To celebrate Penny’s 8th birthday we hosted a cooking party with chef Wendi James of Rutabaga Sweets. The menu included handmade cheese ravioli, fresh tomato sauce and garlic bread. The kids were attentive and focused and created some delicious food! Penny loves to cook, what a treat it was to share this with her friends. 
Tagged: birthday party, canon photography, childhood, cooking, cooking class, photography
We drove past Radda on our first day in Tuscany on our way to Antinori winery. We drove past Radda two days later on our way to Podere La Piaggia for our cooking class. We were about to drive past Radda on our way to San Gimignano when we finally stopped. I could imagine us, returning home and saying to ourselves “What was that cute town we kept driving past?” and being filled with wanderlust-regret. We played on the playground, browsed the shops, chatted with an artist whose art was being displayed in the Palazzo del Podesta and experienced the charm of this 9th century medieval town for just about an hour on this Monday morning.
One of the experiences I insisted on having during our trip to Italy was a cooking class. There are many options and it becomes challenging to discern one from the next. Fortunately our hotel recommended a private class offered by La Piaggia. This experience was beyond all my expectations; it was intimate, immersive, elegant and casual all at once.
Podere La Piaggia is a family run estate nestled among the hills of Chianti Classico. Situated on the slope overlooking Siena and the Val d’Elsa, the estate occupies an area of just over forty hectares, half of which are uncultivated and consist of woods, while the rest of the land is divided between vineyards and olive groves. In the center is the farmhouse, with the cellar below dating back to the 1600s. Three generations tend to this land. Despite the necessary modernization carried out over the years, La Piaggia holds to the ancient winegrowing tradition with a respect for nature in all of the production phases.
Castello di Ama is a winery in Siena, Italy. Ama takes its name from a small hamlet that dates back to the 12th century. Five centuries ago, it was the hub of a florid farming and winemaking business overseen by a group of local families. In the 1970s a group of families, fallen under the spell of this magical spot, set themselves the task of reviving Ama’s past glories and of producing a Chianti Classico that would rank among the world’s most prestigious wines. Today Castello di Ama, one of Tuscany’s most famous wineries, is owned almost entirely by the couple Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti.
There is no shortage of guilt as a mother and not making homemade meals every weeknight is one of the many sources. But to my children “making them delicious food” is something I do best and often and for this I was rewarded to a changing of roles. Each of them donned their homemade chef hat and transformed our kitchen into a restaurant for Mother’s Day.
Oliver “flippin’ eggs” omelette master
Castello di Spaltenna is a converted medieval castle from before the 12th Century. Spaltenna is an ancient feudal hamlet consisting of the church, Santa Maria a Spaltenna, with its bell tower dated from the year 1000, the adjacent castle and a small group of houses. The castle became a monastery than a convent before becoming the resort it is today.
Jesus said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
– 1 Corinthians 11:24
Tagged: childhood, photography, storytelling photography
There is an ideology, a romantic notion of “getting lost”. To get lost is to throw away the maps and the plans in hopes of discovering something new. Driving on the Autostrada, 70 kilometers outside of Rome, we saw a small town sitting on a high cliff. It was shocking in contrast to the surrounding landscape. We drove into the small town on a narrow road that runs one-way through the entire town. And when I say narrow, I could reach my arm out of the car window and touch the stone walls. I craned my neck to stare up the length of the buildings and the only thing keeping my mouth from hanging open was the repeated utterance “Guys look at this, what a gem!” It was a gem because it was a treasure we were not seeking yet discovered all the same.
Tagged: family, family vacation, Italy, Orte, photography, travel, travel photography
On Saturday April 29th, President Trump’s 100th day in office, approximately 200,000 people braved the record breaking heat to participate in The People’s March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice in Washington D.C. Starting at the Capital protesters made their way to the White House where they staged a sit-in. President Trump was in residence. Sister climate marches were also held in Denver, Chicago and San Francisco and around the world, including Japan, Zambia and Australia.
Tagged: climate change, climate march, earth, environment, march, photography, protest, Washington D.C.
The Tiber River rises at Mount Fumaiolo in Emilia-Romagna and meets the sea at Ostia, meandering its way through Italy for 252 miles. Legend says Rome’s founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by the she-wolf, Lupa.
Tagged: family vacation, Italy, photography, Rome, street photography, Tiber River, travel, travel photography
