The Reasons for Visiting Italy
There are so many reasons why you should visit Italy from its extraordinary history to its culture, from its food and wine to its fashion, to its landscapes and seas.
Italy is as much a way of living as a place in which to live. It is La Dolce Vita, the invitation to live and enjoy life to its fullest.
Italy means to take life a little slower, to appreciate to beauty that is around you, to savour every taste.
Italy has a good spread of airports well served from the UK and has a usually reliable train service, making much of Italy very accessible to UK travellers, adding another reason why you should visit Italy often and in every season.
Bologna is a perfect starting point to explore some of Italy, with rail links to many cities. It is also a city of stories and secrets. https://anthonykingsleytravel.com/the-seven-secrets-of-bologna/
Valpolicella and Amarone Wine
Valpolicella comes from the Veneto region around Verona and to the East of Lake Garda.
It is typically made from three grape varieties four distinct styles, the light bodied classico, recioto, a sweet red dessert wine, and Amarone, which is made when the grapes are dried so that the sugar turns to alcohol. It is a strong wine, often referred to as the King of Wines, although Barolo from Piedmont also claims that title. Ripasso uses the skins of the recioto to impart more flavour into the wine.
But without a doubt Amarone is the star wine of the region. It makes everyone happy!
Getting to Italy
Italy has a good spread of airports well served from the UK and has a usually reliable train service, making much of Italy very accessible to UK travellers, adding another reason why you should visit Italy often and in every season.
The North of Italy has so much to offer. The route from Lake Garda in the West to Venice and Trieste in the East is particularly attractive.
Lake Garda and Lake Como are very popular in season, perhaps more attractive outside the season. Verona boasts its world famous open air opera, and then to the North, you have the vineyards of Valpolicella.
Moving Northwards you have the Dolomites and South Tyrol, with some wonderful hotels in which to recharge and rejuvenate.
And while we are on the subject of Wellness in Italy, is there anywhere better to focus on mind, body and soul than Abano Terme, just south of Padua. Its thermal bathing facilities are perhaps unsurpassed in the world.
Venice is another of those very popular destinations which may now be suffering from its popularity, but an hour or so further east lies Trieste, the capital of nowhere and the capital of coffee.
Abano Terme
Abano Terme is a thermal bathing town dating back to Roman times, where legionaires would come to recover from their battle wounds in the healing waters coming down from the Euganeum Hills. Once engineer Artur Botile has invented a pump to bring the hot water to the surface, hotels quickly sprung up throughout the town.
Botile’s family now owns five of those hotels. If you enjoy thermal bathing, then Abano Terme is one of the best places to come.
The water takes some 30 years to come down from the hills. It emerges full of minerals and at a high temperature
Valpolicella and Villa Cordevigo
Valpolicella is the wine region around and to the North of Verona and to the East of Lake Garda. It produces a number of different styles of wine.
The classico is a light red wine, similar in style to wines like Beaujolais Nouveau.
A sweet red dessert wine Recioto is also produced. But if the grapes are allowed to mature further and dry out so that the sugar turns into alcohol, the result is a full blooded Amarone, which some regard as the King of wines.
From the skins of those wines, a Riapsso wine is developed.
Some producers, such as the Villa Cordevigo are using the Oselata grape, an indigenous wine. It is a strong wine, both in alcohol content and taste, perhaps quite challenging to drink, but so worth it once you have acquired a taste for it.
Friuli Venezia Giulia
Friuli Venezia Giulia is a haven for foodies and wine lovers. The Collio delivers exceptional wine. San Daniele has ham that rivals Prosciutto. Prosecco stretches from FVG to Veneto.
Tiramisu, did it originate from Treviso or from Udine? More importantly, who prepares the best Tiramisu? You could find out at the Tiramisu World Cup held in Treviso every October.
The capital of the region is Trieste, described by writer as the Capital of Nowhere. It is not a derogatory term, but refers to the fact that it is difficult to define the city. Is it Italian, Austrian or Slovenian? Head up to the North of the region and there are places in the Julian Alps where you can see all three countries.
It is the capital of coffee, at least for Italians. Most coffee imported into Italy comes through Trieste and it has a number of famous coffee houses such as the Caffè del Specchi, the Caffè San Marco and Caffè Tommaseo
Puglia, Bari and Locorotondo
And then we head down the coast to the wonderful Puglia with its Trulli and Masseria, somewhere you can really experience La Dolce Vita in Italy. Alberobello may be the home of the Trulli, but check out Locorotondo. Bari lies on the coast just a few miles north of the Red Bull Diving platform in Polignano a Mare.
Bari has an old and a new town, with the old town a maze of colourful streets, the Church of St Nicholas, the orginal Father Christmas and of course a host of eating options.
Polignano a Mare is also an “old town” but with the famous Red Bull Diving cliff being a modern additon to the old cliffs.
My blog post featuring Bari and a wonderful stay at the Leonardo Trulli near Locorondo is here.
Naples and Ischia
Sicily
Sicily is an Island growing in popularity among visitors. It is a part of Italy, but still with its own separate identity. La Dolce Vita may be a little more rugged here, but it is still full of authentic and meaningful experiences.
The capital Palermo is lively, perhaps a little too busy at times. Taormina to the east of the Island, close to Mt Etna is charming.
I enjoyed my stay in the south at Sciacca. You can read a little bit about my stay at a Mangia’s resort, La Torre del Barone on my Linked In profile here