Italy Lovers

Just found this great 8-Part series that clearly explains a lot about the practicalities of driving a car in Italy for foreigners. I found it really helpful - have not seen anything better really.

Part 1 - Overview

Part 2 - You and the Autostrada

Part 3 - Understanding the Signage on the Autostrada

Part 4 - Autostrada Rest Areas

Part 5 - Paying Tolls on the Autostrada

Part 6 - Buying Gas for Your Car

Part 7 - What to do about Paying Driving Fines

Part 8 - How to Avoid Getting Fined

Part 9 - Understanding Italian Road Signs - Part 1

Part 10 - Understanding Italian Road Signs - Part 2

Part 11 - Parking

Tags: Autostrada Signage, Driving in Italy, Italian Autostradas

Florence Scene with Ponte Vecchio

Free Fashion and Art Tours in Florence

YES! The city of Florence has begun offering free fashion/art tours of Florence. It seems the majority of the tours visit a couple of fashion ateliers and a museum or church (full of artworks). Anyone who plans to be in Florence between now and June 21, 2010 should check out this website and make a reservation for one or more of the tours.

Here is the link to the website homepage. Click on the link on the lower right that says "Fashion Itineraries".

Fashion in Florence: Art and Craftsmanship

Do leave your comments if you take one of these tours. I'd love to hear your experiences.

Tags: Florence Art Tour, Florence Fashion Tours, Free Florence Tours

Save Money on Smartphone Charges when Traveling in Italy

When we travel to Italy (or other foreign countries) we like to spend money on dining, shopping, sightseeing and other fun stuff.  But since we are now so conditioned to be on our smartphones so often, it would be easy to rack up quite a hefty bill.

Here is a great explanation of how to keep your mobile charges at a minimum from the New York Times:

Cheap Mobile Calls Overseas

Tags: iPhone Italy, smartphone Italy

Authentic Italian Cooking Lesson Videos

This is a great find - lots of quick videos on how to prepare great Italian food. The recipes are not complicated and, with few exceptions, can be prepared with ingredients that can be found easily outside of Italy. It seems like lately popular cookbooks and magazines call for a lot of hard to find and expensive ingredients but this website is different. They seldom call for ingredients I can't find even in my small town in the middle of nowhere.

Italian Cooking Lesson Videos

After you click on the link above, wait a couple of seconds and the most current video will start. On the right are other recipes to choose from. Lots that look simple and delicious.

I think you will like them. You comments welcome.

Tags: Authentic Italian Cooking, Italian Cooking, Italian Cooking Lessons, Italian Cooking Videos

Grow Italian Vegetables and Eat Well

Italian Vegetable Seed Packets

Do you like good tasty vegetables? I do, and I like growing them myself even though I am really a novice gardener. My new seed catalog from Seeds from Italy just came in the mail and it's fun to start planning what to grow for next year. These seeds are the best. Seeds from Italy is a small company that imports the seeds from Italy. Which means that they are not genetically modified as that type of seed is illegal in the EU. The Italians are serious about food so their vegetables have flavor.

Their seeds are for varieties that you will not find in the stores. My biggest success last summer was the Supermarconi. They are so tasty. One of my friends who swore she did not like green beans fell in love with these. Everyone who had them, said they were great. And they are heavy producers too. They practically took over as you can see here. Have to figure out a better way to stake them next year though. I did mention I am a novice at this.

Supermarconi Beans

Tags: Italian vegetable garden, Italian vegetable seeds, seeds from Italy, Supermarconi beans

It is always nice to have business cards when you are traveling around in Italy. Even if you don't use them normally, it is a nice convenience. They don't really have to be "business" cards. They can just have your name and address on them - calling cards really.

And you can even order 250 from Vista Print.  You just have to pay a modest amount for postage. It works out to be very cost effective.  Just click on the banner below and you will see they have a great selection of attractive designs to choose from.

Tags: free business cards, free calling cards, Italy trip planning, packing for Italy

The third day of our trip took us to Venice via Verona.

We arrived in Verona about 9:30 and the first place we went was the Basilica of San Zeno.

Basilica di San Zeno - Verona, Italy

This is a beautiful cathedral in the Romanesque style. It is quite old dating from 967 A.D.  Since is was built on an earlier site of the tomb of St. Zeno, you can see it is a very old church. And it had a very palpable feeling of being a sacred location.

From there we went on to see the Arena of Verona, a Roman amphitheatre built in AD 30 and still in use today.

Piazza Bra and Arena in Verona

Unfortunately, we were not there to see a performance but that would make a good reason to return. It would be a lot of fun to see an operatic performance of say, Aida, there.

The last stop on our itinerary in Verona was Juliet's balcony. And it was really lovely too, as you can see from the photo.

Leaving Verona, we continued on to a small town called Valeggio for lunch. I wish I had written down the name of the restaurant because I remember it as being one of the very best meals of the entire trip. I remember it as being out in the country, not in a town. Not that that is much help.

According to the planned itinerary for the day, we were also supposed to stop to tour the garden at the Villa Sigurta' but we ran out of time and did not stop there. So that is another place to visit on another trip because by all reports it is very beautiful.

Then we continued on to Venice, passing through beautiful scenery in the Veneto and could catch brief glimpses of some of the Palladian villas in the area.

We arrived in Mestre where we left our bus and got on the train for the last segment of the journey to Venice. What a treat to arrive in Venice via the train, walk out of the train station and find yourself in a world without cars and only boats for transportation. The buildings rising up out of the water like a fantasy illusion. It was breathtaking. Next was the water bus to the dock near our hotel. Then walking towards our hotel we came to Piazza San Marco. Entering the Piazza stopped me in my tracks it was so beautiful. I had never before had the experience of being stopped in my tracks literally by the beauty of a place.

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Tags: Italy Travel, itinerary, San Zeno, Veneto, Venice, Verona, Verona Arena

On the second day of the trip we visited an amazing church high on a mountain built in a place that would seem to be the most unbuildable site immaginable.

The church is Santuario Madonna de la Corona. Click on the link here to see some photos and a brief description of Santuario Madonna de la Corona.

We all loved this sanctuary and it had a very holy feeling.

And let me tell you that we really got a workout that was a lot more interesting than using a stairmaster getting up there and back again. It was quite a hike. But really worth it.

And here's a quick You Tube video to give you a good idea of the location - truly amazing.

Santuario Madonna della Corona

Tags: Italy Travel, itinerary, Lake Garda, Santuario Madonna de la Corona

Ciabatta Bread is the greatest if you want to make a great sandwich. But the grocery stores seem to charge an awful lot for it. But with this recipe it is so easy to make at home. I just tried the Ciabatta Bread Recipe at this site and it turned out great. There is a nice video that shows you exactly what to do. I am so happy with this site.

Another plus is that you don't need a lot of expensive equipment to make it.

Tags: ciabatta bread recipe

One of my most precious souvenirs of Italy is the itinerary from my first trip. I decided to see if I could reconstruct the itinerary on the internet with links (where available) to the places we went.

We landed in Milan Malpensa the 16th of September (many years ago) at about 9:30 in the morning. We had our own bus and driver for the whole trip.

Our reservation for that night was in the town of Garda on Lake Garda. On the way there we traveled around Lake Como and stopped for lunch at ALBERGO RISTORANTE BELVEDERE in the town of Torno on Lake Como. What a beautiful introduction to Italy. We dined outdoors on a terrace right on the lake under the trees. I remember the food was divine.

From there we continued on our way and arrived at our Hotel "Le Terrazze" in the town of Garda. It was a sweet, modest hotel that we enjoyed. In looking for it online, it looks like they have remodeled it but I think this is the same hotel - now called Hotel Excelsior Le Terrazze. That is where we stayed for 2 nights. It was within very easy walking distance of the lake shore.

Addresses:

ALBERGO RISTORANTE BELVEDERE
P.ZA CASARTELLI 3
22020 TORNO CO
Tel: 031 419100
no website, little English spoken

Hotel Excelsior Le Terrazze
Via Marconi 6
37016 Garda
Tel: 045 7256774
Hotel Excelsior Le Terrazze

Tags: eating in Italy, Italy, Sightseeing, Travel