Travelling between Le Marche and Bologna

Looking for translator

2008-08-21T09:22:00.001+02:00

You can see these posts are written in Italish (or Engliano): I would like to have them written in a very good English, so that I can be free to write more than once in a while.

Whoever might be interested in translate my posts, can apply by sending me an email: angelo.recchi@gmail.com

We will find an agreement on the compensation. Please don't expect to get rich :-)

UPDATE: translator found. He's the legendary Marcus (in exchange of some Le Marche's excursions :-)), whom I thank very much here.

Seen "Under the Tuscan Sun"...

2008-08-20T08:31:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I happened to see "Under the Tuscan Sun": now I understand why people love Tuscany.

As an opinion by an Italian, most of the things seen there are plainly false, like the Tuscan market with the animals alive, and everything is set up to build a fabolous scenery. Tuscany is beautiful, and full of art, but most of its cities are now places you cannot live in anymore. Lots of friends of mine told me that 20-30 years ago you could enjoy places like Pienza, Bagno Vignoni, Montalcino, Montepulciano and others without spending a fortune to buy food, and without taking the car for every single need. Now, these towns are like Venice: beautiful to see, fabulous sceneries, but with no soul. Mansions are bought by cinema stars, music idols, big managers, princes, but the soul of Tuscany is largely lost.

A phenomenon like this recalls when I went to Germany and visited the Hauptbrauerei in Munich: very typical, but completely false. People inside were foreigners, and everything was built like a theathre.

Indeed, most of the times this is really what we are looking for when on holidays, fantasy instead of reality, fake instead of truth.

Now friend of The Wine Hub!

2008-08-08T09:17:00.002+02:00

It's worth a visit: The Wine Hub, good source for planning a wine trip to any wine region in the world. And of course, with their 12 doc wines, Le Marche is one of them.

A meaningful spot on what Le Marche can offer

2008-08-05T10:15:00.002+02:00

Shot by Bebowsky, from Ferrara.

Email address change

2008-07-08T12:59:00.002+02:00

Hey there, just to tell you I want to get rid of my traditional email address, since it's full of spam.

Therefore, from now on please write me to my gmail address: angelo.recchi@gmail.com

Corinaldo as the best Italian town for sustainable tourism

2008-06-11T08:32:00.003+02:00

I've said it hundred of times, and now the European Tourism Forum (taking place in Bordeaux next semptember) is supporting my words by awarding Corinaldo as the best town in Italy for sustainable tourism.

I'd also say that Corinaldo - one of the highlights of my tours - is an example of what Le Marche have to offer in lots of towns: wonderful views, slow pace of life, quietness but still shops, groceries, pharmacies and so on. Corinaldo is the masterpiece out of other fifty wonderful Le Marche towns (at least!).

Corinaldo is also member of the "Walled Town Friendship Circle", along with Padua (Italy - Veneto), Zadar (Croatia), Chester (England), St Malo (France), Rothenburg (Germany), 's-Hertogenbosch (Holland), Avila (Spain), Radstadt (Austria), Almeida (Portugal), Thessaloniki (Greece), Pecs (Hungary), Visby (Sweden) and many others.

Visitlemarche.com, part of my new website

2008-06-09T12:29:00.003+02:00

I am still here and alive, sorry if I don't update so frequently, but there are times in which I prefer to read rather than to write.

This just to keep you informed that a new website, www.visitlemarche.com is online. It's still a work in progress, but the aim is to put all the online material for tours in Le Marche. Hotel reviews,blogs ran by some b&b's owners and so on.

At the moment, it is just part of my "shop window", and my R&D lab, where I'm practising in using css to set a table-less layout. If any of you would be interested to build a table-less layout on that website (maybe in exchange of a mini-tour in Le Marche) that would be very welcome!

Why don't you have a walking through Bologna?

2008-05-20T09:36:00.003+02:00

A project is in progress: walking days in Bologna.

Why should you have a walk with me? For the same reason that you should have a tour in Le Marche with me: you can see the places you explore with me also by yourselves, but with me you can take the deep meaning, their essence, their secret stories.

I don't want to seem boasty or overestimating my skills: I decided to promote this second project only after some informal tests. I now see that this project can work, as Le Marche project is working very well. I myself would like to explore another town with people who can help me to see what I cannot see with my only eyes.

The first walking days in Bologna will take place from October on. Differently from Le Marche, which give the best in the mid-season (April, May, June, September and October), Bologna is nice to see all year long, except July and part of August, when it's too hot. The website you can consult is this: bolognawalking.com

Please spread the voice: October is near.

Italy elections: some comments

2008-04-16T12:55:00.003+02:00

It's hard to explain what happens in Italy during the elections. It's hard to those who live in foreing countries why Italians are so charmed by people like Silvio Berlusconi (Umberto Bossi, the other winner, is barely known abroad).

Well, I don't know either. Maybe because I have a level of culture higher than the average. Maybe because I have a family tradition more genuine (I have been taught that money is what you get from work, not from robberies) than the average in Italy.

Or maybe because I don't usually watch TV. I think this is the main reason.

Dutch reality show in Le Marche

2008-04-14T10:02:00.002+02:00

Italy has always been the symbol of quality of life. In spite of bad governments, corruption, disorganization, Italy is still the place where people would like to move from all over the world.

In Holland, a reality show is based in Italy, where four couples are competing to build up a b&b, is having a great success. The article says in Tuscany, since the name "Tuscany" has a great appeal. In fact, the reality takes place in Piticchio di Arcevia, in Le Marche.

Le Marche, under the name of Tuscany, are the ideal setting for moving and for quality of life. Tuscany was, Le Marche are.

Back from Offida and Abbadia di Fiastra

2008-04-08T09:40:00.005+02:00

Last week I had two very intensive days in Offida and Abbadia di Fiastra, to check, double-check, test and scout out places, roads, trails suitable for our hiking tour.

I met a lot of interesting people, who gave me the "spirit", the "soul" of the places.

Both Offida and Abbadia di Fiastra are wonderful: they have a "superior" intimate soul, which made me breathtaking. It doesn't happen always, and that's the reason why I take people to some places and skip other places.

I found two great restaurants and a cute b&b, and I'm starting to think about some tours I could organize for next year.

Here could be the title of the tour:

The Piceno area: from the coast and the palms to the mountains.

If you have any different suggestion, please let me know.

Next thursday and friday discovering Le Marche

2008-04-01T12:35:00.002+02:00

The next Thursday and Friday I will be travelling around Le Marche in some unknown places, to discover something unusual and wonderful to share with those of you will decide to come on tour with me.

I will go to Offida, then Sibillini, then the area between Sibillini and Piceno. I will go looking for wineries, craftsmen, artisans, wonderful places and itineraries to add to my tours.

I'll let you know once back home again.

Have you eaten?

2008-03-26T12:34:00.003+01:00

One of the big differences between Italians and Americans is on the idea of wasting food. When I went to US I was hit by the great amount of food used on 4th July, pounds of spare ribs and coke with almost no bread which, as we know, prevents to eat too much meat.

When I was a child, there were dinners in which my mum used to say "This is a bread-necessary dinner", which meant that without eating bread we would feel hungry soon.

Much more than my parents - who were baby-boomer after all, as they grew up in the 50s and 60s, the years of the Italian Miracle - my nonni were the best example of 100% food usage. When I peel my apple or the cheese, I always remember my grandmother telling me to peel it thinner: "Otherwise, half of the food will remain on the skin, and will be thrown away". Even now, we use to kiss a piece of bread before throw it away.

Since my family was composed by fishermen, my nonne were great fish cookers, especially with poor fish: nonna Nannina is still making great sauces with testoline or little monkfish tails, or even with so small and thin fishes that I hardly know their names in Italian!

Even in the 50s, a lot of Italians were starving, and most of them didn't have two meals a day. This is one of the reasons why in Italy restaurants with big portions are greatly appreciated by popular classes, even if they economically improved. The quantity of food is often perceived in direct relation with quality: the more, the better. Moreover, the high-class restaurants, which in my opinion are now even overpriced, are most of the times object of fun by popular classes (popular for the origin, no matter the money).

That's why - I will always remember it - the typical question when I call my grandparents, especially in lunch or dinner time, is: how are you? have you eaten?
Not yet, I'm preparing - Not yet, I'm not very hungry, I was concerned about something.
Yes, but... eat first!

Eat first: this is the first problem to solve for those who experienced the hunger.

Walking in Le Marche

2008-03-04T08:56:00.003+01:00

Thinking about Le Marche, watching some tour programmes here, one may think that Le Marche are nice to see by car.

This is not completely true: yes, by car you can jump from a town to another, from a castle to a fortress to a walled town, from a vineyard to an olive oil producer, from a craftman to a country house, from an agriturismo to a trattoria, from the sea to the hills, to the mountains.

However, there are many other ways to explore Le Marche. One is actually the contrary of the car. If you walk, you may enjoy Le Marche by entering yourself in its real pace of life: step by step, day by day, with no hurry but following your skills, you will reach the aim.

In a way, it seems to be the opposite of Australia or America: here there are no big distances, no reasons to run and run, no fronteers, you don't feel in competition with the nature, rather there is more balancing. This doesn't mean to be a judgement, it's simply the fact that in places where nature is immense and big, and distances are very very large, people have a different view of life. If you think about the wonderful Australia, you wouldn't live like in Le Marche, otherwise you will be submerged by the nature.

In the beautiful Canada, you can go hiking for a day, for a week or a month, but you won't go very far, and there are still places you shouldn't go alone. In Australia, the desert won't forgive you if you challenge him. In Le Marche, there's nothing like that. Except from the top of the mountains in the winter, nature is much easier to cope with. But since we haven't got big plains, the land is limited, the work must be hard but also very very careful and you have to be patient. There is few quantity, quality is all to think about.

Therefore, if you come to Le Marche, consider to come here and hike, or even bike. Lots of wonderful sceneries are waiting for you, between a trattoria and an agriturismo...

Cellars in Monte Conero area

2008-02-25T12:30:00.001+01:00

Panorama from the cellars where we usually go on a typical Le Marche tour.

The town in the picture is Osimo, Town of Headless People, wonderful spot on a natural spring and an Ancient Roman water deposit.

The picture was taken in Offagna.

Dante Ferretti WON!!!

2008-02-25T09:29:00.002+01:00

(From the Academy Awards website)
Achievement in art direction:

?Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street? (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Tomorrow in Ascoli Piceno

2008-02-22T12:37:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow I'll be in Ascoli Piceno, to check a (seems-to-be) beautiful Agriturismo.

Then I will go shopping to the Pantofola d'Oro outlet, and afterwards, well... a coffee with anisee at Meletti's, in Piazza del Popolo, of course!

Hiking tour in Le Marche

2008-02-22T09:31:00.005+01:00

At the moment I'm working on a gentle hiking tour in Le Marche. Above is where I'll take my guests.

And below is where we will go hiking. We won't arrive in front of Le Due Sorelle, but we will see them from above, at the beginning of the Passo del Lupo.

Touring in Bologna

2008-01-31T09:50:00.002+01:00

It's a long time I've been thinking about a project.

As most of you know, I organize and run tours in Le Marche. All the people who came here have seen how I love this region, and how great were the experiences between Corinaldo, Ancona, Ascoli, Monte Conero, Urbino, Jesi and so on.

But still... there is another town, not in Le Marche, which deserves much more attention than the actual one.

We all know that the main tourist route - for those who come to Italy for the first time - is Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples. Personally, I'd skip Milan and choose Venice. Whatever the choice is, you have to pass through Bologna.

What is Bologna? Bologna is "Italy". Whereas Le Marche are all that you can find in Italy, resumed in one region (therefore "Italy in one region", as the claim of our Tourist Board says), Bologna is the thermometer of Italy: the social situation in Bologna is a synthesis of the society in Italy.

It's Italy's political lab: all the experiments about welfare, transportation, education and so on have their first try here. If they work, they will be replicated in national scale.

It's Europe's oldest university: the Alma Mater Studiorum dates back to the year 1089, and students are everywhere. If an Italian thinks about Bologna, he recalls culture, politics and... food!

Yes, because food is the third important thing of Bologna. Being in the middle of Italy, in a postion which can't be avoided by any traveller, crossroad between the Pianura Padana of Northern Italy and the Appennini to go south, close to Florence on the way to Rome, not far from Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna has always been the melting pot of that crowd of small states that was Italy in the past.

No surprises, then, that every student and every traveller brought his home tradition to Bologna. Hence, the cuisine started to improve. The symbol of this cuisine is - not by chance - the Tortellino. This navel-shaped pasta stuffed with a lot of different things - so many that even every house has its own receipe for that - is by no means the essence of Bologna. Like its pasta, Bologna is the navel of Italy. And like the inside, Bologna is stuffed with lots of different people.

This is just to make you hungry of this town... the rest will come step by step...

Dante Ferretti's nomination for the Academy Awards

2008-01-28T08:18:00.000+01:00

For the ninth times, Dante Ferretti from Macerata has been nominated for the Academy Awards as Art Director and Set Decoration. It's the ninth time for Dante Ferretti: he won the Oscar in 2005 for The Aviator.

This year the nomination comes for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp.

Le Marche win the "Best Foreign Stand Prize" in Bratislava's food exhibition

2008-01-25T14:03:00.000+01:00

Le Marche's stand at the international food exhibition in Bratislava (Danubius Gastro) has been awarded with the prize for the best foreign stand.

Good job!

Le Marche shops on ebay

2008-01-23T08:28:00.000+01:00

Next February the Artisans Union will teach its members how to use e-commerce tools, especially ebay. In spite of its popularity among young people and teenagers, Internet is barely known by artisan, farmers and those who make the best things sold here.

Who knows? Maybe you can find a Coccio from Fratte Rosa, or an accordion from Castelfidardo on an ebay shop. Or even some shoes from Montegranaro or Sant'Elpidio a Mare.

And after that, you may think to come here and see in what a wonderful land these things are produced.

So come on, type www.ebay.com and look for something from Le Marche!

Building up a tour together

2008-01-22T15:41:00.000+01:00

The concept is very simple: I organize tours in Le Marche, therefore I have the contacts, I know places, restaurants, winemakers, locals etc.

You would like to visit Le Marche, but have no idea on what to do: or maybe you have an idea, but don't know how to make it real.

Why don't you contact me and ask for building up a tour together? You tell me about your interests, what you would like to do, where would you like to go, to sleep, etc., and I will figure out a solution. This way we can optimize prices, schedules and you can obtain exactly what you want.

And what about payments, guarantees, etc.? I have a partnership with a travel agent based in USA, so no worries about anything.

If you feel interested about that, why don't you email me?

The new Chiantishire in the area of Pesaro

2008-01-18T12:27:00.000+01:00

It's the claim of an article I read last day in GoMarche, an e-magazine written in Le Marche (in Italian, sorry!).

The journalist focuses on the fact that lots of people are flocking to Pesaro and Urbino (wonderful area) to buy houses, due to cheaper prices than in Tuscany, and this area is becoming a sort of "new Tuscany".

In my opinion, this is not true. The fact that people are buying houses like in Tuscany doesn't mean that you can re-create the same atmosphere.

I will always repeat, over and over again, that Le Marche are NOT Tuscany, not even "The new Tuscany". Tuscany will always be a sort of theathre, good if you like theathre. Le Marche will always be more genuine, good if you are interested to enjoy the "real", "ordinary" life. Some of us like more Le Marche because they give you the idea that you can move to the region immediately and live like in a paradise. Tuscany looks as wonderful, but I wouldn't spend my entire life here, where you can have a great experience for just few days.

Montalcino is a jewel, as long as you don't have lunch at home. Corinaldo is a pearl, with groceries, bars, supermarket and so on. That's the difference.

San Marino: visiting a foreign country when in Le Marche

2008-01-16T12:09:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures of San Marino. Strangely enough, this country is completely inside Italy, like Vatican City. Although the Vatican is much more influent on our political life, for lots of historical reasons, San Marino is proud to be independent, and doesn't really want to have many relevance on the Italian political agenda, except of course what is necessary for its needs.

A day in San Marino might be interesting not only for those who would like to add an extra-country on their checklist. San Marino has also some great views, some duty free shops, lots of tourist shops, cheaper meals, coins and stamps for collectors, and an intact and walled city centre.

Going to San Marino is rather simple: if you arrive by car, simply take the A14 motorway and exit at Rimini Sud, then follow the signs. Leave your car at the car parking of the former train station (there's no train anymore), 200 metres from Porta San Francesco, the gate to the city. The town to visit is basically inside the walls.