One of those questions you need to ask yourself when you’re making travel plans is, “Do I need a visa to get there?” For Italy, the list of countries where residents don’t need to have a visa to enter Italy is quite long - so that’s the good news.
For visits of up to 90 days, nationals from European Union (EU) countries and passport holders from the following countries do not need to have a visa to visit Italy: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland, U.S.A., Uruguay, Venezuela.
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Italy is intensely Catholic, being the home to the Roman Catholic Church’s headquarters, and statistics show that roughly 90% of the population identifies itself as Roman Catholic. (Of course, the fact that only about one-third of those people regularly attend church is another matter altogether.) The point I’m getting at is that when a small hilltop town in Tuscany bills itself as “Little Jerusalem” you sit up and take notice.
The town of Pitigliano sits on a butte overlooking a trio of rivers near Maremma, on the southern border of Tuscany. There is historical evidence that the area around Pitigliano was inhabited by the Etruscans, and some of the town’s main sights are connected to that period of time. There are also churches and a medieval fortress worth visiting, too, but what I want to focus on is the thing that sets Pitigliano apart from other similar Tuscan hill towns - and that is the town’s Jewish community.
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When I first read about the trash problem in Naples last Spring, I figured it was a short-term problem. I mean, who could live in a city where they kept having piles of garbage flooding the streets? Well, apparently the people in Naples can. Or, more to the point, the people in Naples are stuck living in a city where the local government can’t get its act together to figure out how to keep piles of garbage from flooding the streets.
If the photos I’m seeing out of Naples last week are any indication, the trash problem never really went away last year - it just got worse as time went on. Depending on where you look, in fact, Naples is said to have had a garbage problem for the last 10-15 years. Just a few days ago there were still giant piles of garbage lining the roadways, with at least some of it being set on fire from time to time as well. (And although residents burning the trash does make it go away, the fires are likely to be emitting toxic smoke, which isn’t any better than having the garbage on the streets.) More recently, protesters have started demonstrating throughout Naples and calling for the resignation of the city’s Mayor - one group even held Sunday Mass in the street, surrounded by the city’s trash heaps.
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Italy is one of the world’s top tourist destinations, and one of the side effects of this popularity is that the traditional “shoulder season” most places experience where prices (as well as the number of visitors) go down while weather stays reasonable is being pushed further out. Italy’s shoulder season used to be mainly April and September, but in many parts of Italy it’s getting more and more difficult to find those travel deals in those months anymore. What does that mean for you? It means that Italy in March is your next best option.
While the weather in Italy will certainly vary, and you’re more likely to get rain and some chilly days in March than you are in June, unless your vacation centers on lots of outdoor activities you may not notice the difference - except, of course, for the fact that you might be wearing a scarf instead of sunglasses. Many of Italy’s most famous sights are indoors, in which case the temperature outside is of little concern. Plus, it’s much easier to stomach the occasional rainstorm when you can take advantage of lower prices on things like airfare and accommodation.
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Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
Italy ranks first among international vacation destinations for U.S. travelers for the 5th year in a row.
Thankfully, you don’t have to speak Italian to understand this funny little video about telling time in Italy. What’s the secret? Why, it’s all about the donkey’s balls, of course.
An art show at Rome’s Quirinale Palace is proudly displaying the works of ancient art which art authorities were able to get returned from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The show runs through May 2, 2008, and has free admission every …
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When you’re hunting for a place to stay in a city you don’t know very well, reading the hotel’s or hostel’s promotional information can be a bit confusing. What does “walking distance to the Colosseum” mean, anyway? I mean, technically, anything is within walking distance of the Colosseum. Even the Statue of Liberty, although some of that walking would surely involve walking on and off an airplane.
But really, finding out exactly where the various accommodation options are in a city - especially in relation to the sights you want to see there - can be frustrating. Now, with the help of BootsnAll, you can get accommodation and attraction locations marked on one handy map. There aren’t maps for every single city around the world (yet!), but we’re in luck because there is one for Italy - it’s a map for Rome.
As you can kind of see in the picture above (sorry for the bad quality, see the original on the Rome City Guide), the map is chock-full of everything you’ll need if you’re planning a trip to the Eternal City. You can see stars representing some of the main attractions in Rome, and then a scattering of different kinds of accommodation as well - yellow squares for apartments, blue squares for guest houses, green for hostels and red for hotels. Now you can pick out where you’re going to stay based on where it is in the city, and not where you think it is!
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If you’re traveling in Italy at Easter and you’re expecting an Easter Bunny that just happens to speak Italian, you’re going to be a little disappointed. No, there’s no Italian Easter Bunny. There are, however, plenty of festivities. Easter in Italy is an incredibly important holiday - makes sense, what with the Roman Catholic Church being headquartered here and all - and the Monday following Easter is equally as important. The whole week preceding Easter, in fact, is a great time to be traveling through Italy, provided you can tolerate crowds and traffic jams, that is.
Easter in Italian is “Pasqua,” and it’s a time of religious parades and celebrations. These processions often have as their focus statues of Jesus or the Virgin Mary which are carried through the city streets by participants. One of the largest and most famous processions is in the city of Enna in Sicily on Good Friday, where more than 2,000 friars parade through the city. One of the oldest Good Friday processions takes place in the Abruzzo city of Chieti.
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January might not be the hottest month in Italy weather-wise, but it’s one of the hottest months in terms of shopping. Unlike in the U.S., Italy has two national sales periods each year - in January and July - when every store has massive discounts on some of its best merchandise. We’re not talking about the creepy sale rack at the back of the store with all the crap from last season that no one else wants. We’re talking about the good stuff. Okay, maybe not all the good stuff, but enough good stuff to make people line up to get in to the stores. Because when you say the words “Prada” and “50% off” in the same sentence, even jaded Italian shoppers get excited. (Case in point - see those people in line in that photo? They’re Italians waiting to get into the Gucci sale in Milan.)
For some basic information, you can check out my post from last year on the January sales in Italy. Official sales periods will differ depending on the city or region, but most of them get started in early January and run through mid-February. Some last into early March - including Milan’s sales, which is exceptionally wonderful because that’s where all the top Italian fashion designers have their flagship stores - for maximum shopping potential. And for some more information, including some dates of 2008 sales periods in Italy, see this article.
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When you think of Venice, what do you think of first? Certainly, the canals and Venice gondolas come to mind quickly, but almost as quickly you’ll get images of people in gorgeous and elaborate costumes - complete with ornate masks - as they celebrate Carnevale each year. While Carnevale (Carnival in English) is a holiday which is recognized throughout Italy, Venice is the most famous city in Italy for its Carnevale festivities. So, if you want to see Carnevale in Venice, keep reading - you’ll need a few tips before you dive in.
First of all, the “when is Carnevale” question isn’t as easy to answer as you might think it should be. It begins roughly two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday, better known as “Fat Tuesday” or Mardi Gras (”Martedì Grasso” in Italian). This is generally late January through early February, but check your current calendar to be absolutely sure. It is traditionally a time when Catholics the world over indulge in a bit of excess before Lent begins and they have to give up things they love, like sweets. In Venice, whether or not you’re Catholic it’s still an excellent celebration of decadence.
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You may recall that the European budget airline giant Ryanair had offered a proposal to Milan’s Malpensa airport back in September, saying that it would add Milan to the list of Ryanair airports served and expand services quite a bit over the next few years. Well, after thinking about Ryanair’s proposal for a couple of months, Malpensa has returned the engagement ring. (I was going to say diamond ring, but since this is a low-cost airline we’re talking about here it was more likely a cubic zirconia. But I digress.)
At the end …
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