Aielli & Benevento

Your Next ‘Bella Italia’ Adventure Awaits…If you consider yourself a wine connoisseur or just a wine lover and you want to experience the A&B’s best vineyard experience Tuscany has to offer, then customized tour for you!  You will spend four –six days visiting the best wine estates in this unmatched part of Italy. The tour begins and ends in Florence, and every A&B clients has 24/7 access to a driver-guide.  You’ll spend your evenings in Florence, home to Michelangelo at one of the world’s Top Twenty rated hotels.   Dine at Michelin rated Pinchiorri or Cibreo, Florence’s hottest restaurants for gourmands. From Florence , you’ll travel through the scenic wine country of Chianti Classico, quintessential Tuscany. Cypress lined narrow roads and medieval hill topped wine villages are the classic images of Chianti, very photogenic. You’ll visit top producers such as Capanelle, Fonterutoli and Antinori.  Tailored excursions may include private visits in Cortona, Montalcino, Siena and Lucca.

Aielli & Benevento has the Perfect Wine Escape …and it may surprise you. **********Clients can always pick their hotels, guides and dates of travel…we just manage the details. Call us at +1.212.695.1511 and ask to speak with a travel specialist.

The winter is perfect time to enjoy a long weekend in one of Italy’s unforgettable cities: Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice. Aielli & Benevento offers a private, custom touring experience for couples who wish to experience the culture, food and cuisine of “Bella Italia”without having to fight the tourist hordes.  With one phone call, arrange a well-deserved break and let Aielli & Benevento handle all the details.

When:

Any four days in December, January, February and March.

Where and What?

A relaxing, weekend in one of Italy’s sophisticated urban environs. Your choice of Rome, Milan, Florence or Venice.  Your custom trip will include: private museum tours, guided walks, gourmet dinners and wine tastings.

How Much?

Price per couple includes Michelin class dining, private guides, private transportation and five star suite accommodations. From 3,000 euros per person, based on double occupancy.

More information: Email: info@aielli-benevento.it  | Call: +1. 212.695.1511

All fares are subject to change without notice, are non-transferable, and subject to cancellation and change fees Aielli & Benevento designs private trip experiences for serious travelers seeking ultra- luxury touring in Italy. We offer our clients two touring options: 1. Ambassador-Style Touring (semi-escorted) and; 2. Private Concierge Class(escorted).

> Learn more at: www.aielli-benevento.it

According to a recent review in Traveler: “The dramatic drawing room has a black ceiling and walls, white moldings, leopard-print headboards and dusty mauve, shot-silk window treatments.” This the biggest room in Casa Howard at about 50 sqm.  With black walls and ancient Venetian mosaic marble floors, there are 3 big windows looking onto Via della Scala. The ensuite bathroom also has the same mosaic floors and a big shower.  Each Casa Howard Guest house, whether an apartment, palazzo or farmhouse) offers highly personal service.

In Rome there are two Casa Howard guest houses, both near the Spanish Steps: one is located on via Capo le Case , and with only 5 double bedrooms it is a very intimate place to stay; the other Rome Guesthouse is on via Sistina, with luxury rooms designed by Tommaso Ziffer.

Tuscan Summer is a unique touring experience created for busy couples and families seeking an unforgettable holiday vacation.

Designed by Aielli & Benevento, this touring experience is tailored 100% to the traveler so there are no fixed departure dates. Clients also choose among a variety of luxury hotel properties.  We handle every trip detail… A week before departure, the client will receive a detailed, daily travel schedule outlining all trip contacts /reservations/ arrangements, ensuring a worry-free, hassle-free travel experience.

What’s included*:

• Savor Tuscan gourmet dining ‘al fresco’ each and every night.
• Experience an early morning balloon or bike ride over the unmatched Tuscan landscape.
• Visit Renaissance Florence with a private guide/ art expert…and enjoy all its unique shopping.
• Enjoy a escorted walk through medieval Siena, capped off with a Sienese traditional tasting at the city’s best restaurant.
• Explore the winding hills of Chianti, tour its reknown vineyards and then taste the best Italian red wines at 400 year old estates.
• Discover the ancient hill towns of Montepulciano, Cortona and San Gimignano.
• Find the “off the beaten” path, true Tuscany with your own private car and driver

Private Guides/ Optional Services… customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse.
 Unlike recommendations from hotel concierges (whom invariably pick their friends based on a “business relationship”), we choose guides solely on the basis of reputation, years of experience and proven excellence.   Aielli & Benevento offers its touring guest a wide range of support services including passport assistance; GSM phone rental, customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse, etc.

> Email us for touring details @ info@aiellli-benevento.it.

For many, a visit to Florence isn’t a visit without seeing the famous Uffizi Gallery ( aka Galleria degli Uffizi” in Italiano). There’s nowhere else on earth that you can sit in the center of a room full of gigantic Botticelli paintings and just drift off into a world of colorful myths and legends.

For Aielli & Benevento clients, seeking this sumptuous art experience, we offer three special touches: 1. No waiting (Our escorted private tour ensures you never wait in line; 2. A Private art master as your guide (A&B retains as our personal art historian the very best licensed guide in Florence.); and 3. ‘After hours’ Insider Peak (We offer a special tour of the ultra exclusive, Vassari Corridor , the hidden passageway that built by the Medicis, to connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.)

> To learn more about the very best of the best in private touring , email: info@aielli-benevento.it .

Here are a few of the many world-famous pieces in the Uffizi collection:

• “Madonna of the Goldfinch” by Raphael
• “Bacchus” by Caravaggio
• “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli
• “The Annunciation” by Leonardo da Vinci
• “Doni Tondo” by Michelangelo
• “Madonna with Child and Two Angels” by Fra Filippo Lippi
• “Duke Federico da Montefeltro” by Piero della Francesca
• “Venus of Urbino” by Titian

Portrait Italy is a turnkey touring experience created for busy executives. Designed by Aielli & Benevento, this touring experience is tailored 100% to the traveler so there are no fixed departure dates. Clients also choose among a variety of luxury hotel properties.  We handle every trip detail… A week before departure, the client will receive a detailed, daily travel schedule outlining all trip contacts /reservations/ arrangements, ensuring a worry-free, hassle-free travel experience.    

What’s included*:

• Five star suite accommodations …the finest hotels in Florence, Rome and Venice.
• Michelin class dining experiences including a Roman feast at La Pergola and a seven course Venetian tasting.
• In Venice, a private boat our through Grande Canal ending up with gourmet luncheon at the world-renowned Cipriani Hotel.
• In Rome, an “after hours” private tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum +”Rome by Night” evening drive with chauffeur.
• In Florence, a special “best art of the Uffizi” tour .
• First Class EuroStar high-speed trains from Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome (city to city transfer by private sedan also available).

Private Guides/ Optional Services... customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse.
Unlike recommendations from hotel concierges (whom invariably pick their friends based on a “business relationship”), we choose guides solely on the basis of reputation, years of experience and proven excellence.   Aielli & Benevento offers its touring guest a wide range of support services including passport assistance; GSM phone rental, customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse, etc.  (*Based on 9 nights / three nights in each city.)

> Email us for touring details @ info@aiellli-benevento.it .

Just in from Rome ANSA … Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei’s corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of the History of Science, said three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed by enthusiastic admirers from the astronomer’s body in 1737, 95 years after his death, while his corpse was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb, opposite the tomb of Michelangelo, in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence. One of the fingers was recovered soon after, and is now part of the museum’s collection, and the vertebra has been kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo had taught for years, according to the museum. But the tooth and two of the fingers — the thumb and middle finger — from the scientist’s right hand, were kept by one of the admirers, an Italian marquis, and later kept in a container which was passed on from generation to generation in the same family, Galluzzi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.  “But with time, the generations lost knowledge of what was actually inside the container,” and the family sold the container, Galluzzi said. By 1905, all traces of the relics had disappeared, “leading scholars to hypothesize that these singular specimens had been definitely lost,” the museum said in a statement. But the container recently turned up at auction and was purchased by a private collector, intrigued by the contents but not sure they were Galileo’s relics. The buyer eventually contacted Galluzzi and other Florence culture officials, who used detailed historical documents, as well as documentation from the family which had long owned it, to conclude they were Galileo’s fingers and tooth, the museum director said. The relics were inside an 18th-century blown-glass vase, which in turn was inside a wooden case topped with a wooden bust of Galileo, the museum said.  Galileo, who died in 1642, was condemned by the Vatican for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun. Church teaching at the time held that the Earth was the center of the universe. In the early 1990s, Pope John Paul II rehabilitated him, saying the church had erred.

The museum will put the fingers and tooth on public display next spring.

Here are few of our favorite online journals about Italy.   Enjoy!

• Living Venice http://livingveniceblog.com/
• My Sardinia http://mysardinia.com/
• Italy Beyond the Obvious http://www.italyfaves.typepad.com/
• Bella Vita in Liguria http://bellavitaitalia.blogspot.com/
• Love Sicily http://www.lovesicily.com/blog/
• Italy From the Inside http://www.italyfromtheinside.com/
• Secret Gardens http://www.secretgardensitaly.com/_/Secret_Blog/Secret_Blog.html
• 2 Baci in a Pinon Tree http://2baci.blogspot.com/
• Florence Journal http://www.florence-journal.com/
• Dream Italy http://www.dreamofitaly.com
• Rome Photo Blog http://romephotoblog.blogspot.com/

Concierge.com recently completed its own survey of the “world’s sexiest resorts.”  Among its choices was the an old gem outside of the Renaissance city of Florence.  Under the category “MOST SEDUCTIVE LANDSCAPE” first in the field was the Orient Express owned Villa San Michele.

Here’s what Concierge.com had to say about this unique hotel: 

• Ø       Ideal for: Uptight Brits and their would-be suitors (well, it worked for Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter).
• Ø       Sexiest detail: Swoony, Renaissance-packed views.
• Ø       The lure: No wonder they called it A Room With a View. This 15th-century monastery turned ultraluxe hotel—a favorite of Brigitte Bardot, Madonna, and Julia Roberts—has jaw-dropping views of Italy’s most heart-stopping skyline thanks to its unbeatable perch on a hill just outside Florence. To best appreciate the Renaissance beauty of the city spread out in the valley, book one of the suites in the Limonaia, so called because it’s where the monks used to store their lemons in wintertime.
• Ø     Sexiness factor: As breathtaking as a newly discovered nude by Raphael.

For more information:

Villa San Michele

Via Doccia 4, 50014, Fiesole

Tel#  055 567 8200;  Fax: 055 567 8250; Email: info@villasanmichele.net

Need some kneading after a long day walking the marble floors of the Uffizi? The Four Seasons is the only hotel in the heart of Florence with a spa on-site. Nine light filled treatment rooms are appointed in soothing but not typical spa shades: white, putty, green, and gray. The Grand Spa/Couples Suite is in its own separate garden building with a fireplace, freestanding bath and views into a private garden.

Spa guests have access to lounges, whirlpools, and a gray marble pool surrounded by hedges. and The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Firenze is the only spa in the world to use the products from, natch, Santa Maria Novella, one of the world’s oldest pharmacies, based in Florence. They use all-natural ingredients and still follow the traditional recipes the monks formulated in the 13th century. Spa treatments include a cypress scrub, pomegranate bath, and chianti massage, all done with local ingredients.

Four Seasons FlorenceBorgo Pinti, 99Tel # 055) 26261; Fax # 39 (055) 2626 500www.fourseasons.com/florence