We've all got our secrets. Most of mine are better whispered, but that's because they're in Italian --Ancona, Macerata, Ascoli Piceno in the Marche and Pescara, L'Aquila, and Teramo in Abruzzo, two of Italy's most breathtakingly fertile and well-preserved regions.
Hold a boot up and trace your finger along the inside of it, where the calf muscle would be. That's the Marche. Now move lower, above the ankle, and you've found Abruzzo. Both regions are situated in the Appenine mountains and by the Adriatic sea. This explains their lush terrain the abundance of fish and wine and, well, utterly natural beauty that practically hits you over the head with its subtlety.
Another secret? When I'm feeling uninspired, I Google properties for sale in these regions and fancy myself traipsing through olive groves during harvest in November and visiting the early-morning fish market with Pescara's restaurateurs before most citizens are even awake. Somehow, these thoughts, like almost everything Italian, make everything else ok.
My coworker Shannon, whose scandalous half-Irish and half-Sicilian heritage is a great source of pride for her, claims that she would go to Italy for the gelato at Vivoli alone. I asked her to divulge directions, but she would only make a vague hand gesture, a polite one, and say it's this way and that way back behind Florence's Basilica di Santa Croce. Oh, and that there's another gelateria off of Piazza della Repubblica in Rome called "Perche No?" that she swears by. Oh, and lest you think she visits Italy for the food alone, she had this:
My roommate from study abroad was an art history major, so I trust her as a source. On face of the Palazzo Vecchio, if you go to the right-hand corner, on the edge of the “porch” at about waist height, there is a profile etched in the stone. Story is: Michelangelo was stopped by the police one evening, and while he was questioned, he etched this face behind his back (naughty, naughty boy!).
Your turn: I'm dying to know your favorite Italian tips and secrets!
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Comments: 14
I have no tricks or secrets, having only been there once as a dumb tourist. But I would recommend www.viviun.com if you want to browse the houses and dream
Ahh.. been there, done that.
I love Riccione (on the Adriatic coast). Beautiful beaches, quiet, sunny, and not too many tourists. We would get up in the morning, grab some melon for breakfast, and sit on the beach all day. Or we would drive up to Aquafun (water amusement park) and ride the water slides all day.
Sometimes we would take a day trip to San Marino (where we ran into an Italian who spoke English with a midwest accent - turns out, she went to college in Michigan).
And we'd try to spend a week or so in Rapallo (outside Genoa). Gorgeous!
*sigh* The one thing I miss about being married to my ex-husband - summers in Italy. Oh well, I have pictures. And I can rent "Stealing Beauty" from Netflix. lol
You mention Pompeii. Yesterday was the anniversary of Mt. Vesuvius's eruption. I've never been there, but I would certainly love to see the frescoes that adorned the walls of families' gardens. :-)
Buona Sera!
A few years ago I had a dream that I had been a young married person in Italy and on my honeymoon our car had plunged off of a cliff. As the car was floating down the mountainside I turned to my new husband and told him not to worry, at least we were going to die together.
About 2 years ago I was watching a travelogue of Italy on PBS. Instantly I recognized the place that I had seen in my dream. It was really uncanny.