JANINE S. POULIOT

One of the few buildings that remained standing in downtown San Francisco after the great earthquake and fire of 1906 was the Fairmont San Francisco (800.441.1414, http://www.fairmont.com), an opulent, Corinthian-columned hotel scheduled to debut later that year. The property instead became a command post for city officials, who sat on crates in the hotel’s lobby […]

Built in 1986 to host the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open, the 18-hole Starr Pass Golf Course (800.503.2898, http://www.starrpasstucson.com) proved a challenge even to the professionals. Its “difficult personality” had been exasperating lesser players ever since, says Starr Pass golf pro Brian Weaver, so the club recently overhauled the existing course and, in February, opened an […]

Sudents attending the cooking school at Villa San Michele need only glance upward for inspiration. In the refectory of this former monastery, just across from the participants’ worktables, Nicodemo Ferrucci’s 1642 fresco of the Last Supper depicts in detail the offerings of the famous feast. The students have ventured to this Florentine landmark to learn […]

The World War II orphans from Pisa, Italy, who were relocated to Florence’s Basilica of Santa Croce did not spend their time there idly. The Franciscan friars who operated the basilica had partnered with two local leather artisan families, the Goris and Cassinis, and transformed the dormitory of the 13th-century monastery into a leather crafts school. […]