Whether you are planning a visit in Italy for business or for leisure, tracking events is a hard work. I thus picked some events which I found particularly interesting (a concept which will certainly be questioned by the ones having other interests, but that’s how it is).
Rome
Music passionate won’t miss Roma Jazz Festival. The event, taking place from November 8 to November 30 at the Auditorium, will be hosting some of the greater present jazz musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Brad Mehldau Trio, Jamie Cullum, Richard Galliano, Diana Krall Trio. Tickets fon the concerts can be purchased directly at the Auditorium or online on Listicket website
Art Exhibitions in Rome are so many that it was a hard task doing some cherry picking. I eventually chose two of them.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni presents an exhibition of Alexander Calder’s sculptures, which can be visited until February 14, 2010. Palazzo delle Esposizioni is in the city centre and can easily be reached by public transportation. Tickets can be purchased online and they include the visit to all exhibitions taking place at Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Fondazione Memmo pays a tribute to Grace Kelly with an exhibition displaying photos, letters, personal objects, jewellery, piece of her wardrobe. The Exhibition, titled “The years of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco“, is hosted at Palazzo Ruspoli (Via del Corso 418) and will be on until February 28, 2010. Tickets are available online on ticket.it website.
Rovereto (North Eastern Italy)
MART, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, proposes an exhibition of Kendell Geers works. Born in South Africa, Geers has been always strongly involved in a deep reflection on the racial segregation theme. Tickets can be purchased online and they give access to all exhibitions hosted at MART.
Asti (North-Western Italy)
Wine lovers and gourmet will surely love Asti Fiera Regionale del Tartufo, the annual truffle fair taking place from November 13 to November 15.
The hills of Monferrato. Photo by Giorgiopix on Flickr
Nosing around the stands, one can taste lots of the best typical local products: cheese, cold cuts, chocolate and obviously truffles and excellent red wine. Besides, Asti is a pretty little city, with lots of historical monuments to visit, and its surroundings – smooth hills covered with vineyard – are gorgeous.
La Thuile. View on the Mont-Blanc
Ski season is approaching and all passionate skiers are impatiently waiting for resorts opening. Italy offers great places for ski lovers, especially in the Alps and the Dolomites. Finding the right resort, according to ones tastes and needs, might be tricky thus I will be writing a few posts on the main Italian ski resorts to help you choose.
I am starting with La Thuile – Espace San Bernardo, one of my favourite sites.
Located at the end of Aosta Valley, close to the border with France and Mont-Blanc tunnel, La Thuile is a classic for lots of reasons.
1. Easy to reach: whether you arrive from Milan, Turin or France, you will be driving on the motorway for the largest part of the journey and have to cope with the mountain bending road only to complete the last 10 km. La Thuile is approximately 2 hours from Milan and 1,5 hours from Turin.
La Thuile. Slopes
2. Slopes for every level: beginners, intermediate and experts skiers will surely have fun. If you feel like having enough experience, don’t miss the challenging black slopes n. 25 and the famous n. 3 Franco Berthod.
3. Large resort: with 150 km of slopes leading across Italy and France La Rosière resort, there is easily the chance of not doing twice the same ski run.
4. Nearly no queues to take lifts: there are two reasons for that. First, most lifts are very modern (but only on the Italian mountainside), quick and carying many skiers. Secondly, the resort is so wide that people spread throughout it.
5. Great snow until Spring: thanks to its peculiar position La Thuile is one of the best sites from mid-March on, with good chances to enjoy powder snow at the top.
Now a quick look at the (relative) minus:
1. Temperature: La Thuile is cold, one of the coldest resorts in the Alps. But it’s also the reason why you often have great snow. Don’t get discouraged. I’m very chilly but with a good technical equipment you’re not going to freeze! If you really feel too cold, a good option is going directly to France mountainside, more sunny and thus usually warmer.
2. Wind: this is more annoying. Not only because beause windchill makes you feel colder but since occasional strong wind leads to the closure of the more exposed lifts.
La Thuile. The slopes
The calendar for 2009-2010 winter season is different in Italy and France, with Italian side opening earlier.
Winter 2009-2010 Espace San Bernardo
Italian side:
Opening: Saturday, November 28, 2009
Closed: Sunday, April 25, 2010
French side:
Opening: Saturday, December 12, 2009
Closed: Sunday, April 25, 2010
Let’s wait for a great snowfall…
They are too often perceived as a threat but they are the ones endangered. Hunted, mutilated to take their fins, sharks have gone from predator to prey and failing protection they could easily reach extintion within a few years.
Driven by passion, filmmaker Rob Stewart realized “Sharkwater“, a stunning high definition video exploring sharks in all their beauty and pointing at the exploitation and chase that might soon lead to extintion of these incredible creatures.
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You might also like: Let’s stop the reef ravages caused by underwater photographers
Save the date: Accor Hotels 3 Days Super Sale Rate for Asia Pacific starting from October 27
Cradle Mountain Lodge - Tasmania
Travellers looking for special offers and bargain accomodations will be happy and jump on the opportunity. So, if you’re planning a trip in Asia Pacific region during the period December 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010 don’t miss Accor Hotels Supersale.
One million rooms - yes, you read it well – across the Asia Pacific region will go on sale for three days starting from October 27 to October 29, 2009. Accor hotel brands included in the offer are Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, ibis and all seasons and spread across Australia, Thailand, Fiji, Vietnam, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore and more. You can thus choose among upscale hotels or cheaper solutions.
Room @ Pullman Hotel
Rates, in local currencies, for stays during December1, 2009 – February 28, 2010:
Australia: 99 AUD
New Zealand: 99 NZD
Fiji Islands: 99 FJD
India: 3360++ INR
Thailand: 1700++ THB
Ibis hotels in Thailand: 1000++ THB
South Korea: 97,000 KRW
Vietnam: 50 USD
China: 399++ CNY
Ibis hotels in China: 248++ CNY
Hong Kong: 650++ HKD
Taiwan: 1999 TWD
Laos: 48++ USD
Indonesia: 490,000++ IDR
Bali: 75++ USD
Malaysia: 175++ MYR
Singapore: 98++ SGD
Japan: 9990 JPY
Don’t foget to set an alert on your calendar on October 27!
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You might also be interested in: Great tips from NYT Travel: 100 hotels in Europe under 150 dollars
travel
Golden Gate Bridge. Photo by Mike Johnston on Flickr
Organizing free time is sometimes a hard task. You might be willing to spend a nice week-end with your children or to do something special for your wedding anniversary not really knowing where to start from. Your friends are relying on you to organise an adventure trip and you’re looking for a way to surprise them. And what if you’re looking for a romantic escape with your girlfriend but don’t know hot to find the right place?
Goby is a new search engine that provides you with information and ideas on any kind of leisure activities throughout the US. The reasearch is extremely simple: you just need to choose what you’d like to do, where and when and Goby displays a good amount of suggestions according to your search criteria.
Quanzhou Marionette Theater. James Estrin/The New York Times
Sports lovers can discover new places for hiking and mountain bike trails, climbing, kayaking and canoeing. Food and wine cultivators can find a great choice of proposals, and there are lots of suggestions also for art, music and theatre passionate. Once completed your first search, you’ll see that Goby functionality goes further, providing information on what’s nearby: hotels, restaurants, bars, museums, and lots more. This is a precious tool especially when you have little time, and being able to organize your trip having all the things that interest you nearby is a great advantage.
Camping at Yosemite National Park. Photo Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
Goby’s search engine is a good tool, especially if you are trying to get a first idea of possible activities and locations. It has however in my opinion a limit which prevents Goby to fully offer its visitors what they are looking for (and probably also what they would like to offer). When you open a link to gather more information you would expect to be simply and quickly directed to the original website. This is not the case, and very often you jump from one search engine to another one. I guess this responds to commercial purposes, but indeed it is limiting the visitor experience. When things get tortuous and complicated people usually give up…
Although it’s only mid-October temperatures in Italy and most European countries are low for the season and snow already appeared on the Alps. Ski season is approaching and all passionate skiers start wondering where and when to go this year. TimesOnLine just featured a nice article providing ideas and suggestions according to each type of skier: the adventurer, the reveller, skiers with small children and families with teens not forgetting singles or child-free couples.
Some of the suggested resorts might be questionable, but it all depends from personal point of view. Anyway, it’s good to start dreaming while waiting for the great day!
Maurizio Galimberti - Madrid
I love photography although I am an amateur taking the normal-as-usual pictures, and one of the things on my dream list is taking a class to understand and manage at least the basic techniques of this wonderful art. You might be also willing to improve your ability as a photographer, and Italy could be the right place to take a course and improve your skills while staying in wonderful locations.
Florence
ADA – Accademia d’Arte in Florence proposes basic and semi-intensive photography courses with duration from 2 weeks to 12 months. Depending from your experience, you can choose among three levels: introductory, basic and advanced. And maybe you’ll be able to see Florence beauties with different eyes.
Gianni Berengo Gardin - Great Britain
The Darkroom International School of Photography of Florence offers a broad range of courses and workshops: Classic photography, Digital photography, specialised photo workshops on Fashion, Advertisement and Photojournalism. Duration for classes varies from 1, 2, 4, 8 or 12 weeks while workshops extend over a 4 weeks period.
Venice
VSP – Venice School of Photography offers several interesting combinations. Workshops are open to photographers of all levels and are strongly focused on photography and its technique. Tours combine travel and learning and take you to the very best photo locations, putting together great photography with unique travel experiences and local encounters. Masterclasses are targeted to people who already hold some experience and feel relatively comfortable with their cameras. What about participating at Venice Carnival Workshop in February 2010? Or joining a Masterclass early April 2010 about the Art of Street Photography while discovering the beauties of Sicily?
Bill Armstrong - Figure #70
Rome
In Rome CSF – Centro Sperimentale di Fotografia holds lots of courses, although most of them are in Italian. Foreigners can however enjoy a First Level Course as well as a Master First and Second Level, although the timeframe to envisage is much longer, with classes during around 10-12 weeks.
Milan
Forma – Centro Internazionale di Fotografia is a multi-functional, dynamic structure, aiming to become the new “house of photography”. Besides the rich exhibiting program, Forma offers interesting workshops although most of them are held in Italian. In the short term Forma proposes a Workshop (starting on November 4, 2009 until the end of the month) on Critical Introduction to Digital Photography held by James Doyle.
Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan provides number of courses, including evening courses and monothematic classes. Unfortunately the website is not fully updated on the forthcoming initiatives but it is worth a look.
And if you are interested also in cooking classes you might find interesting having a look at this other post.
A single voice is just a whisper, but many voices can make an impressive choir.
That’s why I believe that everyone should join and support Blog Action Day ‘09, to raise awareness toward climate change. And maybe should we also take some time, each one of us at a personal level, to do a brief reflexion on how we can contribute, in our day-to-day life, to safeguard our beautiful planet.
There’s so much we can do with only a little effort. Saving water, go by bicycle instead of taking the car, use paper bags in the place of plastic ones and so on. The same when we travel. Even when we happen to visit a place that is lacking sensitivity toward the environment, as is the case in lots of poorer countries, the worst attitude we can have is to take local habits as an excuse. Responsible travel is a great way to support the cause of climate change. I know this might seem trivial, but I’ve seen so many times traveller totally unrespectful of the environment that it’s no harm repeating the concept.
I love the nature and feel so sorry when I see how climate change is impacting on the reefs, the glaciers, flora and fauna. So I hope that many of you will join Blog Action Day cause.
Barracuda rhapsody. Photo by bett@ on Flickr
I’m mostly diving in tropical seas, where the water is warm and corals are so colourful. But my usual dive buddy recently proposed to me to spend a few days in Ustica, a small island not far from Palermo well-known for its diving spots and considered among the bests cuba sites in the Mediterranean Sea.
Ustica is easy to reach by hydrofoil or ferry from Palermo, a journey of 1,5 to 3 hours. This island, of volcanic origins, is almost wild and vegetation is limited. No luxury here, everything is simple but comfortable and the locals are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Since scuba diving is the major attraction, Ustica has plenty of diving centers. We chose Mare Nostrum for the simple reason that it is one of the two having an equipped dive boat instead of a dinghy, which makes diving far more comfortable and pleasant. Danilo, who managed the diving, was not only our captain but also proved to be a great cook and he delighted us with an excellent pasta.
Sea and Clouds. Photo by Franco Orsi on Flickr
Ustica offers lots of diving spots with different characteristics. At Punta Galera we enjoyed a big group of barracuda in circle, something we hadn’t been seeing for a long time, plus grouper and other pelagic fish. Grotta dei Gamberi is a beautiful cave where, as per its name, we spotted lots of shrimps. The cave is large and around 8 meters high with some passages, the slope is full of cracks crevices and passages. Scoglio del Medico is the dive I liked at most, with its mix of caves, passages, tunnels and slopes and the incredible effects of the light when moving through the passages.
Ustica. Photo by Fanco Orsi on Flickr
September is a good month to visit Ustica as the island is less crowded and the water is warmer. With a semi-dry suit and a hood we felt comfortable even after a long dive. Accomodation in Ustica include hotels and residence apartments. We stayed at Stella Marina Residence, offering recently refurbished rooms and a huge terrace overlooking the sea. We had the best Sicilian food at the restaurant La Luna sul Porto, where the best thing is to follow the advice of the owner. You will not regret it.
I just stepped in this article featured on New York Times’ Travel pages and wanted to share it. Indeed, finding budget hotels in the main European cities can be a hard task and if one lacks of reliable sources what appeared to be a great bargain might result in bad surprises.
I filed this great tips list in my travel file so that I’ll have it on hand as soon as I find a budget airfare to Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague…
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