Tbilisi, Rome, Spello, Siena ...
Places to eat and drink in these cities, plus travel notes
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Ann and I returned from an exciting trip that began in Tbilisi, Georgia, carried on to Rome where we met up with her son and daughter, Sam and Annabelle—a one-night stay but some fabulous classic pastas. From Rome, we took a train to Florence, where we caught a bus to an outlying suburb, Colle di Val d'Elsa, where we could pick up a van for the writers’ workshop. From there we drove two hours to the small gem of a city, Spello, in Umbria, smack in the middle of Italy, for two nights, after which we headed to our ultimate destination, Tenuta di Spannocchia.
Spannocchia is a 13th-century farm villa, currently a working organic farm and ecotourism destination. In 2007, Ann traveled there on assignment for Bon Appetit, loved it so much she returned again, and ultimately created the Spannocchia Writers’ Workshop: every 18 months, 20 or so student writers commune with some of our finest novelists. (I’m a freeloader, and love every minute of it.)
Following these travels (and two Saturday Newsletters describing them), I want to set down all the details of where we stayed and ate and drank for any readers who may want to travel to these wonderful places. I’ll include Google maps for Georgia and Italy at the bottom.
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