhe, the hilly area around Alba in Piedmont, is one of the most famous gastronomy areas in the whole world. In autumn, people literally flock to the region to taste its delicious wine and maybe a bit of its superb white truffle.
Saint John, San Giovanni in Italian, is the patron saint of many big and small Italian towns and this makes it a very special day. The day of the patron saint is a public holiday in Italy and this means that tomorrow many people will be taking a day off if the town where they work celebrates its patron saint.
This is what I thought a few weeks ago when I visited the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia, some really magnificent gardens with an interesting history that are located on the westernmost side of Liguria, right on the border to France.
This is probably one of the questions I get asked the most and I thought it might be interesting to answer it with a proper blog post.
For weeks, I kept telling my husband that we absolutely had to plan a day trip there but somehow never found the right moment to go – until this past Saturday.
