Venice Carnival 2009

The famous Venice Carnival celebrating the end of winter each year will take place next year Between February 13 and 24 2009. The theme of the upcoming festival will be "The Six Senses". New for next year is the planned transformation of St. Mark's Square into an open-air drawing room decorated with scenes that will recall Renaissance-style gardens. As an addition to the existing regular events and balls, visitors will be able to enjoy avant-garde street theatre shows. Tickets should be booked well in advance since both hotel and ball performances are mostly sold out. Click here for Venetian festival packages.

Naples Boats and Ferries

Speed Boat transportation started again for the season between between the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno. The service is known as Metro del Mare. Rapid sea connections will be provided between 24 ports of the Campania coast,reaching a total of nine lines in 2008. The MM2 and MM3 lines will be running between Naples to Salerno, stopping at some of the ports of the Sorrento and Amalfi coast. The monohull and catamaran hydrofoils will be equipped this year with onboard bar services, and announcements will be made to passengers in Italian and English to indicate the next docking port. Brief tourism information will also be provided. An information call centre, info-points at the stops and on mobile phones, will further enhance the offer. Some of the Sea Metro Lines are complemented by road transportation services that make it possible, with one ticket, to take mini-excursions to the archaeological sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum, as well as to Mount Vesuvius. During the summertime shows at Villa Favorita in Herculaneum night time service will also be offered. Good news for tourists of limited budgets.

Siena Tuscany Farms in Trouble?

The popular holiday farms sector in the beautiful Province of Siena is experiencing a negative trend of decreased overnight stays. According to the estimates the decrease in overnights from 2007 to 2008 varies between 15 and 30%. Full occupancy is not expected during the upcoming long weekends of the summer and fall season. Up to now bookings have been around 60% of capacity. The trend among both foreign and Italian tourists is to stay for 2 or less nights as opposed to previous years when visitors usually stayed for at least a week. The clientele is changing due to the increased services of many European discounted airlines catering to travelers with preference for short European vacations. According to latest farm house holiday statistics, 20% of visitors are driving vacationers from the USA, 20% from Scandinavian countries, 20% from Belgium, and 10% from Germany, Holland and Great Britain. The remaining 30 percent represents domestic visitors. "Those farm houses that continue to prosper are the ones with loyal customers, thanks to their greater services and higher quality" commented Enrica Bartolini, Chairwoman of Agriturist Siena. Does this mean we can expect price reductions for 2009?

Andrea Palladio Anniversary

The Province of Vicenza is celebrating Andrea Palladio's 500th year anniversary with guided visits to the major works of the great renaissance architect. It is an initiative that is being brought back for the 500th anniversary of the birth of the architect from Vicenza. Tours are organized every weekend between April 26th and November 2nd to teach visitors about the most influential person in Western architecture and to introduce more than 400 villas conceived and inspired by the artist in both Vicenza and the surrounding towns. It will also be possible to visit the underground areas of Palazzo Thiene in the historic town of Vicenza

Safe and Clean Beaches of Italy

Although Italian beaches are small and overcrowded in July and August when all Italians are vacation, they are safe and well kept. The Foundation for Environmental Education has already inspected Italy's beaches before the upcoming summer 2008 season. A total of 104 coastal destinations and 56 Italian tourism landings have been awarded a blue flag by the organization this year indicating maximum cleanliness. The greatest number of flags for 2008 were awarded to Tuscany on the west coast and the Le Marche region south of Ravenna and Milano Maritima, with 15 blue flags, followed by Liguria 14, Abruzzo 13 and Campania 11. At the bottom of the list are Friuli Venezia Giulia, Molise and Sardinia with two flags each. The best advice though is to visit the beaches in September when the crowds disappear but the weather is still hot and the seawater pleasantly warm

Ravenna Italy Music Festival 2008

The main theme of the famous Ravenna Music Festival in 2008 is women figures in myth and art. The festival opens with La Traviata, the story one of the most beloved woman figures in opera history. Verdi's opera will be staged by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, light designer Vincent Longuemare and conducor Patrick Fournillier. The feminine accent of the Festival theme will be complemented by a series of five "portraits", especially commissioned to five among the most interesting Italian artists, Romagna, Ermanna Montanari, Elena Bucci, Daniela Piccari, Luisa Cottifogli. The "visions" of Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, a dreamlike encounter between Norma and Medea, gives new life to a series of exceptional women, from Rosvita, a 'playwriting' nun of year 1000, to Anita Garibaldi, the Heroine of the Two Worlds. All this within the extraordinary setting of the 15th century Venetian fort of Rocca Brancaleone as a new venue. And more will follow, either borrowed from ancient myth or present-day stages: Salomé to Juliette Greco.
The symphonic selection of the festival offerings is especially rich, with a repertoire ranging from Beethoven to contemporary composer Giovanni Sollima in the interpretation of world-renowned orchestras, the Bolshoi, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino or the Orchestre Nationale de France. Conductors like Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur and Riccardo Muti enhence the musical experience. Also worth-mentioning are the solo role Chiara Muti will play in Sollima's new composition, inspired by the the Byzantine world, and the great French actor Gérard Depardieu, in the role of Berlioz's Lélio. The residing festival orchestra, the "Luigi Cherubini" Youth Orchestra, founded by Riccardo Muti will play the leading role in a concert entirely dedicated to Cole Porter and the jazz age. The Ravenna Music Festival tour packages are available to book.

Italy Bologna-New York Direct Flights

Eurofly Meridiana, the Milan-based discounted airline will restart its operations on May 11th, for the third consecutive year, on its Bologna-New York routing three times per week. The airline will depart from Bologna, the city of medieval skyscrapers and the capital of Emilia Romagna on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from May to November. For passengers coming from the United States, the company plans to extend the flight to Pescara, Bari and Lamezia Terme, dedicated to Ethnic and leisure traffic to the seaside resorts of the Adriatic. To underline the connection between the Region and the USA, the airline is organising two educational tours for US journalists over the next few weeks.
Meridiana offers additional good connections to different cities in Europe as well as Sharm el seikh at the Red Sea in Egypt

Italy Travel Tourism

Winter tourism showed a positive trend in Italy's most famous ski region, in the Province of Bolzano, Alto Adige at the South Tirol region of Italia. The results indicate a growing tendency in terms of visitor overnight, with a 7.1% increase in arrivals and a 7% increase in overnight spending. "We are satisfied with this increase in arrivals and overnights" explained Councillor Thomas Widmann., but if we want to continue this positive trend in the next winter season as well, we must realise that tourists who come to Alto Adige during this period of the year are not just interested in skiing. Beyond the trails the region must be able to guarantee an increasingly rich offer: including cultural activities, excursions, guided visits and shopping ". Bolzano nestled in a valley sourrounded by rolling hills is delightful all year around and is the gateway to the famous Dolomites. The region is frequented year around by mountian climbers, hikers, lovers of flowering Alpine medows and quaint villages.

Gardaland at Lake Garda Italy

Gardaland, Italy's number one most popular amusement park on the eastern shore of Lake Garda is opening its 23rd year. This year the third most popular theme part in Europe is welcoming visitors with new attractions. "Mammut", which has just opened, is a ride that spreads out over 5,000 square metres, over a route of approximately 4 minutes, with 16 sudden changes in direction and drops up to 48%: it is the largest family roller coaster in Italy. For 2008 the show Hollywood Dreams will also been shown at the Gardaland Theatre. The growth of Gardaland has been exponential: with 3 million visitors per year it is becoming an increasingly popular tourism destination point. Lake Garda is the warmest of the beautiful Italian lakes and it is the most popular among excursioners ond weekend holiday seekers

Mass Tourism Reaching Sicily

Historic Sicily's charm is gone. The British Mass tourism giant , Thomas Cook recently purchased the hotel chain Hotels4U with the purpose of turning historic Sicily into a mass tourism site with air and land packages sold to British citizens. The largest British tour conglomerate announced an increase in its presence on the island after having made agreements with 15 Sicilian accommodation structures. According to the ICE office in Palermo, the priority objective is expanding the network of hotels on the largest island in the Mediterranean.

With an aching heart we say goodbye to ambiance, quaintness, and cultural tourism in one of the last unspoiled corners of Italy!