Close

A mayor really isn’t supposed to say something like this. “We don’t want tourists.” I waited for the punch line. None came. “We don’t want to be occupied by tourists,” he continued. Tourism, he explained, will deplete a city of its soul — and this city has a prehistoric soul. I was in Matera, an ancient city of about 60,000 people, perched on top o...

779

Railbookers, a Yankee Leisure Group (YLG) brand, is excited to announce a new strategic alliance with Trenitalia, Italy’s national rail system connecting all of Italy and offering international connections to Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria. ‘Trenitalia Vacations by Railbookers’ combines Trenitalia’s far-reaching, high-velocity network tra...

484

This suburban park was designated a protected area in 1988 after two years of campaigning from a local citizen movement. It is named after the impressive aqueducts that still stand there today, providing one of the most famous landscapes in Rome. In antiquity, these aqueducts carried drinking water from the mountains in the east Lazio (such as the...

835

The Rhaetian Railway (the Ferrovia Retica in Italian) is an outstanding example of modern engineeringtriumphing over the isolated landscape of the Alps. The two railway lines, which cross the Swiss Alps through two passes and cover the Albula and Bernina areas, solved the problem of isolation experienced by many communities in the Central Alps. Ope...

681

Once again we’re travelling among the most exclusive places of Pesaro and Urbino province, in Le Marche region. Mondavio is a small town with less than 4000 inhabitants but it really has a lot to offer its visitors. Just think that it’s been included among the most beautiful villages of Italy and awarded the Orange Flag, a certificate for quality e...

784

Carefully tucked away in an envelope with my mother’s belongings is a photo of her as a young woman. She is leaning against a terrace. Behind her, the sun is setting over the azure waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, its fiery glow illuminating Santa Maria dell’Isola, a fairytale-like church perched on a rocky promontory. Growing up, I would sit and star...

648

As big as a Robin’s egg, mildly tart with a hint of sweetness, and just-perfect chewy only begins to describe an Ascolana olive. Biting into one is a much finer manner of introduction to this enticing little fruit…and I was lucky enough to experience this (over and over again) when recently in Ascoli Piceno.    Olives on the Italian peninsula are n...

679

Tourism in Italy is booming, as the latest figures show another record year for the country with more than 420 million visitors in 2017. The 4.4 percent increase in tourist numbers since the last record was set in 2016 is well above the European average, according to new figures from Istat. Most of Italy's tourists (14.1 percent) come from Germany,...

753

The Umberto I Gallery in Naples was built between 1887 and 1890, and now represents one of the most famous outcomes of the so-called Risanamento – the great urban planning operation that radically changed the city at the end of the 19th century, with new squares, streets and buildings replacing pre-existing ones. The new plan was officially motivat...

766

The lakes of Northern Italy, nestled near the foothills of the Alps, are magical, especially, I think, on one’s first visit. It was mine — a birthday celebration that I chose to spend with a dozen strangers from the United States, Canada and Brazil. What brought us together was the promise of a walking tour filled with adventure, surrounded by beau...

737