This season is the time to celebrate Italian wine, as you will find dotted throughout this autumnal issue. Whether it be in Marc Millon’s wonderful feature on page 28 about what’s to sample in central Italy or Ian Morley planning on celebrating with a glass when the house he is building has been completed as we see on page 74. In Italy, as you know, wine is everywhere. I only started to appreciate the work that goes into making every drop after my parents announced a few years ago that they were leaving their jobs to buy a house in Piedmont and tend a vineyard full-time (I had left them unsupervised for just a minute). They worked hard to produce their first year of grapes and I was invited up from Tuscany to participate in their first vendemmia, to help pick the grapes. ‘Sounds like a laugh,’ I thought naively. The men that worked with my parents in the vineyard, sturdy Marco and his twinkly-eyed father Giovanni, handed me a pair of secateurs and gave me a 30-second briefing on how to pick efficiently. I listened eagerly and then spent the next thirty minutes quizzing them on exactly what type of shoes I should wear. They walked off, shaking their heads.
Melissa Ormiston - Italy Magazine Editor
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Read on for the contents of the October Issue.
sense of place
Workers in the Valtellina carry their baskets of grapes carefully up the precipitous valley slopes
a Tuscan gem
Christine Webb visits Montepulciano, one of Italy’s most charming cities, that produces a fine wine recognised centuries ago as being worthy of kings
discovering Pompeii
Rosalind Giselle takes us though the main attractions of this world famous ancient Roman town
letters
what's on
Our guide to the most interesting events in Italy in early Autumn
insight and news
dual language
- i sudokisti
The Sudoku addiction has swept Italy, too, as Keith Hall explains
book reviews
a long and lively celebration of the maestro
Andrea Colombini invites us to an incredible festival to applaud the life and work of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Adrian Mourby examines the life of one of Italy’s greatest composers
Manuel Mensà : voice in a million
Stefano Rossini interviews an artist who has a unique gift
sixty years old and counting
To mark the Vespa’s 60th birthday, Gilly Turney looks at the new wave of ‘scooter fashion’
business
In our regular feature, Emma Bird looks at temporary management, interpreting and working as an au pair in Florence
and finally
il calcio italiano
Rebecca Lloyd looks at the prospects for teams reinstated to Serie A
a journey through Italy in a bottle
Continuing our new mini-series, Marc Millon looks at the regions of Central Italy
going to seed!
Germaine Stafford enjoys a day at a cookery school in central Rome
foodie fun... Abruzzo and Molise
Germaine Stafford suggests ten fun activities for food lovers in these two less well-known regions
hotels
In this exclusive series for italy, Mairiona Cotter recommends a selection of hotels on the Amalfi coast
wild italian beauty
Monica Moretti reveals a unique opportunity to buy a beautiful island off Sardinia
property Q&A
Moving on from property purchase, Avv. Fabio Pucciarelli explains the options available in starting your own enterprise
what’s available in - Lunigiana
Lois Allan takes us to a very special part of Tuscany with a unique character and distinctive way of life
case study:
- project paradise
Ian Morley takes us through the next stages of his house restoration in Umbria - searching for materials in searing heat
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