Northern Italy
Travel Guide for Valle d’Aosta
This travel guide for Valle d’Aosta is to introduce you to a region we believe should be on your travel wish list. My native Italian husband spent several years working in Aosta and knows this little jewel of a region in northern Italy well. Valle d’Aosta, Italy’s smallest region, is known for its snow-capped mountains,…
Read MorePiedmont Travel Guide
This is a Piedmont travel guide (Piemonte), to inspire you to visit this gem of a region with us. The region of Piemonte (Piedmont) lies in northwestern Italy, bordered by Switzerland in the north, France in the west. Its capital and largest city is Turin (Torino). Piemonte does not attract the tourist crowds that other…
Read MoreCarnival in Venice 2024
“Carnevale” is one of the most colorful celebrations in the world! Carnival in Venice is a one-of-a-kind celebration. Several important events are, the two-day Festa Veneziana with its typical masked regattas, the Best Masked Costume Contest and the Festa delle Marie. Each year, Carnival includes celebrations whose history dates back to the times of the…
Read MoreTravel Guide for Friuli Venezia Giulia: Italy’s Secret Treasure
Writers Hemingway, Rilke and Joyce all found inspiration in the tiny, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Italy’s Secret Treasure, tucked away in the far northeast of Italy. In fact, the food and wines are so special The New York Times named the province “Italy’s secret garden”. This is a travel guide for Friuli Venezia Giulia and hope that…
Read MoreHiking in the Dolomites
The Dolomites make up just a small portion of the Alps. Encompassing an area of 141,903 hectares and 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters (10.000 feet), the Dolomites stretch across 3 Italian regions for over 750 miles -Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol (South Tyrol), and Friuli Venezia Giulia. bordering Austria. The Dolomites were…
Read MoreVenice Is Not as Touristy as You Think
Who can miss this Italian jewel? Each year, millions of tourists visit Venice, eager to see for themselves its world-famous beauty. Many are lured by the Grand Canal and the grandeur of St. Mark’s Square. This many tourists can make finding the real Venice a big chore. The good news? Many of the groups’ itineraries…
Read MoreA hundred years ago in Italy: looking forward, with deep roots in the past
As here in Canada and the United States we’re approaching, in just a few days, the 103rd anniversary of the end of the Great War, Italy has just finished celebrating its own. Signed at “Villa Giusti”, in the vicinity of Padua, on November 3rd 1918, the Armistice with Austria-Hungary was to take effect the following…
Read MoreWhy Visit Emilia-Romagna?
Emilia-Romagna is often mistaken as one region, when in fact it is actually an uneasy union of two provinces joined together in 1945. These two provinces could not be more different. Emilia is sometimes referred to as the bread basket of Italy, the home of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello, and the balsamic vinegar of…
Read MoreWhy you should visit Friuli-Venezia Giulia
My husband Manlio and I recently were invited to do a podcast with Chris for an Amateur Traveler episode #723 sharing our reasons why you should visit Friuli-Venezia Giulia. This is our home, where our family lives, the region my husband was born and raised in. Enjoy! Travel to Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy – Amateur…
Read MoreAn Understated Jewel: Udine and its Piazza Della Libertà
Kathy McCabe, for so many years, had wanted to publish a crowd-sourced issue of “Dream of Italy” where she asked her readers to share their favorite people, places and experiences in Italy. Of course this was a great opportunity for us to enter, and with so many wonderful places we could talk about, we chose…
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