This article was written and submitted for publication on the Italy Logue by Chris Bright.
If you need to take a break from the fast-paced lifestyle of Milan, the charming little town of Vigevano is just far enough off the beaten path to provide a refreshing respite from crowds and tourists. Located a quick 30-minute train ride that takes you 25 km southwest from Milan’s Porta Genova station, Vigevano makes a perfect lunch-time destination where you can escape for a few hours.
On second thought, I take that back. You will see tourists on the weekends - but they are almost all Italians who drop in from the surrounding region for a visit. This fact was confirmed when, after visiting Vigevano (pronounced vee-JAY-vuh-noh) for the first time, I mentioned in passing to a shop owner in Milan where I had spent the afternoon. A huge smile spread across his face and he enthusiastically exclaimed that Vigevano’s Piazza Ducale is the “most beautiful piazza in the whole world!” After hearing a Milanese say it, this statement instantly moved from the realm of opinion - an opinion I shared after my springtime afternoon visit to Vigevano - to irrefutable fact.
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For 11 straight years, when Americans were asked what country they’d most like to visit if cost weren’t a factor, they ranked Australia at #1. Well, move over, koalas, there’s a new kid in town. For the first time, Italy is now ranked as the #1 vacation destination outside the United States.
The Harris Poll has asked the same question of participants since 1997: “If you could spend a vacation in any country in the world, outside the United States, and you would not have to worry about the cost, what one country would you choose?” And until this year, …
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It’s time for another in my Italy Q&A series. This one comes from Eduardo in Argentina:
I’m planning a trip to Italy and Greece. We would like to get some information about travel in Italy. I was searching how to go from Venice to Malpensa airport and the difficult part seems to be Milan Central - Cadorna (Metro?), in order to board the Malpensa Express. The shuttle bus from Milan Central would be easier, but our Venice train would arrive to Milan at about 9:00 in the morning and we should be at Malpensa by 10:15, so traffic could be a serious trouble in a week day. Can you suggest any ideas.
That’s a great question, Eduardo - because while getting from Venice to Milan’s city center is easy enough, Malpensa Airport is actually quite far from central Milan. You’ve got a couple of options to get from Milan’s Stazione Centrale out to Malpensa: the train or the bus.
Malpensa Express Train - This is the quickest trip from Milan to the airport. The journey only takes about 40 minutes, and the trains leave at regular 30-minute intervals from Milan’s Cadorna station. This means you’ll have to get from Centrale to Cadorna before you can board the train. It’s an €11 ticket.
Malpensa Bus Express - The bus departs directly from Milan’s Stazione Centrale, and this journey usually takes about an hour. It’s a little less reliable because of traffic, but it’s also cheaper - €5.50 from Centrale to Malpensa.
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Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
Police in Bologna say they’ve detained five people on suspicion of recruiting for terrorist organizations in Iraq & Afghanistan, and of planning terrorist attacks. They’re still looking for a sixth person.
A new poll in Italy suggests that fully 25% of Italian couples engage in “wife swapping.”
Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, shouldn’t be thought of as a prude by any means. But the exposed nipple on the giant reproduction of a Venetian master’s painting that hangs on a wall in the PM’s palace (and which forms the backdrop for …
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Here’s another in the Italy Q&A series. This comes from Margie, who asks:
I am going to be in Tuscany October 10-17. Are there any soccer matches in our area during that time?
I’m sorry, Margie, I wish I had better news for you!
You would think, given that the soccer season in Italy starts in late August, that by mid-October you’d have at least a couple of games to choose from during that week. And with two teams in Tuscany - Fiorentina and Siena - that should double your chances, right? Unfortunately, the stars are not aligning properly for you …
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Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
Okay, folks, this is just too good… Wondering what to give that friend in your life who has everything? I’ve got just the thing - the CD of Neapolitan love songs that’s being recorded by Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi. No, I’m not kidding. Frankly, I wish I were. His song-writing partner says, however, that it won’t be ready in time for Christmas if Berlusconi keeps getting distracted by his pesky day-job of being Prime Minister. (Update - I found a video of Silvio singing with the guy who’s playing on his …
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I might be in the minority here, but when I first started looking at the Italian Serie A soccer schedules I found them really hard to figure out. In fact, I’ll admit that I still sometimes find them kind of unnecessarily confusing. So since I have to assume I’m not the only one who thinks the whole thing’s a head-scratcher, since I’ve gotten questions from some of you about seeing soccer games during your Italian vacations, and since the first games of the 2008-2009 season are fast approaching, here’s a little primer about how to read Italian soccer schedules.
First of all, all the teams in the Serie A league (that’s the top league in the country) play each other twice during a season. Not only that, the order that teams play one another in is the same in the second half of the season as it is in the first half. In other words, a team will work its way through the list of other teams and then, when it’s gotten through the list, it’ll start over at the beginning and work through the list again in the same order. Sounds organized and clever, right?
Well, because it’s all so organized, what the Serie A folks have done is this - instead of listing the entire season’s games out chronologically, they create a chart with each pairing listed only once. It looks sleek, and the clever design is very Italian. But in my opinion, it’s too clever by half. Here’s what I mean:
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Because Italy seems to be so dominated by the Catholic church, you might not automatically think that there would be a ton of nude beaches in Italy. But even though the Catholic homebase is in the country, and even though the vast majority of Italians self-identify as Catholics, they are also Europeans - and Europeans tend to have much more progressive views about sex and nudity than Americans do. So, while there may not be as many famous nude beaches in Italy as there are in other Mediterranean or European countries, there are definitely some.
In fact, there’s an association in Italy for naturists (which is what nudists seem to prefer to be called), and at least a couple of years ago the statistics were that more than 600,000 Italians were naturists. Prior to 2006, however, going nude on the beaches of Italy wasn’t technically legal. Sure, people did it, and they rarely faced any problems, but officials could have theoretically cracked down on it at any time.
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One of the biggest headaches about foreign travel used to be figuring out the whole money thing. I remember the things I used to have to consider when I’d travel years ago: Should I get some of the local currency before I leave home? How much should I get in travelers checks? What are the best places to exchange travelers checks? These days, however, travelers to most countries around the world have a much easier time of it - and that includes those of you going to Italy. Still, there are a few things to think about before you leave home, so I thought I’d go over the important points about using debit cards in Italy.
Cash or Credit? In Italy, Cash is King
When I’m in the United States, I’m accustomed to paying with just about every purchase, almost regardless of how small it is, with a debit or credit card. I, like many Americans, carry plastic at all times, but am often found without any cash at all in my wallet (and some marketing campaigns tell us this is the only way to go). This kind of thing doesn’t fly in Italy, however. While most hotels and bigger restaurants - especially the ones catering to tourists in tourist-infested cities - will accept credit cards to pay the bill, more often than not you’ll be met with reluctance or face outright rejection of your credit card in many of the shops, cafes and smaller restaurants throughout the country.
This means that you’ll need to carry cash in Italy. But how do you get that cash? Well, smart travelers these days have moved beyond the travelers checks of yesteryear and are instead armed with debit cards. Your debit card from your bank back home will work just fine in bank machines all over the world, and instead of dispensing money in your home currency, Italian bank machines will give you euros - lovely, valuable, colorful euros. Using debit cards helps you eliminate the sometimes excessive service charges banks levy for actually walking into a branch and making an actual human being process the exchange for you, and they also give you the convenience of withdrawing money even when banks are closed (which is not uncommon in Italy).
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So, you’ve studied your gelato flavors, learned the process for ordering gelato and even memorized the tips for finding the best gelato shops in Italy. Now you’ve walked into a gelateria and you’re faced with something new - what the heck is that fluffy whipped-cream looking stuff?
That, my friends, is semifreddo.
Semifreddo literally means semi-cold, but practically speaking it’s quite cold - it’s just not fully frozen the way gelato is. It can be mousse-like in its consistency, but is usually colder. Think of what might happen if you left mousse in the freezer for awhile - not so it froze completely, but so it had a less fluffy quality to it. Then you’d have semifreddo.
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