2 medieval cities you shouldn't miss in central Italy

Tweet

You are on travel in Italy. You love wondering in the medieval centers of its art cities. You have been to Rome, Florence, Bologna etc.

Where to go?

In the middle age Italy wasn't a unified country but fragmented in many little reigns, called city-states because they were limited to the surroundings of each city ruled by the most powerful noble family in town.

The heritage of that era are a lot of little cities, located above all in central Italy, where you can spend a nice day-trip "within the walls", between a castle and a cathedral, in winter as in summer.

Even in Venice you can go off the beaten path

Tweet

Are you going to travel to Italy, precisely to Venice, soon? Will it be your first time in the biggest tourist trap of Italy?

There's no magic solution to this huge problem in the most unique city of the Bel Paese,  you will always be surrounded by crowds of tourists, but yes, you can travel different! And today we have the pleasure to share with you the tips of an authoritative Italy's blogger and expat! Pamela Haack on her blog "Where Tuscany meets Umbria" says she moved ten years ago to Umbria, with her husband, fell in love with this beautiful land and started traveling all around Italy, always off the beaten track. And thanks to her own experience, she can now give some good suggestions for a trip to Venice.

10 best places to visit in Italy: ranking update

Tweet

Three months after the last ranking posted, an update is necessary to the list of the 10  best travel destinations in Italy. Many more travelers joined Gadders and shared their experiences, giving their votes and adding their travel tips to the places they visited lately in Italy.

The parameters on which the chart is based? The beauty of the places first of all, but also the fun activities you can do and its nightlife, how much safe is staying in each place and how cheap is to travel there, and last but not least, talking about Italy it's impossible not to take in consideration the quality of food!

Ready to travel to Tuscany? Read this before

Tweet

Are you going to travel to Italy, precisely to Tuscany, for your first time? If you are not well prepared in Italian geography...maybe you'd better read this post first!

Today we have the pleasure to share with you the (hilarious) reflection of an authoritative Italy's blogger and expat! Krista Ricchi on her blog "Alla Fiorentina" says she moved from Southern California to Florence, in Tuscany, after falling in love with an italian. And thanks to her own experience, she can now teach you what's the most important thing you need to know before visiting Tuscany...

Exchange travel experience: museums, gondola and...Venice hospital!

Tweet

What happened to today's post protagonist? Don't worry, she didn't end her trip in the hospital!

"She" is Nanna Lára, a curious and energetic food lover from Reykjavík, Iceland. She's a student of economics in the University of Iceland and she's taking an exchange semester at Bocconi University in Milan, during which, like any international student in Italy, she's traveling as crazy!
And she's telling us today about her experience to the charming, touristy but unique Venice!

I haven´t stayed in Italy for long time before the exchange program. I have been here for one month now and traveled to several places.

Top 2 tourist attractions in south Italy when summer's over: Pompeii and Vesuvius

Tweet

Campania, in south Italy, is the region of the Bel Paese with the most diverse offer for travel lovers. It's the region of the warm, chaotic metropolis of Naples, it's the region of the sunny and stunning Amalfi coast and the region of the elite islands of Capri and Ischia. A paradise for a summer vacation.
But when summer is over what?
There are other incredible destinations, more comfortable being explored in a warm autumn day, rather than under the hot sun of august.
The 2 top attractions for this period of the year are one next to the other: the Mount Vesuvius, the impressive volcano visible from everywhere in the bay of Naples, and, just at the feet of the mount, the fascinating excavations of the old town of Pompeii, destroyed almost 2000 years ago by the eruption of the same volcano.

3 interesting places to visit in a trip to central Italy

Tweet

Italy, in the imaginary of a tourist, can be divided in three parts: the north, the south and... Rome!

It seems trivial, yes, and it actually is! The north is Venice, Milan, Verona the art cities. The south is the Amalfi coast, Sicily, the sunny and lively beaches. And then there is Rome, that hides all and everything around for miles. Rome is in the region of Lazio: do you know or do you ever heard of any other travel destination in this region? And what about Abruzzo, the region at the opposite side of Rome's one, on the Adriatic coast? Very few tourists pass through this area, mostly mountainous, not well connected to the main highways, but, above all, far from the "foreign tourist path" that goes from venice to the italian capital, passing through Florence.

The truth about Italy's caves town, Matera

Tweet

Universally known as the city of Rocks ('sassi' in Italian), Matera, a small town in Basilicata, south Italy, has an appealing charm that over the years has inspired artists and writers, from poet Giovanni Pascoli and Carlo Levi, who described the rough and wild nature of these places in his famous work "Christ Stopped at Eboli", up to directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mel Gibson, who shot here his film The Passion of the Christ.
Why did all them came to this place? It is a unique city in the world, with a modern side and an old one whose architecture gives the traveler an incredible sensation of jumping in a very ancient past.

What to see in Florence? The mysterious holes on old town palaces

Tweet

It's no surprise that all foreigners coming to Italy have Florence on top of their to-see-list. But it's a shame when they tell they have no more time than 1 or 2 days to visit the city. This is a post of some time ago about Florence and its main attractions, perfect for a short travel. But Florence is an open air museum, whose 'rooms' would need days and days to be discovered and admired in each of its masterpieces.

And along the old town streets, the glorious past of Florence has left us a lot of curious and intriguing secrets. In fact, the key to these mysterious surprises is always in the intimate history of the city. The history made ​​by the people, their habits, their passions, their beliefs, etc.

Milan experience: September 2014. My first week in Italy Vol. 2

Tweet

One week ago we told about how two guys from different parts of the world felt and lived their first week in Italy, after they moved to Milan for their university exchange programme. Read their story here. But what about girls?
So, here we are again with the Hectic, Adventurous, Warm! first week of Denise Vollebergh, from the Netherlands.
Denise comes from Rotterdam, the place where she was born and where she goes to the Erasmus University for the degree in Communication and Media. She landed in Milan, Italy, just few days ago, the 2nd of September.

Milan experience: September 2014. My first week in Italy was...

Tweet

This is the story that tells the Exciting, Warm, Learning emotions of Mitesh Karwa, from India, and the Exploring, Gelato, Quiet (ghostcity) emotions of John Andre Storebø, from Norway.

But...who are they??

1. They come from...

Mitesh was born and grew up in the Himalayan town of Mirik, India (Cit. "Which has a beautiful lake just like Como and is situated in the lap of nature.")

Travel through time to San Marino, oldest and smallest republic in the world

Tweet

The story of San Marino is really surprising. Who is San Marino? Maybe you want to say 'what'...

Perched on Mount Titano, between Marche and Romagna regions, central Italy, San Marino with its 64 km² is the smallest republic in the world. And also the oldest among the republics existing today all around the world. Founded, as tradition says, in the fourth century by Marino, a sculptor of tombstones fleeing religious persecution of Roman emperor Diocletian, in the ninth century the small town already established its independency and was recognized as an autonomous state. Emerged unscathed from the medieval conflicts between the dominions of the other cities and the papacy, the boundaries of the small state have remained unchanged for six centuries, case so rare that becomes, in the eyes of the world, a symbol of freedom and independence.

Italy experience: living Bologna for one year

Tweet

This is the story of an Emotional, Life-Changing and Blurry experience as Ben Hayward defined it, 21 years old guy from London, England, who studies German and Italian at Swansea University, in Wales, and spent his last 10 months, from September 2013 to July 2014, living in Bologna, Italy, where he "studied" German, Russian, Finnish and Polish for the Erasmus program (Cit. "If you haven’t already guessed, I like languages!")

My first impact with Italy and Bologna

I had never been to Italy prior to my Erasmus period.

What to see in Verona, beyond Juliet's balcony

Tweet

Verona is one of the favorite destinations in Italy for tourists that have some extra-time after the classical Rome-Florence-Venice tour, because of its aura of romance that surrounds it! It's considered the city of lovers and its symbol, the house attributed to Juliet, the Shakespeare's character, is like a place of pilgrimage.

But Verona has and is much more than Juliet's house and balcony, the town has something special that existed before the creation of this symbol, something that indeed convinced Shakespeare to choose it as set of his romantic tragedy. Verona is known as the Little Rome because of its importance for the Roman Empire.

Italy's Top 10 Travel Destinations: ranking update

Tweet

Two months ago we published the first ranking of the best travel destinations in Italy according to the experiences that many travelers shared on Gadders.eu, the new platform for social traveling.

With summer holidays almost ending we can now see how things changed.

The parameters on which the chart is based? The beauty of the places first of all, but also the fun activities you can do and its nightlife, how much safe is staying in each place and how cheap is to travel there, and last but not least, talking about Italy, the quality of the food!

A tip for an alternative travel in north Italy

Tweet

Set in the north eastern side of Italy, the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia is not one of the most attractive areas of the Bel paese, because of its geographic position, out of the "classic" tour of Italy from Venice to Rome, passing through Florence.

Yet it's an incredibly deep container of culture and history, as boarder region being relevant for the protection of Italy since the roman empire and until world war II, and an important commercial area as closest access to the sea for a large part of Europe.

And above all, what's attractive to us is the gems it preserves from massive tourism: Tarvisio and Lignano are two of the most charming destinations of the area, that perfectly represent the soul of Friuli region as we described it.

5 Places to visit on a trip to Tuscany

Tweet

From its imperial natural beauty to its wealth in culinary and artistic treasures, Tuscany is truly an irresistible idyllic arcadia that will delight you in a lot of different ways. Famous for its surreal and dramatic scenery, Tuscany has spellbinding landscapes dotted with lush cypress trees, olive groves, medieval fortresses and rolling hills. A nirvana for food lovers and wine connoisseurs, this Italian haven is also known for its world-class cuisine and sumptuous local wines. To top it all off, Tuscany has a wide collection of exquisite art museums, and has been a home to several illustrious figures in the history of science and art.

Top 5 things to see in Genoa, Liguria

Tweet

One of the main italian cities in terms of dimensions and in terms of importance is Genoa, capital of the Liguria region, that forms the so called economic triangle with Milan and Turin, the area that helds almost all the economy of Italy; but also a destination included in many of the cruises across the mediterranean sea, becaue of the strategic position of its port, perfect departure place for who wants to visit the gorgeous RivieraLigure and Cinque Terre and, last but not least, a city reach in attractions and history.

Yet it is not a travel destination you hear talking about among international tourists… Why? Consider its main attractions and judge yourself if it’s worth being included in your travel list or not!

What to see in Tuscany: Siena, between art and folklore

Tweet

The ramparts, one of many vestiges of the glorious medieval past of the city, still dot the hills surrounding the sweet Siena, which gave the world the color "sienna" (the typical reddish color of its buildings) and in the thirteenth century produced a thriving artistic movement called the Sienese school.
The growth of the city, in the heart of Tuscany, in that period halted abruptly because of economic crisis and epidemics, starting from the plague of 1348 that killed 65,000 of the 100,000 inhabitants. Fortunately Piazza del Campo, the most beautiful medieval square in Italy, was completed just in time with the pretty town hall and the emblematic Torre del Mangia and the Fonte Gaia.

The simple reason why everybody wants to travel to Italy

Tweet

There’s a very simple reason why almost everybody from all over the world loves to travel to Italy. It is not the magnificence of Rome, not the charm of Venice, not the calm blue waters of its islands and gulf. A simpler reason.

During our travel up and down Italy, we are discovering incredible destinations in every single region of the Bel Paese: a medieval town, an ancient village of roman origins, a ski resort in the Alps valleys, an enchanted lake or natural park… The very simple reason is that everybody can find a place he would fall in love with.