Italy Inside - Italy Travel News from Italy Cruises to Rome Holidays and Amalfi Coast Holidays

The Top Rated Italy Tour Package

2011-11-10T06:39:00.002-05:00

Italy tours are popular among destination travelers for fantastic reasons. Italy's rich history has made it a country full of the world's best art, lovely design, heavenly culinary practices, and fun folk all of which make it a destination that offers something appealing to everyone who goes on a tour of Italy.

Today Italy is divided into 20 regions each with a long and unique history that led to each region's development of local customs. When touring Italy the traveler will note these regional differences not just in the geography but in the food and the language also. It is for these plain differences that Italy is a country that affords the traveler unique experiences day by day in each area.

The most highly rated Italy Tour Package is the Venice, Florence, and Rome guided tour of Italy. Considered Italy's Big 3 visitor towns they're all wonderful destinations for their natural beauty as well as for their man made beauty which is the result of each town being the wealthiest and strongest city in the world at one time.

Venice Italy in the area of Veneto in Italy's northeast is a fascinating town since its main method of transport is over water via boat thru the canals and also as the successor of the Doge, the Prince, who took a little tax from the Venetian citizens who were noted as smart merchants who traded with the whole world. So rich was Venice its cash was gold for over 500 years. The traveler to Italy always is crazy about Venice's magical qualities.

Florence Italy in the area of Tuscany is located on the banks of the Arno river in the shadows of Tuscany's sweeping hills where some of the world's finest wine is grown. 500 years back Florence provided a home to the Medici family, the wealthiest family in the world at the time given their relationship with the Pope for whom they were the financiers. The family's funding of local workmen fueled what today is known as the Renaissance when humanity took a giant jump leap from the dark ages towards the age of enlightenment. This history is manifest in the design of the city and in the city's art museums where some of the world's best art lives. Florentine food mixed with Tuscan wine just adds to the glorious flavor of this town. There's so much in our lives today that started in Florence during the Renaissance the traveler always leaves with an enriched soul.

Rome Italy in the region of Lazio is the home of the Roman Empire the longest controlling empire in history maintaining its power for over 700 years from 300BC to 400AD. Besides walking the traditional cobblestones while marveling the architecture of the ancient Romans Rome is also a modern city full of fun caffes and trattorie to enjoy. Rome is also home of The Vatican, which art collection is among the largest in the world having been built up during the Papacy's long history. The Vatican is a city state inside Rome. Rome offers the traveler so much to do that many Italy tour packages will spend at least 3 days or more in Rome with 2 to 3 days in Florence and Venice.

For all of these reasons and a lot more the Venice, Florence, Rome tour is the most well-liked of all Italy tour packages.

Justin Del Sesto is a longtime Italy travel guide and the founder and the owner of ItalianTourism.us and ItalyCruise.us an Italy travel agency focused on Italy tours and cruises around Italy. On the websites you will find plenty of options for an Italy tour to Venice, Florence, and Rome. He is also the producer of WebVisionItaly.com the only Internet television network about Italy travel.

Lovely Beaches to Enjoy Ferragosto in Italy

2011-07-27T18:33:00.001-04:00

With Italy's Ferragosto just a few days away it is time to take a look at Italy traveler favorite beaches in Italy. Given Italy is a peninsula with almost every region touching the sea, be it the Mediterranean, Adriatic, or Tyrrhenian, Italy is full of beaches lapping along its lovely seas to visit and enjoy on your Italy tour.

Ferragosto, an Italian holiday celebrated on August 15, originated with Augustus when it may have related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. Now almost the entire month of August is taken as a holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day. If you are heading to Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, or Venice during the month of August you may wonder if anyone lives in these usually bustling cities because they are sure to be quiet in August when only a few cats remain to sweat it out in the heat of the city. Ferragosto in Italy is when the entire population all vacation together crowding the beaches and filling the water with sun;oving Italians paying homage to the Sun.

Who better to refer to than TripAdvisor and its Italy vacation experts when ranking the top 10 beaches in Italy.

Top 10 Beaches in Italy

1. San Vito lo Capo

2. Villasimius

3. Lampedusa

4. Vieste

5. Alghero

6. Positano

7. Monterosso al Mare

8. Otranto

9. Santa Teresa di Gallura

10. San Teodoro

To visit our favorite beach on Capri check out our Amalfi Coast Holidays.

What's your favorite Italy beach? Let us know in the comments below.

Italy Vacation: Top 10 Italy Destinations For Your Italy Tour

2011-06-05T12:29:00.002-04:00

Italy vacations are a very popular destination for all types of travelers, and it is no surprise given the depth of things to do on an Italy vacation.

Each region in Italy is unique, making Italy a vacation destination that may be visited over and over again while always offering unique travel experiences. And given that the Italian culture includes fresh local food each season in each region brings a new menu for Italy travelers to savor and dream about until the next Italy vacation. This opens endless opportunities for new experiences on an Italy vacation.

According to Trip Advisor, the following are the Top 9 Italy Destinations on an Italy Vacation:

1) St. Peter's Basilica, Rome
2) Duomo, Milan
3) Pantheon, Rome
4) Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence
5) Grand canal, Venice
6) Basilica of St Francis, Assisi
7) St. Mark's Square, Venice
8) Trulli, Alberobello
9) Piazza del Campo, Siena

10)?

What is your top sightseeing destination on an Italy vacation?

Italy Luxury Cruise $ALE: Luxury Cruise from Venice & Luxury Cruise from Rome

2011-03-29T08:46:00.005-04:00

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Cruise from Venice to Athens | 10 days
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For more about this Italy Luxury Cruise $ALE and more Luxury Cruises from Venice and Luxury Cruises from Rome call 305.914.0220 or email us to contact an Italy Cruise expert.

Italy Tours: Venice Packed for Carnival

2011-03-09T22:14:00.003-05:00

Italy Tour to Venice for Carnival

Italy Tours from all over the world packed Venice this week for Carnival. Italian Tourism officials report Venice hotels hung out their no vacancy signs as thousands of costumed celebrants gathered in Venice for the finale of Italy's most famous carnival celebration Tuesday night.

Masks have always been a central feature of the Venetian carnival, which attracts Italy tours from all over the world. Traditionally Venetians and Italian Tourists alike wore them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) and the start of the carnival season and midnight of Shrove Tuesday. They have always been around Venice. As masks were also worn for the Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people Venetians and Italy travelers could spend a large proportion of the year in disguise

Venetian masks can be made in leather or with the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design and decoration and often had a symbolic and practical function. Nowadays, most of them are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are all hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate.

The mascherari, or mask-makers had their own statute dated 10 April 1436. They belonged to the fringe of painters and were helped in their task by sign-painters who drew faces onto plaster in a range of different shapes and paying extreme attention to detail.

Over 280,000 visitors arrived last weekend filling all available beds not only in Venice hotels but also on the Lido island facing it and the neighboring city of Mestre across the Venice Lagoon on the mainland.

"This is the highest occupancy we've ever seen in the three areas, a far cry from last year," said Vittorio Bonacini, head of the Venice Hoteliers Association.

Carnival traditionally concludes on Fat Tuesday at mid night, also known as Mardi Gras, with a procession of gondolas and other traditional boats along the Grand Canal, under the Rialto bridge to the dock at St Mark's Square, with all palaces and homes illuminated only by LED candles as thousands of balloons are released to usher in the beginning of Lent.

Because this year's Mardi Gras coincides with International Women's Day, the celebration has been dedicated to women.

Other famous Italian carnival celebrations in Italy include the one in Ivrea, near Turin, where the traditional 'battle of the oranges' left hundreds of 'victims' at the weekend, and one in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio where a traditional parade of allegorical floats takes center stage.

Italy tours to Venice, Florence and Rome are available with Italian Tourism, where you will find the best deals on Italy tours.

Rome Italy Travel: Ancient Roman Forum House of the Vestal Virgins Opens

2011-02-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

House of Vestal Virgins Rome Forum

Great news for Rome Italy travelers and for those on a cruise around Italy. After twenty years, Rome has reopened the House of the Vestal Virgins, remains of an ancient Roman palace flanking ruins of the imperial seat of government in the Roman Forum.

The House of the Vestal Virgins, (Atrium Vestae), was the residence of the Vestal Virgins, the high priestesses of the cult of Vesta. The cult of Vesta is dates back to its founder Numa Pompilius (753-673 BC; king of Rome, 715-673 BC) who was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. The Vestal Virgins had their residence in the same location from the 6th century BCE to the end of the 4th century CE. It is located on the Forum Romanum, just behind the Temple of Vesta, between the Regia and the Palatine Hill.

Statues of the vestals surround pool in House of Vestal Virgins

Major renovations to the structure were inaugurated with the opening of a new visitors' route through the ruins called Via Nova, which traverses the northwest slope of the Palatine Hill overlooking the Forum and ends at the Atrium Vestae, or ancient palace.

The configuration of Via Nova is believed to date back to urban planning made in the wake of a blaze that razed much of Rome in 64 AD, but may be older.

More than 4,000 meters were refurbished along the route, of which the Atrium Vestae occupies 1,568 square meters. Work focused on restoring the structural stability and integrity of the ruins.

The Atrium Vestae was once a 50-room palace built around an elegant, rectangular garden, decorated with statues and two pools. It housed the priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, who were entrusted with keeping a flame eternally lit in the Temple of Vesta, located next door.

The high priestess selected six initiates between the ages of six and 10 from Roman patrician families. Physical perfection was an important criteria. The girls took vows of chastity and served the Cult of Vesta for 30 years.

Vestal priestesses were revered, lived in luxury and relative independence, and were free from obligations to marry and rear children. At the end of their 30-year service they could choose whether to marry or remain with the cult.

The renovation and reopening of the House of the Vestal Virgins was conducted as part of a larger program for the rehabilitation of the Roman Forum, funded with 19 million euros from private and public funds, according to Rome councilor Dino Gasperini.

Gasperini called the opening of Via Nova and the House of the Vestal Virgins "a goal that waited too many years."

"It is another place that has been returned to the city and to tourists who come to Rome to admire the archeology," said Culture Undersecretary Francesco Giro.

Visit Italian Tourism website for more about Rome holidays. Click Rome Cruise 2011 for full listing of cruises around Italy from Rome. Or, plan an Amalfi Coast holiday and visit Rome as well. Italian Tourism also has full selection of Italy pre cruise tours and Italy post cruise tours. Whatever your Italy travel plans Italian Tourism has the Italy travel package and Italy tour package for you.

Italy Cruises Top 10 Ports of Call and Italy Cruise Shore Excursions

2011-01-28T09:01:00.006-05:00

Italy cruises from Rome and Venice cruise around Italy to the Eastern Mediterranean with ports of call in Athens, Croatia, the Dalmatian Coast, Greek Isles, Turkey and even Egypt and Israel are often on the Eastern Mediterranean Italy cruise Itinerary. Italy cruises also cruise around the Western Mediterranean to France, Spain, Morocco, including ports of call in Barcelona, Valenica, Mallorca, the Italian Riviera , the French Riviera, the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and North Africa.

When considering a cruise from Rome or a cruise from Venice one should consider the shore excursions that each Italy cruise itinerary offers. Cruising around Italy to the Eastern and Western Mediterranean is a delight and all the Mediterranean ports on a Italy cruise offer wonderful historic sights, culture and food. And many port cities are on the cutting edge of modern and contemporary design, all of which offers the Italy cruise tour traveler no shortage of history-themed and contemporary -themed shore excursions to choose from when on an Italy cruise.

Western civilization flourished on the shores of the Mediterranean so the ports of call on a Italy cruise are ports that have been welcoming visitors for thousands of years. It is lots of fun to arrive in the various Mediterranean ports because it affords a view of the city just like when the earliest cultures sailed around the Mediterranean trading spices, wine, herbs, and more.

We suggest that before or after an Italy cruise you do either an Italy pre cruise tour or Italy post cruise tour, or if your Italy cruise itinerary is a cruise from Rome to Venice or a cruise from Venice to Rome why not do both an Italy pre cruise tour and Italy post cruise tour in each city.

Below are our favorite ports of call for big ship Italy cruise itinerary. Smaller ships will fit into ports along the Dalmatian Coast, Italian Riviera and French Riviera that big ships will not.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Rome
A Rome pre cruise or Rome post cruise tour may be ranked top of the list of Mediterranean shore excursions. And as such, we suggest two nights or ideally four nights in Rome to get a taste of the eternal city. There is so much to see and do in Rome that two nights will provide a nice overview and four nights will give you enough time to walk around the city taking in most of the sights. Of course, a lifetime in Rome may not be sufficient time for some Italy travelers but a Rome pre cruise tour or Rome post cruise tour is the next best thing to a lifetime in Rome. After this Rome pre cruise tour and Rome post cruise tour you may want to plan a Italy vacation in the future. Or if you have time plan to spend a week or more in Rome - you'll never got bored in Rome.

When in Rome we suggest staying around the Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori area in Rome's centro storico. In this area you'll have access to Rome's fabulous sights including Piazza Navona, which is the center of Rome's centro storico and a must visit. With fountains by Bernini, caffes surrounding the piazza and some of Rome's most famous streets off of this piazza you will love this area. From Piazza Navona you may stroll less than 5 minutes to visit the Pantheon. And from the Pantheon and Piazza Navona it is a 5 minute stroll to Campo de' Fiori. This golden triangle of Rome's centro storico is full of action. Around here there are plenty of place ot enjoy an espresso, a gelato, a pizza or a traditional Roman lunch or dinner. For shopping and restaurants a nice street to explore is Via del Governo Vecchio.

For a serene retreat, stroll the 148-acre Villa Borghese gardens, the second-largest public park in Rome. You’ll see sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, well-tended gardens and tranquil lakes. Within the park is the Galleria Borghese, an art museum featuring the works of Bernini, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Tiziano Vecelli (Titian) and Raphael.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Venice

The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain and spice trade) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period. Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. There is nor shortage of things to do in Venice for a few days during your Italy cruise and you may consider a stay in Venice on a Italy pre cruise tour or Italy post cruise tour.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Naples Italy Italy Cruise Shore Excursion
A Italy cruise to Naples offers so much that if the cruise ship is in Naples for one day you must choose between the sights and natural beauty of the Amalfi Coast and Capri, visiting Pompeii, or exploring the hustle and bustle of Naples. Regardless of the itinerary you choose you will not be disappointed around Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfui Coast thus we rank it #1 on our list of top Italy cruise shore excursions.

When visiting Naples and Amalfi Coast consider the following shore excursions:

Naples Archaeology Museum
Spaccanapoli and Via Gregoria Armena
Pompeii
Capri
Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

Naples shore excursion secret tip: visit the ancient mansions in Stabiae for an authentic look at how the ancient Roman plutocrats lived.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Athens, Greece Italy Cruise Shore Excursion

This ancient city can be noisy and full of traffic congestion and provides too much hustle and bustle for some. Escape it all with a pleasing stroll up to the Acropolis, which offers a spectacular view over the city and the Mediterranean. Archaeological remains there include the Parthenon, the Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena Nike.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Barcelona, Spain Italy Cruise Shore Excursion

The architect Antoni Gaudi left his mark across Barcelona. His most famous work is the enormous yet unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882. Art lovers can also explore the whimsical Park Güell, a garden complex with architectural elements designed by Gaudi. Check out the multicolored mosaic dragon fountain at the main entrance. He also built Casa Milà, a residential building with an amorphous shape based on an art style called biomorphism.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Istanbul, Turkey Italy Cruise Shore Excursion

Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial center of Turkey. It is the largest city in Turkey and 5th largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.8 million, also making it the largest metropolitan city proper in Europe and the second largest metropolitan area in Europe by population. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on both the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. During its long history, Istanbul had previously served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–c.395), Byzantine Empire (c.395–1204 & 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Thereafter, the new Republic of Turkey, moved their capital to Ankara during the Turkish War of Independence.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Alexandria, Egypt Italy Cruise Shore Excursion

In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the most famous cities in the world. It was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great. It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo). Alexandria was known because of its Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its library (the largest library in the ancient world); and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Greek Isles

The Greek Islands are a collection of over 6,000 islands and islets that belong to Greece. Only 227 of the islands are inhabited, and only 78 of those have more than 100 inhabitants. The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea. The second largest island is Euboea, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the central Greece periphery. After the third and fourth largest Greek Islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Dubrovnik Croatia

The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik has always been based on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages, as the Republic of Ragusa, also known as the fifth Maritime Republic (together with Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice), it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Although demilitarised in the 1970s with the intent of forever protecting it from war devastation, in 1991, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was besieged by Serb-Montenegrin forces for 7 months and heavily damaged by shelling.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Messina Sicily

Founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC, Messina was originally called Zancle, from the Greek meaning "scythe" because of the shape of its natural harbor (though a legend attributes the name to King Zanclus). A comune of its province, located at the southern entrance of the Strait of Messina, is to this day called 'Scaletta Zanclea'. In the early 5th century BC, Anaxilas of Rhegium renamed it Messene in honor of the Greek city Messene. The city was sacked in 397 BC by the Carthaginians and then reconquered by Dionysius I of Syracuse.

Italy Cruise Top 10 Port of Call - Izmir Turkey

The city is one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin, dating to 7000 B.C. The Greek settlement in Old Smyrna is attested by the presence of pottery dating from about 1000 BC onwards and the most ancient ruins preserved to our day date back to 725-700 BC.

To find the best Italy travel deals visit Italian Tourism and Italy Cruise.

Thinking of visiting Southern Italy. Visit Italian Tourism Amalfi Coast vacation packages for the lowest prices on Amalfi Coast holidays.

For more about Italy vacations visit Italian Tourism for authentic Italy travel packages and Italy tour packages. Italian Tourism also offers Italy cruise tours, which includes a cruise from Italy and an Italy tour all in one low price.

For a cruise around Italy be sure to visit ItalyCruise.us for Rome cruise 2011 and Venice cruise 2011. Italian Tourism Italy pre cruise tours and Italy post cruise tours include Italy port transfers and hotels at greatly reduced rates so you may travel around Italy before or after your Italy cruise.

Italy Cruise guarantees the lowest rate on all cruises from Italy and shore excursions during your Italy cruise. Italy cruise will always beat or meet the best rates, even beating the prices cruise lines rates if you shop direct. And we offer friendly service by an Italy cruise expert to guide you on a Italy cruise. So before you buy direct, shop around then contact Italy Cruise for your next cruise from Italy.

Rome Walking Tours: Via del Governo Vecchio

2011-01-27T09:05:00.001-05:00

Rome's Via del Governo Vecchio is five blocks in old Rome centro storico that runs like a artery connecting the Rome walker to key veins for exploration. Via del Governo Vecchio gets its name from Palazzo Nardini, constructed between 1473 and 1478 by Cardinal Nardini, governor of the city of Rome under Pope Paul IV, the building was originally called called "Palazzo del Governo." Palazzo Nardini stands at No. 39 Via del Governo Vecchio. Across the street from the Palazzo del Governo or Palazzo Nardini you'll find architecture on the buildings from 118 - 123 representing 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

When walking this street you'll often hear desperate travelers looking for a specific address, such as a hip boutique or famous pizza spot, exclaim "che confusione!" as they loook for an address. This confusion is caused by the street numbers continuing consecutively by side, from Piazza d'Orologio on the left side toward Piazza di Pasquino, where they then continue on the other side numbered consecutively back to the beginning in Piazza d'Orologio. So unlike typical street numbers with odds and evens on opposing sides, Via del Governo Vecchio is numbered successively, with the numbers counting up on left and down on right - working opposite one another on each side as you walk. The beginning of Via del Governo Vecchio you'll find the first number and last number across from one another.

Via del Governo Vecchio begins in the Piazza d'Orologio, named after the Borromini designed corner clock tower. As you walk look out for the 16th century fresco on 104, which shows the buildings owner dictating to his secretary, a sure sign some things never change. Another illustration that some things never change is the building plaque on the corner of Vicolo dell Cancelleria from 1755 that reads, "By order of the District President it is forbidden to throw any garbage whatsoever into this alley, as prescribed by public proclamation October 23, 1755."

Piazza di Pasquino is the end of Via del Governo Vecchio where you'll find the statue of Pasquino, Rome's first talking talking statue named after a tailor named Pasquino who was the first to post his current affairs witty commentary onto this sculpture shorty after its installation here in 1501. Pasquino the tailor was privy to behind the scenes Rome and Vatican gossip given his position as tailor to the Vatican. His commentary stuck to the statue led to its nickname, "Rome's talking statue." The sculpture itself is from the 3rd century B.C., and is thought to represent the torso and head of Menelaus, king of Sparta and husband of Helen of Troy. Bernini described Pasquino "the finest of all antique sculptures." The English word pasquinade, which means a piece of satire, is derived from this statue.

Click for Rome walking map of Via del Governo Vecchio including shopping boutiques and places to eat.

For more about traveling to Rome click Rome holidays and Rome cruise. If you'll be on a cruise around Italy be sure to visit Italian Tourism Rome hotels for the best prices on a Rome hotel. Also be sure to check our Italy pre cruise tour and Italy post cruise tour in Rome.

View Rome: Via del Governo Vecchio in a larger map

Italy Travel Tip - Traveling to Calabria

2011-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

Italy travel to Calabria - San Demetrio Corone

If you intend to experience real Italian culture, then you must visit San Demetrio Corone, a small village located in the region of Calabria, south Italy.

I definitely suggest taking a coach bus that takes you directly from Rome to San Demetrio Corone. Don't take the train because San Demetrio doesn't have a train station and the closest one is located 45 minutes away.

During my summer study abroad program in San Demetrio Corone, Calabria, I made the biggest mistake to take the train from Rome to get there. Although Italy train travel is very efficient among cities and in northern Italy, traveling Italy to Calabria is a different story. After an 8 hr. train ride and a 45 min. drive...I just couldn't take it anymore, all I wanted was to get there.

Nevertheless my experience in Calabria was unforgettable, and a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Find out more about Calabria on www.WebVisionItaly.com

To find the best Italy travel deals visit Italian Tourism and Italy Cruise.

Thinking of visiting Southern Italy. Visit Italian Tourism Amalfi Coast vacation packages for the lowest prices on Amalfi Coast holidays.

For more about Italy vacations visit Italian Tourism for authentic Italy travel packages and Italy tour packages. Italian Tourism also offers Italy cruise tours, which includes a cruise from Italy and an Italy tour all in one low price.

For a cruise around Italy be sure to visit ItalyCruise.us for Rome cruise 2011 and Venice cruise 2011. Italian Tourism Italy pre cruise tours and Italy post cruise tours include Italy port transfers and hotels at greatly reduced rates so you may travel around Italy before or after your Italy cruise.

Italy Cruise guarantees the lowest rate on all cruises from Italy. Italy cruise will even beat the best rates the cruise lines offer if you shop directly. So before you go direct, shop around then contact Italy Cruise for your next cruise from Italy.

Adolfo F.

Authentic Pesto Sauce - International Day of Italian Cuisine January 17, 2011

2011-01-17T07:06:00.003-05:00

Authentic Pesto Sauce from Liguria

Today is the 4th Annual International Day of Italian Cuisine. To honor the date Genovese pesto was chosen as the official dish of the IDIC 2011, a worldwide celebration of authentic Italian food.

Pesto sauce of Genoa Italy, in the region of Italy is made with 7 ingredients: PDO Genovese basil, garlic, olive oil Riviera Ligure PDO, salt, pine nuts, pecorino and grana padano cheese. Pesto, an oily green sauce beloved by Italian food fans the world over may also soon have its own certification. Italy's Liguria region is seeking a European Union "STG" (Guaranteed Traditional Speciality) mark for pesto meeting strict criteria for genuine, Ligurian ingredients.

The seven ingredients of true pesto are all native to the liguria region. PDO stands for Protected Designation of Origin, a European certification the Liguria region has already secured for locally produced basil and extra-virgin olive oil.

"With the STG designation we want to protect the seven ingredients of true pesto: PDO Genovese basil, garlic, olive oil Riviera Ligure PDO, salt, pine nuts, pecorino and grana padano cheese," said agricultural councilor Giovanni Barbagallo. "Defending the traditional pesto recipe from imitations is a priority for Liguria."

"We want to unite the name of Liguria with the territory's quality products, like pesto, as a fundamental strategy for tourism development through Ligurian culinary specialties," declared Genoa's tourism councilor Angelo Berlangieri.

The word "pesto" comes from "pestare", or to crush with a pestle and mortar, a reference to the original method for creating the Genovese sauce. Hence pesto is also known as "battuto genovese" or Genovese mince or mash. The pasta condiment was still rare in the days of legendary Genovese explorer Christopher Colombus, but had become well established by the 19th century.

IDIC's Pesto Day is officially sponsored by the Liguria Region, Grana Padano cheese, Genova Pasta and a consortium of olive oil makers, among others.

Over 2,000 participating restaurants in roughly 40 countries will honor real Genovese pesto January 17, and will even see pesto-based Ligurian specialties served on 14 ships of the Italian cruise company Costa Crociere. So get out and visit your local Italian restuarant for authentic pesto. And if you are lucky enough to be cruising with Costa this week, well buon appetito!

For more on authentic Italian food visit WebVisionItaly's Italian Cooking shows, including a video of how to make pesto sauce.

For more about cruises around Italy including Costa cruise itinerary click Italy cruises. To visit Cinque Terre, Genoa and other Ligurian destination click Italian Tourism Italy travel packages for independent Italy travel deals or click Italy tour packages for guided tours of Italy.

Italy Travel Arts Guide - Guide for Italy Cruise Shore Excursions and Italy Tours

2011-01-16T07:58:00.002-05:00

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions happening January, February March Winter and Spring 2011. If you are on an Italy tour, Italy cruise or traveling in Italy you may want to add one of these Italy art exhibits to your Italy travel itinerary or Italy shore excursion.

ALBA - Fondazione Ferrero: Giorgio Morandi, The Essence of Landscape; 70 works; until January 16.

BARLETTA - Palazza Marra: Giuseppe De Nittis, 43 engravings; until January 16.

FLORENCE - Palazzo Vecchio: For The Love of God, Damien Hirst's famous diamond-encrusted skull in only third outing since creation in 2007; until May 1.

- Palazzo Strozzi: 'Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court'; 90 works in world's first monographic show; to January 23.

- Palazzo Pitti: Vinum Nostrum. The Art, Science and Myths of Wine in Civilisation; from prehistoric winegrowing to Dionysus cult, Etruscan, Roman use; show features oldest surviving wine container, on loan from Georgia; until April 30.

GENOA - Palazzo Ducale: 'Mediterranean, From Courbet to Monet and Matisse'; 80 mostly Impressionist works including Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Munch; until May 1.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: 'Salvador Dali', The Dream Draws Near'; 50 works, until January 30.

- Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Sandro Botticelli, all of his works in Lombardy museums brought together for first time; until February 28.

PADUA - Palazzo Zabarella: "From Canova to Modigliani, the Face of the 19th Century"; 100 portraits and sculptures; until February 27.

PASSARIANO (UDINE) - Villa Manin: 'Edvard Munch and the Spirit of the North'; 122 works; until March 6.

REGGIO EMILIA - city centre: 150 huge Italian flags marking 150th anniversary of Italian unity; until June 2.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: The Marvellous Years: Impressionism; 100 works from international museums including Monet and Pissarro, Sisley and Degas, Bazille and Renoir, Cezanne and Guillaumin, Morisot and Fantin-Latour, Gauguin and Van Gogh; until March 27.

- same venue: Caravaggio's first religious painting, The Ecstasy of St Francis, back in Italy for first time in 25 years from Wadsworth Museum, Hartford, as well as several contemporaries; until March 27.

ROME - Scuderie del Quirinale: '1861: The Painters of the Risorgimento', war scenes, Garibaldi's Red Shirts, leaders' portraits; to January 16.

- Vittoriano: 'Vincent Van Gogh, Timeless Landscape, Modern City'; 110 masterpieces in first major Rome show in 22 years; until January 30.

- Musei Capitolini: Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of a Musician (1490), loaned by Milan's Biblioteca Ambrosiana for first time ever; until February 27.

- Museo Fondazione Roma: Rome and the Ancient World, more than 140 paintings, sculptures, other works including loans from Prado, Louvre, Hermitage, Victoria and Albert Museum showing how classical works fired the imagination of 18th-century Rome; until March 6.

- Palazzo Venezia: The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon; more than 400 works on Roman (up to Trajan) and Chinese (Qin and Han) empires, spanning second century BC to fourth century AD; marks Year of Chinese Culture in Italy and is paired with other exhibit at Roman Forum; until February 6.

- Palazzo delle Esposizioni: The City of the Gods, 450 artefacts from ancient Mexican site of Teotihuacan (2nd-century BC to 5th-century AD), once the largest city in pre-Columbian Americas; until February 27.

- Galleria Borghese: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Other Renaissance; 45 works from major international museums; until February 13.

- Chiostro del Bramante: Greats from the Veneto, 15th- 18th Century; Bellini, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto; 80 works from Accademia Carrara in Bergamo; until January 30.

SAN MARINO - Palazzo Sums: 25 Impressionist works including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir; until March 27, in tandem with Rimini show.

TRIESTE - Castello di Miramare: Giorgio De Chirico, 70 paintings and 20 sketches; until February 27.

TURIN - Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Chiablese, Castello di Racconigi: "Vittorio Emanuele II: The Gentleman King"; new documents, pictures on life of Italy's first post-unification king; until March 13.

VENICE - Palazzo Grimani: Hieronymous Bosch, Vision of the afterlife (1500-1503), Triptych of Saint Liberata (1505) and Triptych of the Hermits (1510); until March 20.

Click Italy tour packages for guided tours of Italy or click Italy travel packages for independent Italy travel deals. For Mediterranean cruises to Italy ports call and for cruises from Italy click Italy cruises.

Italy Travel Agent Sells More Than Best Italy Tour Packages

2011-01-14T08:28:00.004-05:00

While growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, in a family of proud Americans I was
introduced to the Italian culture and Italy from my family, having one great-grandmother from Ischia, a great-grandfather from Roccamonfino, a grandfather from Naples, a grandmother Mimi from Abruzzo, and another grandmother Mina from Rome.

Justin Del Sesto at a Prosciutto di Parma factory

As a child I was given the best of Italian culture, which included waking weekend mornings to an opera filled home with the smell of garlic and onions on the stove ready for the tomatoes wafting through the halls. Our family culture also included learning to play piano and cello with Mina, Mimi teaching me to recite poetry, learning to play baseball and golf from my grandfather who also spoke five languages, going with my dad every Sunday to buy fresh ravioli, meat and freshly baked bread, with one extra loaf to eat on the way home as our little secret, then learning to cook every Sunday afternoon from Mimi, Mina and my Mom before sitting down at the extended dining room table for long and delicious lunches around which I learned about art, literature, poetry, politics and the world.

Ron Del Sesto and Andrea Bocelli

It was on my first Italy tour with my dad, who is also an Italian diplomat, that I knew I wanted to pursue a career in Italy travel. We are not only proud Americans but we are also Italians - dual passport-holding citizens of both the USA and Italy (I am also a resident of Argentina and hold a Mercosur passport).

Prime Minister Romano Prodi & Ron Del Sesto

Arriving in Rome on my first Italy tour 30 years ago I followed my dad around Italy like a little duck. Our family Italy tour started in Rome, where we strolled slowly through the streets of Rome's centro storico as if we had lived there for a lifetime. Zig-zagging our way through the ancient streets, just when I thought we were lost out came a story for what seemed every ancient cobblestone as we made our way to one hidden sight after the next, the Rome walking tour only pausing along the way when we stopped for an espresso, a new scarf, or a plate of pasta at a Roman trattoria on some tiny street where everyone was a local, and where we would meet family that still lives in Rome for a 3 hour lunch.

Getting Ready for a Tour of Tuscany

I knew then I wanted to learn the streets, sights and stories as well as he. I knew that I wanted to bring others to Italy to experience a unique authentic insider's view of Italy. From Michelangelo's facade on Palazzo Spada to Borromini's trick hallway inside Palazzo Spada, just off the Campo de' Fiori, to the stories of Via Giulia, to the false dome inside Sant'Ignazio, to Chiesa di San Pietro and Bramante's Tempietto a perfect example of Renaissance Classic revival and High Renaissance architecture in Rome, to Bernini's and the Pope's Rome I wanted to learn the stories and share the stories with others on an Italy tour.

I returned to Italy dozens of times since that first Rome holiday, experiencing every month and every season


Italian Tourism Cinque Terre Boat Tour

of the year, the smells. skies, and the seasonal menus, enjoying Piazza Navona at Christmas time and in July for the fashion shows, while taking cover from the rain and the sun inside the Pantheon while also seeing how the weather in Rome changes the hole in the center of its dome and learning how it inspired Brunellschi's Florence Duomo, eating lots of Gelato and taking many espresso searching for the best while enjoying the present, always visiting Pasquino on Via del Governo Vecchio for a reminder that politics and leaks are as old as people, insiders, and society. I've visited Cinque Terre in the pouring rain and the blazing sun, which weather paints a unique picture both beautiful in their own way. I knew that since my first tour of Italy Rome was a city I had to return and also would love to share its Italy's inside secrets, its gems, with others. But I also knew that although Rome had enough sights for a lifetime Italy is a country full of destinations to share with other travelers.

Dad doing interview for WebVisionItaly.com

I felt that others traveling to Italy would appreciate the enriched experience with unique local experiences our Italy travel agency would provide. And I felt that including the vast hidden treasures to off the beaten track destinations away from Rome's crowds is something people would value on an Italy tour. So, we've designed our Italy tours to provide freedom and flexibility because to experience Italy properly it must be done slowly otherwise a traveler will miss the authentic Italian experience. Whether it is a 7 day tour or a 10 day Italy tour or three weeks on a grand Italy tour, Italian Tourism Italy tours are not a sprint through Italy. Our Italy tours are focused on sharing Italy so our travelers experience the sights of Italy and feel la dolce vita.

Planning an Italy vacation is an investment of time and money. When you plan your Italy vacation or Italy

Justin Del Sesto filming interview for WebVisionItaly.com

cruise with Italian Tourism you have access to a family owned and operated Italy travel agency that will help you maximize your investment and protect your investment in your Italy vacation. With Italian Tourism you have access to Italy travel agents that know Italy from the inside and know how to plan an Italy tour so that your Italy vacation gives you an authentic unique insider's view of Italy. Italian Tourism will guide you to visit Italy's hidden treasures to off the beaten track destinations away from crowds. You will experience Italy from the inside, taking away an enriched experience with unique local authentic experiences. That is our promise and that is why when you contact Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 or by email (travel at italiantourism dot us) you are contacting an Italy travel agency that sells more than Italy cruises and Italy tour packages.

Trento Italy Art Travel - Modigliani Scultptures Brought Together in Trento

2011-01-06T07:40:00.000-05:00

Trento Italy travelers will be lucky enough to have the opportunity to see the sculptures by Amedeo Modigliani that remain today in museums around the world united by the Trento and Rovereto Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) for the first show of its kind since the Italian artist's death in 1920. The exhibit near the northern city of Trento, outside Venice, which runs until March 27, displays about a third of his known sculptural works, featuring loans from museums such as Washington's National Gallery of Art, London's Tate and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Modigliani, born in Livorno in 1884 in the Italian port city of Livorno, famous for its canals on Tuscany's coast known by Italy cruise travelers for its Italy cruise port, where Italy cruise shore excursions typically visit Florence and Pisa, is far better known for his portrait paintings, which are identifiable by their mask-like, asymmetrical faces and elongated form. For a brief interval though, from 1911 to 1913, Modigliani dedicated himself entirely to sculpture.

In 1909, Modigliani returned home from Paris to Livorno. Modigliani was sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi.

Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, by 1914 he abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty in acquiring sculptural materials due to the outbreak of World War I, and by Modigliani's physical debilitation.

MART museum curators argue his sculptures represent an under-recognized, seminal period of artistic development, when Modigliani evolved beyond the post-impressionism of his early work to the distinct expressionism that characterized his pieces after 1913. The exhibit features a series of elongated stone heads that bear a striking resemblance to archaic, oriental and tribal art in their simple, highly stylized form. The curators, who worked for six years on the exhibit, verified through extensive research that Modigliani completed 28 sculptures, three more than previously ascribed to him. The show also strives to reconstruct Modigliani's life and influences, retracing the marks of critics, collectors and other artists as well as cultural fashions of his time. Drawings, paintings and sculptures place Modigliani's heads in context, such as an early version of Constantin Brancusi's sculpture The Kiss, oriental sculptures of gods from the seventh and eighth centuries, and a 15th-century marble bust of Battista Sforza by Francesco Laurana, which Modigliani used as a model. Modigliani's portrait of Pablo Picasso, completed in 1915, is also on display, as is a nude by Picasso from 1907.

In life, Modigliani exhibited his sculptures only once, selecting a group of seven heads for the Salon d'Automne of 1912.

To many, Modigliani came to represent the tragic figure of the Bohemian artist. His life inspired nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films. Although he frequented the artistic avante-gard in Paris, where he lived from 1906 to 1920, Modigliani developed a style entirely his own, never falling in step with Fauvism or Cubism.

Modigliani, Picasso & Salmon

Friends who posed for Modigliani's characteristic portrait paintings include Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Diego Rivera, although Modigliani's reputation as a major artist soared only after his premature death from tubercular meningitis at the age of 36. Prey to self-destructive indulgences in hashish and alcohol, Modigliani was as well known during his life for erratic behavior as he was for his talent. He died destitute, when his young lover, Jeanne Heburterne, was nine months pregnant with their second child. Two days after his death, she plunged from a fifth-storey window, killing herself and their unborn child. During his career, Modigliani only pulled off a single one-man show, which was shut down for obscenity shortly after opening, as it featured a number of nudes. A Modigliani nude fetched $42.7 million (42.7 million euros) at auction last November in New York City, setting a new price record for his work. Other Modigliani paintings have recently sold for tens of millions of dollars.

The MART exhibit represents the first major effort to rehabilitate Modigliani's sculptural work since four high school students and a dockworker dumped fake Modigliani heads in a Livornese canal in 1984. The falsified sculptures were found by workers dredging for lost work by the artist, who was rumored to have tossed away pieces in a moment of despair. Art critics who embraced the discoveries saw their reputations dented when the hoax was revealed, and Modigliani's sculptures have suffered a dearth of attention since.

For more on the Italian Arts click WebVisionItaly Italy Arts channel. Click to sign up for our Italy travel newsletter by entering email address in left column below the Italy destinations. If you would like to visit Trento for the Modigliani exhibit contact Italian Tourism Italy travel agents who have all inclusive Italian vacation packages to visit Venice and Trento, as well as Florence and Rome. If you prefer a Italy cruise contact our Italy travel agents for a cruise from Venice that includes the Modigliani exhibit in its Italy cruise tour.

Amalfi Coast Holiday: Air, 6 Night Hotel, 7 Day Car Rental & Breakfast Daily from $899

2010-12-14T11:34:00.018-05:00

8 Day Amalfi Coast Holiday Fly & Drive
This Italy travel package includes:
Roundtrip airfre to Italy;
6 nights hotel;
7 day car rental; and
Breakfast daily

Regular rate of $939 reduced to $899+*

*Lead Price Travel Dates: Jan 19, Jan 26, Feb 2 2011
Promo valid for Departure Dates: December 2010 – March 2011

Italy Travel Deal
This affordable Amalfi Coast holiday deal allows you to explore the charming, picture postcard towns of the Amalfi Coast, stacked high above the sea. This independent fly & drive Italy travel package gives you the flexibility to explore the region at your own pace. If you see something that sparks your interest, just pull over. We've included a suggested itinerary with stops in Pompeii, Positano, Caserta, Capri and more. Spend your time relaxing, taking in the beautiful scenery, or check out the sites of the neighboring towns – it's completely up to you!

Amalfi Coast Holiday Italy Travel Package Includes:
Round trip flights NYC-Naples.
Airline fuel surcharges
6 nights accommodations in your choice of hotels
7 day car rental: Economy Manual (Fiat Panda or similar). Upgrade available.
Car rental includes: Unlimited mileage, Third Party Liability Insurance (RCA), Collision Damage Waiver Reduction (C.D.R.), Theft Protection Reduction (T.P.R), Airport charges, local taxes (VAT)
Breakfast daily

How to Book this Amalfi Coast Holiday
This Amalfi Coast holiday must be booked by December 20, 2010 to save $40 per person off our regular price. Click here to book with Italian Tourism or call 305.914.0220 to speak with one of our certified Italy travel agents.

Other departure cities available. Inquire for exact airfare supplemental.

Click below to chat live with an Italian Tourism certified Italy Travel Agent:

Email Italian Tourism or Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 for rates from other citites.

*The following additional fees are not included, where applicable: airport taxes, fees & September 11th Security Fee of up to of up to $150, Car Rental Fees of $57 per vehicle, optional car rental insurance and parking. For more details, see our Terms & Conditions.

Click to see a full listing of Italy travel packages including cruises around Italy, cruises from Rome and cruises from Venice and other Amalfi Coast Holidays.

Cruises Around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice 3-Day Sale

2010-12-10T08:38:00.020-05:00

Cruise around Italy Rome to Venice Italy cruise $ale!

Italy cruise Rome to Venice cruise ports of call include Monte Carlo, Florence, Naples, the Greek Isles including Santorini and Mykonos, on to Athens, Olympia, and Corfu then cruise the Adriatic sea to Split Croatia and finally Venice Italy. This Rome cruise around Italy to Venice is on sale for 3 days.

Cruise from Rome enjoying FREE balcony upgrades and up to $100 cash back when this Rome cruise around Italy is booked between December 15-17. Book your 2011 Rome cruise today!

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

Cruise around Italy cruise sale good for May – November 2011 sailings

Cruise around Italy - Cruise Rome to Venice sale for the following sailings:

May 30 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (30 May d1800); Monaco (31 May 0700-1800); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (01 Jun 0600-1800); Naples, Italy (02 Jun 0800-1900); Santorini, Greece (04 Jun 0800-1900); Mykonos, Greece (05 Jun 0100-1800); Piraeus (Athens), Greece (06 Jun 0600-1745); Katakolon (Olympia), Greece (07 Jun 0800-1700); Corfu (08 Jun 0700-1600); Split, Croatia (09 Jun 0900-1800); Venice, Italy (10 Jun a0900(+1)disembark)

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

June 23 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (23 Jun d1800); Monaco (24 Jun 0700-1800); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (25 Jun 0600-1800); Naples, Italy (26 Jun 0800-1900); Santorini, Greece (28 Jun 0800-1900); Mykonos, Greece (29 Jun 0100-1800); Piraeus (Athens), Greece (30 Jun 0600-1745); Katakolon (Olympia), Greece (01 Jul 0800-1700); Corfu (02 Jul 0700-1600); Split, Croatia (03 Jul 0900-1800); Venice, Italy (04 Jul a0900(+1)disembark)

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

July 17 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (17 Jul d1800); Monaco (18 Jul 0700-1800); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (19 Jul 0600-1800); Naples, Italy (20 Jul 0800-1900); Santorini, Greece (22 Jul 0800-1900); Mykonos, Greece (23 Jul 0100-1800); Piraeus (Athens), Greece (24 Jul 0600-1745); Katakolon (Olympia), Greece (25 Jul 0800-1700); Corfu (26 Jul 0700-1600); Split, Croatia (27 Jul 0900-1800); Venice, Italy (28 Jul a0900(+1)disembark)

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

August 10 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (10 Aug d1800); Monaco (11 Aug 0700-1800); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (12 Aug 0600-1800); Naples, Italy (13 Aug 0800-1900); Santorini, Greece (15 Aug 0800-1900); Mykonos, Greece (16 Aug 0100-1800); Piraeus (Athens), Greece (17 Aug 0600-1745); Katakolon (Olympia), Greece (18 Aug 0800-1700); Corfu (19 Aug 0700-1600); Split, Croatia (20 Aug 0900-1800); Venice, Italy (21 Aug a0900(+1)disembark)

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

September 3 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (03 Sep d1800); Monaco (04 Sep 0700-1800); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (05 Sep 0600-1800); Naples, Italy (06 Sep 0800-1900); Santorini, Greece (08 Sep 0800-1900); Mykonos, Greece (09 Sep 0100-1800); Piraeus (Athens), Greece (10 Sep 0600-1745); Katakolon (Olympia), Greece (11 Sep 0800-1700); Corfu (12 Sep 0700-1600); Split, Croatia (13 Sep 0900-1800); Venice, Italy (14 Sep a0900(+1)disembark)

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

November 2 Cruise around Italy Cruise Rome to Venice
Schedule: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy (02 Nov d1800); Monaco; Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy; Naples, Italy; Santorini, Greece; Mykonos, Greece; Piraeus (Athens), Greece; Katakolon (Olympia), Greece; Corfu; Split, Croatia; Venice, Italy

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 to book your Cruise from Rome to Venice cruise around Italy.

This cruise around Italy cruise Rome cruise to Venice includes a free balcony upgrade and up to $100 cash back. Start planning a relaxing getaway to Europe.

Contact Italian Tourism Italy Cruise travel agent today for a quote. This is the perfect Italy cruise to include a Italy pre-cruise tour in Rome and Italy post-cruise tour in Venice.

Italian Tourism has the low priced Italy airfare for flights to Rome and returning from Venice to make this Italy cruise tour a special Italy vacation to remember.

Detailed Cruise Around Italy itinerary:

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy: 6:00 PM Embark
Monte Carlo, Monaco: 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy: 6:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Naples/Capri, Italy; 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
At Sea
Santorini, Greece: 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Mykonos, Greece: 1:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Athens (Piraeus), Greece: 6:00 AM - 5:45 PM
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Corfu, Greece: 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Split, Croatia: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Venice, Italy: 9:00 AM - Overnight
Venice, Italy: 5:00 AM

Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 or email us "travel @ italiantourism.us" to take advantage of the Italy cruise sale.

Italy cruise sale begins Monday December 13. Book your Italy cruise tour Rome cruise to Venice and enjoy a cruise around Italy.

Italy Vacations: Arts Guide for your Italy Travel

2010-11-29T15:58:00.005-05:00

Italian Tourism Italy vacations should include a visit to a museum oin Italy. Whether you are on a Italy cruise vacation or a Italy tour do make time to visit Italy's fabulous arts on your Italy vacation.

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

ALBA - Fondazione Ferrero: Giorgio Morandi, The Essence of Landscape; 70 works; until January 16.

BARLETTA - Palazza Marra: Giuseppe De Nittis, 43 engravings; until January 16.

FERRARA - Palazzo dei Diamanti: French 18th-century still-life master Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin; 50 loans from major international museums in first-ever Italian show; until January 13.

FLORENCE ART- Palazzo Strozzi: 'Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court'; 90 works in world's first monographic show; to January 23.- Palazzo Pitti: Vinum Nostrum. The Art, Science and Myths of Wine in Civilisation; from prehistoric winegrowing to Dionysus cult, Etruscan, Roman use; show features oldest surviving wine container, on loan from Georgia; until April 30.- Bargello: Giovanfrancesco Rustici and Leonardo, first show examining links of 15th-century sculptor with da Vinci, Verrocchio and others; until January 10. For the best deals on Italy travel to Florence visit Italian Tourism for its Florence vacation packages.

FORLI' - Musei Civici di San Domenico: 400 ancient Egyptian artefacts gound by great Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli (1856-1928) including works from Queen Nefertari's tomb; until January 9.

MAMIANO DI TRAVERSETOLO (PARMA ARTS) - Fondazione Magnani Rocca: Renato Guttuso, Passion and Reality, 65 works until December 8. Visit WebVisionItaly Parma video and when ready for a vacation visit Italian Tourism to plan the perfect Italy vacation.

MILAN Travel - Palazzo Reale: 'Salvador Dali', The Dream Draws Near'; 50 works, until January 30.- Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Sandro Botticelli, all of his works in Lombardy museums brought together for first time; until February 28.

PADUA ART - Palazzo Zabarella: "From Canova to Modigliani, the Face of the 19th Century"; 100 portraits and sculptures; until February 27. Looking for vacation to Veneto and Venice then vist Italian Tourism Venice vacation packages or for a Italy cruise click Venice cruise.

PASSARIANO (UDINE) - Villa Manin: 'Edvard Munch and the Spirit of the North'; 122 works; until March 6.

PERUGIA - Galleria Nazionale: 'Theatre of Dreams from Chagall to Fellini', 100 works; until January 9. For more Umbria visit WebVisionItaly Umbria travel channel. Looking for a Umbra vacation check out Italian Tourism Umbria vacation packages.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: The Marvelous Years: Impressionism; 100 works from international museums including Monet and Pissarro, Sisley and Degas, Bazille and Renoir, Cezanne and Guillaumin, Morisot and Fantin-Latour, Gauguin and Van Gogh; until March 27.- same venue: Caravaggio's first religious painting, The Ecstasy of St Francis, back in Italy for first time in 25 years from Wadsworh Museum, Hartford, as well as several contemporaries; until March 27.

ROME ARTS - Palazzo Venezia: The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon; more than 400 works on Roman (up to Trajan) and Chinese (Qin and Han) empires, spanning second century BC to fourth century AD; marks Year of Chinese Culture in Italy and is paired with other section at Roman Forum; until January 9.- Palazzo delle Esposizioni: The City of the Gods, 450 artefacts from ancient Mexican site of Teotihuacan (2nd-century BC to 5th-century AD), once the largest city in pre-Columbian Americas; until February 27.- Musei Capitolini: Michelangelo 'Two Wrestlers' loaned from Casa Buonarroti in Florence; until December 5.- Galleria Borghese: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Other Renaissance; 45 works from major international museums; until February 13.- Chiostro del Bramante: Greats from the Veneto, 15th- 18th Century; Bellini, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto; 80 works from Accademia Carrara in Bergamo; until January 30.- Vittoriano: 'Vincent Van Gogh, Timeless Landscape, Modern City'; 110 masterpieces in first major Rome show in 22 years; until January 30.- Scuderie del Quirinale: '1861: The Painters of the Risorgimento', war scenes, Garibaldi's Red Shirts, leaders' portraits; to January 16.- Curia Iulia, Roman Forum: 'The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon'; 450 works; until January 9.- Museo di Roma (Palazzo Braschi): The Risorgimento in Colour: Patriot Painters; to January 9.

SAN MARINO - Palazzo Sums: 25 Impressionist works including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir; until March 27, in tandem with Rimini show.

SAN SEVERINO MARCHE - Pinacoteca Civica, Palazzo Servanzi Confidati and Chiesa della Misericordia: 'Baroque Marvels', 90 works including Bernini, Guercino, Pomarancio, Orazio Gentileschi, Valentin de Boulogne, Baciccio: until December 12.

TURIN - Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Chiablese, Castello di Racconigi: "Vittorio Emanuele II: The Gentleman King"; new documents, pictures on life of Italy's first post-unification king; until March 13. Visit Turin with an Italian Tourism Italy vacation.

VENICE ARTS - Fondazione Cini: 'The Arts of Giambattista Piranesi - Architect, etcher, antiquarian, vedutista, designer'; 300 original prints plus 33 photos by Gabriele Basilico of Rome sites in 1960s; until November 21. Visit the arts of Venice like the Doge's Palace and the Basilica of St. Marks. Looking to visit Venice click for complete listing of cruises from Venice and click Venice vacation packages for a land-based Venice vacation by Italian Tourism discount Italy vacations.

Click WebVisionItaly.com for Italy travel video. Click Italian Tourism for Italy vacation packages and Italy cruise for cruises from Italy and cruises around Italy.

How to Ride the Italy Rail: Guide to Train Travel in Italy

2010-11-25T10:37:00.003-05:00

Train travel in Italy is made easy in the Italy rail guide, one of WebVisionItaly.com's most popular videos. The Train Italy video is a guide to riding trains in Italy. So for Thanksgiving when many of are on trains, planes, and automobiles, we're publishing 10 Tips to riding the train in Italy.

Motorino Man's Top 10 Tips to ride Italy's rails from the big three like Rome trains, Florence trains, and Venice trains to tips for buying Italy rail tickets in small stations in towns outside Italy's big three that may not be manned at all times by ticket sellers.

Click to see the video how to buy a train ticket in Italy for important tips and tricks to navigating the Italy train ticket vending machine so you may buy a train ticket in Italy without hassle when traveling Italy. Motorino Man suggests buying train tickets in Italy as itineraries change and trains do get cancelled.

Click for a full listing of Italy train travel vacations by Italian Tourism.

Motorino Man's Top 10 Tips to Ride Train in Italy.

10. Save money by buying bread and prosciutto before arriving at station for food on train. If you don't bring food the dining car is a very nice place to have a snack.

9. Arrive 30 minutes before departure for stress-free travel.

8. Trains in Italy are used by Italian commuters at rush hour so try to plan your travel off rush-hour and do plan accordingly. Train ticket in Italy will be less expensive off rush hour.

7. In Italy's big three Rome, Florence, Venice and all Italy's big-city stations like Naples, Milan, Bari, Genoa etc. if standing on line or at vending machine to buy ticket beware of pick pockets and other thieves and do always keep an eye on your baggage by keeping it eyesight next to you.
6. Gather belongings before destination so exiting is smooth and efficient - especially important when exiting before end of line because Italian trains only stop long enough for exiting and entering passengers. Every time you stand up on train in Italy glance back to see what you left behind.

5. Carry change to buy ticket at vending machine in small stations where there is no attendant.

4. Carry-on bags: Keep your bag under your seat or between your legs. If you are going to place it in the overhead compartment, try to place it ahead of your seat location, so you can see whoever reaches into the compartment.

3. If catching the train outside major cities like Italy's big three Rome, Florence, and Venice be sure to check that the Italian train you get on is the one you want. Many travel same track.

2. ALWAYS validate Italy train ticket by stamping it in CONVALIDA yellow box in the station or along the track platform.

1. Keep an eye on things at all times in stations and on Italy's trains. YOU carry your luggage onto the bus, train, truck, or taxi with you. Don’t allow a porter or stranger to take your bag for you. You might not ever see it again.

And finally, when you buy a train ticket in Italy be sure you actually receive a ticket for a Italy train.

Buon Viaggio!

Now that you know how to ride the Italy rail check out these great Italy train travel vacations. Or click to see a full listing of cruises around Italy including cruises from Rome and cruises from Venice.

For more about riding trains in Italy visit WebVisionItaly's video how to train travel in Italy.

Italy Travel and Italy Tours: Rome's biggest temple reopens

2010-11-18T13:55:00.007-05:00

Ancient Rome's most imposing shrine, the Temple of Venus and Rome, has reopened after a restoration lasting almost 30 years in welcome news for a government under pressure since last weekend's collapse of Pompeii's Gladiator School.

Facing East and West to symbolize the sweep of the empire, the temple was built in the second century AD by Hadrian on the vestibule of Nero's Golden House, shifting the Colossus of Nero close to the Flavian Amphitheatre so that it got its better-known name, the Colosseum.

"We have restored to Rome one of the most powerful symbols of the power and greatness of the Roman Empire," said restoration chief Claudia Del Monti, who has been on the job for all but three years of its 26-year duration.

"My project was aimed at reading the temple as far as possible in its entirety," she said, recalling that it had once been split in two and was used as a car park until the 1980s.

Rome's archeological superintendent, Anna Maria Moretti, said the revamped temple "affords an extraordinary view, walking up from the Colosseum".

With majestic pillars and soaring arches, the Temple of Venus Felix (Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune) and Aeterna Roma (Eternal Rome) was designed by Hadrian in 121 AD, inaugurated by him in 135, and finished by his successor Antoninus Pius in 141.

Damaged by fire in 307, it was restored with changes by Maxentius.

The temple restoration is part of the government's plans to open up more ancient sites, said Culture Undersecretary Franco Giro, deputising for Culture Minister Sandro Bondi who was fielding a fusillade of questions in parliament over Saturday's collapse of the school in Naples where gladiators trained. Giro noted that the pits under the Colosseum where gladiators prepared for mortal combat have recently been unveiled and other temples, such as that of Antoninus and Faustina, are set to be reopened within the next year.

"We are respecting the schedule we set for the Forum and we are proceeding with a restoration of an area that was in deep decay, having been abandoned by governments of all colors," Giro said.

He rejected criticism of Bondi's handling of Italy's artistic heritage which began with his allegedly supine acceptance of budget cuts that led to Italy's museums staging a mass closure Friday.

The undersecretary also defended the minister from what he described as "unfair" attacks over the situation in Pompeii, calling the center-left opposition "ill-informed".

Visit Rome travel video by WebVisionItaly.com for more about Rome.

To plan your vacation to Rome click for Rome holidays. Italian Tourism has the best pre-cruise and Italy post-cruise tours. Italian tourism also specializes in Italy cruise tours from Rome. For a Italy cruise from Rome click Rome cruise. If you'll be on a Rome cruise 2011 be sure to visit the Roman forum. Click for January Rome cruises 2011.

$999+ Air and 8-Day Rome, Florence, Venice Italy Travel Deal

2010-11-17T09:48:00.005-05:00

$999+ 8-Day Independent Italian Tourism Italy travel package to 3 of Italy's enchanting cities Rome, Florence and Venice Italy vacation.

Visit Rome, Florence & Venice 2 nights in each city traveling by Italy rail between cities.

Lead Price Travel Dates:
Dec 7 '10; Jan 11, Jan 18, & Jan 25 '11
Italy travelers also were interested in these Italy travel packages:

8 Day Venice, Florence & Rome by Rail
10 Day Rome, Florence & Venice by Rail
10 Day Venice, Florence & Rome by Rail

Italy Travel Deal

This 8 day Italy rail package makes it easy to see three of Italy's most captivating cities on one trip. Explore independently or join an assortment of convenient and affordable optional tours such as an evening tour of illuminated Rome, a walking tour of the dazzling renaissance city of Florence, or a romantic gondola serenade along the canals of Venice. Whether it's your first trip to Italy or a return visit to old favorites, this tour offers an ideal opportunity to spend a great vacation in bella Italia while we take care of the details, with flights, hotels, and reserved rail seats all prearranged for you.

Italy Travel Package Includes:
Flights NYC – Rome, Venice – NYC. Other departure cities available
Airline fuel surcharges
6 nights accommodations in your choice of hotels
2 nights Rome
2 nights Florence
2 nights Venice
Breakfast daily

Transportation between cities via First Class Italy rail (Plan A, B or C) or Standard Italy rail (Plans D,E) with reserved seats.

Follow this 8-day Italy travel package with a Italy cruise or check out one an Italian Tourism Italy cruise tour that includes Italy tour followed by a Italy cruise.

How to Book:
Click here to book or call 305.914.0220 to with an Italian Tourism Italy travel reservation specialists.

Click Italy travel for Italy tour and Italy cruise video.

When you are ready for an Italy tour visit Italian Tourism for Italy travel packages including air and hotel including the best deals on Amalfi Coast holidays, or for a Italy cruise click Rome cruise and Venice cruise Italy cruise listings.

Italian cinema legend De Laurentiis dies

2010-11-12T06:29:00.000-05:00

Dino De Laurentiis, producer of some of Italy's best-known films including works by Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini, has died in Los Angeles aged 91, Italian media reported on Thursday.

The Oscar-winner also produced several famous films in the United States, including "Serpico" with Al Pacino in 1973, "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in 1975 and Ridley Scott's "Hannibal" in 2001.

"Cinema has lost one of its greats," said Walter Veltroni, an Italian lawmaker and former mayor of Rome who founded the Rome Film Festival.

"The name of Dino De Laurentiis is tied to the history of cinema," he said.

De Laurentiis was born on August 8, 1919 in Torre Annunziata near Naples and moved to the United States in the late 1960s. His parents were pasta makers.

He started out in film aged 20 and became one of the leading producers of Italy's post-war cinema boom and the neo-realist genre.

De Laurentiis produced more than 500 films over his entire career.

One of the first films he produced was "Riso Amaro" ("Bitter Rice") by Giuseppe De Santis, a 1949 classic and one of the best examples of neo-realism.

In 1949, he married Silvana Mangano, the star of "Riso Amaro" and one of the beauties of her day. They had four children together and later divorced.

He won an Oscar in 1956 for Fellini's "La Strada" and was nominated 38 times. In 2001, he received the Irving G.Thalberg Memorial Award at the Oscars for demonstrating "a consistently high quality of motion picture production."

In 2003, he won a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.

$899 Italy travel package: Tuscany: Luxury Vineyard Estate Vacation w/Car & Air

2010-11-10T11:07:00.003-05:00

Italian Tourism Italy travel packages presents the ultimate in Italy travel with a Luxury Tuscany Italy travel package. This travel package includes roundtrip air to Italy, car rental and 6-nights is a Tuscany farmhouse. Enjoy Italy with this travel package by Italian Tourism. Don’t wait, this Italy travel deal will sell out early and there are limited spaces available.

Travel to Italy through March 31, 2011 to receive this Tuscany travel deal when you book by November 19 and while air seats and vineyard rooms last. Brag to friends about staying in Tuscany 5-star luxury for practically the price of airfare alone.

Live la dolce vita for six nights at the uber-luxurious Il Borro Estate for $899 per person including air and car.

Beautifully restored by the famous Ferragamo family of the Italian fashion world, this 1000-year-old authentic country estate typically commands rates of $400 per night for the room alone.

This Italy travel package, based on four travelers, consists of:

1) Roundtrip airfare to Pisa, Italy from New York City or Newark; +$30 Boston; +$150 Chicago 2) Six nights in a two-bedroom Tuscan farmhouse

3) Full-size weeklong car rental in Tuscany

4) Complimentary bottle of wine from the Il Borro Vineyard

This rate is available only while air seats and vineyard rooms last and with a departure Monday-Wednesday Nov. 1 - Feb. 20. Early spring departures are available for $50 more per person.

Il Borro's accommodations feature a mix of medieval and modern: antique furniture, marble bathrooms, flat-screen TVs, wireless Internet and original artwork. Wine tasting tours, cooking classes, fishing, archery and more are offered on-site.

Blackout dates: Dec. 18 - Jan. 2 Note: Pricing during Christmas Italy travel and New Years Italy travel holiday periods (i.e. Nov. 21- 28) is slightly higher.

Italy Travel Package Options:

Upgrade to Medieval Village for $50 per person:
Enhance your Il Borro experience by upgrading to the cozy Medieval Village located right in the heart of Il Borro offering easy access to the restaurants and Spa.

Wine Tour & Tasting for $20 per person:
Enjoy a guided tour of the cellar for an illustration of the wine-making process from harvest to bottling concluding with a tasting of Il Borro's wines.

Tuscan Cooking Class for $99 per person:
Learn the art of traditional Tuscan cooking at a cookery course. For approximately 2 hours you will experience cooking with local ingredients and enjoy your prepared meal in the restaurant.

Add a 7th night stay from $79 per person: Spend an additional night with car rental at 5-star Il Borro Estate! Spa Treatment for $139 per person (Save 40%)

About Tuscany:

Tuscany is known for its beautiful landscapes, its rich artistic legacy and vast influence on high culture. Tuscany is widely regarded as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and has been home to some of the most influential people in the history of arts and science, such as Petrarch, Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespucci and Puccini. Due to this, the region has several museums (such as the Uffizi, the Pitti Palace and the Chianciano Museum of Art). Tuscany has a unique culinary tradition, and is famous for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino).

Six Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historic centre of Florence (1982), the historical centre of Siena (1995), the square of the Cathedral of Pisa (1987), the historical centre of San Gimignano (1990), the historical centre of Pienza (1996) and the Val d'Orcia (2004). Furthermore, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves. This makes Tuscany and its capital city Florence very popular tourist destinations, attracting millions of tourists every year. Florence itself receives an average of 10 million tourists a year by placing the city as one of the most visited in the world.

Experience the ultimate Tuscany vacation at an unbeatable price with this Italy travel deal. If you were to put this package together you’d pay over $1799. Save over $1000 on this Tuscany holiday by traveling to Italy with Italian Tourism Italy travel packages.

Italian Tourism: Italy Cruise and Italy Tour Italy Art Guide

2010-11-07T09:53:00.013-05:00

Italy cruise travelers and Italy travel package Italian tourists who will be on an Italy tour in December here is the following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

ALBA - Fondazione Ferrero: Giorgio Morandi, The Essence of Landscape; 70 works; until January 16.

BARLETTA - Palazza Marra: Giuseppe De Nittis, 43 engravings; until January 16.

FERRARA - Palazzo dei Diamanti: French 18th-century still-life master Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin; 50 loans from major international museums in first-ever Italian show; until January 13. Click for Emilia Romagna travel video.

FLORENCE ART - Palazzo Strozzi: 'Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court'; 90 works in world's first monographic show; to January 23.- Palazzo Pitti: Vinum Nostrum. The Art, Science and Myths of Wine in Civilisation; from prehistoric winegrowing to Dionysus cult, Etruscan, Roman use; show features oldest surviving wine container, on loan from Georgia; until April 30.- Bargello: Giovanfrancesco Rustici and Leonardo, first show examining links of 15th-century sculptor with da Vinci, Verrocchio and others; until January 10. Click for Florence Italy cruise departures and Italy cruise itinerary through Florence Livorno cruise port and for a Italy tour by land click Florence vacation packages.

FORLI' - Musei Civici di San Domenico: 400 ancient Egyptian artefacts gound by great Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli (1856-1928) including works from Queen Nefertari's tomb; until January 9.

MAMIANO DI TRAVERSETOLO (PARMA ART) - Fondazione Magnani Rocca: Renato Guttuso, Passion and Reality, 65 works until December 8. Click for Parma travel video. For a Parma vacation Call Italian Tourism 305.914.0220 who will plan a Italy tour that includes the beautiful city of Parma.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: 'Salvador Dali', The Dream Draws Near'; 50 works, until January 30.

PADUA ARTS - Palazzo Zabarella: "From Canova to Modigliani, the Face of the 19th Century"; 100 portraits and sculptures; until February 27.

PASSARIANO (UDINE) - Villa Manin: 'Edvard Munch and the Spirit of the North'; 122 works; until March 6.

PERUGIA - Galleria Nazionale: 'Theatre of Dreams from Chagall to Fellini', 100 works; until January 9.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: The Marvelous Years: Impressionism; 100 works from international museums including Monet and Pissarro, Sisley and Degas, Bazille and Renoir, Cezanne and Guillaumin, Morisot and Fantin-Latour, Gauguin and Van Gogh; until March 27.- same venue: Caravaggio's first religious painting, The Ecstasy of St Francis, back in Italy for first time in 25 years from Wadsworh Museum, Hartford, as well as several contemporaries; until March 27.

ROME ARTS - Musei Capitolini: Michelangelo 'Two Wrestlers' loaned from Casa Buonarroti in Florence; until December 5.- Galleria Borghese: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Other Renaissance; 45 works from major international museums; until February 13.- Chiostro del Bramante: Greats from the Veneto, 15th- 18th Century; Bellini, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto; 80 works from Accademia Carrara in Bergamo; until January 30.- Vittoriano: 'Vincent Van Gogh, Timeless Landscape, Modern City'; 110 masterpieces in first major Rome show in 22 years; until January 30.- Scuderie del Quirinale: '1861: The Painters of the Risorgimento', war scenes, Garibaldi's Red Shirts, leaders' portraits; to January 16.- Curia Iulia, Roman Forum: 'The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon'; 450 works on Roman and Chinese empires; marks Year of Chinese Culture in Italy; until January 9.- Palazzo Barberini: permanent exhibition of ancient art back on show after long restoration; also at Galleria Corsini, Villa Farnesina Chigi and Orto Botanico.- Museo di Roma (Palazzo Braschi): The Risorgimento in Colour: Patriot Painters; to January 9. Click for Rome holiday travel packages and cruises from Rome.

SAN MARINO - Palazzo Sums: 25 Impressionist works including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir; until March 27, in tandem with Rimini show.

SAN SEVERINO MARCHE - Pinacoteca Civica, Palazzo Servanzi Confidati and Chiesa della Misericordia: 'Baroque Marvels', 90 works including Bernini, Guercino, Pomarancio, Orazio Gentileschi, Valentin de Boulogne, Baciccio: until December 12.

SIENA - Santa Maria della Scala: Life of Michelangelo; letters, poetry, working sketches; until November 14.

TRENTO - Buoncastiglio Castle; The Adventure of Glass: From the Renaissance to the 20th Century between Venice and Distant Worlds; brings together over 700 masterpieces celebrating glass production on the Venetian island of Murano; until November 7.

TURIN - Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Chiablese, Castello di Racconigi: "Vittorio Emanuele II: The Gentleman King"; new documents, pictures on life of Italy's first post-unification king; until March 13.

VENICE ARTS - Fondazione Cini: 'The Arts of Giambattista Piranesi - Architect, etcher, antiquarian, vedutista, designer'; 300 original prints plus 33 photos by Gabriele Basilico of Rome sites in 1960s; until November 21. Click for Venice tour packages and cruises from Venice.

Click Italy travel video for WebVisionItaly.com Italy arts video.

For a Italy art tour call Italian Tourism for Italy Art tours.

Italian Tourism also offers a variety of cruises around Italy with onboard workshops about the history of art in Italy. Call us 305.914.0220 or click Italy cruise 2011 for Rome cruise itinerary and Venice cruise itinerary.

Italy Cruise and Italy Tour Visitors to Florence Will See David Atop Il Duomo

2010-11-07T08:43:00.006-05:00

On a Italy tour to Florence or a Italy cruise to Livorno next Friday? If so your Italy cruise and Italy tour will have unique opportunity to see Michelangelo's David standing atop Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. Italy cruise and Italy tour travelers will see a fibreglass Michelangelo’s David copy erected on a pedestal high up by the Duomo's dome for one day as part of Florence 2010 culture week.

If your Italy cruise or Italy tour stops in Florence be sure to look up at the Duomo for a rare Italy tour and Italy cruise Italian tourism event.

Prior to Michelangelo's involvement, Overseers of the people of Office of Works of the Duomo (Operai), had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. Two had been created independently by Donatello and his assistant, D'agostino di Duccio. Italy tour and Italy cruise travelers will find original works on the Duomo in the Operai Museum.

In 1464 Agostino was contracted to create a sculpture of Michelangelo’s David. A block of marble was provided from Carrara, close to the Italy cruise port Livorno, and popular Italy tour destination. Agostino began to shape the legs, feet and the figure. His association with the project ceased with the death of his master Donatello in 1466.

In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called Michelangelo’s David, badly blocked out and supine." Documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was young Michelangelo, only twenty-six years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission.

When the sculpture was nearing completion, a committee of Florentine artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli met to decide on an appropriate site for Michelangelo’s David. The majority, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, believed that due to the imperfections in the marble the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria, favorite Italy cruise day tour and Italy tour destination in Florence. A few, supported by Botticelli, believed Michelangelo's David should be situated on or near the cathedral.

Michelangelo’s David was placed in front of the entrance to Italy tour and Italy cruise passenger favorite site the Palazzo Vecchio, also on Piazza della Signoria, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes.

Italy cruise travelers to Venice and Italy tours to Venice may take a trip to Padua to visit Donatello's famous bronze horse sculpture.

Michelangelo's interpretation of the biblical figure was unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in 1504, seat of Florence civic government where Italy tour and Italy cruise travelers go to enter the Uffizi Gallery. To conserve Michelangelo’s David for Italy tour and Italy cruise passengers forever David was moved to the famous museum Galleria dell'Accademia where it is a must-see for Italy cruise travelers who day trip to Florence and Italy tours stream by daily to see.

Michelangelo’s David came to be seen as an emblem of the city republic's pride, its ability, despite its small size, to defend itself against giants like Rome, other cities on the Italian peninsula, and the Medici family. The eyes of Michelangelo’s David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. Michelangelo’s David also represents the Renaissance ideal of manhood.

Msgr Timothy Verdon, American director of Florence's Diocesan Office for Fine Art and Cultural Heritage, argues today that faith, not politics, was at the forefront of the young Michelangelo's mind while he was chiselling the marble for three years, thus giving Italy tour and Italy cruise passengers the chance to see Michelangelo’s David on top of il Duomo.

''The special political situation of Florence in 1504 led to Michelangelo’s David being valued in a civic sense, transforming the biblical figure into a symbol of the republican freedom that at the time was under threat on many sides,'' Verdon wrote in an article in the weekly Toscana Oggi, available for Italy tour and Italy cruise information. ''But for Michelangelo, David was a religious figure both in the conceptual stage and for almost all of its creation - the shepherd-king who wanted to build the temple in Jerusalem that was physically constructed by his son Solomon; Jesus's ancestor''.

In 1873, after 469 years, the David was taken out of the elements and put in the Galleria dell'Accademia. A copy was erected to replace it in Piazza della Signoria - where many italy cruise and Itay tour travelers take it for the real thing. The new fibreglass copy will tour several Florence sites after its stint at the Duomo.

Click Italy travel for Italy tour and Italy cruise video.

And when you are ready for an Italy tour visit Italian Tourism for Italy travel packages including air and hotel italy tours, or click to see Italy cruise, Rome cruise and Venice cruise Italy cruise listings.

Amalfi Coast Vacation

2010-10-30T11:14:00.004-04:00

Escape on an Italy Amalfi Coast vacation from $939 by Italian Tourism to enjoy stunning scenery, great wine and gourmet cuisine at 60% less than the price of similar packages.

Depart on this Amalfi Coast vacation Italy travel package through March 2011 to obtain the deal. The $939 per person package includes:

1) Roundtrip airfare to Naples from New York City. Other cities to Naples available at additional rate

2) Six nights hotel to enjoy your Amalfi Coast vacation

3) Weeklong car rental with manual transmission (automatic available)

Finish off this Amalfi coast vacation package with an Italy cruise or a Rome holiday using this cheap airfare to Italy. A cruise around Italy or a Rome vacation are both unforgettable experience that will give you memories to last a lifetime. And no better place to build memories than with a Italian Tourism Italy travel package.

The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula between Naples and Salerno. It is renowned for its rugged terrain, scenic beauty, picturesque towns and rich history. The famed towns of Positano, Pompeii and Capri are located 8 to 17 miles from the Hotel Gardenia.

Note: A seven-night version of this Amalfi Coast vacation package including an extra night in Sorrento is also available at discounted rates.

Book by now to reserve your discounted Italy tour and save over $1000. Rates are not guaranteed until booking is confirmed with payment and available seats and rooms for this Amalfi Coast vacation are limited.

Italy Travel: Italy Guide to Art Exhibitions

2010-10-27T12:36:00.003-04:00

The following is a Italy travel city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

ALBA - Fondazione Ferrero: Giorgio Morandi, The Essence of Landscape; 70 works; until January 16.

FERRARA - Palazzo dei Diamanti: French 18th-century still-life master Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin; 50 loans from major international museums in first-ever Italian show; until January 13.

FLORENCE ART - Palazzo Strozzi: 'Bronzino, Painter and Poet at the Medici Court'; 90 works in world's first monographic show; to January 23.

- Palazzo Pitti: Vinum Nostrum. The Art, Science and Myths of Wine in Civilisation; from prehistoric winegrowing to Dionysus cult, Etruscan, Roman use; show features oldest surviving wine container, on loan from Georgia; until April 30.

- Accademia and Horne Museum: Virtues of Love, 40 Florentine Renaissance paintings celebrating wedded bliss, from Italian and foreign museums; until November 1.

- Bargello: Giovanfrancesco Rustici and Leonardo, first show examining links of 15th-century sculptor with da Vinci, Verrocchio and others; until January 10.

FORLI' - Musei Civici di San Domenico: 400 ancient Egyptian artefacts gound by great Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli (1856-1928) including works from Queen Nefertari's tomb; until January 9.

MAMIANO DI TRAVERSETOLO (PARMA ART) - Fondazione Magnani Rocca: Renato Guttuso, Passion and Reality, 65 works until December 8.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: 'Salvador Dali', The Dream Draws Near'; 50 works, until January 30.

- FNAC: 12 unseen photos of Michael Jackson by French photographer Arno Bani; until 25.

PADUA ART - Palazzo Zabarella: "From Canova to Modigliani, the Face of the 19th Century"; 100 portraits and sculptures; until February 27.

PASSARIANO (UDINE) - Villa Manin: 'Edvard Munch and the Spirit of the North'; 122 works; until March 6.

PERUGIA - Galleria Nazionale: 'Theatre of Dreams from Chagall to Fellini', 100 works; until January 9.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: The Marvelous Years: Impressionism; 100 works from international museums including Monet and Pissarro, Sisley and Degas, Bazille and Renoir, Cezanne and Guillaumin, Morisot and Fantin-Latour, Gauguin and Van Gogh; until March 27.

- same venue: Caravaggio's first religious painting, The Ecstasy of St Francis, back in Italy for first time in 25 years from Wadsworh Museum, Hartford, as well as several contemporaries; until March 27.

ROME ART - Galleria Borghese: Luca Cranach the Elder, The Other Renaissance; 45 works from major international museums; until February 13.

- Chiostro del Bramante: Greats from the Veneto, 15th- 18th Century; Bellini, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto; 80 works from Accademia Carrara in Bergamo; until January 30.

- Vittoriano: 'Vincent Van Gogh, Timeless Landscape, Modern City'; 110 masterpieces in first major Rome show in 22 years; until January 30.

- Scuderie del Quirinale: '1861: The Painters of the Risorgimento', war scenes, Garibaldi's Red Shirts, leaders' portraits; to January 16.

- Curia Iulia, Roman Forum: 'The Two Empires, The Eagle and the Dragon'; 450 works on Roman and Chinese empires; marks Year of Chinese Culture in Italy; until January 9.

- Palazzo Barberini: permanent exhibition of ancient art back on show after long restoration; also at Galleria Corsini, Villa Farnesina Chigi and Orto Botanico.

- Museo di Roma (Palazzo Braschi): The Risorgimento in Colour: Patriot Painters; to January 9.

- Vittoriano: Fausto Coppi, Il Campionissimo'; bikes, shirts, helmets, fan letters, reports and footage of legendary cyclist on 50th anniversary of death; until October 31.

SAN MARINO - Palazzo Sums: 25 Impressionist works including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir; until March 27, in tandem with Rimini show.

SAN SEVERINO MARCHE - Pinacoteca Civica, Palazzo Servanzi Confidati and Chiesa della Misericordia: 'Baroque Marvels', 90 works including Bernini, Guercino, Pomarancio, Orazio Gentileschi, Valentin de Boulogne, Baciccio: until December 12.

SIENA - Santa Maria della Scala: Life of Michelangelo; letters, poetry, working sketches; until November 14.

TIVOLI - Villa Adriana: Show charting rise and fall of Hadrian's Villa; dozens of artefacts returned from collections around the world; until November 1.

TRENTO - Buoncastiglio Castle; The Adventure of Glass: From the Renaissance to the 20th Century between Venice and Distant Worlds; brings together over 700 masterpieces celebrating glass production on the Venetian island of Murano; until November 7.

TURIN - Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Chiablese, Castello di Racconigi: "Vittorio Emanuele II: The Gentleman King"; new documents, pictures on life of Italy's first post-unification king; until March 13.

UDINE - Castello: Giambattista Tiepolo, 20 engravings and 30 other works; until October 31.

VENICE ART - Fondazione Cini: 'The Arts of Giambattista Piranesi - Architect, etcher, antiquarian, vedutista, designer'; 300 original prints plus 33 photos by Gabriele Basilico of Rome sites in 1960s; until November 21.

Italy Travel: Colosseum opens Gladiator Pits

2010-10-25T12:43:00.004-04:00

Italy Travel: Rome: The Colosseum has added to its allure by opening the undergrounds pits where gladiators and wild beasts waited before being winched from darkness into the light of the killing ground.

As well as revealing the bowels of the one-time blood-and-guts arena, the famed monument has also reopened its 33m-high third story, closed since the 1970s, affording a breathtaking view of Rome.

The two new attractions aim to boost visitor numbers at the site, which is already Italy's single most-visited monument at some 19,000 people a day.

Fans of ancient bloodletting are allowed in in groups of 25, strictly by reservation, to see its underground world.

According to Colosseum site director Rossella Rea, the gladiatorial areas are all the more fascinating because "they were completely buried in the 5th century AD and have been perfectly conserved".

"They never suffered the depredation which the surface parts of the monument were victims to," she said.

The so-called 'hypogeum' (literally, 'under ground') has been restored in a multi-million-euro project that has also installed new, muted lighting effects.

Rea said the hope was to have recaptured "some of the atmosphere" of the breathless moments before the games commenced, when the armored or naked fighters and the wild animals were hauled up through 80 trap-doors.

The visit starts from the Porta Libitinaria, named after the goddess of the dead Libitina, through which the gladiators marched in and from which their corpses were taken out.

A broad corridor then leads to the hypogeum proper with its various rooms, some once used for storing the stage props and scenographical effects that enhanced the central combat. Roberto Cecchi, Rome's special archeological commissioner, said he hoped the boost to ticket sales would act as a "driving force" for the rest of the Forum, where he announced the opening, in December, of two other long-awaited sites, the Temple of Venus and the House of the Vestal Virgins.

The next step for the Colosseum itself is to attract private sponsors to fund a 23-million-euro scheme to clean and restore the entire time-ravaged site.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, who has admitted that the Colosseum is "a daily worry" to him, hopes to announce the names of the firms before Christmas.

Efforts to muster funding for the clean-up and restoration have quickened since a chunk of masonry fell off an interior wall on May 9, the latest in a trail of bits the 2,000-year-old monument has shed over the years. The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheatre (its proper name) is perhaps the most attractive archeological venue in the world with some four million visitors a year.

Construction on the city's iconic monument started between 70 and 72 AD under the Emperor Vespasian.

It was completed in 80 AD by his son Titus, who financed the project from the booty his armies seized in the war against the Jews in 66-70 AD.

Titus inaugurated it with 100 days of games including the recreation of a sea battle between Romans and Greeks.

Italy Cruise Ports: Genoa, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Bari Cruise Ports of Call in Italy

2010-10-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

A Italy cruise in the Mediterranean around the boot that is the Italic peninsula of Italy have lots of ports of call to visit with history and culture waiting in every Italian port. Visit WebVisionItaly's Italy travel channel for more about Italy's ports of call and Italy travel.

Ports of call in Italy include Genoa cruise port in the Liguria region of Italy, Livorno cruise port of call closest to Florence in Tusany, Civitavecchia cruise port outside Rome near Fiumincino airport in Lazio, Naples cruise port in the Bay of Naples region of Campania, Sicily includes Palermo and Siracusa, and on Italy's Adriatic coast Bari, Rimini, and Venice.

WebVisionItaly cruise port video gives the Italian tourism traveler and Italy cruise traveler ideas for day trips and shore trips. Visit the ports on WebVisionItaly.com to watch videos about the surrounding areas. Don't just be a tourist to Italy, be a traveler to Italy with WebVisionItaly.com.

Click for a complete listing of guided tours of Italy, Italy travel packages including air and hotel, and Rome Italy cruise listings and Venice Italy cruise listings.

Italian Fashion Trends 2011: Milan Fashion Week

2010-10-19T08:00:00.007-04:00

Bold colors and long skirts is the biggest news off the spring-summer 2011 Italian Fashion runway shows from Milan.

The mini skirt has all but disappeared from the runway, not surprising maybe given the economic trends, replaced by hemlines that fall around or below the knee. Long skirts are also very popular. It is said that fashion trends precede economic trends with below the knee hemlines signaling more recession and shorts and mini skirt pointing toward a coming economic rebound. If the Italian Fashion trends for 2011 are a guide, the economy has more work do.

In keeping with this new look, which already made its first appearance on the Italian fashion show runway for the upcoming winter 2011, the Italian designers do away with short shorts and most trousers.

Italian designer Giorgio Armani based his new collection on the new hemline.

The latest Emporio Armani collection is the stretch tulle skirt, which hangs down like a slip, providing a covering layer for above the knee skirts and mini dresses, both by day and by night.

Armani was one of the few designers who featured shorts in his second line collection, aimed at the younger set. Many of his ultra-light jackets were paired with a pair of just-above-the-knee Bermuda shorts.

Bottega Veneta treated the Italian fashion crowd to a show where everything was as light as a feather, and almost every skirt began somewhere from the knee down. The ultra-wide evening gowns had hemlines so long they could double for a train.

Earlier in the week, Italian designer Donatella Versace, great fan of the mini skirt, yanked her hemline several inches below the knee, to create a prim ladylike look for Versace summer 2011.

Underlining the Summer 2011 Italian fashion trend, Versace traded in her trademark tight black pants with matching glittery top, for a simple below the knee black cocktail dress, for her runway bow.

For more Italian fashion trends 2011 click to see the Italian runway videos on WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel:

Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2011: Italian Fashion Designer Missoni

Milan Fashion Week: Italian Fashion Designer Prada Spring 2011 Summer 2011 Italian Fashion

Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2011: Italian Fashion Designer Ferragamo

Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2011: Italian Fashion Designer Fendi

Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2011: Italian Fashion Designer Versace

Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2011: Italian Fashion Designer Dolce & Gabbana

To book a Italy vacation visit Italian Tourism for a complete list of Italy travel packages and Italy cruise vacations.

First Italy vacation? Choose a Rome vacation package

2010-10-03T23:23:00.011-04:00

Lots of first time travelers to Italy ask. "Where should we go?"

In my view, start with Rome, but never in August. The heat is stifling in August and all the Romans are on vacation.

April, May, September, and October are absolutely glorious months to visit Rome. August, go to the seacoast!

As per Rome, where to begin? The history, the architecture, the culture; you will never be short of options in this wonderful city. Medieval, Baroque, and Renaissance landmarks fill the capital city of Rome, and the Vatican is right down the street. It's impossible to do it justice in a mere blog, and when one travels to Italy no matter where you visit you can't go wrong, but Rome is a great place to start.

Click to browse Rome vacation packages, and visit WebVisionItaly's Rome vacations video channel to see more about Rome.

For more about Italian culture, visit WebVisionItaly's Italy videos.

For more about tours of Italy visit WebVisionItaly's Italy vacations channel and for Italy vacations visit Italian Tourism Italy travel packages.

Italian Cooking Show: Authentic Italian Recipes from the Amalfi Coast

2010-09-30T10:17:00.006-04:00

WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking Show travels to the region of Campania and the Amalfi Coast to bring you Spaghetti sciue sciue an authentic Italian cooking recipe from the Amalfi Coast.

Spaghetti sciue sciue is made from a few simple ingredients making it an easy pasta recipe to prepare quickly when the family is savoring a delicious authentic pasta recipe.

Ingredients for Spaghetti Sciue Sciue:

Olive Oil (extra virgin preferred)
Garlic Cloves
Cherry Tomatoes
Salt & Pepper
Spaghetti

To see how to cook this authentic Amalfi Coast pasta recipe click Spaghetti Sciue Sciue Italian Cooking Show on WebVisionItaly.com.

Buon appetito!

Looking for an Amalfi Coast vacation? ItalianTourism.us certified Italy travel agents has a special Amalfi Coast Italy vacation offer through October 8 that is $1000 off regular per person price - $799 Air & hotel Amalfi Coast Italy Travel Package.

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$799: Amalfi Coast 6-Night Vacation w/Car & Air - Italy Travel Packages

2010-09-29T11:27:00.008-04:00

Escape to Italy's Amalfi Coast for a vacation filled with stunning scenery, great wine and gourmet cuisine at 60% less than the price of similar packages.

Depart November-January on Wednesdays to obtain the deal. The $799 per person package includes:

1) Roundtrip airfare to Naples from New York City or Newark; Boston +$30
2) Six nights at the Hotel Gardenia in Sorrento, located along the Corsa Italia, Sorrento's main street
3) Weeklong car rental with manual transmission (automatic available)

Finish off this vacation with an upgrade on the final two nights to the four-star Villa Franca Hotel in Positano for only $99 more per person. This luxurious and sought-after hotel offers breathtaking views overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula between Naples and Salerno. It is renowned for its rugged terrain, scenic beauty, picturesque towns and rich history. The famed towns of Positano, Pompeii and Capri are located 8 to 17 miles from the Hotel Gardenia.

Note: A seven-night version of this Amalfi Coast vacation package including an extra night in Sorrento is also available at discounted rates.

Book by Oct. 8 to reserve your discounted Italy tour and save over $1000.

Italian Cooking Show Authentic Italian Recipes

2010-06-27T17:20:00.010-04:00

WebVisionItaly.com produces the Italian Cooking Show with authentic Italian recipes prepared by the best Italian chefs in the world. To learn how to prepare flavorful authentic Italian recipes click WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking Show - it's better than the best Italian cookbook - it's an Italian Cookbook with video.

WebVisionItaly.com Italy is an authentic look into life and food in Italy. And what would life in Italy be without an Italian cooking show full of authentic Italian recipes prepared by native Italian chefs from the world's best Italian restaurants in New York, Providence, Los Angeles, Miami, Rome, Florence, Milan, and more. WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking show is the only authentic Italian recipe television show presenting Italian food recipes prepared by native Italian chefs. Each Italian Cooking Show focuses on a region of Italy where the chef preparing the Italian recipe is an authentic Italian chef to the region of Italy.

WebVisionItaly.com opens up the world of authentic Italian cooking and Italian recipes by bringing you video of the Italian chefs preparing Italian food recipes that they were born into. If you’ve always wanted to immerse yourself in the aromas, the sounds and the flavor of rustic Italian cooking with a modern flair, you have over 50 Italian cooking TV shows to choose from. Each authentic Italian cooking show shows you how to prepare traditional Italian recipes you’ll love. The WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking Show is an Italian Cookbook with video. No need to buy the Italian cooking DVD or buy the Italian cookbook - all the authentic Italian recipes and the Italian cooking shows are available online on the WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking Show channel.

You can also download everyday Italian recipes to use in your Italian kitchen, including ones used on WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking television shows, right from the website. WebVisionItaly.com Italian Cooking Show is the most watched Italian TV cooking shows of all time, the dishes you’ll find on site will create a new culinary experience for you. With just one viewing of WebVisionItaly.com Italian cooking shows, you can begin creating delicious Italian dishes in your very own kitchen.

WebVisionItaly.com Italy welcomes you with open arms and a warm hug, so visit the Italian Cooking Show today.

Italian Cooking Show: Guide to Pasta Shapes & Pasta Recipes

2010-06-26T18:20:00.002-04:00

Italian Cooking Show

Italian Cooking Show by WebVisionItaly.com presents the guide to Italian pasta shapes. To get the most out of the Italian food recipes presented by the world's best Italian chefs who are featured in each episode of the Italian Cooking Show it is necessary to have an authentic guide to Italian pasta shapres.

Pasta comes in many kinds of shapes and sizes. There are many types of pasta, with pasta shapes a work of art. The pasta types are named to match the look of the pasta shapes. Below is the Italian Cooking Show list of pasta with descriptions of each pasta and its shape:

Agnolotti – similar to ravioli, but smaller. This is usually stuffed with meat, cheese, or vegetables.
Bucatini - Like a spaghetti with a hole through the middle this pasta shape is alomst like a straw. Bucatini's pasta shape makes it somewhat difficult to eat but is absolutely delicious, especially with an amatriciana sauce.
Calciuni – fried ravioli
Cannelloni – large, tube-shaped pasta, usually filled with meat or cheese.
Cappellini – very thin pasta, often called angel hair.
Capelletti - Like a tortelini perfect for soup
Conchiglie – shells of pasta
Farfalle – shaped like a butterfly or bow tie
Fettuccine – thin noodles that are somewhat wider than spaghetti
Fusilli – corkscrews
Gnocchi – potato-based pasta dumplings
Lasagna – Broad, flat noodles, usually baked with meat, cheese and tomato sauce
Linguine – Flat noodles, wider than spaghetti, but narrower than fettuccine
Maccheroni – elbow-shaped tubes, also called macaroni
Orecchiette – small belly buttons
Pappardelle – broad, long noodles
Penne – short pasta tubes
Ravioli – pillows of pasta, usually stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables
Rigatoni – short, large tubes
Sorrentino - large pasta pillow puff filled with ricotta and spinach
Spaghetti – long, thin strands of pasta
Tagliatelle – long, flat strands of pasta
Tallarines - Like a fettucine
Tortellini – small, folded pillows of pasta, usually stuffed with cheese, meat or vegetables
Ziti – large noodles, shaped like macaroni

For more Italian pasta ideas and homemade pasta recipes, click for the Italian Cooking Show.

FIFA World Cup: Italy New Zealand Highlights

2010-06-24T08:51:00.001-04:00

Italy 1-1 New Zealand

Simão | MySpace Video

Milan Menswear Fashion Week Spring 2011 Summer 2011

2010-06-19T06:21:00.003-04:00

Milan Italian Designer Fashion Week

Fashion Week: Milan Menswear
Season: Spring Summer 2011.
Date: Saturday - June 19, Tuesday - June 22, 2010

June 19. 2010
D&G, Corneliani, Costume National Homme, Laboratori Scala Ansaldo, Calvin Klein Collection, Burberry Prorsum, Frankie Morello, Versace, John Varvatos, Byblos

June 20. 2010
Bottega Veneta, Emporio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre, Salvatore Ferragamo, Vivienne Westwood, Giuliano Fujiwara, Gazzarrini, Moncler Gamme Bleu, Prada, Roberto Cavalli

June 21. 2010
Ermenegildo Zegna, Z Zegna, Enrico Coveri, Gucci, John Richmond, Etro, Canali, Neil Barrett, Pringle of Scotland

June 22. 2010
Iceberg, Dsquared2, Ermanno Scervino, Dolce & Gabbana

Fore more Italian fashion designer runway shows and Italian fashion trends visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel.

Milan - Women's Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Week
September 22 - 28

January 2011

Milan - Men's Fall / Winter 2011 Fashion Week
January 15 - 19

February 2011

Milan - Women's Fall / Winter 2011 Fashion Week
February 23 - March 01

June 2011

Milan - Men's Spring / Summer 2012 Fashion Week
June 18 - 22

September 2011

Milan - Women's Spring / Summer 2012 Fashion Week
September 21 - 27

January 2012

Milan - Men's Fall / Winter 2012 Fashion Week
January 14 - 18

Forza Italia -Defending Word Cup Champs Italy Ties Paraguay

2010-06-14T15:55:00.014-04:00

Forza Italia -Defending Word Cup Champs Italy Ties Paraguay

Cape Town South Africa hosted 2006 World Cup Champions Italian National Team in its opening game against Paraguay. Despite ESPN commentators and the rest of the world secretly wishing Italy would lose its World Cup 2010 opening match, Italy managed an unimpressive 1-1 tie against an aggressive Paraguay.

Next up in the 2010 World Cup for the Italy's national team is New Zealand, who tied Slovakia earlier today, on June 20 at 10A ET.

Click for video of Italy's goals on the road to 2010 World Cup.

World Cup 2010: italy Defending Champion Takes Field Today

2010-06-14T13:01:00.014-04:00

Italy's World Cup team, the World Cup 2010 defending champion and the four-time World Cup Soccer champions of the world come into the 2010 World Cup with a target on their back as defending champions, while simultaneously being viewed as weak by almost the entire world, including Italy. Italy is the second most successful national team in the history of the World Cup having won four titles (1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006) just one fewer than Brazil

Italy's World Cup 2010 team includes many of the same core players on the 2006 Italy World Cup champion team, returning for a second go at winning the ultimate World Cup 2010 trophy.

Italy's blue, azzurro, in Italian due to the "Azzurro Savoia" (Savoy Blue), the color traditionally linked to the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861, and maintained in the official standard of the President of the Italian Republic.

In 2006, Italy's Serie A was embroiled in scandal and Italy was expected to be dumped out of the competition quickly. The midfield were derided as having no creativity and the strikers were aging. Italy, of course, went on to top their group, beat a sensational Germany, and put on a defensive clinic against France to win the Cup on penalties.

Italy seems old and weak. They haven't impressed in warm-ups against Mexico or Switzerland, and play maker Andrea Pirlo (calf injury) could miss quite a few games. But, in the end, the Italians are the defending champions, and while they do have a penchant for giving lazy performances when the title isn't on the line, they also make it a habit of proving people wrong.

Italy 's first World Cup 2010 game is today 2:30 ET against Paraguay. For more on travel to Italy visit Italian Tourism and Italy Cruise.

Meet the Italy 2010 World Cup Squad - VIDEO

Current squad

23 players called up for 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Caps and goals as of 5 June 2010.

No.	Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Debut
Goalkeepers
1	Gianluigi Buffon	28 January 1978 (age 32)(1978-01-28)	Juventus	101 (0)	v. Russia, 29 October 1997
12	Federico Marchetti	7 February 1983 (age 27)(1983-02-07)	Cagliari	5 (0)	v. Northern Ireland, 6 June 2009
14	Morgan De Sanctis	27 March 1977 (age 33)(1977-03-27)	Napoli	3 (0)	v. Iceland, 30 March 2005
Defenders
5	Fabio Cannavaro	13 September 1973 (age 36)(1973-09-13)	Al-Ahli	133 (2)	v. Northern Ireland, 22 January 1997
19	Gianluca Zambrotta	19 February 1977 (age 33)(1977-02-19)	Milan	94 (2)	v. Norway, 10 February 1999
4	Giorgio Chiellini	14 August 1984 (age 25)(1984-08-14)	Juventus	29 (2)	v. Finland, 17 November 2004
3	Domenico Criscito	30 December 1986 (age 23)(1986-12-30)	Genoa	7 (0)	v. Switzerland, 12 August 2009
2	Christian Maggio	11 February 1982 (age 28)(1982-02-11)	Napoli	5 (0)	v. Greece, 19 November 2008
13	Salvatore Bocchetti	30 November 1986 (age 23)(1986-11-30)	Genoa	5 (0)	v. Republic of Ireland, 10 October 2009
23	Leonardo Bonucci	1 May 1987 (age 23)(1987-05-01)	Bari	2 (1)	v. Cameroon, 3 March 2010
Midfielders
8	Gennaro Gattuso	9 January 1978 (age 32)(1978-01-09)	Milan	72 (1)	v. Sweden, 23 February 2000
21	Andrea Pirlo	19 May 1979 (age 31)(1979-05-19)	Milan	66 (8)	v. Azerbaijan, 7 September 2002
6	Daniele De Rossi	24 July 1983 (age 26)(1983-07-24)	Roma	54 (8)	v. Norway, 4 September 2004
16	Mauro Camoranesi	4 October 1976 (age 33)(1976-10-04)	Juventus	53 (5)	v. Portugal, 12 February 2003
17	Angelo Palombo	25 September 1981 (age 28)(1981-09-25)	Sampdoria	17 (0)	v. Croatia, 16 August 2006
7	Simone Pepe	30 August 1983 (age 26)(1983-08-30)	Juventus	15 (0)	v. Bulgaria, 11 October 2008
22	Riccardo Montolivo	18 January 1985 (age 25)(1985-01-18)	Fiorentina	13 (0)	v. South Africa, 17 October 2007
15	Claudio Marchisio	19 January 1986 (age 24)(1986-01-19)	Juventus	4 (0)	v. Switzerland, 12 August 2009
Strikers
11	Alberto Gilardino	5 July 1982 (age 27)(1982-07-05)	Fiorentina	41 (16)	v. Norway, 4 September 2004
9	Vincenzo Iaquinta	21 November 1979 (age 30)(1979-11-21)	Juventus	37 (5)	v. Iceland, 30 March 2005
10	Antonio Di Natale	13 October 1977 (age 32)(1977-10-13)	Udinese	33 (9)	v. Turkey, 20 November 2002
18	Fabio Quagliarella	31 January 1983 (age 27)(1983-01-31)	Napoli	20 (4)	v. Scotland, 29 March 2007
20	Giampaolo Pazzini	2 August 1984 (age 25)(1984-08-02)	Sampdoria	8 (1)	v. Montenegro, 28 March 2009

For more about Italy travel visit Amalfi Coast holidays, Sicily tours, and cruises around Italy for the best Italy travel deals.

Giro d'Italia 2010 Wrap Up: Ivan Basso 2nd Victory in Giro d'Italia

2010-06-01T10:03:00.008-04:00

After 21 stages around Italy's regions Ivan Basso won his second Giro d'Italia.

The Giro d'Italia finished Sunday with a loop around Verona. Although the Italian Ivan Basso did not win the Verona stage 21, he is the overall Giro d'Italia 2010 winner, making an Italian the Giro d' Italia champion.

It's been four years since Basso first found glory winning the Giro d'Italia. In between there was a fall from grace, a laborious resurrection, and finally redemption, when Basso once again cinched victory Sunday in his beloved "Giro."

Last year Basso returned for the Centennial Giro d'Italia famed Italian race, where he finished fifth place. While the result failed to create much of a stir in the media, Basso was hopeful.

He improved slightly with a fourth-place in the Tour of Spain at the end of 2009, but it was in this year's Giro that Basso once again became a winner. Like other pre-race favorites Cadel Evans and Alexandre Vinokourov, Basso struggled to control this uncontrollable three-week race that started in Holland.

The first week on the 2010 Giro d'Italia was filled with horrible spring weather in Italy that brought suffering crashes to all the cyclists. Basso and the Liquigas Team returned to Italyafter the Holland portion and dominated the team time trial. The 30- year old Basso, along with up-and-coming teammate Vincenzo Nibali, folded on stage seven from Carrara to Montalcino in rain filled deluge that transformed the stage's Tuscan white dirt roads of the "Strade Bianche" into a muddy mess.

The two minutes he lost to Montalcino that day were followed by a 12-plus minutes he and the other 2010 Giro d'Italia favorites lost when nearly 50 riders broke away on stage 11 to the earthquake town of L'Aquila on another rain-drenched stage. Suddenly the most prominent threat in the race wasn't from Evans or Vinokourov, but Spaniard David Arroyo, who was now sitting comfortably in the lead.

However, Giro d'Italia fans know that it is the mountain stages in the final weeks that determine who will be the Giro d'Italia winner. Basso exploited the mountain stages in the final week. While other favorites were exhausted, Basso rebounded, proving that he is still one of the world's top climbers when he's at his best. And with each climb he chipped away at Arroyo's lead.

The most impressive moment came when he soloed to victory on the Monte Zoncolan, one of the hardest climbs in all of professional bike racing, at the finish of stage 15. But the most decisive moment came when he launched an attack with Stefano Garzelli and his teammate Nibali on stage 19 to Aprica.

Surging on the Mortirolo Pass, in Lombardy, a climb Lance Armstrong called the hardest in all cycling, the trio rolled away from the competition. In contrast to his famed climbing skills, Basso is also noted as a wretched descender. Yet chaperoned by Nibali, one of the best, Basso held his advantage down the mountain, and the trio only increased their lead on the final climb to Aprica. At the finish, the pink leader's jersey was his. Days later, so was his second victory in the famed Giro d'Italia.

After taking over the pink jersey on Friday Basso stated regarding his past doping problems, "What good does it do to stir that up again... That's an old story from 2006. What interests me is what I have been able to do since I put a number back on my jersey. Being in the middle of the storm makes you suffer, but also grow. The last four years are behind me. I prefer to think about the present... The Tour de France, I want it too much," Basso said. "That's where my career was shattered and that's where it will really start again. I want to give the Tour what it gave to me-a lot of joy and emotion."

Nevertheless, after his final victory in Verona on Sunday, Basso admitted, "credibility is earned one day at a time."

Final overall standings at the 2010 Giro d'Italia:

1. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) 87hr 44min 01sec, 2. David Arroyo (ESP/GCE) at 1:51, 3. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/LIQ) 2:37, 4. Michele Scarponi (ITA/AND) 2:50, 5. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) 3:27, 6. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ/AST) 7:06, 7. Richie Porte (AUS/SAX) 7:22, 8. Carlos Sastre (ESP/CTT) 9:39, 9. Marco Pinotti (ITA/THR) 14:20, 10. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO/LIQ) 14:51, 11. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 17:10, 12. Bauke Mollema (NED/RAB) 19:41, 13. John Gadret (FRA/ALM) 23:03, 14. Vladimir Karpets (RUS/KAT) 25:21, 15. Mauricio Ardila (COL/RAB) 32:29, 16. Linus Gerdemann (GER/MRM) 34:49, 17. Dario Cioni (ITA/SKY) 36:44, 18. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/RAB) 37:27, 19. Alexander Efimkin (RUS/ALM) 39:43, 20. Hubert Dupont (FRA/ALM) 45:17, 21. Francis de Greef (BEL/OLO) 50:08, 22. Iban Mayoz (ESP/FOT) 1hr 07min 37sec, 23. Thomas Voeckler (FRA/BTL) 1h10:16, 24. Pieter Weening (NED/RAB) 1h10:55, 25. Vladimir Miholjevic (CRO/ASA) 1h11:10
Selected: 40. Bradley Wiggins (GBR/SKY) 1h47:58

Italy Arts Guide: CIty by CIty Guide to Italy Art Exhibitions

2010-04-22T10:26:00.000-04:00

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

BASSANO DEL GRAPPA - Museo Civico: 22 works by 16th-century master Jacopo da Ponte, show marks 500th anniversary of birth; until June 13.

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Inca, Origins and Mysteries of the Civilisation of Gold; 250 artefacts, until June 27.

CASTELFRANCO VENETO - Casa del Giorgione: home-town show marking 500th anniversary of Giorgione's death; 130 works by Veneto painter and other Renaissance masters including Bellini, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian; until April 11.

COMO - Villa Olmo: Pieter Paul Rubens, 25 works plus 40 by painters of his circle including Van Dyck, Jordaens, Thulden; until July 25:

FERRARA - Palazzo Diamanti: 20th Century Masterpieces from the Maeght Foundation; some 100 works by Matisse, Kandinsky, Chagall, Miro', Leger, Calder, Giacometti, Bonnard, Braque and others who showed their work at the gallery of Aime' Maeght in Paris; until June 2.

FORLI' - Musei di San Domenico: Flowers: Nature and Symbol from the 17th Century to Van Gogh; 100 works from international museums including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Courbet, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Klimt; until June 20.

GENOA - Villa del Principe: Genoa's most celebrated palazzo celebrates its reopening with a show gathering 80 landscapes in the Doria Pamphilij collections including Caravaggio's Rest on the Flight into Egypt; until September 26.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: Goya and modern masters, 184 works by Spanish great and later artists including Miro', Picasso, Bacon and Pollock; until June 27.

- Triennale: Roy Lichtenstein, 100 works from the Guggenheim, Whitney, Vienna's Moderner Kunst museums; until May 30.

- Palazzo Reale: Egon Schiele and his Viennese contemporaries; 80 works on loan from Vienna's Leopold Museum; until June 6.

NAPLES - six city museums: The Return of the Baroque, 350 works and 27 tours; until April 11.

PARMA - Three city venues show Parma University's huge archive on 20th century Italian art; Palazzo del Governatore (art, photography), Galleria San Ludovico (fashion) and Scuderie della Pilotta (architecture and design), until April 25.

PIACENZA - Fondazione Ricci Oddi: 19th-Century Tuscan Painting, Macchiaioli and beyond, 40 works; until May 2.

POMPEII - Entrance to site: exhibition on city's final day on August 24, AD 79; scale of destruction; history of digs; current risks from Vesuvius; present show until August 1 but will later be part of a permanent display introducing visitors to the site.

RAGUSA - Palazzo Garofalo: Ten Ancient Greek helmets loaned for first time ever by Pergamon Museum in Berlin, some from Olympia, flanked by five similar artefacts hauled up from Sicilian waters and normally on show in regional museums; until April 28.

ROME - Palazzo Massimo: Treasures from Morgantina; 16 ancient Greek masterpieces from southern Italian site returned by Met; until May 23.

- Musei Capitolini: The Age of Conquest: The Lure of Greek Art in Rome; masterpieces looted from Greece between the third and first centuries BC; until September 5.

- Scuderie del Quirinale: Caravaggio, 24 masterpieces from Italy and abroad including Musicians from the Met, Lute Player from the Hermitage, Amor Vincit Omnia from Berlin, Uffizi's Bacchus, David With the Goliath's Head from Borghese, Fruit Bowl from Biblioteca Ambrosiana; till June 13, first of string of events marking 400 years since his death.

- Fondazione Roma Museo: Edward Hopper, 170 works mostly from New York's Whitney Museum including The Sheridan Theatre, New York Interior, Pennsylvania Coal Town, South Carolina Morning, Summer Interior, Morning Sun, Second Story Sunlight, A Woman in the Sun and Girlie Show; until June 13.

- Vittoriano: From Corot to Manet, The Symphony of Nature; 170 Impressionist works including Corbet, Boudin, Pissaro, Sisley; until June 29.

- Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo: The Secret of Marble, Painted Marble From Ascoli Satriano; 11 Ancient Greek works from the ancient city of Ausculum in Apulia including griffins returned by Getty Museum in 2007; until April 18.

ROVERETO - Mart: From the Stage to the Canvas, 200 paintings depicting theatre productions by such artists as David, Delacroix, Fussli, Degas, Ingres and many others; until May 23.

SIENA - Santa Maria della Scala, Opera della Metropolitana and Pinacoteca Nazionale: 'From Jacopo della Quercia to Donatello, Early Renaissance Art in Siena'; 300 works including 20 polyptychs reconstructed for the occasion, 25 restored works, loans from around the world; until July 10.

TIVOLI - Villa Adriana: Show charting rise and fall of Hadrian's Villa; dozens of artefacts returned from collections around the world; until November 1.

TREVISO - Casa dei Carraresi: The Secrets of the Forbidden City, Matteo Ricci at the Ming Court; until May 9.

VIGEVANO - Castello Visconteo: Leonardo da Vinci's output during his time in Lombardy; 'virtual codex' on flying, botany, mathematics, weaponry, astronomy, engineering and architecture; until April 5.

Weather in Italy Today - Fresh Spring Weather perfect for Italy Travel

2010-04-22T07:30:00.000-04:00

Rome Palm Sunday: Santa Maria Della Quercia

2010-03-28T05:52:00.011-04:00

Santa Maria della Quercia to the southeast of Piazza Farnese in Piazza della Quercia, was designed by Filippo Raguzzini, the same architect who designed one of my favorite little piazza's in Rome, the "stage set" outside S. Ignazio.

Walking in Rome it is easy to miss this little Piazza della Quercia and Santa Maria della Quercia because it is tucked away in Rome's centro storico where on a Rome walking tour there is so much to see on a walking tour of Rome's centro storico. Nevertheless, this spot deserves a few moments.

Raguzzini is a late Baroque architect whose personal style may best described by the word "simplicity" because his buildings take a single idea, explore it and stop in contrast to Baroque architecture in Rome which typically loads up the visually complex. This individual Baroque architecture style is evident on the Santa Maria della Quercia's facade which is a single sinuous curve. Note the middle pair of pilasters, which rather than follow the curve, are compressed to make them interact with the facade creating an illusion that they are being swallowed.

Santa Maria della Quercia is maintained by the butchers of Rome. Every Palm Sunday in Rome Rome's butchers come here , set up grills, and cook for Rome's people. The funds gained are used to buy food for the poor on Easter Sunday in Rome. When traveling in Italy for Palm Sunday be sure to take a walk past Piazza Farnese, close to Campo de' Fiori to come eat some grilled meats by the butchers of Rome who are grilling here in Piazza della Quercia on Palm Sunday.

Lake Como Ferry

2010-03-23T14:44:00.007-04:00

Lake Como Ferry is the ideal transportation for getting around Lake Como. We call it the Lake Como Ferry Go Round. First, we purchased an all-day ferry pass for transportation around Lake Como.

Then we started our ferry-go-round on the central part of Lake Como, beginning at Cadenabbia, where we are staying, on to Bellagio, where we lunched and shopped, then to Varenna, for an espresso, around to Lenno, where we walked, and on to Menaggio, where we shopped again and sipped a local red wine, Sassella. Menaggio captured our hearts.

Our last stop will be Tremezzo for dinner.

Such is day on a ferry-go-round in Lake Como on the Lake Como Ferry.

Three Tenors Christmas Music - Let it Snow

2009-12-25T12:55:00.002-05:00

Three Tenors Christmas Music - Let it Snow

Christmas Music - Feliz Navidad - Three Tenors

2009-12-25T02:15:00.000-05:00

Christmas Music - Feliz Navidad - Three Tenors

Three Tenors Christmas Music: O Holy Night

2009-12-24T23:55:00.002-05:00

Three Tenors Christmas Music: O Holy Night

Merry Christmas Music - Pavarotti - Ave Maria

2009-12-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Music - Pavarotti - Ave Maria

Italian Christmas Music: Luciano Pavarotti - Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle

2009-12-24T21:40:00.001-05:00

Italian Christmas Music: Pavarotti - Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle

Three Tenors Christmas Concert - Winter Wonderland

2009-12-24T20:00:00.001-05:00

Three Tenors Christmas Concert - Winter Wonderland

Italian Christmas Music - Carol of Drummer - Three Tenors

2009-12-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

Italian Christmas Music - Carol of Drummer - Three Tenors

Christmas Music - Jingle Bells - Three Tenors

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

Jingle Bells - Three Tenors in Concert

Three Tenors Christmas Music - Sleigh Ride

2009-12-24T16:35:00.000-05:00

Three Tenors Christmas Music - Sleigh Ride

Italian Christmas Music: Luciano Pavarotti & Trisha Yearwood - Adeste Fideles

2009-12-24T12:07:00.000-05:00

Italy would not be Christmas with out wonderful music. Here is Luciano Pavarotti & Trisha Yearwood - Adeste Fideles

Merry Christmas from WebVisionItaly.com to you and your family.

Christmas in Italy - Art Exhibits & Italy Christmas Traditions

2009-12-20T09:06:00.008-05:00

Christmas in Italy - Art Exhibits & Italy Christmas Traditions

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire in Italy's piazzas full of families on an Italian passeggiata marks the season of Christmas in Italy. Enjoy this video to learn more about Italy's Christmas traditions and below a full list of art shows to visit if you find yourself on a Christmas in Italy vacation:

(ANSA) - Rome, December 18 - The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Inca, Origins and Mysteries of the Civilisation of Gold; 250 artefacts, until June 27.

CASTELFRANCO VENETO - Casa del Giorgione: home-town show marking 500th anniversary of Giorgione's death; 130 works by Veneto painter and other Renaissance masters including Bellini, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian; until April 11.

CATANIA - Palazzo Valle: Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana; until March 14.

FERRARA - Palazzo dei Diamanti: Boldini In The Paris Of The Impressionists; show on Ferrara-born artist's 'beau monde' portraiture years from 1871 to 1886; until January 10.

FLORENCE - Uffizi: 'The Never Seen', annual Christmas display of works taken out of storage or recently acquired such as a portrait by Bolognese Renaissance master Amico Aspertini; 100 others include Dosso Dossi, Castagno, Salvati; until mid-January.

MILAN - Pinacoteca di Brera: Carlo Crivelli, San Domenico Triptych, works from Marche and loans from major world museums; until March 28.

- Palazzo Reale: Edward Hopper, 160 works; until January 24.

- same venue: Japan. Power and Splendour: 1569-1868, showcases 100 masterpieces on rare loan from Japan; until March 8.

- Triennale: Frank Gehry, projects since Guggenheim in Bilbao (1997); until January 10.

- same venue: Sandro Chia; until January 15.

- Castello Sforzesco: La Monaca di Monza; Hayez and other painters capture Manzoni's famed 'Promessi Sposi' character and the woman she was based on, Spanish aristocrat Marianna de Leyda; until March 21.

MONTECATINI TERME - Polo Espositivo Terme Tamerici: 19th century masters including Fattori, Lega, Signorini and Banti; until January 19.

NAPLES - six city museums: The Return of the Baroque, 350 works and 27 tours; until April 11.

PADUA - Museo degli Eremitani: Caravaggio, Lotto, Ribera, 50 works from the collection of art historian Roberto Longhi; until March 28.

- Palazzo Zabarella: Telemaco Signorini, show comparing 'macchiaioli' master with contemporaries like Degas, Van Gogh and Courbet; until January 31.

- Palazzo della Ragione: installation by Zaha Hadid; until March 1.

PASSARIANO - Villa Manin: The Age of Courbet and Monet; 134 works, until March 7.

PAVIA - Castello Visconteo: From Velasquez to Murillo, 50 masterpieces from the Hermitage; until January 17.

PERUGIA - Palazza Penna: 'Umbria Veloce' (Fast Umbria), show marking 100th anniversary of Futurism with paintings, self-portraits, posters, documents; until February 7.

PIACENZA - Fondazione Ricci Oddi: 19th-Century Tuscan Painting, Macchiaioli and beyond, 40 works; until May 2.

PISA - Palazzo Blu: Chagall And The Mediterranean; some 170 works; until January 17.

RIMINI - Castel Sismondo: From Rembrandt to Gauguin and Picasso; 65 masterpieces from Boston Museum of Fine Arts; until March 14.

ROME - Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo: The Secret of Marble, Painted Marble From Ascoli Satriano; 11 Ancient Greek works from the ancient city of Ausculum in Apulia including griffins returned by Getty Museum in 2007; until April 18.

- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna: Sandro Chia, 61 works by Transavanguardia artists; until February 28.

- Vittoriano: Africa, A New History; 80 works by 30 contemporary artists from 20 countries; until January 17.

- same venue: Dada and Surrealism: 500 works from world museums including Man Ray, Duchamp, Picabia, Wood, Moreau, Munch, Miro', Arp, De Chirico and Picasso; until February 7.

- Chiostro del Diamante: Boldini, De Nittis, Zandomenighi, other Italian painters in Paris; until March 14.

- Palazzo Incontro: Galileo show marking 400th anniversary of his first observations of the night sky; until January 6.

- Palazzo delle Esposizioni: Alexander Calder; until February 14.

- Galleria Borghese: Caravaggio-Bacon: ten works by Italian master compared to 20 by British painter; marks 400 years since Caravaggio's death; until January 24.

- Scuderie del Quirinale: Painting in Ancient Rome, The Colours of Empire; landscapes, still lifes, stage decor, street painting, portraits and mythological subjects from 1st century AD to late antiquity; until January 17.

- Capitoline Museums: Michelangelo's architectural works in Rome, 140 sketches, models and contemporary documents; until February 21.

TREVISO - Casa dei Carraresi: The Secrets of the Forbidden City, Matteo Ricci at the Ming Court; until May 9.

VERONA - Palazzo della Gran Guardia: Corot and Modern Art, Souvenirs and Impressions; 100 works in collaboration with Louvre; until March 7.

VIGEVANO - Castello Visconteo: Leonardo da Vinci's output during his time in Lombardy; 'virtual codex' on flying, botany, mathematics, weaponry, astronomy, engineering and architecture; until April 5.

Duomo in Florence - Santa Maria del Fiore, Firenze

2009-11-15T16:58:00.003-05:00

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is Florence's Cathedral. It is simply known as Il Duomo, and is located in the heart of Florence's centro storico. Il Duomo is known for its massive dome, which can be seen from the surrounding hills. Florence's Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore aka Il Duomo is the fourth largest cathedral in the world.

Florence Cathedral Il Duomo was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

Giotto, who was the Florence city architect at the time, designed the Campanile, the bell tower, next to Florence's Dome around 1334, when he was assigned to take voer overseeing all construction as the city of Florence architect. Although the giant Dome was part of the plan neither Cambio nor the great artist, architect & engineer Giotto had an idea how it would actually be built, as engineers in the early Renaissance did not have the experience to build such a Dome like the one atop the Pantheon in Rome, which was built by the Ancient Romans about 1500 years earlier.

The Dome's architecture and design led in 1419 to a contest financed by Florence's Cosimo de Medici to find a great engineer who in the late medieval Italy had the vision to engineer the Dome to completion. The two main competitors were Lorenzo Ghiberti (famous for his work on the "Gates of Paradise" doors at the Baptistery) and Filippo Brunelleschi who was supported by Cosimo de Medici, with Brunelleschi winning and receiving the commission. Although Brunelleschi won, Ghiberti, appointed co-adjutator, mocked his plans and called them unfeasible. Brunelleschi, deeply offended, then pretended a sickness and left for Rome, leaving the project in the hands of Ghiberti. But Ghiberti soon had to admit that the whole project was beyond him. In 1423 Brunelleschi was back in charge and took over sole responsibility.

Brunelleschi had to invent special hoisting machines for hoisting large stones. These specially designed machines and brilliant masonry techniques were Brunelleschi's spectacular contribution to architecture. The ability to transcribe a circle on a cone face within the innermost double-shelled wall makes the self-sustaining "horizontal" arch construction possible, since geometrically, a circular plan is needed for such an erection.

It could be said that the word "creativity" and the end of the medieval period marking the beginning of the Renaissance occurred when men like Brunelleschi, Giotto, Da Vinci et. al challenged their own vision and imagination to accomplish architectural structures and works of art previously thought to be impossible. In fact, creativity was only associated with great minds who attained previously thought of impossibilities, unlike the late 20th century and early 21st century when rap music and inexplicable contemporary modern art are considered creative expression by some opinion leaders and art leaders.

Brunelleschi's Dome was in fact an enormous and revolutionary achievement. Much like the art of frecoes, which was lost around the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in the 1st century, the formula for concrete had long since been forgotten as well. Therefore, Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of bricks, 7 million bricks in fact, with the inner shell providing a platform for the timbers that supported the outside brick structure. To show what his dome was to look like, Brunelleschi constructed a wooden and brick model of Il Duomo with the help of Donatello and Nanni di Banco, which model may be seen in the Museum Opera del Duomo, next door to Il Duomo. In gthe Museum Opera del Duomo you may also see Donatello's wooden sculpture of Mary Magdellan. His model served as a guide for the craftsmen, but was intentionally incomplete, as to ensure his control over the construction or as we would say today to preserve his intellectual property over the design of the dome.

Brunelleschi's solutions were ingenious and unprecedented: the distinctive octagonal design of the double-walled dome, resting on a drum and not on the roof itself, allowed for the entire dome to be built without the need for scaffolding from the ground, the first large dome ever to be built without centering. But, because the dome rested on a drum with no external buttresses supporting it, there could be no lateral thrusts at the base of the dome.

There are 463 steps to the top, which today travelers to Florence may climb to find some of the best panoramic views of the city. Other highlights include a cavernous interior, many wonderful frescoes, detailed ceiling mosaics that portray Dante's circles of Hell and stained-glass windows created by some of the greatest artists of the time, such as Vasari, Zuccari, Donatello, Uccello and Ghiberti.

The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25, 1436 (the first day of the year according to the Florentine calendar). It was the first 'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a wooden supporting frame (The Roman Pantheon, a circular dome, was built in 117–128 A.D. with support structures). It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance. During the consecration service in 1436, Guillaume Dufay's similarly unique motet Nuper rosarum flores was performed. The structure of this motet was strongly influenced by the structure of the dome.

Brunelleschi's ability to crown the dome with a lantern was questioned and he had to undergo another competition. He was declared the winner over his competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Antonio Ciaccheri. His design was for an octagonal lantern with eight radiating buttresses and eight high arched windows (now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo). Construction of the lantern was begun a few months before his death in 1446. Then, for 15 years, little progress was possible, due to alterations by several architects. The lantern was finally completed by Brunelleschi's friend Michelozzo in 1461. The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics, by Verrocchio in 1469. This brings the total height of the dome and lantern to 114.5 meters (375 ft). This copper ball was struck by lightning on 17 July 1600 and fell down. It was replaced by an even larger one two years later.

Piazza del Duomo
Firenze 50122 Italy
+39 055 215 380
info@duomofirenze.it
Open Hours10am-5.30pm Mon-Sat (10am-3.30pm 1st Sat each month); 1-5pm Sun
Click here for the Duomo Offical Website

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Genoa Italy - Great Italy Destination & Home of Christopher Columbus

2009-10-12T10:34:00.009-04:00

Genoa Italy offers the Italy vacation traveler fine food, great museums, a lively city, and history which inlcudes the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, explorer and sailor who discovered the new world and changed Western history in 1492.

Christopher Columbus is known as ‘the man who discovered America’, when he set sail from Europe trying to find a westward sea passage to the Orient. He instead landed in the Caribbean Sea dubbed The New World in 1492. Today is the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492 in the Julian calendar and October 21, 1492 in the modern Gregorian calendar.

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451. His father was a weaver and small-time merchant, and Columbus had two more siblings. As a teenager, Christopher started his sea voyages traveling extensively. Columbus eventually made Portugal his base. It was from here, in Portugal that he attempted to gain royal patronage for a westward voyage to the Orient - his ‘Enterprise of the Indies’. No king or royal kingdom was ready to fund his project. He tried to convince them, but failed everywhere, except for the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who saw some promise in his proposal. Finally, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to sponsor this historic sailing expedition, and on 3 August 1492, Columbus and his fleet of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, set sail across the Atlantic. Some two and a half months later, they sighted land.

On 12 October, Columbus and a group of his men set foot on an island’s soil, what later became famously known as the Bahamas. However, Columbus thought that he had reached the Indies, so the sailors started calling the natives of that island as ‘Indians’. In all, Columbus made 4 voyages to the west, till his health degraded badly and he was unable to sail further. He died of arthritis and malaria. The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas is observed as Columbus Day on October 12 in Spain and throughout the Americas, except that in the United States it is observed on the second Monday in October.

With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispanila (Dominican Republic and Haiti), all funded by Isabella I of Castile. Columbus initiated the process of Spanish colonization, which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World."

Funding for Christopher Columbus expedition to The New World
Columbus sought financing from all the European Monarchs at the end of the 15th century. On 1 May 1486 Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. Althought the committee rejected the plan, to keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, Ferdinand and Isabella, known as the Catholic Monarchs, gave him an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedia and in 1489 furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under the the domain of Ferdinand and Isabella to provide him food and lodging at no cost.

After continually lobbying at the Spanish court and two years of negotiations, he finally had success in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, and they received Columbus in Cordoba, in the Alcazar castle. Isabella turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving town by mule in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered".

About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke after the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous, but as his son later wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return.
According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he would receive many high rewards.

In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands. He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10% of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this part was denied to him in the contract, although it was one of his demands. Additionally, he would also have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits.

Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and supplanted from these posts. After his death, Columbus's sons, Diego and Fernando, took legal action to enforce their father's contract. Many of the smears against Columbus were initiated by the Castilian crown during these lengthy court cases, known as the pleitos colombinos. The family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as Viceroy, but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes continued until 1790.

My Rome-Walking Tour Guide Maurizio Meyer walks Rome

2009-10-04T21:52:00.003-04:00

My Rome-Walking Tour with Maurizio Meyer from old Rome centro storico Campo de' Fiori and Piazza Navona, walking through Rome's cobblestone streets passing Palazzo Farnese, walk down to Via Giulia cross Ponte Sisto over Tiber River west to Trastevere, and then climbing the Janiculum Hill for bird's eye views of Rome.

On the way Maurizio brings us to some off the beaten path Rome points of interest - each providing the Rome traveler verious bird's eye views of Rome.

Across the Tiber from Trastevere is Knights of Malta sovereign land for a look through the most famous keyhole in the world and the famous view of Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica Dome.

Maurizio's Rome tour also includes a jaunt to Monte Mario for a fabulous bird's eye view of all Rome the Tiber River and Ponte Milvio.

Maurizio's My Rome Walking Tour climb up Janiculum Hill from Trastevere offers all kinds of views of Rome's centro storico:

Rome Walking Map

Click this link for larger Rome Map: My Rome Walking Tour: Maurizio's Rome VIDEO Walking Tour of Rome Map

Fendi Spring Summer 2010: Milan Fashion Week

2009-10-03T16:54:00.000-04:00

Fendi Fashion Show Spring Summer 2010: Milan Fashion Week

Missoni Sping Summer 2010 Fashion Show: Milan Fashion Week

2009-10-03T11:35:00.002-04:00

Missoni Sping Summer 2010 Milan Fashion Show: Milan Fashion Week 2009

Milan Fashion Week wraps up after the Women's Spring Summer 2010 fashion shows from Italy's fashion designers. The world loves to see what's in store from famous Made In Italy fashion brands like Armani, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabanna, Ferre, Ferretti, Gucci, Prada, Moschino & Versace.

WebVisionItaly.com brings you Milan Fashion Week, September 2009, where the runway models are strutting the fashion cat walks showing off the latest designs by Made in Italy brands. Here enjoy video of Missoni Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway.

Gucci Spring Summer 2010 Runway Video: Milan fashion Week

2009-10-02T21:04:00.001-04:00

Gucci Spring Summer 2010 Runway Video: Milan fashion Week

Milan Fashion Week wraps up after the Women's Spring Summer 2010 fashion shows from Italy's fashion designers. The world loves to see what's in store from famous Made In Italy fashion brands like Armani, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabanna, Fendi, Ferre, Ferretti, Gucci, Prada, Max Mara, Missoni, Moschino & Versace.

WebVisionItaly.com brings you Milan Fashion Week, September 2009, where the runway models are strutting the fashion cat walks showing off the latest designs by Made in Italy brands. Here enjoy video of Gucci Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway show.

For more on Italian fashion visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel.

Max Mara 2010 Spring Summer Milan 2010: Milan Fashion Week

2009-10-02T11:25:00.001-04:00

Max Mara 2010 Spring Summer Runway Fashion Show: Milan Fashion Week

Milan Fashion Week wraps up after the Women's Spring Summer 2010 fashion shows from Italy's fashion designers. The world loves to see what's in store from famous Made In Italy fashion brands like Armani, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabanna, Ferre, Ferretti, Gucci, Prada, Moschino & Versace.

WebVisionItaly.com brings you Milan Fashion Week, September 2009, where the runway models are strutting the fashion cat walks showing off the latest designs by Made in Italy brands. Here enjoy Max Mara Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway Video.

For more on Italian fashion visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel.

Alberta Ferretti Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway Video: Milan Fashion Week

2009-10-01T12:32:00.001-04:00

Alberta Ferretti Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway Video: Milan Fashion Week

Milan Fashion Week wraps up after the Women's Spring Summer 2010 fashion shows from Italy's fashion designers. The world loves to see what's in store from famous Made In Italy fashion brands like Armani, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabanna, Ferre, Ferretti, Gucci, Prada, Moschino & Versace.

WebVisionItaly.com brings you Milan Fashion Week, September 2009, where the runway models are strutting the fashion cat walks showing off the latest designs by Made in Italy brands. Here enjoy video of Alberta Ferretti Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway.

For more on Italian fashion visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel.

Italy Cities Art Guide Fall 2009

2009-10-01T02:42:00.000-04:00

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

BOLZANO - Museo Archeologico dell'Alto Adige: Iceman joined by more than 60 mummies from Ancient Egypt, Asia, South America and Oceania; until October 25.

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Inca, Origins and Mysteries of the Civilisation of Gold; 250 artefacts, December 4-June 27.

CALDAROLA (MACERATA) - Palazzo dei Cardinali Pallotta: reassembled collection of 17th-century cardinal; 60 works by artists including Caravaggio, Guercino, Guido Reni, Mattia Preti, Carlo Maratta, Annibale Carracci, Ludovico Carracci and Elisabetta Sirani; until November 12.

FERRARA - Palazzo dei Diamanti: Boldini In The Paris Of The Impressionists; show on Ferrara-born artist's 'beau monde' portraiture years from 1871 to 1886; until January 10.

FLORENCE - Palazzo Pitti, Limonaia: From Petra to Sharwak, 20 years of Florence University digs at famed ancient cities in Jordan; until October 11.

- Medici Chapels: show on life and times of Ferdinand I de' Medici, powerful third grand duke of Tuscany (1549-1609), marking 400th anniversary of his death; until November 1.

GRADARA - Rocca: Stolen Kisses; show in castle where Dante's doomed lovers kissed; 18th-century paintings of Paolo and Francesca, Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere and first version of Francesco Hayez's 'The Kiss'; plus videos of Italian movie kisses; until November 2.

MAMIANO DI TRAVERSETOLO (PARMA) - Fondazione Magnani Rocca: Futurism, From Boccioni To Aeropittura: centred around Gino Severini's 1915 masterpiece La Danzeuse, over 100 paintings from 1920s and '30s by Boccioni, Balla, Severini, Sironi, Soffici, Russolo, Depero, Prampolini as well as sculpture, Futurist books, clothes, advertising, ending with 'aeropittura' of flying by Dottori, Crali, Fillia; until December 8.

MANTUA - Palazzo Ducale: 15 installations by Stefano Arienti; until January 6.

MARSALA - Convento del Carmine: Monochrome; 70 works from post-war Italy to the 1970s by artists including Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana and Mimmo Rotella; until October 18.

MATERA - Palazzo Lanfranchi: Splendours of the Hidden Baroque; 100 works by Baroque painters in southern Italy including Luca Giordano; until November 1.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: 250 paintings from influential 19th-century Scapigliatura movement; until November 22.

- same venue: Robert Wilson's 'Voom Portraits', celebrities like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey, Salma Hayek, Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Moreau, Brad Pitt and Princess Caroline of Monaco; but also ordinary people and animals; until October 4.

- same venue: 20 Monet water lily works from Musee' Marmottan in Paris; until September 27.

- same venue: 36 years of cartoons by political satirist Giorgio Forattini; until September 27.

MONTECATINI TERME - Polo Espositivo Terme Tamerici: 19th century masters including Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini and Cristiano Banti; until January 19.

NAPLES - Palazzo Reale: Futurism, 100 Years, 100 Manifestos; manifestos, posters, short films by Marinetti and others ranging from painting to sculpture, architecture and music; show first seen at Rome's MACRO earlier this year, now with Neapolitan Futurism added; until November 3.

- MADRE: Francesco Clemente; 110 works by the New York-based Italian contemporary artist; until October 12.

NUORO - Museo Man: Fabrizio De Andre', multimedia and interactive show on Genoese singer-songwriter; until October 4.

PADUA - Palazzo Zabarella: Telemaco Signorini, show comparing 'macchiaioli' master with contemporaries like Degas, Van Gogh and Courbet; until January 31.

PARMA - Futurismo! celebrating the movement's centenary is running at Parma's Magnani Rocca Foundation until December 8.

PIACENZA - Fondazione Ricci Oddi: 19th-Century Tuscan Painting, macchiaioli and beyond, 40 works including Fattori, Signorini, Boldini, De Nittis, Nomellini, Corcos; until May 2.

PORDENONE - Civici Musei d'Arte and Spazi Espositivi Provinciali: tribute to Harry Bertoia (1915-1978), artist and designer best known for 'Diamond' Knoll chair, who left native Friuli at 15; until September 28.

PRATO - Museo del Tessuto: The Style of the Czar; 130 imperial silks and paintings that went from Italy to Ancient Muscovy and later Russian courts between 14th and 18th centuries; loaned by major Italian and Russian galleries including, for the first time, the Hermitage Textile Collection; until January 10.

ROME - Colosseum: 'Divus Vespasanius', celebration of Emperor Vespasian, general who took throne from Nero in 69 AD and transformed Rome, founding Flavian dynasty who built Colosseum; until January 10.

- Various sites including Forum, Piazza Barberini: 'La Ruta de la Paz', monumental bronze and marble works by Costa Rican sculptor Jorge Jimenez Deredia; exhibition outlined at Palazzo delle Esposizioni; until November 30.

- Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale Giuseppe Tucci: Murals of India, 50 photographs by Benoy K. Belh; until October 10.

- MACRO modern art gallery: Latest New York trends including Street Punk, Wild Figuration and New Abstraction; until November 1.

TRENTO - Palazzo delle Albere: Hayez, Prati, Bezzi, Segantini and other 19th-century Trento painters; until November 22.

VENICE - Biennale: 53th and biggest-ever edition of world's oldest arts festival; 90 artists at 77 national pavilions, including Joan Jonas, Lygia Pape, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Xu Tan, Thomas Saraceno, Nikhil Chopra and Anawana Haloba; until November 22.

VERONA - Juliet's House: Marc Quinn sculptures and installations including famous Flowers cycle and solid gold Siren inspired by Kate Moss; until September 27.

VIGEVANO - Castello Visconteo: Leonardo da Vinci's output during his time in Lombardy; 'virtual codex' on flying, botany, mathematics, weaponry, astronomy, engineering and architecture; until April 5.

- same venue: art and artefacts showing powerful Milan Sforza dynasty, particularly Leonardo's best-known patron, Ludovico Sforza; until January 31.

Versace Spring Summer 2010 Runway Video: Milan Fashion Week

2009-09-30T19:16:00.002-04:00

Versace: Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010

Milan Fashion Week wraps up after the Women's Spring Summer 2010 fashion shows from Italy's fashion designers. The world loves to see what's in store from famous Made In Italy fashion brands like Armani, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabanna, Ferre, Ferreti, Gucci, Prada, Missoni, Moschino & Versace.

WebVisionItaly.com brings you Milan Fashion Week, September 2009, where the runway models are strutting the fashion cat walks showing off the latest designs by Made in Italy brands. Here enjoy video of Versace Spring Summer 2010 Fashion Runway.

The versace show did not disappoint the men, with mini-mini skirts on Versace's models many of which were see-through, 2010 Milan Fashion shows signal an econimic boom on the horizon if skirt lengths are still a leading indicator. Donatella Versace is not really a subtle designer — and why should she be when there are other designers who already occupy that territory? What she does best is loud and vibrant, colour combined with metal combined with contoured micro-shapes takes on a momentum of its own.

For more on Italian fashion visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Fashion channel.

Alonso joins Ferrari for three years

2009-09-30T10:54:00.004-04:00

Alonso joins Ferrari for three years

Spain's two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso has joined Ferrari for three years, the Italian Grand Prix outfit said Wednesday.

The agreement covers three racing seasons starting in 2010, Ferrari said in a statement.

Alonso, 28, will line up with Brazilian Felipe Massa with Giancarlo Fisichella in the role of reserve driver. Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world crown in 2007 will leave the Scuderia at the end of this current season.

"We are very proud to welcome to our team another winning driver, who has demonstrated his amazing talent by winning two World Championships in his career to date," said Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali.

The statement did not reveal the value of the three-year deal although media reports have estimated Alono's salary at 25 million euros (36 million US dollars) a season. After winning the drivers' championship with Renault in 2005 and 2006, Alonso spent an unhappy year with McLaren before returning to French constructor Renault last year. Speculation had been rife in the Formula One paddock of an impending move by Alonso to Ferrari with Raikkonen moving on to McLaren.

Ferrari Video:

Ferrari 2009 Geneva Car Show

Ferrari P4/P5 Video

For video of Ferrari's latest cars visit WebVisionItaly.com Italian Sports Channel.

For more about Italy vacations and Italy travel visit WebVisionItaly.com Italy Travel channel.