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

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.

Mt. Vesuvius Needs Your Help

Naples, June 12 - Vesuvius, the volcano overlooking Naples, needs help in its bid to become one of the world's New Seven Wonders of Nature, backers say.

The peak best known for burying Pompeii in 79 AD has beaten Mt Blanc and the Matterhorn to become top Italian mountain in a current Web vote.

But is still lagging Everest and the Rockies in the mountains category on the www.new7wonders.com/nature site, the town council of Ercolano warned Friday.

''Vesuvius has come out on top as Italian bidder! But the campaign goes on to get it through the semi-finals. Vote for it,'' the Neapolitan town urged. ''Your support could be crucial, Vesuvius needs all our help,'' a message on the website said.

''A possible final spot in the seven could spell a turnaround for our beautiful land, which really needs a wave of 'restoration','' it said.

For more video of Naples, Mt. Vesuvius, and the region of Campania visit the Motorino Man on WebVisionItaly.com.

Pompeii Frescoes at Naples National Archaeological Museum

(ANSA) Naples, April 30 - A collection of frescoes that once adorned the walls of Ancient Roman buildings in Pompeii are set to go on show in Naples.

The National Archaeological Museum is to open its completely revamped fresco section, which hosts 400 works of art, following a ten-year renovation project. Preserved by a hail of lava and ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, the precious artwork lay untouched for centuries until excavations started in the 1700s. Over the next 150 years, hundreds of frescoes were removed from their original location and carried away, sometimes for profit, sometimes in a bid to protect the art.

In nearly all cases, removing the artwork damaged the walls of the ancient buildings. Today, the collection housed in the Naples museum is the largest in the world, and is ready to go on show again. The principal change is an entirely new layout, which seeks to place the works in their historical context. The new layout offers visitors a chronological route through the works, charting developments in Pompeian art, as well as a thematic route, which groups together items removed from the same building wherever possible. The developments in art are mapped out through the four so-called ''styles'' of Pompeian wall-painting. The collection contains no examples of the first style, dominant from the 2nd century BC until around 80 BC, as this mainly simulated marble and other materials, and so was of little interest to early archaeologists and was rarely removed. However, there is an extensive selection of art from the second style, which was popular throughout the first century BC. This period saw a focus on architectural features and trompe l'oeil compositions, such as a renowned painting of Macedonian princes and philosophers.

The third style, which peaked in around 10 BC but still appeared in Pompeian art 70 years later, favored ornate and colorful decoration. Well-known examples from this era include a series of beautifully intricate paintings from the Boscotrecase villa, and bedroom decorations from the House of Fatal Love. The fourth style saw a resurgence in architectural scenes, although without the illusionary depth that characterized the second style.

However, a number of categories were eternally popular subjects for wall-painting. Religious and mythological subjects were long-running favorites, such as the feats of Hercules, Dido's abandonment by Aeneas, Perseus rescuing Andromeda or the love of Mars and Venus, which appears in 30 paintings. Landscape paintings also appear throughout the ages, ranging from idyllic mythological scenes to elaborate gardens to exotic locations such as Egypt, complete with Nile and crocodiles. Paintings from taverns and shops provide another recurrent category.

Generally hurried works with little preparation, these served the sole purpose of attracting attention. However, they are today of particular interest to archaeologists as they depict rare scenes from everyday life, such as tradesmen, market people, laborers and tavern scenes.

For more about Naples and the Pompeii area click Campania channel on WebVisionItaly.com.

Greece returns looted frescoes - Medieval works stolen in 1982, recovered on Greek island

Last week Greece returned to Italy two medieval frescoes looted from a tomb near Naples in 1982.

The frescoes of two saints were recovered by Greek antiquities police in a raid on Greek art traffickers on the Aegean island of Schinoussa in 2006.

They originally adorned the walls of one of the famous tufa chambers called Fornelle at Calvi south of Monte Cassino, site of the Ancient Roman city of Calves.

The particularly ornate chamber - many of whose frescoes are still missing - is believed to have been the tomb of 11th-century Count Pandolfo and his wife Countess Gualferada.

Handing over the frescoes, Greek Culture Minister Antoni Samaras said the event marked ''another important stage in collaboration with our Italian friends and partners in the fight against art theft''.

Italy and Greece launched a joint battle some years ago to crack down on trafficking and reclaim smuggled works from museums around the world.

Italy recently signed landmark deals with New York's Metropolitan Museum and the John Paul Getty Museum in California, among others, hailed as possibly paving the way for a wider-scale return of looted antiquities.

By setting a precedent that could be used by other countries, notably Greece, the accords sent alarm bells around the art world.

The 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization convention bans the import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property.

Italy High Speed Train: Milan, Naples, Florence, Rome and Bologna by TrenItalia

TrenItalia, or Ferrovie dello Stato is Italy's national train line. It is very easy to travel in Italy by train. A tip that always helps is to know the name and spelling of Italian cities in Italian language. Buy a ticket from a vending machine or from the person - either way you'll need this information to make your Italy travel easy.

TrenItalia recently introduced high-speed rail service. Italy's high speed rail routes run between Naples and Milan. This train service is called the Freccia Rossa, named after the gorgeous new red trains that run Italy's high speed rails.

TrenItalia high speed rail travel time and cost of train ticket between cities in Italy:

• Rome to Milan by high speed rail to three and a half hours. -- Roma a Milano
• Milan to Bologna by high speed train is one hour. -- Milano a Bologna
• Milan to Florence 2 hours 10 minutes -- Milano a Firenze
• Naples to Milan 4 hours and 50 minutes -- Napoli a Milano
• Rome to Bari to 4 hours. -- Roma a Bari
• Rome to Verona by high speed Freccia Rossa train to 4 hours. -- Roma a Verona
• Rome to Venice by high speed rail to 4 hours. -- Roma a Venezia

Route	Time	1st Class	2nd Class
Milan - Bologna Centrale	1h5'	$65	$46
Milan - Florence	2h10'	$78	$55
Milan - Naples	4h50'	$146	$103
Milan - Rome	3h30'	$128	$93
Lemezia T.C.le - Rome	3h59'	$93	$63
Rome - Bari Centrale	3h59'	$93	$63
Verona P.N. - Rome	3h59'	$98	$67
Rome - Venice	3h59'	$116	$81

Italy High Speed rail prices good through January 15, 2009.

High speed rail travel in Italy includes free newspapers, beverages and snacks, so don't bother buying the water and snack in Termini, Milano Centrale, Napoli, or Firenze.

Click here for video How to Buy a train ticket in Italy.  For more about traveling by train in Italy click Italy travel travel.

Where do the Italians Live in Italy?

Italians are gravitating towards 14 urban areas in the country to make their homes, Censis observed in its study on lifestyle trends.

According to the report, six out of ten Italians, or 36.4 million people, now live in these areas, which make up 17% of the country's surface area. Censis identified the mosty popular areas:

• Lombardy and Veneto,
• six cities (Turin, Rome, Verona, Naples, Palermo and Cagliari),
• four coastal strips (Liguria, the upper and lower Adriatic coasts and the eastern coast of Sicily) and
• two other 'territorial belts' in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.

Naples nativity scene row solved

(ANSA) - Naples, December 3 - Barack Obama was once more on show in nativity scenes along Naples' 'presepe' street Wednesday night after a day-long row over unlicensed Christmas vendors.

Shoppers and tourists were aghast to find the medieval Via San Gregorio Armeno - a mecca for presepe-lovers - shut down after a heavy-handed police attempt to remove unauthorised open-air stalls.

All the presepe sellers pulled down their shutters in solidarity with the stall-keepers, who hold a Christmas market at one end of the street each year dressed in traditional shepherd garb......

Other new entries are Carla Bruni, Nicolas Sarkozy and two Italian cabinet members whose reforms have made waves, Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini and Civil Service chief Renato Brunetta.

Italy Travel Fall 2008 - Arts Guide

Rome, October 24, 2008 - The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's top art exhibitions:

BOLOGNA - Pinacoteca Nazionale: Amico Aspertini (1474-1552), A Bizarre Artist in the Age of Durer and Raphael; until January 11.

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Van Gogh, Masterpieces from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands; until January 25.

CORTONA - Etruscan Academy Museum (MAEC): 30 masterpieces of Etruscan art from Russia's Hermitage museum including the only Etruscan bronze funerary urn ever found; until January 6.

FERMO - Palazzo dei Priori: leading Marche Renaissance painter Vincenzo Pagani and influences including Raphael, Carlo Crivelli; until November 9.

FLORENCE - Palazzo Strozzi: Caterina and Maria de' Medici, Women in Power; October 24-February 8.

- Galleria Palatina: Flemish Artists in Florence, 1430-1530; the likes of van Eyck, Memling and Leida compared to contemporaries Raphael, Botticelli, Castagno and Ghirlandaio; until October 26.

- Palazzo Pitti: The Medicis And Science; large collection of scientific writings and tools; until January 11.

Accademia di Belle Arti: Giovanni Fattori Past and Present, 130 works; until November 23.

- Archaeological Museum: retrospective on British sculptor Matthew Spender, who has lived in Tuscany for the last 40 years; until December 30.

GENOA - Palazzo Ducale: 'Lucio Fontana Light and Colour'; until February 15.

MAMIANO DI TRAVERSETOLO (PARMA) - Fondazione Magnani-Rocca: Giovanni Fattori, The Poetry of Truth; until November 30.

MANTUA - Ducal Palace; first major show on Jacopo Alari-Bonacorsi aka Antico, an acclaimed sculptor in Mantegna's time; bronzes of mythological figures and busts of Roman rulers loaned by the Louvre, the Met, the Victor & Albert, the Bargello and Viennese museums; from Modena's Galleria Estense, celebrated Vaso Gonzaga made for wedding of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga; until January 6.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: Georges Seurat, Paul Seignac and the neo-Impressionists; over 100 works from major international museums; until January 25.

- same venue: Tiepolos and Canalettos from the Terruzzi Collection; until January 11.

- same venue: biggest-ever retrospective on Naive artist Antonio Ligabue; 250 works until October 26.

- Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation: 'Great Works 1972-2008'; until March 22.

- Brera Academy and Palazzo Stelline (Credito Valtellinese): Mario Schifano 1943-1998, Selected Works; major retrospective marking 10th anniversary of artist's death, previously at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; until February 1.

MONTECATINI TERME - ex-Terme Tamerici: Boldini Mon Amour; 180 works by Parisian School portrait painter Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931), many unseen including three portraits of secret lover Countess Rastj; until December 30.

NAPLES - Archaeological Museum: Herculaneum: Three Centuries of Discoveries; until April 2009.

- Madre modern art gallery: Robert Rauschenberg, Travelling 1970-76; until January 19.

NUORO - MAN gallery: Man Ray, 300 pieces from his private collection; October 24-January 6.

PALERMO - Palazzo dei Normanni: The Fantastic World of Picasso, 66 works until March 8.

PARMA - National Gallery: 'Correggio', biggest exhibit on once-neglected artist in years; around 80 works flanked by 40 by contemporaries, plus chance to see three most important frescos up close in city churches; until January 25.

PERUGIA - Palazzo Baldeschi al Corso; From Corot to Picasso and Fattori to De Pisis, modern Italian and European art from two private collections including Monet, Van Gogh and Modigliani; until January 15.

REGGIO EMILIA - Palazzo Magnani and other venues; Matilda and the Treasure of Canossa, 200 works of Medieval art; until January 11.

ROME - Chiostro del Bramante: The Myth of Julius Caesar, first ever show focusing on him alone; 200 items from ancient times until the 20th century; until April 5.

- Vittoriano: Picasso 1917-1937, the Harlequin of Art; more than 180 works in first major Rome show on Spanish artist in 55 years; until February 8.

- Scuderie del Quirinale: Giovanni Bellini, biggest show in 50 years on artist Durer called 'the best of them all'; until January 11.

- Palazzo delle Esposizioni: Etruscans, The Ancient Metropoli of Latium; until January 9.

- Colosseum: Ruins and Rebirths, 80 works charting development of heritage protection; until February 15.

- Fondazione Memmo: Basquiat, 40 works until February 1.

- Castel Sant'Angelo: The Wolf And The Sphinx, Rome and Egypt From History To Myth; until November 9.

- Gagosian Gallery: Georg Baselitz, Remix series; until November 8.

- Museo dell'Ara Pacis: Bruno Munari, retrospective on artist and designer; until February 22.

SIENA - Piazza del Duomo and other city sites: Mario Ceroli, Forms In Movement; giant works by avant-garde sculptor; until November 7.

STRA - Villa Pisani: 70 paintings and monumental works by sculptor Mimmo Paladino, hand-picked and arranged by the artist in the historic villa's magnificent grounds; until November 2.

TIVOLI - Villa Adriana: Between Light and Darkness; Ancient Roman funerary beds including bone-decorated bed from Aquinum and one found on Rome's Esquiline Hill; until November 2.

TRENTO - Castello del Buonconsiglio; first major show on relatively unknown Renaissance sculptor Andrea Briosco aka Il Riccio; until November 2.

- same venue: Rembrandt and Masterpieces of European Graphics; until November 2.

TREVISO - Casa dei Carraresi: Canaletto, Venice and its Splendours; until April 5.

TURIN - San Paolo Foundation: Heavenly Empire, From Terracotta Army To Silk Road; imperial Chinese works from Qi, Han and Tang dynasties (3rd century BC to 11th century AD); until November 16.

VENICE - Biennale venues including Arsenale and Padiglione Italia: 11th International Architecture Exhibition from 56 countries entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building; 23 installations at Arsenale; experimental work of 55 international firms at the Padiglione as well as a survey of the Masters of the Experiment, five visionaries including Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid; also, Uneternal City, Thirty Years of Uninterrupted Rome, 12 designs for a possible 'new Rome'; plus 13 exhibitions around Venice by visiting countries and 24 collateral events; until November 23.

- Fondazione Cini: New Graphic Design Japan; until November 2.

- Palazzo Grassi: Italics, Italian contemporary art 1968-2008; until January 11.

VICENZA - Palazzo Barbaran: 'Palladio 500', 200 works including 30 models of Palladian architecture plus art by Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian celebrate Andrea Palladio on the 500th anniversary of his birth; until January 9, when exhibit moves to London (Royal Academy of Arts, 31 January - 13 April 2009) and on to Washington in autumn 2009.

VIGEVANO - Castello: Futurism and Modernity, mainly local artists; until December 14.

VITERBO - Rocca Albertoz Etruscan Museum: Celtic, Etruscan and other pre-Roman artefacts showing their interpretations of the night sky; show includes Celtic ceremonial brooch from Brno, Czech Republic; bronze Etruscan statuette of 'haruspex' (entrail-gazing priest); and famous 'Liver of Piacenza', a bronze model of the sheep's organ used by Etruscans to tell the future; until October 26.

Italy Travel: The Bay of Naples, a gift from God

I spent a life-altering week traveling among the islands of Capri and Ischia, Naples, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. I never knew the world could be as beautiful as around the Bay of Naples. The views, the commanding presence of Mt Vesuvius overlooking the peaceful town of Pompei close to 2,000 years after the eruption, the sunny, sunny days, the food, and best of all the people.

Pompeii made the greatest impact on me. The frozen casts of those citizens on that fateful day in 79 A.D. let the imagination construe a picture of fun and laughter, only to be shadowed by nature's supreme power. That was years ago and now approaching my senior year in college, I have since learned Italian, returned to Italy on two occassions, soon three. Italia, il bel paese.

Visit the Campania Channel on http://www.webvisionitaly.com/

Nathaniel