Caffè degli Specchi, Genova

This warm and welcoming cafe has become my favourite place to stop for a breakfast coffee, here in Genova.

Caffè degli Specchi, or the Cafe of Mirrors, is like so many of the cafes here in the city, a hub of activity.  The Genovese call in on their way someplace else, select a pastry, and order their cappuccino or espresso.  Some drink standing at the bar but I love to sit outside and watch the world pass me by.  The sandwiches make a rather nice lunch too.

Jimmy, pictured below, is responsible for the best cofee I have had in a long time.  He greets customers as they arrive and switches to English for those who, like me, are liguistically impaired.  Their aperitivo, later in the day, is also rather special.

Located at Salita Pollaiuoli 43, it's not far from Palazzo Ducale and is a must-visit kind of cafe.

Diana Baur, a meeting

At the weekend, and thanks to the kindness of Stefano and Miriam, I finally met one of my favourite bloggers, ceramic artists and B&B owners ... the lovely Diana Baur.

Diana and her husband run a beautiful B&B in Acqui Terme, Northern Italy, and it so happened that I discovered that they were located just a few kilometres down the road from where I was spending the weekend. 

I will use their words, already written, to introduce you to their beautiful B&B in Italy: B&B Baur is a top-rated inn, located in the beautiful Roman Spa city of Acqui Terme, in Piemonte, Italy.  Surrounded by history and thousands of hectares of wine hills,  Piemonte is known to gourmets and wine experts from all over the world as Italy’s premier gastronomic and enological region.  To read more ...

Diana showed us around on Sunday, explaining the renovations, and talking with Stefano and Miriam of NYC.  A place much-loved by all three of them.  

Anyway, I can't recommend this beautiful place highly enough, and Diana and her husband are delightful hosts.  You can get a sense of the B&B via her photographs here.

Her art and ceramics can also be viewed on her website.  And she has her first book being published soon but you can read more of that on her blog - A Certain Simplicity.

Grazie to everyone who made that meeting possible.

On homelands ...

Homelands don't exist.  It's an invention.

What does exist is that place where you were happy.

Susana Fortes, from waiting for robert capa.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Night, when words fade and things come alive.
When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again.
When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Yes

You take something from everything. Everywhere has its own riches, it’s important to open yourself to them. Travelling is above all an attitude, a way of accepting new things.

Keren Ann, Singer.

Michael Schiller, Poet

I interviewed Michael Schiller over in my Interview section way back when ...

Tonight he announced that his book, Something in Another City, is available on iPad and iPhone.

Check it out.