You'd be hard-pressed to find a bad pizza in Naples. Even the most hole-in-the-wall joints will fire up a crispy Margherita pie with just the right amount of cheese and a dollop of perfectly-seasoned, secret-recipe sauce.
We had our first real Neapolitan pizza at La Piazzetta, a neighborhood restaurant in a "little piazza" near the train station. We spent just $5 on it, which sure beats the $15 we spent on gelato.
If the food hadn't been so good, we might've noticed the overflowing trash bins near our table sooner. They had the potential to make a real stinker of our evening, but thanks to some strategically placed latticework, we were pleasantly distracted. Of course, we're still trying to figure out why the pizzeria was watering its fake ivy.
Last July at Turin's Traffic Festival, Daft Punk and Arctic Monkeys put on performances that we would've paid good money to see. But we didn't have to because it's been free since its inception in 2004.
This year from July 7-11, the event line-up of punk, trip-hop and electro performances, cinema and contemporary art will not only be free, but also green. And to accommodate all the happenings, the fest is expanding from the main stage in Turin's Parco della Pellerina to include the Arena Civica in Milan and other smaller venues around Piedmont.
Check the event schedule before you go to avoid showing up at the wrong venue and looking like a music fest rookie in front of your friends. Besides, you'd be kicking yourself if you missed the Sex Pistols' first-ever Turin performance along with Brit punks The Wire. Others headliners not to miss include Patti Smith, Tricky, Afterhours and Justice.
The Fourth of July means nothing in Italy. But the Second of July means everything in Siena: It's the day when town rivalry is at its peak, team colors are their brightest and competitive spirit overwhelms the medieval Piazza del Campo for Il Palio.
The treacherous horse race and festival is rooted 800 years of Sienese history and for each of the ten competing districts, losing is not an option. For the Oca Contrada, one of the city's winningest neighborhoods, female jockeys aren't an option either--and never have been.
This year some brave Oca women are challenging history and making a legal case for equality. They've made enough ruckus so far to cause the president of the district's electoral commission to resign, but with only 29 of the 424 commission votes in their favor, they're facing an uphill battle.
Female jockeys or not, the race is still on for tomorrow. If you can't make it, the next Palio is on August 16.
America's guilty of a few heinous pizza crimes. Domino's, CiCi's and Pizza Hut should all be serving life sentences for terrorizing our waistlines with stuffed crusts and unlimited toppings, not to mention annoying commercials. But none of the US violations of pizza code go as far as Italy's "Pizza Americana."
It's not pizza and it's not American, but rather a caloric masterpiece of French fries, hot dogs, oil and cheese. While it makes us gag, Italian kids go bananas for the stuff, which isn't helping the rising child obesity rate Italy.
Don't get us wrong, we're all for fusion cuisine. But to create such a cringe-worthy pizza and then claim that it hails from America is not OK in our book. Why not just layer on some crumbled cellulite and sliced saddlebags to really give it that extra kick?
Any Italy travel guide will advise you not to linger in the dodgier section of Naples near the Napoli Centrale train station. But we decided to ignore that suggestion, and after last night's stroll through the littered area, we did find some redeeming qualities. Like Carmine's fireworks bazaar in Piazza Mercato, your one-stop-shop for pyrotechnics and... kiddie tricycles?
Twice a year, the world's best dressed descend on New York, London, Milan and other world couture centers to check out what they can buy--and what we will pick up in knockoff form at H&M. But some rogue organizations are changing the game by assembling "pre-season" shows that give fashionistas an early peek at the fall collections.
Right now, designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Tarina Tarantino and Yigal Azrouel have their wares on display at the Pitti W_Woman Precollection trade show in Florence.
Just like with spring training, pre-season allows die-hard fashion fans to get a jump on what their favorite designers are planning to unroll--and hey, if a trip to Italy is involved, that's just a bonus.
There is no better way to visit Capri than by boat. So when Jaunted was handed a boat rental brochure that read, "Capri Boat: You Drive It. Lowest Prices and No Stress," we thought it was too good to be true.
America's got peanut butter, Italy's got Nutella. It's Skippy's creamier, chocolatier, hazelnuttier second cousin and each spoonful gives good reason to celebrate. That's what Antonio Cafiero, owner of Sorrento's Primavera gelato and pastry shop, thought two years ago when he invited Italian actress Pamela Prati to bathe in a tub full of the chocolaty goo and call it Sorrento's first "Nutella Party."
