Hiking the Dolomites - A 7-Day Hike in Italy's Dolomite Mountains If hiking is your thing and you love Italian food, there’s nowhere better to combine your two interests than the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy. Whether you’re a middling hiker or a pro, the network of trails there offer something for everyone and makes hiking the Dolomites an adventure for hikers of every skill and ... Read Full Article
UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings in Trentino, Italy
UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings Around the Alps: Trentino, Italy Prehistoric Pile Dwellings Around the Alps UNESCO Site UNESCO initiated the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings in 2011 as a serial site consisting of 111 individual sites of prehistoric Pile Dwellings in 6 countries in the alpine regions of Central Europe. More than half (56) of the sites are located in Switzerland, 19 in Italy, 18 in ... Read Full Article
Visit Trentino – Italy’s Most Diverse Region
Visit Trentino - Northern Italy's Most Diverse Region Trentino is probably one of Italy's most diverse regions. About halfway between Milan and Venice, Trentino reaches from the northern tip of Lake Garda into the Dolomite mountain range. If you are planning a trip to Italy, I highly recommend you to visit Trentino, especially if you like outdoor activities, history, spas and good food. What ... Read Full Article
Tuscany Foods: Where “Cooked Water” is a Culinary Wonder
Where “cooked water” is a culinary wonder - Tuscany Foods The Maremma, Italy’s version of the Wild West, includes southern Tuscany and part of Lazio. Its famed cowboys, the butteri, herd cattle here, and the land not used for stock animals is dedicated to farmlands and vineyards. Farmers and cowboys alike have big appetites and the cooking that has developed to satisfy them is likewise hearty and ... Read Full Article
Enchantments in the “Etruscan triangle” of Southern Tuscany
Southern Tuscany - Enchantments in the “Etruscan Triangle” A triangle of villages in southern Tuscany contain treasures undiscovered by American travelers. Sorano, Sovana, and Pitigliano nestle 50 miles southeast of Grosseto, close to the border with Lazio, and offer much to visitors above and beyond what you expect in southern Tuscany, i.e., good food, great wine, medieval village ... Read Full Article
Tuscany Regions: Exploring Etruscany
Tuscany Regions: Exploring Etruscany For most foreigners, a tour of Tuscany means Florence, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, and maybe Lucca. While these well-known cities and towns exemplify the Tuscany region’s medieval treasures, its history encompasses far more than the Medici, Michelangelo, and all that. The enigmatic Etruscans were a major civilization of ancient Italy, and a ... Read Full Article
On the James Joyce Trail in Trieste
The city of Trieste is in border country. Follow the coast all the way around, as James Joyce did in the early years of the twentieth century, and pretty soon you’ll be in Slovenia, with Croatia just a few miles further south. You are as likely to hear people say 'dober dan' as 'buongiorno', and the phone book is full of names like Gravnik and Decic. Trieste has always inhabited an ... Read Full Article
Alba Italy: Home To The Slow Food Movement and Truffles
Alba Italy: Slow Food Movement and Truffles Alba Italy - The Gem of the Piedmont Region A culinary epicenter on a global level, Alba Italy is home to the Slow Food Movement, noble wines made with the Nebbiolo grape, and white truffles. A small town, even with a population of 29,000, Alba is located in the rolling countryside of the Piedmont region in the north of Italy. The hillsides that ... Read Full Article
Villas and Gardens of Italy’s Borromean Islands
The amazing sculptures and gardens on Isola Bella and Isola Madre, in Northern Italy's Lake Maggiore, show what aristocratic taste and plenty of money could do in the 17th century. The islands are two of the three main Borromeans set in the largest of the Italian lakes. The Borromeo family still owns some of the islands. Isola Bella, named after Countess Isabella, was once a ... Read Full Article
Take a Northern Italy Vacation
Northern Italy encompasses the regions of Liguria, Valle d' Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Fruili. This vast area includes the Italian Alps and Dolomites, the glorious Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, the Italian Riviera and mysterious and magical Venice. Aside from Venice , Liguria and the lakes area, this part of Italy is still undiscovered by tourists. Until the 2006 ... Read Full Article