I’m pleased to announce that the Italy Logue is now making it easier for you to find out what the weather’s going to be like in Italy during your upcoming trip - we’ve installed a new weather feature on the Italy weather page!
Now, in addition to reading my notes about what Italy is like in general at different times of year, you can check out what the weather in Italy is going to be like when you’re actually going to be there. One of the boxes will give you a seven-day forecast for …
No Comments
Considering how popular Florence is with student travelers and backpackers, it’s not surprising that you’ll find a number of cheap hostels in the city to choose from. Not all of them are located on the same side of the river as the Duomo and train station, even if that’s where you’ll see the biggest crowds of young people. In fact, one of the larger Florence hostels is on the other side of the river - the Oltrarno - and it’s called the Ostello Santa Monaca, or Santa Monaca Hostel.
Like many hostels and hotels throughout Italy, the Santa Monaca Hostel occupies an historic building. The hostel is on a quiet side street near the San Spirito church, though I’ve read that the square in front of the church can get pretty lively sometimes. (I was there twice at night and it was awfully quiet, but it was March. Could be different in June.) The building housing the Ostello Santa Monaca, however, is more than just an historic building - it was once a convent which dates back to the 15th century.
No Comments
One of my favorite things about visiting Italy, without a doubt, is the gelato. I like ice cream in all its forms, but the Italians have done something magical with their version. I routinely encourage people traveling to Italy to eat at least two scoops of gelato every day, but I should caution you that once you try Italian gelato you may not be satisfied with regular ice cream ever again.
Gelato shops in Italy are called “gelaterie” (gelateria is the singular), and they’re colorful affairs - the glass cases are often full of tubs of gelato overflowing and calling to you. You’ll be able to identify many of the flavors by the pictures some shops include on the flavor cards, but others may be a complete mystery. If you want to learn a little bit more about what potential gelato flavor oddities you could run into during your trip, here’s my list of Italian gelato flavors - decoded. (Also be sure to read my tips for getting good gelato in Italy and learn how to order gelato, too!)
The Chocolates
“Cioccolato” (cho-koh-LAH-toh) is basic chocolate, but the variations on this theme are nearly endless. It’s all the rage to pair chocolate with other complimentary flavors, like hot pepper or orange, and there are also different kinds of chocolate even when it’s all by itself. Here are a few to look for:
cioccolato fondente (cho-koh-LAH-toh fawn-DEN-teh) - Dark chocolate lovers, this is the label to look for. And if you see cioccolato fondente extra noir, I think you’ll understand that we’re talking about the darkest of the dark chocolates here. Dark chocolate haters (what’s wrong with you?!?), look for cioccolato al latte (cho-koh-LAH-toh ahl LAH-tay), or milk chocolate.
20 comments
Even people who aren’t into wine know that Italy is famous for its wine production - which is one reason wine tourism is such big business in Italy. In fact, a recent report shows that wine tourism in Italy is growing in popularity, with more than €2.5 billion in annual revenue (yes, that’s billion with a “b!”), so the Italian wine industry continues to be a good thing for the country’s economy.
While being a DIY wine tourist in Italy hasn’t always been as easy as it is in, say, Napa Valley, Italian wine producers are starting to make …
No Comments
The Italian soccer league’s season is done now, but in the last few months of watching the games I started noticing a particular advertisement around the billboards at the perimeter of some of the fields. They were announcements of new flights connecting a couple of U.S. cities with Italy on AirOne, an airline I hadn’t heard of. I was intrigued, though, so I looked them up and this is what I found out.
AirOne is an independent airline based in Rome and mainly serves cities throughout Italy and Europe - including Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Athens, Zurich and London. But …
No Comments
For this Italy photo of the week, we’re in Milan:
This is one of the food stalls from the weekly market which took place on the street right in front of the apartment I lived in for six weeks this past Spring. And while it is, in fact, in Milan, this photograph could be from any number of cities, towns and villages all over Italy. Market day is one of my favorite things about Italy, because not only can you pick up wonderful produce, meats, cheeses, and bread, you can also grab whatever else you might need …
3 comments
For months now, there’s been no end to the news stories with the words “Naples” and “garbage” in the same sentence, and it’s not like a garbage crisis in Naples is something that’s never happened before this year. Still, it seems to be dominating the news coming out of Italy lately, and although it looked like the new prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was moving in the right direction to draw attention to and therefore help solve the problem, the latest news feels like a case of one step forward, seven steps back.
Berlusconi had …
No Comments
Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
If you’re heading to Rome and you like dead people, check out the newly restored mausoleum underneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
Want to win a trip to Europe? Think you’re pretty handy with a video camera? Then enter the Europe Travel Commission’s “You and Europe” contest.
Wow. The Vatican says that God made aliens, too.
I never really thought about my pasta being pro-Mafia, but there’s a special anti-Mafia pasta that was on sale yesterday, and the profits are supposed to go to retired Italians.
Berlusconi has moved …
1 comment
Finding travel deals, sales and discounts to Italy can make the difference between having a good trip and a great one - the right travel deal can even make the difference between going or not going to Italy at all. So I’m always hunting for great travel deals to Italy to help you make the most of your trip.
Toward that end, in addition to the travel deals I post on this Italy Travel Guide, I’m also now a part of the team at Cheap Travel Scout - a new website aimed at scouring the internet for the best …
1 comment
The sad statistic about how little vacation time Americans get is regularly trotted out, so next time you hear it you can add to the misery by realizing that Italy in August is one big vacation for Italians. In most of the country, the weather in Italy is such that getting the heck out of the cities isn’t just a “wanna” experience, it’s a “gotta” - and the beaches and mountains are, for one solid month of each year, wall-to-wall people. It might be that it’s primarily Italians on that beach, but you may not care - it’s still going to be crowded. The cities, on the other hand, may be close to deserted during August.
Now, don’t worry if you’ve got a big trip planned to Rome or Venice in August - the touristy cities aren’t deserted. Shops and restaurants are open, and hotels are doing a brisk business. But if you look closely in any non-touristy area you’ll find that there are also plenty of stores and markets that are shuttered up tight for the entire month of August. In some parts of the country, although you might think August in Italy is still the high season, you may see a slight drop in things like hotel rates in August. I think the airlines will still charge you an arm and a leg for air tickets, however, so don’t expect the same kind of drop there. Sorry.
No Comments
