Piedmont, tucked in the northwest corner of Italy’s boot, is a region for all seasons, offering a smorgasboard of the best that the Bel Paese has to offer.  The second largest of Italy’s 20 regions, after Sicily, Piedmont has a population of about 4.4 million and is the home to some of the country’s most iconic exports: Fiat, Asti-Spumante, and Ferrero chocolate, to name a few.  Half of the region’s population lives in the Baroque city of Turin, a breaking ground for Italian unification 150 years ago, the country’s former capital, and host of the 2006 Olympic winter games.

With an appropriate name meaning “at the foot of the mountains,” Piedmont is surrounded by the Alps on three sides, making for plenty of skiing and winter sport activity.  That mountainous soil is also ideal for agriculture: rice, fruit, corn, grapes for wine, and the highly sought-after delicacy truffles all grow abundantly.  The region is spotted with 56 national parks, including Gran Paradiso, home to ibex, eagles, and chamois, in addition to rare flowers.  Italians and foreigners alike enjoy visiting the Piedmont Lake District and traveling the long-distance trail Grande Traversata delle Alpi, which links many remote, picturesque mountain valleys, each one home to their own treasures and secret villages.

Because of its proximity to France and Switzerland, which are both accessible through tunnels and mountain passes, the cuisine in Piedmont varies greatly from the rest of Italy.  Expect heavy dishes like risotto and fondue and rich, cream-based sauces laden with butter instead of olive oil.  Food is so revered in Piedmont that it became the seat of Italy’s Slow Food movement.  And it is rightfully revered—Piedmont, especially in the Langhe region, produces over 10 DOCG wines, including the bold red wines Barolo and Barbaresco.  And with truffle season upon us, the Langhe is also bustling to find those earthy gastronomic treasures.

No matter the season, there’s always plenty to do at the foot of the mountains in Piedmont.  How do you like to spend your time there?

There are several paths to hike in Cinque Terre and they are great for all experience levels.

With summer still rolling on strong here and in Italy, and with the warm weather sure to last well into September, there are plenty of outdoor activities to take advantage of while touring the Bel Paese.  At the top of the list is hiking through Cinque Terre.

Those five small fishing towns nestled into the cliffside on the Ligurian Sea commonly referred to as the Italian Riviera can be explored via train, boat, or, more interestingly, by foot.  It’s then that you get to truly take in Cinque Terre and its surroundings.

There are several ways to hike Cinque Terre.  The most accessible and easiest is the Blue Path, which hugs the coastline from village to village, taking four to five hours to complete.  This path, which includes the famous Via dell’Amore, brings you along the cliffs, where you’ll hear crashing waves and perhaps spot a dolphin swimming below.

To get a more aerial view, head to the Red Path way up in the mountains, taking you from Portovenere to Levanto.  In between the blue and the red paths are smaller ones that will offer stunning views from town to town via hillside vineyards, endless olive groves, and cool forests.   From either path you’ll awe as new towns come into view—little specks of vitality floating between neighboring seas of green vegetation and crystal teal-blue ocean.  Plan ahead—you won’t be able to complete all of the paths in one day.

In order to take advantage of the footpaths, purchase a Cinque Terre Card, which also gives you access to museums, environmentally-friendly bus transport, and mountain bike rentals. For 7 Euro or less, you can take in the beauty of Cinque Terre while completely relaxing, getting lost in nature, and forgetting about everything else anywhere else.

Have you hiked through Cinque Terre?  What was your favorite part?

The autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige has plenty to keep you busy year round. (photo via wikimedia)

Italy’s northernmost region, Trentino-Altio Adige, sees polar opposite weather throughout the year—whipping winter storms dropping feet of snow over the Italian Alps, then glorious summer days with wildflowers swaying in the mountain breeze and the region’s numerous lakes, including Lake Garda, sparkling under the sun’s rays.

Bordered by Austria and Switzerland to the north, this autonomous region is one of the Italy’s most unique, with dual official languages (Italian and German) and a tennis match-like history, its governing rule bouncing back and forth between Germany, Austria, France, and Italy (or in some cases, the Roman Empire).

While Italians flock to the region in the winter for its top-notch skiing and in the summer for hiking and general relaxation, few other tourists venture so far north—despite being just a day trip away from Venice, Milan, and Verona.  Still, Trentino-Alto Adige thrives on tourism, with a higher concentration of overnight accommodations than anywhere else in Italy—in particular its resort towns, including Cortina d’Ampezzo, Madonna di Campiglio, and Ponte di Legno.

The region is about 30% mountains, a large chunk of which is the Dolomite range, and 50% deep forest, where deer, black bears, and various other wildlife roam amongst the region’s prized porcini mushrooms.  Also growing native to the area is asparagus, apples, corn for polenta, chestnuts, and grapes for wine, including Marzemino, Teroldego, Nosiola, and Vino Santo—often used for dipping biscotti.  And, of course, Trentino-Alto Adige is known for is strong and warmth-inducing grappa, usually infused with the wild berries found in the area.  Also among the regional cuisine, you’ll find dumplings and sauerkraut—a nod to its Germanic and Austrian roots.

Winter, spring, summer, or fall—Trentino-Alto Adige is a region for all seasons!

Every year, on the last Sunday of May, over 800 wineries across Italy open their doors to more than one million visitors for Cantine Aperte (Open Wineries).  For the past 19 years, Italian wine has been in the spotlight to industry professionals and average wine connoisseurs alike during this one-day-only event (this year May 29).

From the rolling hills of Chianti to the vineyards of Veneto, small and big wineries alike showcase their best reds, whites, and blends, offering regional gastronomic dishes to accompany them.  Often times, local artists are exhibited around the tasting rooms, so your eyes have as much to enjoy as your tastebuds.

Offering yet another excuse to spend the day in Italy’s wine country, Cantine Aperte gives visitors the chance to taste the wine they enjoy every day in the environment where it’s grown—and to meet the people who usher it from grapevine to smooth, finished product.

Salute!

With summertime glistening on the horizon, there’s no better place to imagine yourself being than on the legendarily beautiful Amalfi Coast.  Or to actually be there.

The Amalfi Coast, located on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula, is a string of picturesque towns perched atop cliffs and along sandy beaches.  A hotspot for jetsetters and Italians alike, these lemon-spotted, seaside villages are where you can relax, catch some sun, and sip some limoncello—all in between visiting the nearby must-visit sites of Pompei and Hurculeam, busy Naples, and the glamorous island of Capri.

From Positano to Amalfi and Salerno to Sorrento, each Amalfi Coast town offers its own charm—from narrow, strollable streets to classic whitewashed villas and terraced olive groves to colorful gardens.  And in Ravello, high atop the hillside overlooking Amalfi, there is music.  In addition to the annual summertime Ravello Festival, honoring composer Richard Wagner who spent a lot of time in Ravello, the Ravello Concert Society puts on chamber and classical music concerts year-round—all in a casual setting, so no dress-up is required.

We’re currently running a special offer on our Vesuvio Tour (which includes Capri and the Amalfi Coast)—book by May 30 and get a free roundtrip airport transfer in Rome (the anchor city of the tour).

In Florence, “M” stands for “Maggio” and “Musica,” and starting next week, the two will combine to bring you the largest classical music festival in the Renaissance city: Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.  Starting at the end of April and lasting through May into June, this annual concert series brings together opera, ballet, and classical music.

Verdi’s Aida will kick off this year’s festival on April 28 with repeat performances on May 3, 7, 8, 10, 12.  The opera, based in Egypt, opened with great success both in Cairo in 1871 and Milan in 1872. Its elaborate sets, lavish costumes, and, of course, memorable music are as loved today as they were 140 years ago.  Hopefully the same will be true for the opera L’Italia del Destino, which will make its world debut at the Florence festival on May 15 & 17.

The ballet portion of the festival this year will be Swan Lake (June 1, 3, 4, 5).  Good and evil, love and heartache play out onstage as a prince searches for a wife, finding potential in princess-turned-swan Odette.  But when he accidentally presents an evil Odette knockoff to the royal court, the prince has to figure out a way to break Odette’s curse while getting rid of the black swan.

Rounding out Florence’s festival program are orchestral and choral concerts featuring the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt (to name a few) and conductors including Zubin Mehta, Andrey Boreyko, and Daniele Callegari.  Perhaps the most fun concert will be “Viaggio in Italia” on May 19 which will feature piano and vocal duets of “20 popular songs of 20 Italian regions transcribed by 20 composers.”  Take a musical tour of Italy while on an actual tour of Italy!

Flowers and visitors overtake Piazza dell' Anfiteatro during the feast of Santa Zita da Lucca. (photo via Citta' di Lucca)

Every year, two of Lucca’s main piazzas are overtaken by flowers, turning into open-air gardens, bursting with pink azaleas, red rhododendrons, yellow daffodils, and various other bright blossoms in honor of the city’s patron saint, Zita.

But the flowers aren’t there just because it’s springtime.  They represent an important event in the saint’s life.  Born in 1218, Zita worked in the house of the noble Fatinelli family and often took leftover bread from their kitchen to give the poor of Lucca.  One day, Mr. Fatinelli stopped Zita on her way out, asking what she was carrying in her apron.  The girl told him it was flowers, and as she opened her apron to show him, flowers miraculously fell out.

As a result, on Santa Zita’s saint day, April 27, and the four days leading up to it, both the oval-shaped Piazza dell’Anfiteatro and Piazza San Frediano transform into botanical bliss.  The first plays host to an annual flower market while the latter, just outside of the mosaic-covered San Frediano church where Santa Zita’s mummified body lays in a glass case, is made into a colorful, themed garden created by designers at Lucca’s Botanical Garden.

Go off the beaten path for an artistic experience in Florence. (photo via ART)

While there is so much to do and see in the historical center of Florence, there are still plenty of often overlooked sights around the city that are as historical and beautiful as the main attractions.  Most of the time, people walk around not realizing the importance of the structures they’re passing by.  Other times, they look up, pointing to the architecture or a pretty embellishment.  And then other times, there is an excuse to go in—a fair, an event, an exhibit.  The International Arts and Crafts exposition, showcasing over 850 of the world’s most creative artisans, is one of those excuses.

Now in its 75^th year, ART, as it is known, is one of the most prestigious gatherings of both traditional and modern handcrafts.  Spotlighting “the art of making,” the fair is broken down into several categories: clothing and accessories, furniture, giftware, jewelry, and health and beauty products.

The event will take place from April 30 to May 8 in the off-the-beaten-path Fortezza da Basso (behind the Santa Maria Novella train station), a star-shaped fort built between 1534 and 1537 on the orders of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici in order to house troops and act as a safe haven should the power family need to seek refuge during the Seige of Florence.  Now the fort is a mix of the old and the new, with fully restored areas amongst modern exhibition pavilions.

At €5.00 per ticket on the weekend (and just €3.00 on weekdays), it’s an economical excuse to see beautifully-designed, handmade goods while checking out a monument you might otherwise skip over.

After the fair, treat yourself to the best gelato in Florence—a cup of Crema de’ Medici at the nearby Gelateria de’ Medici (Via dello Statuto 3/5R).

Genoa’s industrial port is going to get a splash of color later this month as the 10^th installment of Euroflora blossoms at Fiera di Genova.  Flowers from five continents will be on display from April 21 to May 1, creating a lush indoor garden full of bright colors, sweet fragrances, and impressive water features.

In addition to bringing a healthy dose of spring to its over four and a half million visitors, the show will also focus on many of today’s environmental buzzworthy topics, including biodiversity, sustainability, and balancing everyday living with the nature around us—in relation to both the flower industry and home gardens.  Also included in Genoa’s flower expo will be a section on vegetables and ways to best utilize urban spaces.

And if you want to learn about flowers that are native to Italy, head to the separate pavilion where a region-by-region display of plant life will be showcased.  From clematis and freesias to amaryllis and peonies, the trademark sunflower, lilacs, laurel, and let’s not forget about lemon and olive trees, there will be plenty of plant life representing the host nation, which also happens to be the second-largest flower-producing country in Europe.

Italians escape to the countryside on Pasquetta, Little Easter.

Last week, we told you about ways (both traditional and non) to celebrate Easter in Italy.  But for Italians, Easter doesn’t start and end on Sunday, it continues over to Monday, an official holiday dubbed Pasquetta, or Little Easter.

On this day, you’ll find people across Italy taking a break and plain old relaxing.  Be it a picnic in the park, a day trip to a smaller city, or listening to a free concert, Italians spend their day off having fun with friends or family.  Many Florentines escape to Siena, having lunch in Piazza del Campo.  Others flee to Chianti, sipping some local wine on a blanket in a field.

Elsewhere, there are more organized ways to spend Pasquetta.  In Umbria, there is an annual cheese-rolling competition called Ruzzolone while in Emilia Romagna’s Tredozio, there are egg races.  On mainland Venice, locals gather at the Via Alvise Pisani fair for activities geared toward both children and adults, including sports, circus acts, and musicians.  Meanwhile, within Venice’s maze of canals, people relax in the lush oasis of Papadopoli Gardens.

No matter where you end up on Easter Monday, prepare for a laid-back day, when Italy’s big cities are a bit thinned out and its great outdoors is being fully taken advantage of.