Katharina's Italy Blog
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Trust&Travel offers holiday rentals on Italy's finest historical estates. Our mission is to offer our clients genuinely authentic holidays on some of Italy's finest historical estates. Rent your villa, castle, agriturismo or holiday apartment in the most picturesque areas of Tuscany, Sardinia, Sicily, Umbria and around Venice.
Katharina's Italy Blog
2w ago
After 15 years of sharing Italy’s best-kept secrets, we’re thrilled to unveil a fresh new look for our Trust&Travel blog. Our redesign focuses on what matters most: bringing you the authentic Italian experiences you crave, now more accessible than ever. What’s New? Mobile-Friendly Design: Whether you’re planning your next adventure from home or searching for […]
The post Trust&Travel Blog: New Look, Same Hidden Gems appeared first on Katharina's Italy ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
4M ago
Traditional Italian: gnocchi verdi
Hiro at work
Hiro’s millefeuille: a work of precision
Privat chef Hiro in a Tuscan villa kitchen
Where east meets west
Hiro Shikata arrived in Italy in 1995, after working in kitchens in Japan and an Italian restaurant in Singapore. After a stage in Sicily, he travelled up the boot and soon found himself out of money in Rome. He chose a well-regarded restaurant, enjoyed a long meal, and – once the waiter arrived with the bill – offered to work it off in the kitchen. The restaurant owner accepted, and nearly 30 years later, Hiro is still in It ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
4M ago
Another work by Noralismo - a must for the family treasure hunt
Visual activist Yele during Trame 2023
Costanza Rosi with a Street Art fan (Trame 2023)
Flavia Bucci during Trame 2021
Flavia Bucci's intricate works
The work of Nora Camarri - aka Noralismo - near bar Quando basta
The geometric designs of artist duo Tuta
When in Maremma, I often stop in Grosseto for a quick lunch or a bit of shopping. On my last visit, I noticed many ‘for rent’ signs stuck on empty storefronts in the town centre. They are linked to the aftermath of the Covid lockdowns and a trend that has b ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
5M ago
Bug hotels at La Montecchia
The castle seen from the golf course
The Montecchia Club House and Pool
La Montecchia Golf Club
The vegetable garden
A golf club with its own beehive and vegetable garden? It exists. Right next to La Montecchia, one of our trusted estates in the Veneto.
But eco-friendly practices don’t stop with honey-making at Golf della Montecchia. At the BIGA Conference Show in Harrogate, UK, the club was named International Environmental Golf Club of 2024. The award honours the nature conservation, turf grass, and sustainable waste and water management that Golf ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
5M ago
Luca Agostini, owner of Botanical Dry Garden
Luca built the wooden tower during Italy’s first lockdown
Luca showing Katharina around the extensive garden
The cypress trees: a land art installation
The view from the tower across the maze
Aerial view of a corner of Botanical Dry Garden
The cypres installation
Psst, I am working on the restoration of a very exciting villa in the Bolgheri area. I can’t tell you more for the time being, but the history and the location are really exciting.
I am not an expert in garden design. I just know what I like and what I don’t like… I g ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
8M ago
Psst, I am working on the restoration of a very exciting villa in the Bolgheri area. I can’t tell you more for the time being, but the history and the location are really exciting.
I am not an expert in garden design. I just know what I I like and what I don’t like… I guess, you have to start somewhere! My research brought me to the local nursery Botanical Dry Garden near Orbetello on the Maremma coast. The name peaked my interest as water scarcity is a huge challenge in Maremma and all over Italy.
The owner Luca Agostini is a charismatic man, and his passion is contagious. He has a five ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
1y ago
We are thrilled to announce our latest addition to the app Inside Italy by Trust&Travel – Sicily!
Browse Inside Italy by Trust&Travel for handpicked sightseeing and foodie tips for every age group. Just select one of our categories, e.g. Tours & Classes, Shopping or Special Gems or peruse the map to find activities with kids or our new favourite Sicilian beachside restaurants.
Or forget about sightseeing and just enjoy watching the Mediterranean right from the sofa of Casa Sampieri, a 3 bedroom house on the quay of a fishing village in southern Sicily. Water temperatu ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
1y ago
A model railway museum in Florence? A friend took her grandchildren and can’t recommend the new HZero museum enough. All of them simply loved it.
One of Europe’s largest model railways is located in a former cinema only a few steps from the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence.
The museum was initiated by Giuseppe di San Giuliano, who was the owner of one of our villas in Sicily. At Villa San Giuliano he created a mesmerizing Mediterranean garden. For his model railway he also created landscapes, but miniature ones, inspired by the Dolomites, the island of Elba or the streets of ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
1y ago
I finally visited the isle of Montecristo, the tiny Mediterranean island where Alexandre Dumas’ count got his name and treasure. Today the island is a nature reserve and visits are strictly regulated. No more than 1725 people can visit each year. Every January the Parco del Arcipelago puts the available tickets up on their website. They sell out immediately.
Alexandre Dumas actually never visited the island himself. He spent time on the nearby islands of Pianosa (a prison island) and Elba where he heard all the stories about the treasure that supposedly lay hidden there. Composer Giaco ..read more
Katharina's Italy Blog
1y ago
At the end of the 19th century, Mariano Fortuny acquired palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, a 15th century Palazzo in the center of Venice. The eclectic Mariano Fortuny was a painter, photographer, stage set designer, inventor and business man. With his wife Henriette Nigrin he founded Fortuny textiles. They used their home as a laboratory where local artisans would work in ateliers and on printing presses, turning the couple’s visionary designs into reality.
Eleonroa Duse and Isidora Duncan used to wear the Fortuny Delphos silk dress and Marcel Proust wrote about it In Search for ..read more