Things to do in Italy
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FEATURED
Highlights Of Italy
8 days (Venice)
by Intrepid
Lose yourself in enchanting Venice city, Feast on scrumptious seafood on Italy's coast, Travel down the Cinque Terre's rugged coastal path, Witness a golden…Not LP reviewed
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Chiesa di Sant’Andrea al Quirinale
It’s said that in his old age Bernini liked to come and enjoy the peace of this late-17th-century church, regarded by many as one of his greatest. Faced with severe space limitations, he managed to produce a sense of grandeur by designing an elliptical floor plan with a series of chapels opening onto the central area. The opulent interior, decorated with polychrome marble, stucco and gilding, was a favourite of Pope Alexander VII, who used it while in residence at the Palazzo del Quirinale.
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Chiesa di Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza
Hidden in the porticoed courtyard of Palazzo della Sapienza, this tiny church is a masterpiece of baroque architecture. Built by Francesco Borromini between 1642 and 1660, and based on an incredibly complex geometric plan, it combines alternating convex and concave walls with a circular interior topped by a twisted spire.
Palazzo della Sapienza, seat of Rome’s university until 1935 and now home to the Italian state archive, is often used to stage temporary exhibitions.
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St Peter's Square
From above, Piazza San Pietro looks like a giant keyhole. The square's creator, Bernini, described the double colonnade as 'the motherly arms of the church'. He'd planned for the square to gob-smack pilgrims as they emerged from the tangle of medieval streets, an effect spoilt when Mussolini bulldozed Via della Conciliazione through the area. Caligula shipped in the central obelisk from Heliopolis, and it was later used by Christian-culling Nero as a turning post at his chariot-racing circus.
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Conca d’Oro
Pizza is not a local speciality, in case you hadn’t guessed from the cardboard pies you’ll find at most pizzerias around San Marco – but this place is the exception. This local joint brought pizza to Venice in 1960 and has been slinging generous thin-crust pies (€7 to €10) with creative toppings ever since, though the nonpizza items are better avoided. Service is not especially quick on busy days, so relax and enjoy the sun in the piazza. Note: the restaurant sometimes closes on Tuesdays in low season.
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Naranzaria
East meets West in this hip corner bistro with sushi and Venetian-style cicheti, along with light summer dishes. Swilled down with fine local and Friuli wines, this microscopically sized locale with cool ambient music adds a metro touch to the Rialto market bustle. Grab a table upstairs in winter or a canalside position in summer. (The Naranzaria was long the orange market. Oranges were prized by mariners not for making juice but as a preventive measure against scurvy while at sea.)
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Da Giancarlo
Watch a mixed crowd (dreadlocked, suited, you name it) go right off after hours, with plenty of swaying (to the music, the fumo (pot) and the booze) and lots of laughs. An institution of the best kind - and recommmended by many as the proper way to end a real night out. Grungy, grotty and great.
Be prepared to explain that you're not a member of ARCI (Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana) at the door - but flash your driving licence from home and you're fine.
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Treno Natura
A great way to see the stunning scenery of the Crete Senese, south of Siena. The line dates back to the 19th century but trains now run exclusively for tourists and are staffed by volunteers. The route loops from Siena, through Asciano, across to the Val d'Orcia and Stazione di Monte Antico and back to Siena. Trains stop at Asciano and Monte Antico and connect with the service from Florence. They only run for about 20 days a year so check the website or ask at the tourist office.
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Museo della Musica
Housed in the restored neoclassical Chiesa di San Maurizio, this collection of rare and curious 17th- to 19th-century instruments is accompanied by informative panels on the life and times of Venice’s Antonio Vivaldi. To hear these instruments in action, check out the kiosk with early-music CDs and concert tickets for Interpreti Veneziani, who fund this museum and play museum-piece instruments with modern verve around the corner at San Vidal.
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La Botticella
On a quiet Trastevere backstreet, La Botticella offers pure Roman cooking, outside under the lines of flapping washing, or inside in the picture-lined salon. Menu stalwarts include tripe and rigatoni alla paiata (pasta with calf’s intestines), but there are less demanding dishes, such as an excellent spaghetti all’amatriciana and fritto alla botticella (deep-fried vegetables).
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Camuffo
Kids, entomologists and glass collectors seek out Signor Camuffo, who wields a miniature blowtorch to fuse metallic foils to molten glass to make shimmering wings for the city’s finest selection of lampworked glass beetles and dragonflies. Between bugs, he’ll chat about his work and sell you strands of Murano glass beads at excellent prices.
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Buca di Ripetta
Popular with actors and directors from the district, who know a good thing when they see it, this value-for-money foodie destination offers robust Roman cuisine. Try the zuppa rustica con crostini do pane aromatizzati (country-style soup with rosemary-scented bread) or the matolino do latte al forno alle erbe con patate (baked suckling pork with potatoes) and you’ll be fuelled either for more sightseeing or for a lie down.
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Orto Botanico
Laid out by Léon Dufourny and Venanzio Marvuglia, the gorgeous Orto Botanico is a tropical paradise, with massive fig trees, tall palms and dazzling hibiscus bushes. There is an avenue of the bizarre-looking bottle, soap and cinnamon trees, as well as coffee trees, papaya plants and sycamores. It's a real haven of silence and fascinating botany, with a large herb garden that focuses on Mediterranean plants. Beware the mosquitos at dusk though.
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Enopolis
A visit to this restaurant and international wine establishment is worth it simply for the tour of the labyrinthine cellars of the 18th-century Palazzo Jona, as the cellars descend a full three levels under the streets above. With fresh fish as the main event (besides, of course, the wine), you can sit amongst contemporary art or next to an ancient well as you sample the fixed-price menus (€36 to €45) along with recommended wines for each course.
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Roman Arena
This Roman-era arena, built of pink-tinged marble in the 1st century AD, survived a 12th-century earthquake to become Verona’s legendary open-air opera house, with seating for 30,000 people. You can visit the arena year-round, though it’s at its best during the June-to-August opera season, which features around 50 performances by some of the world’s top names – Placido Domingo made his debut here. In winter months, concerts are held at the adjacent 18th-century Ente Lirico Arena.
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Il Bacaro
Not an easy one to find, this cosy, romantic restaurant is tucked away in a tiny piazza north of the Pantheon. But it’s worth persevering because the food is top notch. Imaginative primi include risottos and soups, while mains feature both fish and meat dishes. Summer seating spills out under a vine-covered pergola. Booking is recommended.
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Osteria Alla Vedova
Culinary convictions run deep here at one of Venice’s oldest osterie, which is why you won’t find spritz or coffee on the menu or pay more than €1 for a bar snack of Venetian meatballs. Enjoy superior seasonal cicheti and ombre with the local crowd at the bar, or call ahead for brusque, pricey table service and strictly authentic Venetian pastas.
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Trattoria La Foglia
An eccentric owner/chef and her vegetarian husband have made this place into something of a cult Syracusan restaurant, but the tiny portions and relatively high prices make the eclectic interior take a back seat. The menu features whatever seafood and vegetables are fresh that day and the bread is home-baked. They also have a one- to two-bedroom flat to rent on Ortygia, its décor in the same eclectic style as the restaurant.
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La Pietà
Originally called Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione but fondly nicknamed La Pietà, this light-filled and harmonious church designed by Giorgio Massari is best known for its association with the composer Vivaldi, who was concertmaster here in the early 18th century. Though the current church was built after Vivaldi’s death, its acoustic-friendly oval shape honours his memory, and it is still regularly used as a concert hall. Be sure to look up: on the ceiling, Giambattista Tiepolo’s gravity-defying Coronation of the Virgin seems to open up the church to the vast heavens themselves.
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Da Enzo
This snug dining room with rough yellow walls and lots of character serves up great, seasonally based Roman meals, such as spaghetti with clams and mussels or grilled lamb cutlets. There's a tiny terrace on the quintessential Trastevere cobbled street.
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Osteria dell'Enoteca
Extremely fit waiters carry dishes up and down a curving iron staircase into this 12th-century tavern. Diners sit on dark wood benches under a high stone ceiling surrounded by rows and rows of local wines from which to choose. Dishes are typical of the area - strangozzi alla spoletina ('shoelace' pasta in a tomato, garlic and chilli sauce, truffle omelette - and priced to allow at least one or two meals while in town.
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Il Chicco di Caffè
It’s unfortunate that this wonderfully simple corner cafe only opens for lunch, because you couldn’t dine better at these prices. Sate yourself for €10. Eat like a peasant-king for €15. The septuagenarian nonna in the kitchen produces simple but delicious pastas and roasted meats, but the real draw are the contorni (grilled or sautéd vegetables). Tables are communal and water and wine are buffet-style – drink at will.
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Gloria Astolfo
Take your fashion cues from Venetian painting masterpieces at this Venetian bead artisan’s showcase. Garlands of beaded tiger lilies make open-necked T-shirts instantly glamorous, and those baroque pearl earrings would gently tickle your shoulders if you started to nod off at La Fenice. Prices starting at €35 are surprisingly down-to-earth for jewellery this original, especially so close to Piazza San Marco.
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La Corte dei Vini
Strategically placed between Piazza Napoleone and Piazza San Michele, this friendly ‘enoteca e picola cucina’ (wine bar and small kitchen) is a great choice for an aperitivo or casual meal. It specialises in rustic dishes, including tortelli Lucchesi (meat ravioli) and minestra di farro della Garbagnana (soup made with spelt). Get here early to score a choice table on the front terrace.
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Giardini Pubblici
A life story unfolds as you follow pebble paths past bumper cars and a carousel, onward past a game of kick to kick, kissing teens, a beer kiosk, baby prams, jogging paths and shady benches. Jump in, or just stop and smell the roses. For grey days the charming Museo Civico di Storia Naturale beckons, the grand neo-Romanesque building houses dinosaurs, fossils and the largest geology collection in Europe.
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Al Brindisi
The oldest osteria in the world (according to Guinness), this atmospheric wine bar was already an established drinking den in 1435 – Titian drank here, Benvenuto Cellini dropped in on occasion and Copernicus studied in the room upstairs. Alongside the substantial wine list there’s a strong selection of grappas and whiskies, plus a full menu of pastas, mains and snacks. Fixed-price lunch menus start at €13.
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