Travel alerts straight to your inbox:

Tag: Italy Travel View All Tags

After 900 Years, Venice's Canals Become Equal Opportunity Employer

June 26, 2009 at 12:07 PM | 3 Comments

It's a familiar site on the water street of Venice, the striped shirts and flat hats of the gondoliers swaying as they expertly steer their black boats underneath bridge after bridge, but now there'll be some long blonde hair joining the club.

After 900 years of the profession of Venetian gondolier belonging totally to men, La Serenissima has her first woman plying the waters: Giorgia Boscolo, a 23-year-old wife and mother of two, who also happens to be the daughter of a gondolier. She passed the gondolier test back in 2007, but had to endure an apprenticeship up until recently when she took the oar of her own boat.

In order to become a gondolier, no matter your sex, you must "learn how to steer the banana-shaped boats from the back and the front ... take English courses, study sailing law and demonstrate perfect knowledge of Venice's canals and landmarks." This isn't like scuba diving, which you can get certified in during a week-long vacation. What we now want to know is if she'll be operating some kind of reservations service, now that she's the freshest addition to Venice's canals in centuries.

Related Stories:
· Venice Hails First Woman Gondolier [Life In Italy]
· Tutti in godola, vi porta Giorgia [la Repubblica]
· Venice Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: La Repubblica]

Talk About 'Free Gift With Purchase': Buy A Ring, Get A Trip To Italy

June 24, 2009 at 9:02 AM | 0 Comments

When you do a little upscale shopping, it's not unusual to receive perks like discounts or free totes, but to get an entire Italian vacation with purchase? That's crazy—or rather, that's what's necessary in this economy to sell flashy jewelry.

This is exactly the plan of ritzy Italian jewelry company Damiani, who, having just released their "Gomitolo" collection of rings, are rewarding buyers with round-trip airfare and a week’s hotel in any Italian city. LA Magazine points out that despite the super glam look of the rings above, it's not such a bad deal since the pieces begin at $7,700. Such a trip to Italy, depending on your level of hotel and which airline booked, could easily cost the same or more.

You'd also think that if someone is buying one these rings, that they'd be used to 5-star accommodations, so Damiani better pony up the good stuff when it comes to this gift with purchase. There's one thing they've neglected to address however, and that's if there's a limit. Let's hope so, for the sake of people's bank accounts.

Related Stories:
· Free Gift With Purchase [LAMag]
· Shopping Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: FashionandRunway]

When In Venice, Don't Forget To Drink The Water

June 19, 2009 at 11:27 AM | 0 Comments

Nowhere is the saying "In Vino Veritas"—or "there is truth in wine"—more fitting than in Venice. If you aren't sweating buckets while lugging a giant camera around the dank city in the summer heat, then you're left to pondering the murky canals and their plague-ridden history. Best to order wine at dinner then, right?

Wrong. If there's one thing Italians love just as much as wine, it's their Acqua Minerale and Naturale, and since they are one of the top consumers of water in the world (at 40 gallons per person annually), it makes sense to give their own tap a hearty rebranding.

more ›

Beware, Eurostar: The .Italo Train Will Floor It Through Italy

June 15, 2009 at 12:37 PM | 0 Comments

We are positively blushing with excitement over the latest NYT train travel news out of Italy: in 2011, a "new privately owned high-speed train company, Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, will introduce a stylish, candy-apple-red fleet of 25 trains collectively known as .Italo."

It's estimated that speeds on the new train will reach 225 mph, effectively cutting the old 6-hour trip between Rome and Milan down to three hours—the Eurostar does it no faster than four hours now. This won't be the only .Italo route however, as it's scheduled to run the main corridors between Turin and Naples, crowded routes we know all too well.

more ›

To Infinity And Beyond On The Amalfi Coast

June 11, 2009 at 2:57 PM | 1 Comment

Last one in's a rotten egg! We're finding the best places in the world to stick our toes in this summer (or next winter) for our World's Coolest Pools map. Know of any pools we must check out? Let us know.

Before we started this series, we probably couldn't have picked an infinity pool out of a line-up of cool pools. Now we're a little obsessed, but can you blame us? That element of visual danger accompanying the edge is a world away from the backyard pools of our youth.

The Hotel Caruso Amalfi's infinity pool looks like it might just sweep you off a cliff into the Mediterranean. Of course it's not that close to the coast, but the views of the mountains along the Amalfi Coast could fool you.

more ›

Oh Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thy Marriage License?

June 4, 2009 at 8:47 AM | 0 Comments

The ultimate in romantic wedding travel might just have started up in Italy: the city of Verona will now let you get married on the balcony made famous by Romeo and Juliet.

Tourists have long been flocking to the Capello family mansion as it's believed that Shakespeare based the famous Capulets on these guys. But Verona's council have now made it possible for anyone to exchange vows and wedding rings up on the balcony.

Before you book your flights, you should know that romance don't come cheap. If you're an EU citizen the marriage license will cost you €700, and for those without an EU passport, be ready to shell out €900 ($1,280). You'd better be either rich or absolutely sure about your star-crossed lover.

Related Stories:
· Modern Romeos and Juliets Can Tie Knot in Verona [Reuters]
· Wedding Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: MaO]

On the Road Again: How to Reach Rome-Fiumicino

May 22, 2009 at 10:06 AM | 0 Comments

Your flight has landed, you've claimed your luggage and now you're trying to get the hell out of the airport. To erase confusion and get your on your way, all week long at Jaunted we will be detailing the various ways to get to and from major airports, and what those modes cost, from cheapest to the big blowout entrance. Got any tips or an airport suggestion? Let us know.

· COTRAL/Schiaffini Buses: As the cheapest option, taking a bus obviously involves the most hassle. Purchase tickets for the bus in the sundries shop down by baggage claim, and don't forget to validate it in the the little box machines inside of the bus. Head to Terminal A's ground transportation area to find the bus stop, and make sure you board the right bus. The one to Rome's main Termini station is "Aeroporto-Termini-Tiburtina," or there are also "Aeroporto-Roma Cornelia" to connect with subway line A and "Aeroporto-Roma Magliana" to connect with line B.
Total cost: €1.60 to €3.60 per person, each way depending on your route.
Total time:35 to 45 minutes

more ›

Rome Field Trip Audit: Less Water, More Vespas

May 15, 2009 at 3:45 PM | 0 Comments

Is there really no place like Rome? This week Ellen Wernecke chronicles her first visit to the Eternal City.

Into every trip a little rain must fall, and while I only found myself in one literal cloudburst, I came away with a few ideas for a return trip -- as well as notes on things I would have done just the same.

I would consider doing again: Flying Delta. Looking for a ticket I was shopping on price alone, but aside from the horrendous movie choices ("Inkheart"? "Bride Wars"? Really?) I found the flight, an Alitalia codeshare to boot, to be just fine. The meal was the same going both ways, but at least there was a meal. They also gave me a very funny leaflet on arrival about what to know in an H1N1-infected country which will be a treasured souvenir of these heady days.

more ›

Milan's 'Salone del Mobile' Makes Way for Freak Furniture

April 23, 2009 at 9:23 AM | 0 Comments

This week in Milan, lamps will looks like water droplets and couches will resemble dropcloths; that's right, it's the modern furniture show called Salone del Mobile, which attracts design gurus and international press through the 27th of April. An annual event which could be called the Fashion Week of the interior furnishings world, the Salone turns the city itself into something of a canvas, as artists as well as brands use major streets, like the swish Via Montenapoleone pictured above, to broadcast their presence.

more ›

Trippin' to Ostia Antica From Rome; It Sure Beats Pompeii

April 22, 2009 at 3:16 PM | 2 Comments

Are you sitting down? Yes? Okay good, because we are about to burst a travel bubble: Pompeii isn't all that great. If you're still planning on making an Italian pilgrimage this spring or summer and want to get the usual ration of ancient ruins, then please let us suggest taking a day trip to the less crowded but no less impressive Ostia Antica, the old port city for Rome.

Only some twenty miles outside of downtown Rome and accessible by extra-urban train lines (yay, no bus tours!), Ostia Antica is a playground of multi-story Roman ruins just waiting for you to run amok down its cobblestone streets and in its amphitheaters—after paying the €6.50 entrance fee, of course. Like Pompeii, the place is an active archaeological site packed with mosaics and frescos. Unlike Pompeii, Ostia wasn't destroyed by a flippin' volcano, meaning that most of the city is as intact as possible for a place that's been booming since the 3rd century BC.

more ›

Italians Get All Efficient With Train Travel

December 15, 2008 at 9:35 AM | 0 Comments

Want your pasta faster? You're in luck because the Italians are all in favor of high-speed train links at the moment and on the weekend they launched a new fast train between Milan and Bologna. Instead of spending more than a couple of hours ambling from fashion shopping in Milan to a stereotypical Bolognese dinner, the new Trenitalia train speeds you there in 65 minutes, averaging 200 miles an hour.

The route is getting extended in 2009 to carry on to Rome, and Trenitalia is hoping to grab back a share of the budget airline market. The theory is sound and we're figuring the extra leg room these trains give you could definitely sway our choice--just as long as they run on time and don't charge us too much. We're not fussy, are we?

Related Stories:
· Italy Launches Milan-Bologna High-Speed Train Link [Reuters]
· Italy Travel Guide [Jaunted]
· Train Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: pizzodisevo]

This Big Ben Doesn't Tell The Time But We Don't Care

December 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 2 Comments

Drop everything and get to the central Italian village of Macerata Feltria. Now.

Still here? If you haven't learned to trust us yet, you will soon. We're urging you to head to Italy because they've just made a 17,600-pound chocolate sculpture of Big Ben as part of their local Christmas food festival.

So what, you might say, but we're not suggesting you need to get there in time to see choc-Big-Ben: at the end of the week, the townsfolk are going to slice up the giant sculpture and give out the chocolate to whoever's hanging around. Daytime temperatures in this part of Italy are close to freezing at the moment so the chocolate should still be in great condition for your own sticky fingers. What are you still reading for?

Related Stories:
· 35ft Chocolate Big Ben Towers Over Italian Food Festival [Daily Mail]
· Londoners Are Pigs (When Chocolate's Around) [Jaunted]
· Little People, Big Ben [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ananova]