Wineries & Restaurants

I have always wondered why an Italian would go to an Italian restaurant in Paris. In an Italian restaurant in any other foreign city. Why not discover different tastes and flavours and seek out a taste that is often not so 'at home' when you are in a...

I have been following Damiano Carrara ever since I first saw him on TV as a judge on Bake Off Italia and then with Katia Follesa on Cake Star pastry challenge. From the very first time I found him to be 'real': a straightforward, sincere, passionate and very, very...

When I think of the most beautiful and best organised events in the food sector, at the top of my list is definitely the presentation of the Buon Ricordo 2023 Restaurant Guide. I love the format from appetiser to dessert: it starts with a welcome drink where you taste the...

Another year has passed, and so another Blend 2022 has come, as punctual as an early autumn dream. A dream, like Umberto Cosmo's, in which I read the desire to create a sustainable alternative to the usual events of the wine world. And a certainty, the...

Terra Mia is a Neapolitan Rome pizzeria on a side street of Via Nomentana that welcomes you to a well-kept place with warm and inviting lights. The staff is very friendly and attentive. Given that it is within walking distance of the Luiss Guido Carli university where I am attending the...

Today I want to tell you about a pearl of Val Gardena: the Granbaita Gourmet Restaurant in Selva di Val Gardena! Thanks to the talent of chef Andrea Moccia, I was able to enjoy a very special experience with my husband and other guests. Gourmet dinners like this...

It's been several months since I went to the presentation of the 2022 Buon Ricordo Restaurant Guide, remember? I had stormed Instagram with photos and videos of beautiful dishes! And already a couple of years ago in this article I recommended three new...

What I love most about food, wine and drinks in general is their ability to make you happy. I love sharing the table with people I don't know, making friends, exchanging ideas, glances, emotions. A successful dinner is the prelude to any great...

Thanks to Monica Ramirez of Anam Communication who invited me to the travelling Ca Botta wine tasting I discovered two paarticular places to eat in central Milan that I would like to recommend. Both places in Milan are part of the wine district

Yesterday, at the Congress Hall of the Grinzane Cavour Castle near Alba, I received the special prize reserved for a book published during 2020 that has wine as its theme or that, in any case, devotes special attention to wine, on the occasion of the XXth anniversary of the...

On Friday night, after months of seclusion to write the new edition of my book, I decided to spend a special evening with my husband to celebrate the end of this immense work. So I went to my favourite restaurant, the only restaurant ...

I would have liked to tell you about this wonderful experience sooner, but it really has been a hectic few days between work and university! Here I am finally here to tell you about the second leg of my Tuscan weekend and the company that perhaps made me fall in love the most. Perhaps,...

A press tour touching on two of the most beautiful Tuscan cities, Florence and Siena, is what Maddalena Mazzeschi, who has been involved in wine communication and following wonderful companies for many years, could have organised for me. So I thought it would coincide with the...

A few days ago I wanted to write an article on the new DPCM, which I admit has displaced me, and not because I am a denier or one who downplays the danger of the coronavirus. This decree - with restaurants closed at 6 p.m. - has displaced me because it puts ...

That Tuscan wines are a legend I am sure I don't have to tell you, but this time I want to tell you about a winery in Volterra, a beautiful area that I had not yet explored. When my best man at my wedding - Marina Tagliaferri of the Agorà press agency - told me about it, I...

When the journalist - and soon to be my best man - Marina Tagliaferri of the 'Agorà' press office invited us to go and taste Lantieri de Paratico Franciacorta wines, visit the winery and have lunch at their Corte Lantieri farmhouse, I was...

In quarantine, I have noticed that, apart from a depopulation of Instagram feeds, we are all united by one inescapable fact: we cook -and consequently eat- more. In fact, I have to say that this really pleases me: I have been preparing for many years now....

Writing about the experience we had in Castello di Spessa is not at all easy for me, especially at such an unbelievable time in history. In the space of three weeks everything changed because of the Coronavirus. We had such a magical weekend that, honestly,...

Just like the Castle of Spessa, St Valentine's Day was born in the late Middle Ages. In those years, a certain English writer named Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his masterpiece entitled 'The Canterbury Tales'. It consists of 24 short stories that have the...

Valentine's Day 2020 is just a few days away and probably, if you have a sweetheart (or sweetheart, as in my case!) you are thinking of organising something very romantic. So I want to give you a great idea by sharing with you what Francesco and I will be doing on that...

I fell in love at first sight three times in my life: the first on 16 July 2001, the second on 28 March 2009 and the third on 6 December 2019. In between I have experienced many different things, all of which had in common that they were as far from Love as it gets. And I have...

I have just come back from the Merano Wine Fest and I am finally stopping for a moment to tell you about the Massimago winery, its wines, its Amarone della Valpolicella, but above all about the experience I had around Verona. I decided to give it a different slant....

Every day Instagram shows me photos of girls weighing a thousand and one kilos who in the space of a year have put together a physique worthy of a super model thanks to the ketogenic diet. Perfect, I decided to do it too. I can basically just take pictures of the carbs....

The last stop on the Pellegrini press tour was in Barolo, at the Corino winery. When you think of a 'family' winery, you think of a reality exactly like this one! But its winemaking history began with previous generations, when in 1952 Celeste...

I admit, I miss a tour among all the Barbaresco producers, even though I know those produced by some small companies that are still able to excite me. That is why, when Babol Communication invited me to the Piedmont press tour organised by...

Today I left for two days in Piedmont for a tour organised by Pellegrini 1904 SpA in collaboration with Babol Communication. First of all I want to thank Pietro Pellegrini not only for the invitation, but for his pleasant company intertwined with a...

This article opens with a delightful cover photo where, against the backdrop of the Carpineto Estate in the magical Montalcino countryside, there are these two young, handsome instagrammers who, being deep in the dickens as I tried to photograph...

As I anticipated in my article 'Valentine's Day 2019: 3 (romantic) gift ideas for sommeliers and winelovers', on 14 February we were in Tuscany as guests of the Carpineto winery. I already knew this winery because they had sent me samples....

On a quiet mid-December afternoon, I receive an invitation from the Intercontinental Bordeaux Le Grand Hôtel... and instantly my mind goes back to France and my wonderful stay at this wonderful hotel opposite the Bordeaux Opera....

This article will be a little different from the others because it is dedicated to a beautiful day on the Setúbal peninsula with my best friend Fabrizio. This article is about a winery I am fond of, Bacalhoa, and its fascinating Portuguese wines. It talks about...

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a small town in Romagna on the border with Emilia and had a grandmother with whom she made fresh pasta at home every day and a grandfather with whom she drank sweet albana between one hammering and another (he was a...

Those who know me know that I rarely fall in love to this extent. I was at Gabriele Scaglione's in May with Federico, during his touch-and-go in Italy. Akiyoshi was missing, but I hope to meet him at the next opportunity... maybe we'll go....

Last Wednesday I was at Daniel Pennacchio's in Cascina Lorenzo to give a small lecture with tasting on the results of ageing red (and other) wines in wood. Although it is not Daniel I want to talk about, I have to say that the Marzemino (Foppello) 2013 was...

Last Wednesday, after having photographed some thirty beautiful orchids in Michele Cesi's greenhouse to update his online shop I Love Orchids (if you love orchids, you can't help but visit it by clicking HERE), I found the strength to get to Costa...

As we have reached the new edition of the Millésima Blog Awards, I want to offer you a roundup of articles on the wonderful experience we winners had thanks to this important international competition. My aim is to make you...

1930 Milano is a speakeasy, a secret bar inspired by American Prohibition where a lucky few drink the best cocktails in town.

On Tuesday 4 April 2017, at Primeur in Bordeaux, I was a guest of Château Phélan Ségur for an extraordinary private vertical tasting reserved for us winners of the Millesima Blog Awards. I have not yet told you about this beautiful...

Last Wednesday I went to the Gin Rosa wine shop in Piazza San Babila in Milan for a delicious working aperitif. In fact, our stay at Gin Rosa, thanks to the service and company, was so pleasant that the aperitif turned into lunch......

On Tuesday evening, Gabriele Scalici, a dear sommelier friend and fellow Parole DiVino wine blogger, and the staff of Rosee Wine Bar organised a tasting dedicated to southern wines. Nice format: each participant brought a bottle of southern Italian wine to taste.

I do not normally write news articles, not even about wine. In this case, however, I feel like making an exception because this hallucinating news I read this morning on the Slow Food website is about the world I left behind, the construction industry, and the world in which...

Last Thursday I went to visit Davide Lazzari at his winery in Capriano del Colle, an area I already knew from Alessia Berlusconi's wines (she too has chosen Montenetto to 'give vent' to her creativity and passion for wine) and from the...

I woke up early this morning to complete, and perhaps a little rewrite, the article on the afternoon at Marchese Umberto Fracassi's. Being an experience I had a few months ago with Francesco, I couldn't quite manage to complete it now that we parted because...

For this Easter 2016 I thought I'd try Ristorante Zù in Riva di Solto... accomplice being the beautiful lake view location that I love, and my parents and aunt coming to visit. I'll be honest, I've never had such a hard time writing an opinion in my life....

Matteo Morra is the very young chef patron of the eponymous restaurant housed at the excellent Sylla Sebaste farm in Barolo, and I cannot thank Mr Art & Wine Fabio Carisio enough for making me regain a lost passion for the...

Today I am writing to share with you the wonderful Christmas I spent with my family in Pisogne, on Lake Iseo, at Ristorante Tentazioni di Giacomo and Sandro Pittelli, two young twins of Calabrian origin who I am sure will go far. Giacomo is exceptional in ...

Today I'm writing to tell you about a wonderful experience I had a few days ago with Francesco... if you're in Milan with your boyfriend or friends, it's the perfect place for a quality aperitif... we had a really good time and can't wait to do it again! But let's start with...

Today on Intravino I happened to read an article entitled 'Why Slow Food on Al Bano's wine at the Coop for €1.91 is wrong (convincingly explained)' that did not convince me at all. I tend to like Intravino a lot, however, sometimes I...

Today I am going to do something different than usual... I am writing to you not to help you do something, but to share with you the emotion that is possessing me to the core in these two days among the vineyards of Friuli. With a bit of presumption, to you who follow me and read...

There, I know this title undoubtedly leaves you puzzled... but it is emblematic of the wonderful evening I spent with my lovely glass companions. I anticipate that from now on 'Poor Andrea' will be called 'Poor and Unphased Andrea'... but I'll tell you why...

An ancient Latin proverb reads: 'Venerem sine Libero et Cerere frigere'. It can be roughly translated as: 'Without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus cools down', where the three deities stand for wine, food and love respectively. Of course, it is not the most...