Keith Recker

True confessions: I am a Scotch skeptic–until quite recently. If you are also a skeptic, this article is for you. It offers useful background on Scotch, an explanation of its flavors, and concludes with suggestions on how to find a Scotch that’s right for you. By any of its names (scotch, scotch whisky, whisky or whiskey), to me its flavors have always seemed a little too alcohol forward, somewhat medicinal, sometimes intriguingly unpleasant, and occasionally downright foul.

My family’s most recent Italian vacation fell in that sweet, quiet fortnight after Christmas. Our college-age daughter’s winter break is our cue to escape, and more often than not, Italy is where we land—for the art, the architecture, the food, and that easy Italian warmth. This trip was centered on Florence, with quick detours to Siena and Rome.

Florence is a city that can wear out even its most ardent admirers. By late afternoon on a chilly day just after the New Year, my family of three was footsore and frazzled, having spent hours in long, disorganized lines and crowds that seemed to multiply around every revered masterpiece in nearly every church and museum. We had started ambitiously. We stood in long lines for a glimpse of the luminous Fra Angelico works then on display at Palazzo Strozzi.