Life + Style

Olive trees are the most often cited trees in western literature as evidenced by Lawrence Durrell’s poetic comment, “A taste older than meat, older than wine.” This statement places olives almost at the level of bread; as the Italian say, …

After Goethe had escaped his heavy court duties at Weimar in Germany and passed through the Brenner into Italy, he saw his first lemons growing at Limone del Garda. He knew that he was in the land of beautiful plants …

Fennel, known in Italian as finocchio, is a plant of Mediterranean origin that gives us a piquancy for the kitchen and a graceful plant for our garden.   I love the Greek myth about how Prometheus stole fire from the …