Helping L'Aquila Earthquake Survivors

The lingering impact of the L'Aquila earthquake remains on my mind. If you're interested in helping the people of L'Aquila and in the surrounding small hill villages where many elderly live, then here's a good resource to learn ways to help affected L'Aquila's earthquake victims. www.lifeinabruzzo.com/donate-help-laquila-earthquake-victims/

The SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT also established a dedicated appeal so that farmers in these villages receive needed food in the mountain areas surrounding L'Aquila. Their form is in Italian, so for non-Italian speakers you can donate via Global Giving with a form in English; funds go directly to Slow Food Movement.

Harold in Italy at Priello

My dear friend, Harold Partain, is on his way to Italy as I write this. After a few days in Rome, he's headed to Priello near Anghiari, a hilltop Tuscan farmstay that he will share with a few adventure-goers destined for great times; I know, I've been there! One morning at Priello, Harold and I scrambled eggs and shaved a truffle on top to start the day! Brent, one of the owners of this unusual agritourismo, makes cheese at his nearby goat farm, so that's surely on the "to do" list too. Harold is a delight to travel with and he's a champion at finding charming, off-the-beaten-track destinations filled with local food and wines via local artisans.

BOOK: La Bella Lingua

Travel memoirs are my favorites reads, so Dianne Hale's LA BELLA LINGUA (www.becomingitalian.com) is personal enough to fit the bill with flying colors (of the Italian flag of course). I can't help but admire a woman that has dedicated so much time, so many years, learning the most beautiful language in the world. Miserably so, my own attempts learning Italian have failed; I simply "get by". This book inspires me to embraced a renewed challenge with this declaration: Some day I will speak Italian beyond noun to noun and verb to verb! Some day I will conquer real sentences!

BOOK: Very Valentine

Adriana Trigiani has done it again with a story that inspires, gives room to dream, then takes you to Italy. VERY VALENTINE follows the love-laced career of a young shoe designer and her energetic endeavors in carrying on the artisan traditions of her Italian-American shoemaking family in Greenwich Village. Valentine's eventual eye-opening visit to Capri charms and seduces in a way that is armchair travel at its best. "Please keep your promise, Adriana, on making VERY VALENTINE the first installment of another of your "trilogies"!"