Italy Things to Do
There’s no shortage of things to see and do in Italy - find out what you must-see, and the tricks to maximizing your time in the country.
Jessica's Guide to Leather Shopping in Florence
You know that devilish trick that Cinnabon has in American malls of pumping its sickly sweet scent into the corridor outside the shop, so that anyone within a 100-foot radius is compelled to follow the smell to the source and then, before you know it, you’ve got a giant Cinnabon in your clutches and halfway down your gullet? You know that feeling? Where a smell is so intoxicating that it makes you do things? That, my friends, is the effect that the Florence leather market has on me. If I found out they’re spraying leather scent at nose-height in the street, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’ll admit that I have an addiction to shoes and purses, so traveling in Italy is almost always dangerous for me (not to mention my bank account). On my last trip to Italy I had scheduled my visit to Florence near the end of my trip, and prior to arriving in Florence every time I would look twice at a new purse or pair of boots I’d say, “No, no - wait until Florence.” And I did. I waited. And then I got to Florence, and - completely accidentally - my path from the train station to my hostel went straight through the heart of the leather market. I swear, I didn’t mean it to happen, but you can see how I’m so powerless to the leather market that even I don’t realize it.
Date: April 3rd, 2008 |
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Wandering Milan's Brera and Navigli Neighborhoods
Milan isn’t known for its quiet and picturesque neighborhoods - you know, the kind that seem ideal for just ambling along aimlessly, preferably with a gelato in hand, strolling from from shop window to shop window and sighing constantly. This high-powered city (not to mention the people who live there) always seems to be on the go, and many times I’ve found myself moving at strolling speed I feel like I end up getting in the way of the people behind me. Having said that, there are a couple of areas of Milan that are perfect for aimless wandering, though you aren’t likely to have them to yourself. This is, after all, a busy city - and the busy people will probably be bustling right by you.
BRERA
The Brera district is perhaps my favorite area of Milan for strolling, and it’s conveniently just north of the area around the Duomo (where most tourists congregate anyway). The pretty streets are often narrow and lined with nice apartment buildings that have boutiques and shops on the ground floor. This is a relatively expensive area of the city to live in, so be sure you spend some time looking up at the buildings - the people who live in them have often taken great care to decorate their balconies with overflowing flower pots, and you can even sometimes get a peek into the apartments if the shutters are open and the light is right.
Date: March 21st, 2008 |
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Becoming a Regular
I originally wrote this as a journal entry, and in the end decided to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it.
For some reason, when I travel I like to get it in my head that visiting the same (fill in the blank) twice in one visit makes me a regular. It could be a news stand, cafe, restaurant, clothing shop - whatever. If I go more than once I feel like there’s the possibility I’ll be recognized by the people working there from my previous visit, thereby making me a regular. It’s a silly notion, but I cling to it and it makes me happy. Usually it’s nothing more than an illusion, of course.
On this last trip to Venice, however, I think I became something more akin to a regular than I’ve ever managed to do on any other trips here or anywhere else. I went to the same restaurant two nights in a row, and because I was dining alone on both occasions I ended up chatting amiably both with the fellow running the tiny dining room (along with others who worked there) and some of the other diners. I’d introduced myself on the first night with my business card, and said I was a travel writer (long after I’d already ordered and eaten most of my meal, I should mention), and in so doing found my table crowded with tiny plates of samples of dishes I hadn’t ordered. They called me Signorina Jessica all night long, and it was delightful. Was it anything more than them just being stereotypically flirty Italian men? Maybe not. And when you’re traveling alone there are times when you just don’t care about the “why,” as long as someone is keeping you company.
Date: March 16th, 2008 |
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CioccolaTÒ: Turin's Chocolate Festival
So, it’s pretty well established that I like Italy. In addition to Italy, I’m also a fan of chocolate (like, what, 99% of the world population or something?), so when you put the words “chocolate” and “Italy” in the same sentence I’m going to perk up a bit. That’s why I went to Turin for the last day of that city’s annual chocolate festival - CioccolaTÒ.
The name of the festival, CioccolaTÒ, is a play on the Italian word for chocolate and the Italian name for the town of Turin. In Italian, chocolate is “cioccolato,” and Turin is “Torino” - so by writing it CioccolaTÒ, with an accent on the end of the word, they’re cleverly emphasizing the Torino aspect of this chocolate festival.
Date: March 9th, 2008 |
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Bargello in Florence
The Bargello might have once been a prison, but by telling you to visit the Bargello in Florence I’m not saying you should commit a crime and get yourself arrested. Actually, I’m advocating that you visit an excellent museum of sculpture.
Florence’s Bargello was once a palace, then later a prison (even a place where executions once took place), and was turned into a museum in 1865. The building now contains some famous sculptures from the 14th through 17th centuries. It comes in a distant third behind the Uffizi and the Accademia in terms of number of visitors, but it’s no less artistically important - so if you’re looking for outstanding examples of art without having to wait in long lines, then the Bargello is a good bet.
Some of the more famous pieces housed in the Bargello are a few lesser-known works by Michelangelo (his “Bacchus” actually looks drunk), Donatello’s bronze statue of “David” (the first free-standing male nude since antiquity), and two entries submitted to the contest held in 1401 to determine who would create the now-famous Baptistery doors.
Date: February 27th, 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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Bergamo: A Great Day-Trip from Milan
The small city of Bergamo is an easy day-trip from Milan, especially because the part of Bergamo that you’ll want to visit is even smaller. The city is divided into two parts - the old high city, or “alta città,” and the newer low city, or “bassa città.” The newer parts of the city aren’t horrible by any stretch, but the historic and more pretty areas are in the alta città. Thankfully, the city makes it very easy to head straight up to the alta città from the second you leave the Bergamo train station.
From Milan to Bergamo is roughly one hour one way, and trains leave relatively frequently. There is a break in the morning schedule, however, so that if I hadn’t left Milan when I did just before 9am the next trains would have been at 09:48 and then not until 11:22. It’s a slower regional train that runs between the two cities, so no reservations are required. If you’ve got a Eurail or Italy Rail Pass, all you need to do is hop on board. Also, most of the trains for Bergamo seem to leave not from the main station in Milan, Milano Centrale, but from one of two smaller stations in the city - Milano Lambrate or Milano Greco Pirelli. No matter where you’re staying in Milan, you can get to either station easily by bus or tram.
Date: March 20th, 2008 |
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Seeing an Italian Football Match at San Siro in Milan
I’m not a huge sports fan, but I’m married to one - so that means I do pay attention. Most of the time I’m only vaguely aware of what’s going on in whatever game I’m watching (regardless of the sport), but it’s hard to be in Italy and not be acutely aware of how much a part of daily life soccer is here. There are two “home teams” here in Milan - A.C. Milan and Inter. The former is a powerhouse of a team, full of stars from Italy and elsewhere, but a team which isn’t having the best season. The latter is currently leading the standings for the national championship, and if they win it’d be for the second year in a row. In other words, Italy in general is a good country to visit if you’re a soccer fan - and Milan is particularly good.
The husband and I decided rather spontaneously to go to an A.C. Milan game the other night, because they were playing a team that isn’t doing so well this year so we figured it’d be easy to get tickets and get in. There’s a tram that’s supposed to stop right in front of San Siro, the stadium where both Milan and Inter play, but the tram we were on stopped long before it got to the stadium. From there, everyone piled onto a waiting bus which dropped us all off in front of San Siro. We’re still not sure why they did it that way, but it worked out.
Date: March 11th, 2008 |
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San Bernardino alle Ossa: Milan's Bone Church
If you’ve been following along, you know that I have an odd fascination with what I call “bone churches.” Before my first trip to Italy, I had heard about a crypt in Rome that was decorated with the bones of thousands of dead Cappuchin monks. It sounded bizarre, and well worth a visit, and I’m so glad I made the side trip back then - the Cappuchin Crypt in Rome is one of my favorite places in the city. So when my friend Jules emailed me a few days ago with the news that she’d heard of a bone church right here in Milan, I knew what my next must-do assignment was.
La Chiesa San Bernardino alle Ossa, or the Church of St. Bernardino of the Bones, is just a couple minutes’ walk from the Milan Duomo in a relatively unassuming-looking church (especially compared to the ornamentation on the Duomo), and the entrance is even on the side that faces a quiet piazza rather than the big street on the other side. Still, I wandered around to the piazza and found the big doors open. I had an hour before the church closed for lunch, which was plenty of time. I pushed open the side door to enter the church and found a perfectly ordinary church, rather small, with nothing particularly spectacular or interesting about it. Most worrying was the distinct lack of any bones anywhere.
Date: March 6th, 2008 |
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Wine Tours in Italy
You don’t have to be a wine snob to think about going on a wine tour in Italy. This is a country known the world over for the magical transformation from grape to vino, and the bottom line of any wine tasting is just whether or not you like what you’re sipping. If you want to learn how to talk about wine like a true connoisseur, that’s fine - but certainly not required.
A simple web search of the words “wine tours in Italy” will turn up countless results, so you certainly shouldn’t lack for choices of tour companies which offer wine-focused itineraries. If you’re hoping to learn about the wine you’re tasting as you enjoy the stunning views around you, an organized tour of a region’s wineries is a good option. This way you don’t have to plan out your route or even worry about driving after sampling one too many Chiantis - and many of the tours you’ll find will come with a guide who’ll help you understand the different wines you’re tasting. An organized wine tour is also a good choice if you don’t already have a rental car, and don’t want the hassle of navigating your way through Italy’s back roads. Plus, if the tour you’re looking at is an overnight trip you’re also likely to be spending the night in excellent accommodations and eating fabulous meals, too. These trips can be a food lover’s dream come true.
Date: February 26th, 2008 |
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