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Tags: Summer-Signature-Cocktails-Map / Drinking Travel / Italy Travel / Islands / Ischia / → All Tags
A Little Liquor In Your Espresso Is The Italian Way In Ischia
Last we left off with our Summer SIgnature Cocktails Map, we were divulging our secret Venice watering hole. Well, from the north of Italy to the sunny southern coasts, this time we travel in search of good drink on the island of Ischia, a far better alternative to visiting tourist-infested Capri.
Here is a huge tip for summer Italy travel: if you're in the cities and noticing that many business are completely closed and tourist sites have more restricted hours than normal, it's because most of the month of August and some of early September is the Ferragosto, a nearly month-long vacation which causes Italians to skip town for their islands and beaches. And if it's Ferragosto, then they're indulging in the usual morning coffee, but with a special little addition of a shot of the strong liquor Grappa.
Tags: Summer-Signature-Cocktails-Map / Drinking Travel / Italy Travel / Venice Travel / → All Tags
Where To Drink Jaunted's Favorite Spritz Cocktail In Venice
While the summer is at its peak and you're no doubt tired of chugging bottled water under the sun at tourist sites, we're going to hit some of the world's best watering holes and down their famous summer cocktails. Bottoms up!
As dusk hits the lagoon of La Serenissima, tourists retire to their hotels for naps or plain cooling down from hot days under the Adriatic sun, spent museum-hopping and souvenir shopping. This is the cocktail hour in Venice, when it feels as though the locals emerge after lying in wait for the tourists to tire. To celebrate the beginning of another evening of socializing and good food, the cocktail hour usually focuses around Venice's signature local drink: the Spritz.
Based on either Campari or Aperol—with Campari the typically male version and Aperol (order "Spritz al Aperol") for women—a Spritz is a happy little red-ochre potion which can be found year-round in Venetian bars. Nonetheless, summer turns us away from our usual Prosecco and towards the fresher comforts of a Spritz at the Ciak 1 bar in the San Polo district.
Tags: Obama-Around-The-World / Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / Rome Travel / Italy Travel / Michelle Obama / → All Tags
When In Rome, It's Gelato And G8 For The Obamas
When it was announced that President Obama would make a visit to Rome and The Vatican this week, we couldn't hardly wait to see goodies the Eternal City had in store for them, and Rome didn't disappoint. As the whole family moved on from their museum-hopping in Moscow earlier this week, some casual sightseeing and of course, a few scoops of famous gelato, were in order.
As Barack met with G8 leaders, Michelle quickly took in the Colosseum with her daughters and the Capitoline Museum, which houses ancient Roman art and archeology, with the other G8 wives. Then the adults promptly headed deeper into the Abruzzo region to the town of L'Aquila, which suffered that fatal earthquake back in April.
Tags: Venice Travel / Italy Travel / Women / Boats / → All Tags
After 900 Years, Venice's Canals Become Equal Opportunity Employer
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]
Tags: Travel Promotions / Shopping Travel / Italy Travel / → All Tags
Talk About 'Free Gift With Purchase': Buy A Ring, Get A Trip To Italy
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]
Tags: Venice Travel / Green Travel / italy Travel / Souvenirs / → All Tags
When In Venice, Don't Forget To Drink The Water
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.
Tags: Train Travel / Eurostar / Italo / Italy Travel / Travel News / → All Tags
Beware, Eurostar: The .Italo Train Will Floor It Through Italy
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.
Tags: Worlds-Coolest-Pools / Amalfi Coast / Italy Travel / → All Tags
To Infinity And Beyond On The Amalfi Coast
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.
Tags: Wedding Travel / Weddings / Italy Travel / → All Tags
Oh Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thy Marriage License?
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]
Tags: Airport Transportation / FCO / Rome / Italy Travel / Airports / → All Tags
On the Road Again: How to Reach Rome-Fiumicino
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
Tags: Rome Field Trip / Travel Tips / Vespas / Italy Travel / → All Tags
Rome Field Trip Audit: Less Water, More Vespas
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.
Tags: Design Travel / Milan / Italy Travel / Events / → All Tags
Milan's 'Salone del Mobile' Makes Way for Freak Furniture
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.
