Thinking about basking on a beach in Bari or visiting the newest shrine to Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo? The region of Puglia has announced a new tourism website at ViaggiareinPuglia.it. The well-designed, easy-to-navigate site has the usual practical details (weather, how to get there, etc.), as well as searchable hotel and restaurant info (with links to maps), travel itineraries, and event ideas. As you may have heard before (either from this site or others), Puglia is the next hotspot for tourists in Italy. So, visit the website, book a trip, and go to Puglia before everyone else does.

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The Times UK’s Stephen Bleach had a fun article about romantic getaways in Europe this weekend titled “The Dirty Weekend Guide to Europe.” Bleach argues that a “place of [one's] own” makes or breaks a romantic holiday and highlights a “dozen of the slushiest, smoochiest and downright sexiest hideaways on the Continent.” No surprise to us, four out of the 12 are in Italy:

• In Puglia, Trullo Zingaro (booking through Long Travel)
• On Lake Como, Casa Dell’Architetto
• In Sorrento, on the Amalfi Coast, Perla (booking through Wimco Villas)
• In Umbria, Castello di Reschio (booking through Abercrombie & Kent)

And, not a Tuscan villa among any of them. Be aware, however, that romance this luxurious comes at a price!

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On April 24, the new tomb of Padre Pio was unveiled in the Puglian city of San Giovanni Rotondo. The new tomb now features the exhumed body of Italy’s most recent homegrown saint, who died in 1968 and who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002. According to Ian Fisher’s San Giovanni Rotondo Journal in the New York Times, more than 750,000 pilgrims have made reservations to see the new Padre Pio shrine. You, too, can make reservations to see the saint’s venerated body by calling (39-088) 241-7500 (we found this number online at Catholic.org, whose website bears an uncanny resemblance to the NY Times).

If you want to learn more about Padre Pio and his shrine in Puglia, check out the Convento of Padre Pio website. You can also listen and watch sermons or hear the voice of Padre Pio on Tele Radio Padre Pio.

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So, you’ve made it all the way to Rome but wish your vacation time allowed you to visit the other 40 UNESCO Heritage Sites in Italy? Have no fear!

According to the U.K.’s Italy Magazine, an exhibit of 120 photographs of Italy’s heritage sites will be on display at the Central National Library. The exhibition will give you a chance to see the Trulli of Alberobello (in Puglia, as pictured above), the beauty of the Amalfi Coast, and the historic center of the ideal Renaissance cities of Urbino and Pienza.

The exhibit at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma runs through March 14. The library is located at Viale Castro Pretorio 105 (Metro linea B, Castro Pretorio), just a few blocks from the Termini train station.

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Torino's Mole Antonelliana

We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s run-down of part 1 of 20 Things We Love About Italy. Hopefully, the list has given you more travel ideas and the inspiration to learn more about all of Italy’s 20 regions.

Now, without further ado, the remaining 10 favorites on our list:

11) Termoli, Molise. If Puglia (see #13) is the next Italian travel spot, surely Molise will follow. This beautiful beach town in Italy’s second smallest region is little known outside of the country and blissfully free of the tourist throngs (so far).

12) La Mole Antonelliana of Torino, Piemonte. This iconic building (perhaps you remember it as the symbol of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games?) may be one of the younger structures in the region, but it certainly has a cool history. Originally built to be a synagogue, the Mole now houses Italy’s National Cinema Museum. Besides a collection of thousands of movie posters and exhibits about early cinema in Italy, the museum presents a huge roster of films each month. This is great if your Italian is up to snuff.

13) Padre Pio, Puglia. If you’ve spent any time tooling around the shops near the Vatican, you’ve most certainly seen images of Padre Pio, the white-bearded Capuchin monk (originally from Pietrelcina in Campania) who lead a congregation at San Giovanni Rotondo and was canonized in 2002. Unofficially, for better or for worse, Padre Pio is Italy’s modern patron saint. What’s really random is that he’s now the patron saint of the New Year Blues.

14) Neptune’s Cave, Sardinia. Long known as a playground for the jetset, Sardinia is more than just beaches. Because of the island’s geography of rocky promontories spilling into the sea there is a vast network of underwater caves, or grottoes, to explore. Chief among them is the Grotta of Nettuno, which spans about 1 kilometer, includes impressive stalagmite and stalactite formations, and is a great cure for beachside boredom. Take a boat tour of Neptune’s Cave or, if you’re feeling more active, approach the grotto from the 656-step staircase that leads from Capo Caccia.

Beautiful Taormina, Sicily

15) Taormina, Sicily. Like the region of Campania (see #4), much of Sicily lives in the shadow (or under the legend) of a volcano: Mt. Etna. Taormina, with its Greco-Roman theater, bougainvillea draped hillsides, medieval town, and views of Etna, epitomizes the beauty, history, and geology of Sicily. We’re also fond of Taormina’s cultural attractions, including Taormina Arte and Taormina Filmfest.

16) Ötzi the Iceman, Trentino Alto Adige. Europe’s oldest mummy was found in 1991 in the ice-packed mountains above Trentino Alto Adige, the alpine region that borders Austria’s Südtirol. After years of research, the 5,000-year-old Ötzi was placed on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano in 1998. Also on exhibit are the Iceman’s tools and clothing, and information about the preservation measures being taken to keep Ötzi in peak condition for many millennia to come.

17) Botticelli Gallery, Galleria degli Uffizi, Tuscany. It’s too hard to single out just one thing in Tuscany, of course. But the Botticielli Gallery at the Uffizi has to be one of the most special rooms in Florence. Upon seeing Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Primavera in the flesh, we are transfixed, barely even noticing the dozens of other museum-goers trying to elbow us out of the way. For more information about the Uffizi, including how to get tickets, visit the museum’s official website. We also like this unofficial site that provides a virtual tour of the Botticelli Gallery and others.

18) Orvieto, Umbria. One of our favorite day trips from Rome has to be to the town of Orvieto. Situated atop a huge mountain of tufa, Orvieto shines because of its gorgeous, Gothic Duomo, its ancient Etuscan caves and wells, and the superb Orvieto Classico white wine. Actually…forget the day trip. Why not stay overnight?

19) Fiera Sant’Orso, Valle d’Aosta. How can you not appreciate the Fiera Sant’Orso, Aosta’s traditional craft fair which has been going strong for more than 1,000 years?! The fair usually takes place at the end of January – so you just missed this year’s edition – and it is known for its wooden handicrafts, artisanal metalworks, ceramics, and sculptures. No doubt, there aren’t many events that can boast a 1,000 year history – not even in Italy.

20) St. Mark’s Lion, Venice, Veneto. Leave it to us astrological Leos to love the symbol of the city of Venice: the lion of St. Mark. From atop a column in St. Mark’s Square to Madonna’s Like a Virgin video, the lion has been an effective marketing tool for Venice for hundreds of years. You can learn more about the symbol and the city in Garry Wills’ excellent Venice: Lion City, one of the most gratifying biographies about a city that you will ever read.

Photos © Comune di Torino, Joe Routon

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Quite a number of press releases for Italy package tours have come across our desks in recent days. Here are a few highlights:

To celebrate the publishing of the Wimco Villas Vendome Guide to Italy, Wimco Villas is offering a “complimentary first night in-villa provisioning” (i.e., a free meal) for customers booking villas directly through Wimco by December 31, 2007, for travel by September 2008. Most interesting is Wimco’s new guide, which features villas in Tuscany, Umbria, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast. More info: www.wimco.com.

Euro-Bike and Walking Tours is offering $50 off of their 2008 packages if you book before December 14, 2007. Some of the upcoming tours include a biking tour of the Tuscan Coast and Elba, and walking tours of the Italian Lakes, Cinque Terre, and the Amalfi Coast. Information about all of their tours is available at www.eurobike.com.

Your Friend in Italy, a relatively new travel consulting company, will create customized tours of Italy, including to the regions of Campania, Liguria, Tuscany, Lombardy, and the Veneto. We hear that a new tour to Abruzzo is in the works, so stay tuned. For more info, see www.yourfriendinitaly.com.

The San Francisco Sentinel tipped us off to Tour de Forks, an NY-based tour company that provides culinary tours to Italy, including to Sicily and Puglia, and to Australia (which has some great Italian food, thanks to the large Italian expat community). The company’s 2007 tours appear to be over, but you can stay informed of their plans for 2008 on their website at www.tourdeforks.com or on their blog at www.tourdeforks.blogspot.com.

And, long-time group tour provider Perillo Tours has just announced its roster of Italy tours for 2008. They include “Italy Off the Beaten Path,” which includes some stops in L’Aquila, Abruzzo, and villages in Tuscany and Umbria, and “Deluxe Italy-by-Rail,” which includes Venice, Florence, Rome, and Capri. For more info, see www.perillotours.com.

It seems that every time we poke our noses into the New York Times travel section, there’s a new article on travel to Italy. This week’s focus is on Puglia, also known as the “next Tuscany” (unless, of course, you’re talking about all the other next Tuscanies: Umbria, Le Marche, etc.). Times restaurant critic and fellow Italophile Frank Bruni wrote The Heel is Rising, and included tons of great ideas for sightseeing, dining, and drinking.

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The piece is also a terrific segue for the latest lodging to be featured in our “Hotel Spotlight:” Masseria Salamina.

Name: Masseria Salamina
Location: Pezze di Greco, Puglia – not far from Brindisi
Contact: Phone 080-489-7307; Fax 080-489-8582
Web: http://www.masseriasalamina.it/
Rates: €90-200, breakfast included (B&B and half-board (HB) accommodations available); special weekly rates from €560-1,330. HB rates + cooking course and 4 excursions from €1,450 per person per night.
What’s Cool: The 17 acres of land that surrounds Agriturismo Masseria Salamina include extensive olive groves, orchards of almond and lemon trees, and opportunities for bike riding, archery, and long country rambles. Travelers with kids can take advantage of the swimming pool and playground, while those with time on their hands can take cooking or crafts lessons or join excursions to nearby towns such as Lecce, Trani, and Alberobello. Don’t forget to buy some olive oil, Puglian wine or other locally-produced products from the agriturismo’s shop before you go.

Photos from New York Times and Masseria Salamina

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