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Indispensable Italy Tips: Beware Bread Baskets And Bare Shoulders

Italy's ancient sites are beautiful but not always handicapped-accessible.

If you're heading to Italy soon, we're totally jealous. We can't get enough of its wonderful cities: Bologna, Venice, Rome, Florence—we just want to move there already. Before you go, here are some tips we've gleaned during our own Italy travels:

· Beware of petty crimes. According to the U.S. Department of State, crimes such as pick-pocketing, theft from parked cars and purse snatching are serious problems, especially in large cities. Be on guard at crowded places like Milan's Central Station and the Trevi Fountain. And thieves in Italy often work in groups or pairs to divert your attention.

· Italy isn't handicapped-accessible. Italy's beauty lies in its ancient buildings, but most aren't equipped with wheelchair ramps and elevators. Buses aren't generally wheelchair-accessible, either.

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Tags: Museum Travel / Art Travel / Rome Travel / → All Tags

A Museum Fit For A Pope And A Prince: Rome's Galleria Doria Pamphilj

When art aficionados plan their trip to Rome, they usually fill their itineraries with popular picks like the Musei Capitolini and the Galleria Borghese. And while those places are nothing to sneeze at, they overshadow one of the city's best private museums: the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.

At the Doria Pamphilj, you can cross out two sightseeing items on your to-do list, since you get a top-notch collection of art as well as a palace. The 18th-century palace and its collection are owned by the aristocratic Pamphilj family, who have held numerous important posts in the country, including Pope. One of Pope Innocent X's modern-day descendants, Prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj, narrates a great free audio tour of the gallery. He provides a unique intimate perspective, explaining how and why the family acquired some works and which ones are his favorite.

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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.

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Tags: Rome Travel / Colosseum / Historical Travel / Rome / → All Tags

Gladiator Get-Down: A Night at the Colosseum

Europe's oldest tourist trap is offering a brand new spin: visitors to the Colosseum can now visit the ancient amphitheatre at night. Rome officials are hoping the prospect of nighttime visits will reel in an extra load of tourists to the city this summer and maybe thin out those dreaded daytime crowds a bit as well.

Usually, The Colosseum closes one hour before sunset, but starting this week visitors will get a few extra hours of pondering gladiator games—and the chance to view the night sky from inside the monument. Sounds like a great idea to us, especially if the haunting arena looks half as cool inside at night as it does lit up from the exterior.

Also new on the Eternal City itinerary this summer are two ancient attractions: the recently restored Temple of Romulus and the 2nd-century B.C. House of the Griffins, both now open to the public for the first time.

Related Stories:
· Nighttime Colosseum tours now offered in Rome [AP]
· When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do: Avoid Tourists [Jaunted]
· Rome travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: lightmatter]

Tags: Twilight Travel / Robert Pattinson / Kristen Stewart / Rome Travel / New Moon / → All Tags

Twilight Cast To Fend Off the Volturi in Italy

While Robert Pattinson may have just landed in Cannes for the film festival, word is that the cast and crew of the new Twilight movie, New Moon, will leave their Vancouver set soon and head to Montepulciano, Italy to film the movie's crucial showdown with the Volterra vampire faction called, the Volturi.

In real life, Volterra does exist but the Montepulicano is being used instead as the stand-in. (Much like Vancouver is being used instead of Forks, Wash.) The vampire-free town (we think) is located in southern Tuscany, about an hour from Siena.

According to its website, the Twilight folk will roll into town the last week of May to start filming scenes. Considering Volterra/Montepulicano is where Edward Cullen bursts out into the sunlight to kill himself, we expect the movie will have no problem getting extras to film its "crowd scenes" in its Palazzo dei Priori which we are guessing will be filmed instead at the Palazzo Comunale. Also for Twilight geeks, Saint Marcus Day has already passed.

Related Stories:
· Twilight Travel [Jaunted]

Tags: Movie Set Travel / Rome Travel / Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code / Ron Howard / Dan Brown / → All Tags

Finding The Illuminati in Rome...and Los Angeles

Like its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code”, which created a tourism frenzy in Scotland and France, "Angels and Demons" already has tourists flocking to Rome, Italy. All this week, Ellen has been recapping her recent Rome Field Trip which is blessedly free of any "Angels and Demons" mentions. But we understand that there are some of you out there who need to retrace Robert Langdon's steps across the Eternal City.

But if you care less about where the movie is supposed to take place and more about where it was actually filmed, then you’re better off catching the next flight to Los Angeles then a flight to Rome. Most of the film was actually made on a sound stage in L.A., thanks to the Catholic Church’s hatred for all things Dan Brown.

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Tags: Movie Set Travel / City Tours / Angels and Demons / Dan Brown / Rome Travel / Vatican / → All Tags

Get Conspiratorial With Angels and Demons In Rome

The Eternal City has a love/hate relationship with Dan Brown productions, especially in their cinematic incarnations. On one hand the Vatican is pretty pissed about how Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, is filled with feverish conspiratorial idiocy. They actually went so far as to ban the filmmakers from using the Church's Rome locations, complicating the producers' endeavor to "set the film in Rome."

On the other hand: tourist dollars!

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