Italy Blog

Staying in Rome can be an expensive business, at any time of year.
Just like with many major western European cities, the prices of hotels has risen quite sharply over the past couple of decades, which means many people have begun to consider alternatives.
One way of cutting down the cost of accommodation is to stay in a hostel, but clearly this is not for everyone.
To get the cheapest rate, you might have to steel yourself to share a room with 10 strangers. That’s hardly a recipe for a good night’s sleep – particularly if eight of them are loud snorers!
It can be hard enough as a single traveler or a couple to find reasonably-priced accommodation, but those who are traveling in family groups have particular issues.
If you have teenage children, you’re likely to have to pay for two rooms. And if you have youngsters, it can be hard to find hotels that have comfortable family rooms.
One of the best options is to camp. Rome might not seem like a city that offers that facility, but actually there are a number of excellent campsites that are accessible by public transport.
Don’t worry that you’re going to find yourself stuck in a farmer’s field in the middle of nowhere, desperately trying to find someone who speaks English. The reality is that the campsites often have great facilities for their guests, including heated swimming pools and tennis courts.
There’s usually a choice of tents for hire, or you can take your own tent. You’ll find it a great way to make new friends, and also to get tips from fellow travelers about the best places to visit or how to get around on the buses.
Many of the campsites have cafeterias or shops where you can buy food, and some will even arrange transport to and from the airport.

Tweet The other weekend I was invited by my ever productive and active Italian artist friend Gaetano Fiore to attend the Il Segno Art Prize awards ceremony at the Zamenhof Art Gallery in Milan. I’d heard on the grapevine that Gaetano might well win a prize.  Indeed, he did

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Gaetano Fiore wins the 2011 Il Segno Contemporary Art Prize

Custom Teaser:  Remembering the talented tenor who tragically passed away 5 September 2011 after a motorbike accident.

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In Memoriam: Salvatore Licitra (1968-2011)

Tweet Playboy Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ‘s already rock bottom reputation and credibility sank to new lows today. It has been revealed that the contents of more than 100,000 (yes, you read that correctly – one hundred thousand plus) intercepted bunga bunga case telephone conversations are about to see the light of day.

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Silvio Berlusconi: In It Up to His Bunga Bunga Eyeballs

Tweet When a parcel of homework arrives a few weeks before setting off to Italy for a Learn Italian in Tuscany course, one can only suspect that the planned week-long experience will be anything but a passeggiata in the park. There is much to learn: conjugations of verbs, suffixes, specific vocabularies, complicated plurals — Italians don’t just add an ‘s’, and, idiomatic expressions to memorise in the hope that we might be mistaken for locals. I am picked up from my Florence hotel and whisked through undulating farmlands striped with vineyards and dotted with terracotta-roofed farmhouses before arriving an hour later in the little mountain village of Moggiona – population 300

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Learning Italian in Tuscany

It may already be considered the fashion capital of Italy, but tourists from all over Europe have confirmed that Milan’s regular residents are the coolest dressers on the continent.

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Milan’s Residents the Best Dressed in Europe

Tweet I was curious to see whether the best selling Italian coffee which was at the top of my previous best selling Italian coffee on Amazon.com post was still a hit.  The answer lies below in the best selling Italian coffee top ten list. Note that to get into to best selling Italian coffee Top Ten , the coffee concerned has to be made by an Italian coffee roaster in Italy

Originally posted here: 
Best Selling Italian Coffee – The Top Ten List

Tweet In this, the second part of my series on up and coming Italian designers , I am going to tell you about some more talented, but lesser known designers. The designers in question have been producing interesting work both independently and with some of the giants of Italian design, as you will discover

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Italian Design Feature: Up and Coming Italian Designers – Part 2

Custom Teaser:  As children prepare to return to their classrooms, Karen Stromans looks back on her daughter’s first year in an Italian school… As children prepare to return to their classrooms, Karen Stromans looks back on her daughter’s first year in an Italian school

Excerpt from:
Back to School

Tweet One of these days I’ll stop writing about Italy’s colourful prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and what he’s been up to.  As to when such a day will arrive, I’m not holding my breath! Predicting just when Berlusconi will exit stage right is about as impossible as forecasting a sunny day in the UK

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Silvio Berlusconi: A Question of Credibility