There are many great places in Italy. One of my favorite places is a little town called Alvito. It is in the same region as Rome, Lazio, but it is two hours southeast, very near the Abruzzi border. It sits about 1000 feet up on the side of a mountain. On top of that mountain is a ruin of a castle that dates back at least 1000 years. When you are in the castle tower at the highest point, you can overlook a beautiful valley. There was a restaurant at the time in Alvito that was terrific and owned by a man named Enzo Persichetti. This town is the home of our family and we found the remains of my great-great grandfather in the catacombs in a wooden box under the Chapel of the cemetery!! Awesome!!
We have been to many places in Italy and eventually will hit some highlights on each one of them. Let me list them first: Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Camogli, Portofino, Positano, Alvito, Luca, Multipiciano, Pisa, Sora and Rada. We also drove through a number of little towns in Tuscany and drove by Monte Casino, Naples and Sorrento on our way to Positano.
Rome, so many great historic spots and so many good restaurants. The Hotel Forum is right across the street from the ancient Roman Forum and just down from the Coliseum. If you get the room on the top floor on the front corner of the hotel, you will look down on the Roman Forum at night all illuminated, Bella!! Each morning from the roof you also eat breakfast over looking that same Roman forum. The Vatican is amazing and you can walk around St. Peters for hours and the Sistine Chapel is just beautiful with all the fresco paintings by Michaelangelo on the walls and ceiling. The Pantheon is special because of how old it is and the unique domed ceiling. There is also a great little Piazza just outside it's doors to have a glass of wine. The Piazza Nuovona was also a favorite place for food, drinks and atmosphere. A beautiful fountain in the middle of the piazza has colored lights shining through it for a terrific effect. You can go on about Rome for hours, but these were a few of my favorite memories!!
Rome was great as I remember the "bone church"... great history.. I loved Florence Italy and also Positano... I look forward to hearing more of your favorite spots I haven't been too...Nothing like Italy!!
Many trips to Milan that were all business. Milan was the headquarters for our Italian operations. We also had a Network Service Center and Client Services team located there as well. Many great dinners and restaurants. DaVinci's Last Supper painting is terrific to see. Milan is also quite a fashion location for some of the most successful companies such as Gucci and Benneton.
bmac007, forgot about the bone church and all those skeletons of many priests!! You would rmember that!!
We took the train from Florence and went up to Venice for a day and had a great time. From the train station we went by boat, naturally, to a very nice glass making factory. It was really fascinating to watch them making all forms of decorative glass pieces. Of course we bought several. The main plaza and duomo(Cathedral) were bella. We had some terrific lunch and wine. The train up and back was very efficient and we had some very nice views as it ran up the east coast of Italy.
Ahh Firenze(Florence), what a beautiful city with many historic locations. The main piazza is fantastic and a terrific place for an Italian Gelato every evening. The open markets right off of the the piazza were also terrific with a lot of leather goods that are first class. The Duomo in Firenze is outstanding with it's green and white marble blended. Of course The David by Michaelangelo is the most detailed sculpture you will ever see. The "Gold Bridge" as they call it has all types of jewelery that is fantastic and is sitting right over the Arno river. We stayed in a great B&B across the river from the heart of Firenze.
I love towns like that!! The people are so nice in Italy. My wife is from Sicily but I have never been there
Camogli is right above Portofino and south of Genoa on the Meditteranean Sea. We stayed at a great hotel named Cenobio Dei Dogi, right on the Sea. We lounged around on various patios they had looking right over the Mediterranean. The Sea was so clear you could see right to the bottom. We took a boat down to Portofino one day and entering Portofino from the Sea was just beautiful!! As everywhere in Italy, Portofino had some terrific restaurants!! There Piazzas were right on the bay and were terrific for drinking some Vino!! SALUTE!!
Been to Italy once and will go back soon. My father's family are from the Agrigento Area of Sicily and my mother's family come from Abruzzo!
Positano is a beautiful little town built right on the mountainous Almalfi Coast. It is just south of Naples and Sorrento that we drove by as we headed to Positano. We stayed four days in a great Bed & Breakfast named Casa Cossenza. It had only seven rooms and we had two of them occupied. Each morning we had breakfast on the Varanda that over looked the homes below, the Positano Beach and the Mediterranean Sea--BELLA!! Delicious pastries, coffee and several different fritaitas each morning. We would spend the day on the beach and again have a terrific lunch at the many open varanda style restaurants right on the back of the beach. We loved all the fresh vegetables sauteed in olive oil and garlic. We would climb over 400 steps each day back and forth to ou B&B. There is a boat daily that also goes over to the Island of Capri. We did not do that and wished we had.
On our way to Camogli we went through Pisa and stopped at the famous leaning tower, truly unique and unbelievable the way it is angled!! Also as we drove from Camogli to Florence, we stopped in Luca for another great Italian lunch. Luca was unique with it's walls all around the city. Two additional very quaint small cities were Rada and Multipiciano. Rada was in Tuscany and was one of several small towns as we drove in and out of Florence one day. We bought some large pottery and had it shipped back to the USA. Multipiciano was on the way from Florence to Rome and sat up high on a crest. Also a beautiful walled city. We stopped for whatelse, lunch and some delicious local wines made from the Multipiciano grape!!
Italy is a great place!! My wife and I plan to rent a villa some day in Tuscany and have our family visit us while we are there. You can also easily visit Rome and Florence while you are based in Tuscany!
