OLD VENICE, VENETIAN STROLLING
Ask your Local Host about a walking route including Old Venice. Take in the oldest parts of the island around the Rialto Bridge. Try Venetian strolling—joining the locals where they take their evening promenade.

ST. MARK’S BASILICA
Travel to the top of St. Mark’s Bell Tower for an unrivalled view of Venice.

SQUERO DI SAN TROVASO
Enjoy a characteristic boatyard (squero) dating from the 17th century on the rio (little canal) of San Trovaso. In a particularly picturesque position, it is one of the last traditional squeri still constructing gondolas.

LIDO AND IL MONDO IN MINIATURA, SAINT ELENA ISLAND
For special family time, relax at the Lido beach. See Giovanni Moro’s hand-painted replicas of Venice’s historic buildings and churches in miniature, or stroll in the gardens and playgrounds of Saint Elena Island.

CICCHETTI, BACCARI, SPRITZ
Sample cicchetti and baccari appetizers and the local aperitif, Spritz. Or enjoy a small glass of fiery grappa at the end of your meal.

MUSEUMS: ACCADEMIA GALLERY, PEGGY GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, CA’REZZONICO VENETIAN MUSEUM, JEWISH MUSEUM
The Accademia Gallery contains works by Tintoretto, Bellini, and Carpaccio. In Peggy Guggenheim’s former home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, see one of the most important collections of American and European Modern Art. Ca’Rezzonico, a beautiful Venetian palace and residence, is home to a collection of 18th-century Venetian furnishings and paintings. Visit the Jewish Ghetto dating back to the early 16th century. Its museum exhibits traditions of goldsmith’s and textile arts.

MURANO ISLAND AND TRADITIONAL GIFTS
Visit the center of the Venetian glass blowing industry for more than 1,000 years. Murano Island is also known for its Glass Museum and the Byzantine church of Santi Maria e Donato—with a beautiful mosaic floor dating back to the 12th century. Venetian shopping specialties include Murano glass crafts and glass pearls, lace, masks, and unique Christmas gift calendars.

LA FENICE THEATER
Visit the reconstructed La Fenice Theater. Famed for its acoustics, it stunned the world when it was destroyed by fire. Millions of dollars were raised and stars, such as Luciano Pavarotti and Woody Allen, offered their support, so it could be reconstructed.

VERONA, PADUA AND THE DOLOMITES
If you have already visited Venice and want to take advantage of its excellent location to visit mainland areas, Verona, Padua, and the Dolomite mountains are nearby.

VENETIAN MUSIC
Ask your Local Host about one of the many Vivaldi concerts in town.

It is no accident that one of history’s greatest explorers, Marco Polo, came from Venice. His hometown had been Europe‘s gateway to the East long before he set sail in 1271; the influence of the Orient could be seen in its art, its fashion, and its architecture, creating, in the words of one historian, “the most colorful, sumptuous, and sensually bewitching civilization that history has ever known.” Thanks to Venetian conquests in the eastern Mediterranean, 17-year-old Marco had the first leg of his travel route mapped out for him—he was able to island-hop through friendly territory as far as Constantinople; from there, he was seduced by China for more than 20 years.

When Polo returned to Venice in 1295 as a bearded middle-aged man, even his relatives did not believe he had been in China the entire time. After all, he and his companions (his father and uncle) were wearing poor-looking clothes, and they had no apparent treasure in tow. The three adventurers invited family friends to a homecoming banquet in their modest Venetian palazzo. After the guests were seated, Polo sliced open the hem of his outfit and hundreds of colorful gems poured onto the table—rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds that the trio had smuggled back to Europe from the court of the Great Khan. The guests were agog at the marvelous wealth and took Polo’s stories more seriously.

Polo’s Venetian upbringing is also obvious in the famous book The Travels, which he dictated after his return. According to legend, Polo was imprisoned by the Genoese after a naval battle, but luckily was able to collaborate with a fellow inmate who was a writer. It contains very few personal, first-hand accounts of his adventures in China; instead, it is a rather dry description of the many cities and provinces he had seen, full of lists of the goods they produce. This is because it was written for the money-loving merchants of Venice as a sort of patriotic service to the Republic: his audience wanted blunt commercial information, not local color. Tradition holds that an early copy of the book was kept on a chain in the Piazza San Marco, where local businessmen could refer to it as a sort of mercantile guide book.

On his deathbed, Polo was asked to correct his work, removing some of the stories about the East that seemed to be invented: the bejeweled splendor of the Great Khan and his palace; the terrors of the Tartar horsemen; the rigors of crossing the Gobi Desert. He replied that he had not recounted half of what he had really seen.

Even the most traveled travelers will be amazed by Italy’s alluring Northern city of Venice. Imagine walking down a winding cobblestone street past palaces, famous piazzas, and hundreds of bridges. You may prefer to sit back and explore Venice by boat through its network of canals. Or if you enjoy a view from above, admire the view from the Rialto Bridge as lovers and friends pass by below in colorful gondolas! Grab your passport and join us for an adventure to Venice!

We’ll take you along to all of Venice’s must see places. Marvel at the Doges’ palace, the ultimate symbol of Venetian power and wealth or be simply awestruck by the gold mosaics found covering the walls at St. Marks Basilica. Walk across the Bridge of Sighs and imagine the last view that Venetian prisoners saw before entering the palace prison.

Perhaps you’re a history buff or just love a good story, you won’t be disappointed by the tales that unfold along Venice’s winding canals. Some of history’s most well known figures come to life as we discover the stories of Marco Polo and Casanova’s Escape!

Once you’ve seen the sights and immersed yourself in Venetian history, take some time and wander along the city’s streets to take in Venice’s unique culture. Pick out a beautiful piece of Venetian glass or sit with the locals in a piazza to sip on a caffè. No matter what you decide to do in Venice, you will not forget your vacation to this one-of-a-kind city!

Throughout 2009 we provided you with countless must-see spots across the world.  When planning your Italy vacation we hope that these Rome must-see sights will make your Rome vacation more memorable.

Full-Day Excursion to Pompeii

A scenic drive along the Highway of the Sun takes you past the famous Abbey of Montecassino and Naples for a guided visit of Pompeii, both destroyed and preserved by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Roman Highlights

A guided walking tour takes you to some of the most famous monuments. Admire the Spanish Steps, Via Condotti, Piazza Navona, Parliament, and Pantheon.

Gelateria de Palme

All roads don’t lead to this tiny gelateria down a hidden alley. But after a taste of its addictive chocolate-chipped straciatella ice cream, a nightly pilgrimage to this off-the-beaten-track gem may be in order.

Monte Testaccio

When terracotta oil and wine shipping containers were no longer needed, the ancient Romans piled them up here. Now this grassy knoll built on the broken pottery is a hip enclave of artists, wine cellars and chic restaurants. Come experience how one man’s trash can truly be another’s treasure.

Bulgari

Andy Warhol called this posh boutique the “most important museum of modern art in Europe.” Since 1884, when Sotirio Bulgari arrived in Rome from Epirus, Greece, his store’s Renaissance-inspired jewelry has marked the pinnacle of Italian design.

Villa Ada

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Everybody and their dog (literally) frequent this sprawling 450-acre city park. Lush vegetation and rolling fields make this park a popular summer spot for outdoor concerts.

A memorable Italy vacation post from 2009!

If you were visiting Rome 2,000 years ago, you would have been awakened at dawn by the melodious bass of a copper gong resounding through the streets, announcing the opening of the thermae, or heated public baths.

To ancient Romans, their routine visits to the more than 1,000 bath houses in the Italian city were one of life’s ultimate pleasures. As one nobleman recorded on his tomb, “Wine, sex and the baths may destroy our bodies, but they make life worth living.” These thermae were far more than simple washhouses.

They were the Western world’s first full-service spas, combining the facilities of gymnasiums, massage parlors, restaurants and community centers. In their beloved halls, citizens of all classes would loll by the pools with their friends, play ball games, drink wine, flirt and even enjoy elegant candle-lit dinners. Like modern gyms today, Rome’s baths were unofficially graded: Some were chic, others déclassé. Some were expensive, others cost only a copper. Some, like the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Diocletian that can still be viewed in Rome today, were palatial structures, as large as cathedrals, decorated with multi-colored mosaics of Neptune and his dolphins.

Read the rest of this entry »

As one decade closes and a new one begins, we would like to take the time to say thank you for traveling with us through our vacation themed posts.  We are grateful to be able to share our stories and experiences with fellow travel enthusiasts.

Over the next month, join us as we take a look back at 2009’s most memorable posts, including some reader favorites.  We will travel to Germany, vacation in France, honeymoon in Hawaii and hit the must-see sights of Rome.

Pack your bags & let’s start traveling because 2010 is the time to make vacationing a priority again!

It was the most perfect experiment in the history of science.  Holding both a cannon ball and a small musket ball, the 30-something Pisa native Galileo Galilei scaled the steps of his city’s famous Leaning Tower, and held them dramatically over the edge.  Eight stories below, the town’s most learned scholars and priests were gathered as observers.  They watched as the two balls dropped to the ground at the same speed – disproving, with a single stroke, the ancient idea that objects fall at different rates depending on their weight and size.

This archaic concept, which had been espoused by the ancient Greek author Aristotle, had been accepted without question for more than 2,000 years, Galileo’s great innovation was to put it to a practical test of observation.

Unfortunately, this famous story is probably not true. Galileo never wrote about it himself – it was recounted in a late biography penned by his secretary, Vincenzo Viviani.  Most historians now believe that it was Galileo’s imaginative disciples who invented the Leaning Tower tale in order to make the theory so clear that even a child could understand it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Enjoy art treasure at every turn in the Renaissance city of Florence, Italy.  Wander the city at leisure taking in sights of famous architecture,  smelling the aromas of delectable cuisine, making the most of this culturally rich city.

As the Nazis retreated from Florence during the Second World War, they blew up all of the bridges across the River Arno except one – the Ponte Vecchio.  It was evidently saved on Hitler’s personal orders.  This was where he had met the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938, cementing the “pact of steel” alliance.  The Führer had been so impressed by the elegant “Old Bridge,” which had graced the spot since being built in stone in 1345,  that he decided to save it.  The German army instead blew up all of the ancient buildings on either side, so that the bridge could not be used by the Allies, but the Ponte Vecchio itself was salvaged for posterity.

Today, thousands flock to this glorious arched edifice to buy gold and silver from local vendors, much as they have since 1593, when the Grand Duke Ferdinando Medici ordered that metalworkers and jewelers replace the butchers and tanners who worked there.  He wanted a more pleasant walkway and was offended by the stench of rotting meat and pungent odor of hides that were cured in horse urine and washed in the river.  A bust of Benevento Cellini, the most accomplished of all Renaissance goldsmiths, stands as a reminder of this great tradition. In its heyday, like all bridges of the period, the Ponte Vecchio was bustling with merchants and crowded with domestic residences, taverns and shops.

Today, if you visit the bridge in the early morning or at night, when the vendors’ stone-walled stalls are closed, you can see city’s ancient symbol, a stylized lily (not unlike the fleur de lis) used as a decorative pattern on the metal hinges of all the wooden shutters. But at any time of day, make sure you look up and spot the barred round windows in the top level of the bridge.  Unbeknownst to most visitors, a secret passage runs above the Ponte Vecchio – it was added by the Medici family in 1565 so that they could get from the Uffizi to the Palazzo Pitti without having to weave through the crowds and risk assassination.  It is known as the Vasari Corridor after its designer Giorgio Vasari, and its circular windows are called “the eyes of Florence.”  Through them, the Medicis could spy on their subjects and even eavesdrop on conversations.  It was actually in this passageway that Adolf met Benito back in 1938, in order to hatch their plans in privacy.

The world’s most famous statue after Lady Liberty, Michelangelo’s David has suffered some hard knocks since it was completed in 1504.  The artist worked over thirty months for a mere 400 florins (roughly $50,000 today), and when the official committee couldn’t agree where to erect it, Michelangelo suggested it be placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Signoria Square, with full public access.  It was an admirably democratic gesture, but Michelangelo hadn’t taken into account the violence of Florentine politics, let alone the effects of wild Italian weather.

As Il Gigante, The Giant, was being moved into position in 1504 – it took three weeks to shift the monolith, using a purpose-built scaffold on wheels – angry demonstrators pelted it with stones.  The affront was not an act of art criticism; the triumphant David was seen to symbolize the recent victory of the Florentine Republic over the deposed Medici family, so pro-Medici factions decide to make a rowdy statement.

Then, in 1512, lightning struck the base.  In 1527, during another of Florence’s many riots, a wooden bench tossed from a window of the Palace hit the statue and broke off David’s lower left arm.  A couple of young art students gathered up the pieces for safe keeping, which were eventually replaced. David stood exposed but unmolested for the next three centuries, until in 1873 it was apparent that the elements were taking their toll on the statue’s surface.

The city finally decided to move David to a purpose-built gallery within the Accademia delle Belle Arti, the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts, where it now stands, suffused by warm light.  A recent cleaning has even restored its 16th century marble sheen.  (A splendid marble replica today stands on the original spot in the Piazza della Signoria, causing bottlenecks of snapshot-taking tourists moving between the square and the Uffizi). But even the move to the Accademia did not protect David against the lunatic fringe: In 1991, a crazed Italian artist, protesting Florence’s excessive reverence for the past, smuggled a hammer into the building and attacked the statue, managing to shatter a big toe before he was apprehended.