Six Places to Celebrate Carnival in Italy

Carnevale Masks in Venice

It’s Carnival time again in Italy, when Italians prepare to say “goodbye meat!” (Carnevale) by throwing lavish parties and parades before hunkering down for 40 days and nights of denial during the Holy Lenten Season.

Many travelers think that Carnevale only takes place in Venice. While Venice has the best known Carnival in Italy, there are many other cities with long carnival traditions. Let’s have a look at them:

Viareggio, Tuscany
After the Venice Carnival, this carnival, located in the seaside Tuscan town of Viareggio, is perhaps the best known and attended with around 1 million revelers expected in attendance. The Viareggio Carnival is not the oldest in Italy – it began in 1873 – but probably most resembles the type of Mardi Gras celebrations that you might see in New Orleans with papier maché floats gliding down the 2km-long Passeggiata route on several successive Sundays. Throughout Carnival time, the city also celebrates with sporting tournaments, musical events, and promotions at Viareggio restaurants. Read more on Six Places to Celebrate Carnival in Italy…

Volunteer Vacations in Italy

The final post in my New Year’s Resolutions series, which includes Health and Fitness and Learning Vacations in Italy, focuses on doing good while on vacation. Of course, Italy may not be the first place you think of when you consider volunteering your time – indeed, Haiti comes to mind – but there are a number of ways that you can make a difference on an Italy vacation.

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Round-up: Italy in Winter, Hidden Salami, Timelapse Tuscany, and more

A list of the most recent travel and lifestyle articles about Italy.

Rome When It Rains

A writer of a recent comment on the Italofile Facebook page mentioned that his chief concern for an upcoming spring trip to Rome was “what do I do if it rains?” Here’s his exact words:

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Five Favorites: Italian Words

Since I started “Five Favorites,” a feature to showcase the expertise and interests of guest Italophile bloggers, we’ve seen posts about Lucca, Beaches in Calabria, and Recipes from Rome. This week’s installment, about the Italian language, is from Jessica Spiegel of BootsnAll’s WhyGo Italy guide. And, it’s so appropriate that Jess would write about language as she is so skilled at making words dance upon the page (or screen). Jessica’s list of Five Favorite Italian Words also got me thinking: what are your favorite Italian words? Feel free to comment after the post with your faves (though keep it clean – this is a family blog!). I think I, too, will have to save my favorite words for the comment box as I’m too scombussolata* right now to think of a few!

Read more on Five Favorites: Italian Words…

Learning Vacations in Italy

Continuing on the topic of New Year’s resolutions: one of the things that people resolve to do with the arrival of a new year is improve themselves by learning a new skill. Italy holds numerous possibilities for the traveler looking for self-improvement (and not just fitness-wise). So here are a few ideas and tours to get your imaginative juices flowing.

Read more on Learning Vacations in Italy…

Round-up: Parma, Body Scanners, Sightjogging, House-Sitting

Stendhal in Parma [NY Times]
The Cursing Mommy Cooks Italian [The New Yorker - humor, of course!]
Italy’s Reality is a Vita Not So Dolce [The Globe and Mail]
Italy Made Easy [The Telegraph]
Body Scanners Coming to Rome, Milan Airports [USA Today]
Sightjogging: City Walking Tours on Speed [Matador Network]
Make Yourself at Home with a Spot of House-Sitting (Puglia) [The Guardian]
White-Lie City (Rome) [The American]

Read more on Round-up: Parma, Body Scanners, Sightjogging, House-Sitting…

Get Fit in Italy

Here we are, staring down another full year and wondering if or how we are going to make the most of it. For a lot of us, that means giving up vices or improving ourselves. For others, a new year holds the promise of traveling to new places or enjoying more of what life has to offer. So why not combine the two by taking a trip to Italy?

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New Year, New Italy Deals

I hope you’re all having a very happy 2010 so far. I’m hoping this will be a great year for Italy travel and finding deals on tours, packages, airfare, hotels, etc. That’s why I’m launching an experimental page over on the Italofile Social Network.

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Buon Natale 2009

Here Comes Babbo Natale!

Like many of you, I have already started my Christmas vacation. So, I thought I’d check in one last time before December 25 and share with you some of the prettiest Christmas pictures from Italy this year. I’ve done this by creating a gallery on Flickr. My Buon Natale 2009 gallery will feature up to 18 photos (per Flickr, only 18 per gallery). If you’ve found some great Christmas photos from Italy this year, please comment below or go over to my gallery and let me know.

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