More from Italy
Escape to Italy with us this week
Ciao! Are you ready to escape to Italy with us (virtually, of course)? It's Italy Week at Postcard Jar! We hope you'll join us on our social media channels as we all learn more about what makes Italy such a special travel destination. While this may not be the right...
How to make handmade Tuscan pasta and vegetarian sauce
Learning to make handmade Tuscan pasta isn't that difficult, especially when taught by Tuscans who make it all the time. While isolated in our home in Nebraska this week because of the coronavirus outbreak, we learned (via the internet) how to make handmade Tuscan...
Cartizze Hill: Tip 5 for your visit to Prosecco Road
At over $1 million per hectare (2.47 acres), Cartizze Hill in Valdobbiadene is some of Europe's most expensive agricultural land. It offers the perfect combination of soil, acidity, sunlight, and water for Prosecco's Glera grape to thrive. Plots of land on this hill...
Tips for your visit to Prosecco Road: #4 Savor the food
When we were in Italy this summer tasting the bubbly wines along Prosecco Road, it was easy to be laser focused on the next wine tasting. However, to go to the Prosecco region and only concentrate on the wine would be a shame. That's because Valdobbiadene had some of...
Tips for your visit to Prosecco Road #3 – Get to know your wine
A slow journey along the Prosecco Road allows you really get to know the wine you are drinking in a way not found in other parts of Italy. Because it doesn't have the masses of tourists found elsewhere in the country, visitors to the Prosecco region can really immerse...
Tips for your visit to Prosecco Road – #2 Stay at an Italian agriturismo
If you're wondering what an Italian agriturismo is, don't worry. You're in good company. I had no idea they even existed before our trip to Italy this summer. In fact, it wasn't until I stayed in one that I gained a good understanding of what they are and how they can...
Tips for your visit to Prosecco Road – #1 Hire a driver and local guide
If you like Prosecco wine, you'll love a trip down the Prosecco Road near Valdobbiadene, Italy. I promise you will. Our visit there this summer was one of our favorite and most memorable stops on our tour through Italy. We've wrestled for weeks about how to write...
A unique wine tasting in the woods and our stay near Montepulciano, Italy
When we went wine tasting in Tuscany (can I just interject that I've dreamt about saying those words for quite some time) I had no idea what to expect from our visit to the town of Montepulciano, other than we would likely be tasting Vino Nobile, the typical wine of...
Five tips for wine tasting in Tuscany
I’ve done wine tastings before. You pull into a winery, hear all about their wonderful product while sampling a flight of four to five wines poured out in small, two-sip portions 10 seconds apart, decide whether to buy, and then head out the door. So, when we set out...
Our incredible private tour and cooking class in Chianti with Italy Unfiltered
After spending a day on our own exploring beautiful Siena, Italy, our hosts Deb of Italy Unfiltered and her husband Massi the Driver picked us up at our hotel and we began our complimentary tour of Italian food, wine, and culture in the Chianti Region. As we got in...
How I fell into a Tuscan food coma – Part 2
This is Part 2 about our complimentary delicious Tuscan food tour with American, Deb, of Italy Unfiltered, and her Italian husband, Massi the Driver. To read Part 1, click HERE. Time to walk off some of that delicious Tuscan food We left the bakery, simultaneously...
How I fell into a Tuscan food coma – Part 1
I intended to write this post about our incredible first day with hosts Deb and Massi yesterday, but I accidentally slipped into a Tuscan food coma. In all fairness, it isn't my fault. I mean, they took us on a foodie tour of Siena, and it was a grueling delicious...
Our first day in Rome, Italy, was quite an adventure. But who cares? We had wine.
Caio from Rome, Italy! We made it and Rome and intentionally did not pre-plan much of our first day in Italy. We tried that a couple of years ago but a mechanical issue caused our flight out of Omaha to be canceled and we lost money on pre-purchased tickets for a...
We’ve been invited to tour Italy with Deb and Massi the Driver and we can’t wait!
Yes, we've been invited to tour Italy with Deb and Massi. She's from upstate New York, backpacked through Australia and New Zealand, and worked in Silicon Valley and in Texas. He's small town boy who grew up on a Tuscan hunting estate and winery and took a job in a...
Exploring Ancient Roman Ruins
When we stepped out of the car along a roadside overlooking the Roman Forum and ruins, I could hardly believe my eyes. I'd seen pictures of these places in history books, and watched movies like Gladiator that showed these scenes, but nothing quite compared to the...
Thanks, Paul and Connor!
Last summer, my brother and nephew took a father/son trip to Italy and did lots of sightseeing, exploring, and even took an Italian cooking class. While their schedules were busy, we really appreciated them taking time out to find postcards to send to us, even when it...
A postcard from the Vatican
As you may already know, whenever we travel, we look for opportunities to purchase postcards and mail them home to our "postcard jar" [read more about that here]. We started doing this several years ago as a way to easily document our travels, remind us where we'd...
St. Peter’s Basilica
I'd looked forward to this day since we'd booked our European vacation. I'd been to Rome twenty years ago, so had been to the Vatican, but Ann had not. I'd told her that St. Peter's was something we could not miss on our visit to the Eternal City. I'd been counting...
Roaming Rome
The first stop on our European adventure was Rome. Since we were arriving mid-morning after a 10-hour flight, and because we weren't sure how Ann would be feeling due to her illness, we pre-booked a private car tour to give us an overview of the city until we were...
A memorable European vacation
Last fall, our college-aged daughter, Meghan, shared with us that she was interested in doing a summer study abroad in Spain. Since she is a Spanish major (as was Steve), we thought this was a great opportunity and encouraged her to apply. Once she was accepted and...
Inspiring the next step on your journey