Archive for March, 2008
Ostello Archi Rossi in Florence
Florence, like the other heavily touristed cities in Italy, is expensive for travelers. There are a couple of things about Florence that make it easier to spend quality time there without spending a fortune as well. One is that it is a popular place for students to come to study language (among other things), so you know there have to be options for people on a student’s budget. The other is that there are several high-quality hostels right in the historic center of Florence. One of the larger hostels is the Hostel Archi Rossi on Via Faenza near the train station.
The Archi Rossi Hostel (Ostello Archi Rossi in Italian - the neon sign above the door is in Italian, so look for the big blue “Ostello” sign) is just a few minutes walk from Florence’s Santa Maria Novella train station, and only another few minutes walk from most of the stuff you want to see and do in Florence. The reception area is blessed with two-story-high walls, almost all of which are covered in paintings done by previous guests - and these aren’t random graffiti or amateur artwork, either. The murals are beautiful, colorful, and clearly done by people with some serious art training. I didn’t ask, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the people who did them were art students in Florence who happened to be calling the Ostello Archi Rossi home during their schooling.
I was given a tour of the hostel by Angela, whose English is impeccable; there were a few people at the front desk when I walked in, all of whom spoke at least a little English. I visited during the period when the rooms were closed for cleaning (the common areas and reception are always open), so was able to get a peek at several different kinds of rooms as well as the common areas.
Date: March 31st, 2008 |
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Milan Makes the List for the Most Beautiful Locals
It’s official, folks. Milan has been declared one of the “12 places to see really good-looking locals.” Allow me to gloat, while I also quote from the article:
The financial and fashion capital of Italy combines the country’s famous ethic of always dressing to impress with an urban-European sophistication that isn’t present once you get south of the shin in the boot.
It’s true, there’s something about the people who rush to and fro on Milan’s streets every day - an awfully high percentage of them are either knockouts or dressed to the nines… And more often than not, they’re both. I remain baffled at how the Milanese women manage to wear the stiletto heels many of them favor without breaking a heel or (even worse) an ankle on the cobbles and uneven paving of some of central Milan’s streets, but that’s beside the point. The point is that they wear great-looking clothes and shoes that often seem completely impractical, and they pull it off.
And while it’s easy to focus on the women in Milan, the men are nothing to sneeze at. These guys know how to dress, I’m telling you - whether it’s the businessmen hurrying through Duomo Square in their tailored suits or the young guys with their designer jeans, these are men who know what clothes make them look good. It doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re clean-shaven or not, either, they always look put-together.
Date: March 30th, 2008 |
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Visiting Torcello Island in the Venice Lagoon
When even your aimless wandering in Venice hasn’t gotten you away from the crowds and you’re looking for a little escape, you can head to the other islands in the Venetian lagoon. Murano, being closest to Venice, is usually almost as crowded as Venice herself (especially in the busy summer season). Burano, being a bit further away, is a safer bet - but the island is famous for its colorful buildings and lace-making traditions, so it even draws a fair number of tourists from the main island. The island of Torcello, on the other hand, is almost always blissfully quiet.
Torcello is the furthest away from Venice of the three main islands in the lagoon that tourists visit at all, but it has a history that’s important to Venice. These days there are probably fewer than 20 people who actually live on the island, which is primarily a nature reserve now, but at one point it was where most of the citizens of the Republic of Venice actually lived. It’s where some of the first inhabitants of the lagoon set up a town after leaving the mainland (the terraferma) to escape Attila the Hun and his marauders. That was back in the 5th century. By the 10th century, the population had swelled to around 10,000 people and Torcello was an important island city.
Date: March 28th, 2008 |
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Heading Back to the US Today, Ready or Not
As you read this, it’s likely that I’m en route back to the U.S. after spending nearly six weeks in Italy. And it’s also quite likely that I haven’t changed my mind - I’m not ready to go back yet.
This trip has been intense, and a lot of hard work, and I’m exhausted. I’ve fought off two colds in the last week alone, and am fully expecting that when I let my guard down next week at home I’ll get hit with something that’ll stuff my head up but good. I’m sick to death of the clothes I brought with me. I’m tired of the hard Italian mattress in the Milan apartment (and many of the hostels I stayed in as well). It’ll be nice to be back in my own kitchen again, with the utensils and ingredients I’m already used to. I’m looking forward to seeing my family, my friends, and my cats.
And I’m not ready to leave Italy just yet.
Date: March 27th, 2008 |
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Italy Q&A: Verona Hotels
It’s time for another of my Italy Q&A posts. Shyam sent me this note:
We’ll be coming from India to Italy, on 5th of April, 2008 , We 4 people will be attending vineitaly exhibition at Verona.Italy, on 6th & 7th. Please inform.
1. Which Hotel is near to the exhibition venue where we can stay at Verona?.
2. After 7th April we want to go and stay for a few days at Ancona
3. Which is the suitable hotel at Ancona?
4. We want to travel by train from Verona to Ancona on 8th, Please suggest the train route.
Thanks for the email, …
Date: March 26th, 2008 |
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Italian Idiomatic Expressions: The Ox, The Ass, and Who’s Got Horns
I love Italian idiomatic expressions - those sayings you just can’t translate directly but which make the Italian language the colorful and charming language it is.
Today’s saying comes from a reader, Lucia, who asked for the English equivalent for:
Il bue che dà del cornuto all’asino.
Lucia said that this saying is, in her experience, used where the person saying it “accuses another of having done something wrong” but the speaker is really the one who’s done something worse. I was unfamiliar with the saying, so I asked my friend Deirdré of the always-informative and entertaining Beginning with I, who told …
Date: March 30th, 2008 |
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Trattoria 3 Torri in Bergamo
The alta città of Bergamo isn’t exactly swimming in restaurants, so your choices are kind of limited from the second you decide to stay within the old city walls up there. But on my recent trip to Bergamo, I ate in a charming little trattoria tucked into quite literally a hole in a wall on one end of a parking lot. The outside may not have looked promising to most, but the food was spectacular.
Trattoria 3 Torri has the feel inside of a wine cellar, with its rounded brick walls and ceiling, and it’s one of those tiny places that makes the most of every inch of space. The parking lot the restaurant sits on is really a small piazza, and three of the buildings lining it have towers - hence the name of the trattoria. The handwritten menu outside the door looks like it could change regularly, but I imagine that most of the Bergamo specialties are usually available. The prices were relatively similar to the other restaurants around the alta città.
Here’s what we had for lunch:
Date: March 29th, 2008 |
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Vivoli in Florence: Can Famous Gelato Live Up to the Hype?
When I was planning my last trip to Florence, I checked my friend Sara’s Tour del Gelato for a list of the gelaterie I should make sure to sample when I was there. Florence is recognized by many as a gelato capital of Italy, where it’s harder to have bad gelato than it is to have good gelato - so imagine my surprise when I found that there was only one entry on the Tour del Gelato in Florence! Folks, I knew right then what my mission had to be - eat as much gelato in Florence as I could. It’s a tough job, but I knew I had to do it. For the children.
As I said, Florence is known for its gelato. So in this City del Gelato, is there one shop that is considered by locals and tourists alike to be the pinnacle of the art form? In fact, there is - it’s Vivoli. In my previous visits to Florence I hadn’t yet sampled Vivoli’s gelato, so I made a beeline there on this last visit. With all the build-up to how amazing the gelato at Vivoli is, and how famous the shop is (Frommer’s says, “Exactly how renowned is this bright gelateria? Taped to the wall is a postcard bearing only “Vivoli, Europa” for the address, yet it was successfully delivered to this world capital of ice cream.”), I was surprised at how understated the exterior of the shop actually is. I visited on a Saturday afternoon in mid-March, and I still thought there’d be a line outside the door and around the block. But no, there was only a small neon sign above the door and a trio of locals out front scooping some of the Vivoli gelato into their mouths.
Date: March 27th, 2008 |
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Jessica’s Guide to Good Gelato in Italy
I have a friend who lives here in Italy, an expat who’s made the move I’m trying to make, who dutifully instructs all her visitors that they are required to have no less than two scoops of gelato every day they’re in Italy. I’ve adopted this rule as my own, and tell everyone I know who’s going to Italy (that means you, too) the same thing. But in order for you to have the best gelato in Italy, there are a few rules you should learn beforehand.
I know, I know - it’s just ice cream, right? How can it be that there are rules about ordering ice cream? Well, it’s not so simple, and if you learn a little bit about the art of Italian gelato before you set foot in a gelateria, you’ll save yourself the indignity of paying your hard-earned money for bad, mass-produced gelato that really should end up in a trash can rather than your mouth. The good stuff is so good that wasting precious calories on bad gelato is really a crime against humanity. Or at least a crime against your taste buds.
>>Don’t miss my handy vocabulary list for Italian gelato flavors, and the things you need to know about ordering gelato in Italy, too!
Date: March 26th, 2008 |
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Italian Supreme Court Rules Nepotism Illegal
I keep re-reading this article, and I still can’t stop shaking my head in disbelief:
Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled that nepotism is an offence, despite the almost universally held belief that it is impossible to get a job in the country without a “raccomandazione” or friendly word, from a relative.
That’s right, the Supreme Court in Italy has actually decided that nepotism is illegal. They even sentenced the offenders in the case to 14-21 months in prison.
The husband tells the story of a guy he met here in Milan who said that on a form he was filling out to …
Date: March 25th, 2008 |
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