One winter night, over 10 years ago, Michael and I had a lovely dinner at a remote and very isolated mountain refuge high in the Italian Dolomiti. Rifugi like this are common all over the alps, but usually they’re only open a few months in the summer when they welcome climbers and hikers. You can’t drive or ski to them. This particular place was literally…
Deep in the Swiss Alpes Vaudoises, just above the salt mines of Bex and at 1260 meters above sea level there is one of the most magical hectares of land Michael and I have ever visited. We stumbled upon it, quite by accident last summer when we were touring aimlessly through the region. We’d taken a detour onto a small…
Verbier, Zermatt, Crans Montana, Davos, Klosters, Gstaad, Saint Moritz….. These are all famous Swiss alpine resorts, hangouts for the rich, the famous, and lots more. But Switzerland is littered with smaller resorts little known outside the country, or sometimes even their own Swiss canton. These places have much to offer anyone contemplating a winter alpine vacation. They are usually free of the…
When most of us think of the Côtes du Rhône we imagine an area beginning south of Lyon and ending south of Avignon, home to Croze Hermitage, Gigondas, Tavel, Beaujoulais, Condrieu and Chateauneuf du Pape. Few realize if you leave Lyon and follow the river upstream there is a plethora of other fascinating and little known wine…
The Valtellina, unlike many other alpine regions, is not a place whose glory is immediately apparent. Nor does its sheer natural beauty shock or take one’s breath away. But it is well worth a visit. This valley reveals its majesty slowly and like an acquired taste delivers rich rewards for those travelers willing to…
As promised in my post about Poschiavo here is the recipe for the delicious cheese stuffed buckwheat crepes we enjoyed for lunch at the lovely Hotel Albrici. In the Swiss canton of Graubunden where I tried them the crepes were made using stone-ground buckwheat flour from the Mulino Aino I’d visited that same morning. They were…
I stumbled upon the Valposchiavo quite by accident several years ago after a research trip to the Italian Valtellina for Piano. I was looking for buckwheat or grano saraceno. Buckwheat is the noble cereal that has fed this alpine region for centuries but sadly very little is grown here today. I’d heard one might still…
Between what we get from the property and our hunter friends who supply us with more we have a lot of game at Petraia. That’s why it wasn’t until recently I finally made the pilgrimage to this legendary place to eat it. I’d been hearing about Il Baracchino for years. The trattoria is just outside the small mountain…
The biggest highlight of our trip was seeing so many real cows with horns grazing contentedly in their high summer pastures. Cows, essential creatures for the perfect implementation of biodynamic agriculture have long been a fascination for us. This photo essay by Michael gives credence to the majesty of these beautiful beasts and also perhaps a glimpse…
It’s long been a dream of ours to traverse the alps on this famous route. The road was built in the first part of the last century so early motor car enthusiasts could drive across the highest passes in the French alps, from Lake Leman to Nice. This year, to celebrate Michael’s birthday, we finally made it…