A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO
OUR FAVORITE PLACES

Let us begin with a disclaimer; Although we are clearly Italophiles, closely followed by our love for France, we are, above all, fervent and dedicated travelers. I have always felt that a unique adventure was about to begin whenever I got in a car, on a train and yes, even an airplane. Our country, the United States of America, is so varied and beautiful, that it would certainly take a lifetime to visit it properly; from the rugged and sometimes forbidding Maine coast, to the huge forever wild Adirondack State Park in upstate New York (from which, in an old cabin on the shores of one of its many, many lakes, I am writing this), to the sultry Gulf Coast with its almost impossibly gentle and kind people and exotic food unlike that of any other place in the country, to the vast, fertile plains of the Midwest, still giving most of us our daily bread, to the amazing stretch of Pacific Ocean coast, stretching over 1,000 miles from the Mexican border to the Canadian---all of this country demands to be explored. But life is short and choices must be made. When I first traveled to Europe as a teenager, something in me responded to the sights, the sounds, the taste of food and more than anything else, the fact that the people, who seemed so similar to me, were also so different.

Most of our rental properties are in Italy and France. There is a reason for this; our business, from the day it began as little more than a dream over 25 years ago, has been a labor of love. It has been and continues to be great fun and the countries to which I have returned dozens of times during these years have been Italy and France. I offer no excuses for these choices, but I also love other places and have chosen a select few properties in the Republic of Ireland, in the United Kingdom, and in Spain, Portugal and Greece, that I think satisfy the very exacting requirements I have for all of our properties. Every so often, we are offered a property, outside of our usual geographic range, that is so delectable, that it would be impossible to say “no” to the offer. Such a property is a magnificent riad in Marrakesh, Morocco. We rarely rent this place; it is both very expensive and perhaps a bit too exotic for most of our clientele, but I continue to represent it just because it reminds me of one of my most memorable journeys---10 days I spent in Morocco nearly 30 years ago.

ITALY----A Too-Brief Introduction.

Many of you have made the traditional tour of the triumvirate of Italian cities, Rome, Venice and Florence, but far fewer have experienced the enormous diversity of the Italian countryside. Italy’s instantly recognizable boot shape is encircled by the Adriatic, the Ionian, the Ligurian, and the Tyrrhenian Seas, all part of the Meditteranean Basin. Not only is the land amazingly varied for what is, in reality, not a very large country, but offshore lie the enchanting islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Capri, Elba, the Aeolian Islands, to name but a few. Mountains feature prominently in Italy’s geography; the backbone is formed by the Apennines, extending from Genoa all the way down to the toe of Calabria. There are about 750 miles between the Alps in the north and Sicily in the south, and the distance between Venice and Rome is about the same as between Los Angeles and San Francisco, yet in this relatively short distance are differences that are nothing short of mind-boggling; Italy is, by our standards in the United States, not a very large country, but the diversity, from north to south, from east to west, would be difficult to imagine anywhere else. Start at the northern lakes, Como, Maggiore, and Orta, all relatively close to perhaps the most cosmepolitan of European cities, Milan. This is an immensely scenic and appealing area and now, with the very public purchase of a luxury villa by a well-known American movie actor, the lakes have become a popular destination for Americans. (They have been such for Italians, Germans, Swiss, and Austrians, for centuries.) It was not very long ago that the sine qua non of having “made it” in Hollywood was the purchase of a pile of Tuscan stones and the hiring of Italian craftsmen to remake this centuries-old, rather humble farmhouse into a grand residence which might seamlessly take its place along the houses dotting the hills of Pacific Palisades.

Blame the continuing pre-eminence of Tuscany as “the” destination in Italy on the British, who long ago discovered Florence and its region of Tuscany. To this day, this region has remained overwhelmingly the most popular tourist destination in Italy. There are very good reasons for this, as this central region is unquestionably the seat of much of learning, art, culture, and food, of the modern Western world. (For a highly personal, and somewhat contrarian view of Florence, my short essay appears elsewhere on this Web site.) It seems terrible to slight the wonders of the rest of Italy, from the magnificent Palazzo Ducale of Urbino, to the astonishing mosaics in Ravenna, dating from the 6th century rule of the Gothic emperor Theodoric, to the temple to the Olympian god Jove, in Agrigento, in Sicily,dating to approxiomately 480 B.C, the culinary and other joys of Bologna, the unsurpassed beauty of the Costiera Amalfitana, the magical, secluded Portofino with its impossibly large yachts filling a rather small harbor,. Yet we always return to Tuscany and its neighboring region of Umbria. Who has been to Siena and not marvelled at its Campo, perhaps the most perfect square in all of Europe; read “A Summer’s Lease”, John Mortimer’s hysterically funny novel about a family’s unlikely adventures in a rented villa in the Chianti Classico and then be motivated to follow the “Piero trail” to see the works of the earliest master of the human form, Piero della Francesca;, work your way through the masses of people to marvel at the towers of San Gimignano, where medieval merchants erected 72 impossibly tall towers as proof for all their neighbors to see of their success in the material world. (Of the original 72, only 15 still stand today---the wealthy San Gimignese merchants had a bit too much faith in their architects----but they are still something to behold.) There are undiscovered gems in Tuscany, among them Volterra with its Piazza dei Priori, one of the loveliest of medieval squares in Europe, still hosting weekly markets, as it did in the 9th century. Then on to Umbria, with Assisi and the wonderful stories of St. Francis, our favorite saint, told by the sublime Giotto, then to Perugia, where it is possible to take a one-day course in chocolate at the famous factory of Perugina, whose ‘baci’ are a treat not soon forgotten; Orvieto, home of the magnificent cathredral, and still surrounded by the ancient tufa, perfectly preserved from Etruscan times, and around Lago di Bolsena to Todi, now a gathering place for American artists and although one is as likely to hear a Texan as an Umbrian in that wonderful town square, for me it still remains an almost perfect Italian hill town.

We have only scratched the surface and although there is great diversity in Italy, there is a unity here as well; the term “La Dolce Vita” has by now become a cliché, but there is much to be said for the sweet life as lived by the Italians. The day almost always begins with a coffee, in one of its almost infinite manifestations, and a sweet pastry, albeit a small one (so small, often, that we can fool ourselves into thinking that it is virtually without calories), most often taken at a neighborhood “bar”, catching up on the previous days sports scores, political shenanigans, and local gossip. This ritual takes place in Rome and Florence, but it is best experienced in the small towns, as is the passegiata, the strolling of the young and old---but never together---that is a vital part of village life in the evening. There is good and bad news about a trip to Italy; the good news is that you will return energized, having consumed exceptional food, drunk a wide variety of outstanding wine, and having, even without trying, connected to the openness of the people; the bad news is that there will be so much that you have not done. And this leads to another bit of good news: You will return sooner than planned, to pick up where you left off.