When In Italy - Twenty Essential Things To Do

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By Katy Hyslop


Sitting round the dinner table one night , after a few bottles of Chianti with some old friends, most of whom had spent time as European tour guides and backpackers, I asked them to name the best thing to see or do while staying in Italy. There was a lot of loud discussion as some tried to praise the less obvious things over the more mainstream, but there were also plenty of unanimous agreement for others.

In no particular order may I present to you the top 20 things to do in Italy as decided by my mates.

ANZIO (Rome) Is One of the Last "Best Kept Secrets" For Italy Fans and Individualists

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By Adrian Coman


The picturesque and genuine harbour is located directly at the Mediterranean Sea, 45 km south of Rome and free of mass tourism. The culture and the history of the region, the nature and the typical Italian way of life invite the visitor to enjoy "la dolce vita" atmosphere and sea life. In recent times, the Allies landed on its shores during World War II, and the American Monumental War Cemetery is not to be missed.
In ancient times, Emperor Nerone chose it as the site for the Complex of the Imperial Palace and the Roman Theatre. The Roman Port and the Grotto of Emperor Nerone represent two more salient features of the town. By day time, the town lazily lies in the sun along its beautiful sandy beaches (both free or equipped with parasols, sun beds, restaurants, snack bars) and is an ideal sea life resort. At night has a very lively night life with many open air restaurants, pubs and genuine pizza houses all over town and along sea shore offering exquisite Italian cuisine, wines and day-fresh sea foods. The region has a mild climate. The summers are sunny, dry and temperate with refreshing soft winds coming from the sea , the warm water enables swimming from May to October.

5 Attractions in Rome, Italy for Food Lovers

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By James Burrows


With food playing such a significant role in Italian culture it is natural that when you visit the country you will want to experience some of the best attractions on offer in this respect. Rome is the capital city of Italy and the food culture is certainly represented extremely well in the restaurants, shops and other attractions around the city. Below are some of the best attractions in Rome for food lovers to experience:
Campo Dei Fiori Food Market - This traditional Italian marketplace is certainly not the place to shop for cheap souvenirs. The market is renowned for its high quality produce and there is a price to pay to acquire these goods. The price is well worth paying however if you are a fan of top of the range food products, especially bread. The market has a reputation for offering the best bread in the area.

5 Attractions in Rome, Italy for Food Lovers

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By James Burrows


With food playing such a significant role in Italian culture it is natural that when you visit the country you will want to experience some of the best attractions on offer in this respect. Rome is the capital city of Italy and the food culture is certainly represented extremely well in the restaurants, shops and other attractions around the city. Below are some of the best attractions in Rome for food lovers to experience:
Campo Dei Fiori Food Market - This traditional Italian marketplace is certainly not the place to shop for cheap souvenirs. The market is renowned for its high quality produce and there is a price to pay to acquire these goods. The price is well worth paying however if you are a fan of top of the range food products, especially bread. The market has a reputation for offering the best bread in the area.

The Fountains of Rome

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By Jhon Mcnemor


Rome has over the millennia of its history, leaving to posterity a special sign of passing time: a thousand fountains, a thousand squares that recall the style and art of an amazing city like Rome. The Fountains have always been filled with wonder travelers, such as the English poet Percy B. Shelley, who wrote that "the fountains are sufficient to justify a trip to Rome."
From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, many architects wrestled with this particular form of sculpture. One of the nicest is the one made by the master John Fontana, made between 1608 and 1612, commissioned by Pope Paul V and that is the great and monumental exhibition of the Acqua Paola. Once with five small basins, was later restored in 1690 by yet another fountain, which endowed it with one big tub, and much more spectacular effect.

Easter Traditions Around the World

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By Mandy Waters


Easter, the holiday surrounding Christ's death and resurrection, is celebrated in Christian communities across the world. However, not everyone celebrates in exactly the same way. Different countries have evolved very different Easter traditions, from decorating eggs to flying kites and reading mystery books. In many countries, Easter has also become more secular, creating the traditions of Easter breaks during the school year and chocolate rabbits for children. Here are five Easter traditions from around the world.
Kite Flying
In Bermuda, people traditionally fly kites for Easter. This practise is said to have begun when a British teacher had trouble explaining Christ's Ascension to a church class so he made a cross-shaped kite to help illustrate the event to his students. Now people make colourful paper kites with long tails for Good Friday every year. Most of these kites are hexagonal, with wheel-like spokes, instead of cross-shaped, while some are octagonal in shape. Several Bermuda kites hold the world record for length and height of flight.
Egg Breaking

Gubbio - City for Exploration

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By Constance Grayson


Gubbio is one of the most beautiful cities in Umbria. It is also a perennial favorite with our guests. This city is located on the lower slope of Mount Ingino, a small mountain in the Apennine Mountain chain. Gubbio is about a thirty minute drive from our home base in Pietralunga, in the northeast corner of the region of Umbria. Very ancient, the city was inhabited prior to the Romans by the Umbrian peoples, the first tribe to inhabit the Italian peninsula. Even today, the majority of houses in the city center are 14th and 15th century and the streets wind this way and that-perfect for an adventure of exploring.

Five Things To Do In Lombardy and Italian Lakes

Image via WikipediaA country of pasta and wine, sunshine and snow, renaissance palaces and roman ruins, Italy is as beautiful as it is complex, making this region of Italy so popular for people to come and have a self catering holiday here in a rental villa or a rustic rural house. Lombardy is an Italian region which occupies a major part of Po Valley.
Orobic Alps, Rhaetian and Lepontine form its northern borders and it has a hilly district having major Italian lakes from lakes of Iseo, Como and Varese to Easter slopes of the Lago Maggiore. This area is rich in water mainly because of Po and the affluents. The capital of the region is Milan and the major cities are Brescia, Bergamo, Varese, Mantua, Pavia, Cremona, Sondrio and Como.
The first thing you can do in Lombardy is to view its Romanesque architecture. Each major city of Lombardy has beautiful examples of this type of architecture and the most stunning monument from the Gothic period remains the Cathedral of Milan.

Basilicata – The Last Undiscovered Region Of Italy

Image via WikipediaThe southern Italian region of Basilicata borders on Campania to the west, Puglia (Apulia) to the east, and Calabria to the south, and has a short coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea and another on the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea to the southeast. While it’s not the first place you might think of for a holiday in Italy, the region has a special charm that is slowly being discovered by visitors who are keen to get away from the more touristy parts of Italy.
Basilicata offers stunning arid mountain scenery and inland villages, perched on the hills, where time seems to have stood still. On the coast there are charming villages and seaside resorts such as Lido di Metaponto, with its archaeological relics, Marina di Pisticci, Lido di Scanzano, and Lido di Policoro. Remains of the Roman Era can be seen in Venosa along with medieval art. Basilicata is divided into two provinces: Potenza and Matera.
Matera and the sassi

The Italian Food Culture

Image by davide.santoni via FlickrImage by HatM via FlickrThe Italian food culture concerns not only what we see at Italian tables or in a rich Italian restaurant menu.
It is something much deeper in Italians’ DNA.
Italians have some beliefs that go beyond education or tradition.
Concerning pasta
An easy example could be the pasta shapes and their seasonings. Considering that among dry pasta (the ones you usually buy inside paper or plastic bags that last for long) the difference is only the shape of it, nothing else, the shape itself is something very important for Italians.
There’s a traditional pasta sauce recipe from Roma region called Pasta all’amatriciana (it’s a tasty sauce made with tomatoes and bacon). Usually it’s served using the bucatini pasta (kind of huge spaghetti with a hole in its middle).
An Italian woman was disgusted hearing her hairdress telling her colleague that preferred it with short pasta. She said: “Don’t ask me why. It is just as it is. Amatriciana must go with long pasta. How can one imagine cooking it with short pasta?” The same goes for pasta with oil and garlic (aglio e olio), you probably will never see it served using any other pasta that isn’t spaghetti.

How to Understand Best the Seven Hills of Rome

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By Davis Carey


The Seven Hills of Rome are the foundation on which the ancient city is built upon. These include the Palatine, Esquiline Aventine, Viminal, Caelian, Capitoline and Quirinal. While they all play an important part, it is ideal to note that the original traditions of the city were founded by Romulus and this was on Palentine. History and tradition states that they were not a city in the beginning but rather as small settlements. It was later on when religious games were organized by occupants of these regions that they start to bond together.

Day Trips to Take From Prague Hotels

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By Emily EM Collins


If you've stayed in Prague before and on this visit you're looking to get out of the medieval city and visit some of its surrounding areas, then these scenic day-trips are likely to be just what you're looking for. None of the journeys should take longer than three hours, which means that you should be back at your Prague hotels by nightfall:
Karlovy Vary

The Best Italian Cities

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By Matthew Kepnes


Traveling to Italy - The Best Italian Cities
The best Italian cities are difficult to pinpoint because there are simply so many beautiful places to go to it wouldn't be fair to pick out a list and say these should be seen, while ignoring all the others. If you truly want to experience Italy, then it's best if you spend a couple of weeks there or even consider staying there a while to work or study.
The following is a description of some of the best cities that you can visit.

A short guide to paestum - II

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Author: Daniele

The so-called Temple of Poseidon. too, was dedicated to Hera, a goddess worshipped in the whole area. It was built around 450 B.C., being contemporary with the Parthenon of Athens. its style is like that of the Parthenon, namely the classical Doric style. The difference between the early Doric style and the classical Doric style is quite clear if you compare the columns of the Basilica with those of theTempleofNeptune. You will notice a larger swelling (entasis) at half height on the shafts of the columns of the Basilica.

Italian Travels Tips

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By Greg Hostern


Surprises
Whenever you travel to a new country your always going to find surprises. What would you do if you knew most of these surprises before you go. Learning about the do and don't s before you go will save you from a lot of embarrassment and a possibility of offending someone. One of the main things you should learn before you go is the dining and also the health and safety of the area you will traveling to. A lot of the things you will find here are things that most people have learned and gathered about traveling to Italy.