The Eurostars Monte Tauro is a beacon of excellence for brutalist architecture strongly and creatively favouring concrete matching the rocky cliff it is carved into. A socialist twist to the Yugo brutalist architecture; Your balcony offers no privacy. You may be forced to converse with your fellow proletarians! Unroll your patio awning to avoid birdContinue reading “RKS 2025 Hotel Review: Eurostars Monte Tauro, Taormina, Sicily”
Tag Archives: Italy
RKS Wine Tourism: A State of Mind Trumps Cold “Scientific” Logic
In Southern Sicily on 13May2025 we visited the Villa Romana Del Casale, home of some of the most superb Roman mosaics in the world recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The villa was constructed by a prominent Roman aristocrat between the third and fourth centuries. This large countryside villa represented the height of luxury.Continue reading “RKS Wine Tourism: A State of Mind Trumps Cold “Scientific” Logic”
RKS 2025 Wine: A Chianti Classico: Bring on the Transylvanian Bear Stew!
Aroma: Virtually screaming “Cherry”. Blackberry, milk chocolate and Coachella Valley date. Palate: Serious stuffing to this wine. Well built in tannins and tight structure suggesting some ageability. The fruit is busting to escape but not just yet fellow. Chery again but kirsch as well. Long ponderous finish with a hint of sour cherry. Personality: DoContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: A Chianti Classico: Bring on the Transylvanian Bear Stew!”
RKS 2025 Wine: Foreign Affair Winery in Niagara Goes Italian
There are several wineries in the Niagara, Ontario wine producing area that have gone Italian the Appassimento and Ripasso way. In Italy the crushed grapes made to use Amarone are “reused” in the Ripasso method. The pomace (the pulpy mass of seeds and skins leftover after the Amarone has fermented) is left in contact withContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Foreign Affair Winery in Niagara Goes Italian”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelllous (The Final Version):Chapter 40: I Have Been Committed to a Psychiatric Hospital: Thank God for LSD and Pasta a La Nero! Lupara’s Deadly Cure
After my Ritz-Carlton meltdown in Manhattan for months I had no idea where I was nor did I really care. Was it post traumatic stress disorder or depression? I was told that I had been transported on a chartered jet courtesy of Don Lupara from New York to Naples where I was transported along theContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelllous (The Final Version):Chapter 40: I Have Been Committed to a Psychiatric Hospital: Thank God for LSD and Pasta a La Nero! Lupara’s Deadly Cure”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 39: The Worst Day of My Life: Naples An Assembly Line of Death: My Sweet Calabrian Plum Has Been Wrenched from Me by Assassination!
I wanted desperately to return to Naples to my Ginevra who I was beginning to miss terribly. Physicians at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York were concerned the bone chip near my heart might be a potential risk so travel was forbidden until a round of tests was completed. I was in gnawing pain andContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 39: The Worst Day of My Life: Naples An Assembly Line of Death: My Sweet Calabrian Plum Has Been Wrenched from Me by Assassination!”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!
Upon our return to Naples we continued our holiday mode for a few weeks seeing the sites of Naples and eating for three. Ginevra was expanding rapidly. It would be two pizzas for dinner and many scoops of gelato afterwards. As my sweet Campanian plum was expanding rapidly and becoming more like a watermelon myContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!
It was time out for a bit of sightseeing outside Naples suggested Ginevra and I agreed. We would be tailed only by two men in a car. Ginevra explained to me a cardinal rule of the Neapolitan Camorra that in the case of hostilities between families woman and children would be spared violence and deathContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!”
RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition
Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico) a Sicilian deserter from the Italian Army assists a local fellow deserter, Attillo, to return to the latter’s mountainous home village Vermiglio. It is 1944 and the Second World War is drawing to a close. Vermiglio appears untouched by the war with an occasional plane flying overhead being the only tangibleContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?
My romantic escapades have been brief and disastrous. Minah my 160-pound sweetheart ended up in psychiatric care and her brother Abdul murdered my mother. Reena was set ablaze by her evil mother-in-law and the Toad with her marriage obsession was enough to drive off any sensible young man. But heck better to have loved thatContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?”
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