Early Life Complaints
I have been accused of not appreciating The Great Outdoors. Indeed, one week in a local Girl Scout Camp cured me from ever wanting to earn any nature-related badge. I still shudder remembering the bugs in my cot. My father and brothers were inveterate hikers and campers – we’re talking about pitching tents, making fires to cook meals, climbing over rocks and fording streams – activities whose charms still elude me. I shamefully cannot forget leading my younger brother on a mild walk in the forest near our cabin on Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge. After a few minutes I was hopelessly lost and of course passed my panic to my brother. I called out frantically to our mother and she answered back from the front porch — less than 40 feet away. I never took him for a nature walk again.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate Mother Nature. I just prefer her to offer services. In my childhood our family spent summers at either Rehoboth or Bethany Beach in Delaware. And there were many aspects that I loved as a gangly teenager: working on my tan, riding the waves (the bigger the better), and sampling the unwinnable boardwalk games. I did learn quite early how to avoid the undertow and how to nag my older brother endlessly for the use of his prized canvas raft – it was perfect for riding the waves. I loved baking from Duncan Hines mixes by myself in our rental kitchen (you would be amazed at the number of choices), experimenting with cheap Maybelline makeup and religiously reading equally cheap movie magazines, all available at the two general stores.
But my surly self also had a list of complaints. My parents did not believe in air conditioning. Windows had to be open so we could have something called “cross ventilation.” The sound of mosquitos over my bed at night still haunts me. We were required to bring chairs to the beach just for our parents, along with towels and snacks. We had to arrive early enough to position our family umbrella so that my parents could watch us in the ocean even though there was a lifeguard. Swimming was forbidden for an hour after we ate a meal. I also remember sea lice inside our swimsuits, and there were no showers at the beach so we had a long excruciatingly itchy walk home to wash off. I dutifully took Red Cross swimming lessons taught by Rehoboth life guards.They were gorgeous to my adolescent mind – with perfect tans and Noxema smeared lips – and quite unobtainable to a teenage girl. My older brother passed his Red Cross swim tests with flying colors, I barely made the first level in juvenile swimming proficiency.
Obviously, these sunburnt summer memories tainted my adult views on seaside vacations. You can imagine my delight late in life when I discovered that Italian beach vacations and I are made for each other. I wrote about my baptism in La Spiaggia Italiana a few years ago in KD, where we had rented a lovely beachfront apartment in San Benedetto on the Adriatic Sea. It was right across from a fully equipped beach, and the apartment itself had a small enclosed courtyard perfect for al fresco dining and Star Wars re-enactments.
Milan By The Sea
2025 has been a very stressful year – and I do recognize that we aren’t the only ones living in a state of anxiety. Realizing that we all needed to fully relax, the Italy Insider and I decided to follow the advice of one of her friends who lived near Milano Marittima on the Adriatic coast of Emilia Romagna. And as much as I like to fantasize about produce and plan meals in the country that lives and breathes la stagione, we both wanted to not only lie out on a beach or by a pool but also be fed stylishly. Her friend recommended only one hotel in Milano Marittima and ended her recommendation with “si mangia bene li” (you’ll eat well there). We felt that was a promising sign.
Milano Marittima has been a noted beach resort since its inception in 1907. While it boasts typical seaside diversions such as dance clubs, arcades and a sprinkling of amusement park rides, this resort has a lot more to offer. A company was created by the wealthy Maffei family to develop a resort for other moneyed Milano families. This resort area was to be in harmony with a lush pine forest bordering the sea. The original design of Milano Marittima was overseen by Giuseppe Palanti, a portrait painter and occasional urban planner. Palanti was influenced by the English urban planner, Ebenezer Howard, famous for his focus on what he termed Garden Cities. You walk along avenues shaded by stunning maritime pines and pass through lovely circles which are planted gardens. Many streets are dotted with stylish shops along with casual restaurants and bars, others with stunning modern architecture in villas and hotels – a side note for architectural history buffs, Milano Marittima has over a dozen villas designed in Art Nouveau style (here it is called Liberty, after the famous fabric store in London).
The Happy Hotel
The hotel that her friend recommended is Hotel Derby Exclusive – and what a dream of a hotel it is! Rather than being part of a bloodless chain, it is family owned, and they are on the premises every day, working with their staff to make sure all goes smoothly with their guests. It has won several sustainability awards and walks the walk in being family friendly. The recently renovated building faces ocean front with a short walk to a spacious esplanade and privately operated beaches. The rooms are minimalist Italian (not Brutalist French) with comfortably designed interior balconies, complete with retractable blinds and – get this – a TV screen! Perhaps Italians look at the sea and soccer at the same time? And in their “presgige” rooms, the shower has a full length mirror – plus a door opening out to one’s bedroom as well as one in the bathroom. Which of course makes sense if you want to take a shower while someone else is using the bathroom for a business call.
Your room reservation guarantees you a set of shaded lounge chairs under a militarily lined Italian beach umbrella, each with an attached table (some with covered ashtrays – this is Italy after all) and hooks for bags and beach paraphernalia. Beaches here have cafes that serve good food and of course aperitivi, plus showers and bathrooms. The sea is perfect for children, as it is shallow for quite a distance, with attentive lifeguards. You can hire a motor boat to drag you around on a raft that is built like an oversized Barcalounger. Paddleboarding rather than surfing is the sport of choice.
But back to why I loved this hotel and would happily return again. Il Derby is small in comparison to other hotels in Milano Marittima, but it feels spacious and intimate at the same time. I loved how it captured that Italian sense of clean lines but relaxed comfort. It is designed with many public lounge areas both inside and out. It boasts a shallow pool for toddlers in swim diapers, a hydromassage pool and a generous pool for lap swimming or general horseplay. There are stationary bicycles that we threatened to use, but the lounge chairs were too inviting. It is filled with families with babies, young children, teenagers, and even old people like us. Everyone is having a wonderful time and yet you feel as if you are in your own space. And like many hotels and restaurants, you can bring your pet, no matter the size and with no need to claim it as your emotional support animal. I saw many small dogs on laps or chairs in the dining room, and even a very large golden retriever lounging on a recliner by the pool.
Si Mangia Bene
I have saved the best part of Il Derby for last. We had opted to do only breakfast and dinner at the hotel, but the meals were so delicious and the atmosphere so elegant and relaxed, the staff so helpful without being officious, that within one day we decided to eat all our meals there. The RWM had a wonderful time ordering from an exceptional list of moderately priced wines for lunch and dinner (this was vacation, after all).
The Maitre d’Hotel greets each guest upon arrival and makes sure at breakfast that the ordering of your lunch and/or dinner is correct. The hotel boasts a chef and a pastry chef, each with a respect for traditional dishes but also great verve and versatility in their planning and execution . The hotel offers delicious vegetarian and vegan options – although there is much in Italian cuisine that addresses those dietary restrictions naturally. The pastry chef always has a couple of offerings for breakfast pastry that are gluten free. I was stunned by the hotel’s breakfast bar, which at lunch and dinner becomes the antipasto and salad bar. This is not a serve yourself all you can eat buffet with a sneeze guard. From an L- shaped glass covered bar, you are served by the family and staff in the morning – breakfast pastries, fruits, cereals, breads, cured meats and cheeses, yogurt and an astonishing selection of honeys and jams. At lunch and dinner, a fresh and dazzling antipasto selection is offered. Grilled vegetables, cured fish, some cheeses, salume and seasonal salad ingredients. On the small side of the L shaped counter is a beautiful jewel-like arrangement of carefully made desserts. Remember, your waistline is on vacation too. But if the virtuous path beckons, those stationary bikes are always there.
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Kitchen Detail shares under the radar recipes, explores the art of cooking, the stories behind food, and the tools that bring it all together, while uncovering the social, political, and environmental truths that shape our culinary world.
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This made me smile…Firstly, my mother was like you. When, in college, I announced I was going camping with my then-boyfriend-now-husband and some school friends, her first thought was SNAKES! He said, to allay her worries, “But snakes are part of nature and nature is so unspoiled!” Her response: “Snakes aren’t unspoiled—they spoil everything!” Given that she was Irish, there may have been some genetics at work. Or perhaps she was hearkening back to when I was a little girl and we lived on a farm in then-rural Montgomery County, Maryland. I was out playing and discovered a snake in the front yard. My mother never got her driver’s license, didn’t have a gun, but did have access to a tractor. So, she started it up, drove into the yard, and right over the snake, neatly catching it beneath a front tire. Somehow the sheriff was summoned and when he arrived, he dispatched it utterly and finally with one shot. Turned out it was a rather large copperhead.
Secondly, we spent summer vacations at Fenwick Island. I remember AC-less cottages that all smelled wonderful, and sea lice, and lifeguards with zinc-oxided noses. I even dated the captain of the FIBP for a couple of summers. They were a really fun bunch to party with! Of course, when my captain came to visit once in college, he was so pale, and his gorgeous blond-frosted locks were more mouse brown.
il Derby sounds delightful!