Veneto Region People & Culture
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Caorle, Veneto Region, Italy
Hmmm... are you German? Brittish? NO? well, Caorle is.... quite a place out there, in the middle of nowhere. Unlike the stereotypical idea, the truth is that the place is a little town where locals work their ass of in the summer season... the beach is crowded of umbrellas standing on a row, in a perfect, straight line. There is no space for your own towel...
Basically, its just a little beachtown that is trying to make money out of foreign (mainly german and british) tourists in the summer months. YOU NEED A CAR, because there is not much to do in the village.... with a car you can get to venice and other cities, which you shouldnt miss if you are in this part of italy.
Seriously... there is not much to see or do... if you wanna party, choose Jesolo instead of Caorle... if you go for the beach, go further south where the water is clear.... or why not to Croatia, same sea, but less people and cheaper...
If you still go... enjoy!
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(+2)
Verona, Veneto Region, Italy
Nice city but horrible people... go prepared !:-)
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Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
The Venice Film Fesitival is sardines in a tin but great fun...it has a less glamourous feel and you feel more connected. There's also a fabulous mix of people in the crowd.
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Cortina d'Ampezzo, Veneto Region, Italy
Visited Italy only twice. This destination for skiing. I was really amazed by this place.
Getting there with an organised trip was a really good idea. We got to a hotel and a place for all our things. A lot of the people working in hotels and restaurants there are polish. The village is really charming. Hills just covered in buidlings, every one different.
No thieves, because there they could not earn good money, plus a nice few slopes within an hour drive.
Really advise to visit it in the winter time.
Getting there with an organised trip was a really good idea. We got to a hotel and a place for all our things. A lot of the people working in hotels and restaurants there are polish. The village is really charming. Hills just covered in buidlings, every one different.
No thieves, because there they could not earn good money, plus a nice few slopes within an hour drive.
Really advise to visit it in the winter time.
Good tip?
(0)
Bassano del Grappa, Veneto Region, Italy
Beautiful old Italian town in the province of Vicenza in the Veneto region, about 1.5 hour train ride from Venice (airports Treviso for Ryanair or Skyeurope) or Intl. Airport of Venice. Capital of the worldknown Italian Grappa. Beautiful old covered wooden bridge in the city center with awesome view of the Italian Alps (Dolomiti). Close to Marostica where every two years a Chess Game takes place with real people in medieval clothes on the Piazza in front of the Town Hall. Medieval castle. Not too far away from either Verona and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
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Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
One of my favourite cities, it has an unique vibe. All the ways goes to San Marco Plaza. I suggest to read couple of pages of its history, it will make the whole experience much more interesting. Also because of the culture mixture (it used to be a trading/banking city during the Dark Times) - the buildings have a lot of arabic and middle eastern influence. Even the their navigation old maps have the east set as the north.... also a habit for the navigators from the north part of Africa.
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Burano, Veneto Region, Italy
History
Ancient and medieval city
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 5th century.[1] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the 10-11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s Divine Comedy includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277 Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.
In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.[2].
Republic of Lucca
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Lucca was the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries. In 1805, Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". This affair is commemorated in the famous first sentence of Tolstoy's War and Peace:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes.(...) And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan, the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions [to be annexed to France] before Monsieur Bonaparte, and Monsieur Bonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations?" (spoken by a thoroughly anti-Bonapartist Russian aristocrat, soon after the news reached St. Petersburg).
After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.
Frazioni
The municipal territory of Lucca includes eighty-one “fractions”: Antraccoli, Aquilea, Arancio, Arliano, Arsina, Balbano, Cappella, Carignano, Castagnori, Castiglioncello, Cerasomma, Chiatri, Ciciana, Deccio di Brancoli, Fagnano, Farneta, Gattaiola, Gignano di Brancoli, Maggiano, Massa Pisana, Mastiano, Meati, Monte San Quirico, Montuolo, Mutigliano, Mugnano, Nave, Nozzano, Nozzano San Pietro, Nozzano Vecchia, Ombreglio di Brancoli, Palmata, Piaggione, Piazza di Brancoli, Piazzano, Picciorana, Pieve di Brancoli, Pieve Santo Stefano, Ponte a Moriano, Ponte del Giglio, Ponte San Pietro, Pontetetto, Saltocchio, San Cassiano a Vico, San Cassano di Moriano, San Concordio di Moriano, San Donato, San Filippo, San Gimignano, San Giusto di Brancoli, San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, San Lorenzo di Moriano, San Macario in monte, San Macario in piano, San Michele di Moriano, San Michele in Escheto, San Pancazio, San Pietro a Vico, San Quirico in Moriano, San Vito, Sant'Alessio, Sant'Angelo in Campo, Sant'Ilario di Brancoli, Santa Maria a Colle, Santa Maria del Giudice, Santissima Annunziata, Santo Stefano di Moriano, Sesto di Moriano, Sorbano del Giudice, Sorbano del Vescovo, Stabbiano, Tempagnano di Lunata, Torre, Torre alla Maddalena, Torre Alta, Tramonte, Tramonte di Brancoli, Vallebuia, Vecoli, Vicopelago, Vinchiana.
Main sights
(June 2008)
Piazza Anfiteatro
Piazza Anfiteatro
The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini is open to the public. At nearby Torre del Lago there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded facades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
* Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
* Piazzale Verdi
* Piazza Napoleone
* Piazza San Michele
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
* Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
* The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
* The ancient Roman amphitheatre
* Church of San Michele in Foro
* Basilica di San Frediano
* Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
* Casa and Torre Guinigi
* Museo Nazionale Guinigi
* Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
* Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
* Palazzo Pfanner
* Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked amongst the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal font. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures
* Passeggiata Mura Urbane (which is a street all over the city on the bastions, and which pass from these balconies: Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; also pass over these gates: Porta San Donato, Porta Santa Maria, Porta San Jocopo, Porta Elisa, Porta San Pietro, and Porta Sant' Anna.)
* The fortified city is surround by these street: Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi, Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento and Viale Giosuè Carducci from outside.
Culture
Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La bohème and Madama Butterfly), Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of Bruno Menconi and artist Benedetto Brandimarte.
Lucca annually hosts the Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition saw Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napoleone.
Lucca also hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Italy's largest festival for comics and related subjects.
History
The island was probably settled by the Romans, and in the 6th century was occupied by people from Altino, who named it for one of the gates of their former city. Two stories are attributed to how the city obtained its name. One is that it was initially founded by the Buriana family, and another is that the first settlers of Burano came from the small island of Buranello, five miles to the south.
Although the island soon became a thriving settlement, it was administered from Torcello and had none of the privileges of that island or of Murano. It rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles. The lace was soon exported across Europe, but decline began in the 18th century and the industry did not revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened. Lacemaking on the island boomed again, but few now make lace in the traditional manner as it is extremely time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Culture and main sights
Burano is also known for its small, brightly-painted houses, popular with artists. The designer Philippe Starck owns three houses. Other attractions include the Church of San Martino, with a campanile, the Oratorio di Santa Barbara and the Museum and School of Lacemaking. The colours of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot. This practice has resulted in the myriad of warm, pastelly colours that characterises the island today.
Ancient and medieval city
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 5th century.[1] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the 10-11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s Divine Comedy includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277 Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.
In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.[2].
Republic of Lucca
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Lucca was the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries. In 1805, Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". This affair is commemorated in the famous first sentence of Tolstoy's War and Peace:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes.(...) And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan, the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions [to be annexed to France] before Monsieur Bonaparte, and Monsieur Bonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations?" (spoken by a thoroughly anti-Bonapartist Russian aristocrat, soon after the news reached St. Petersburg).
After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.
Frazioni
The municipal territory of Lucca includes eighty-one “fractions”: Antraccoli, Aquilea, Arancio, Arliano, Arsina, Balbano, Cappella, Carignano, Castagnori, Castiglioncello, Cerasomma, Chiatri, Ciciana, Deccio di Brancoli, Fagnano, Farneta, Gattaiola, Gignano di Brancoli, Maggiano, Massa Pisana, Mastiano, Meati, Monte San Quirico, Montuolo, Mutigliano, Mugnano, Nave, Nozzano, Nozzano San Pietro, Nozzano Vecchia, Ombreglio di Brancoli, Palmata, Piaggione, Piazza di Brancoli, Piazzano, Picciorana, Pieve di Brancoli, Pieve Santo Stefano, Ponte a Moriano, Ponte del Giglio, Ponte San Pietro, Pontetetto, Saltocchio, San Cassiano a Vico, San Cassano di Moriano, San Concordio di Moriano, San Donato, San Filippo, San Gimignano, San Giusto di Brancoli, San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, San Lorenzo di Moriano, San Macario in monte, San Macario in piano, San Michele di Moriano, San Michele in Escheto, San Pancazio, San Pietro a Vico, San Quirico in Moriano, San Vito, Sant'Alessio, Sant'Angelo in Campo, Sant'Ilario di Brancoli, Santa Maria a Colle, Santa Maria del Giudice, Santissima Annunziata, Santo Stefano di Moriano, Sesto di Moriano, Sorbano del Giudice, Sorbano del Vescovo, Stabbiano, Tempagnano di Lunata, Torre, Torre alla Maddalena, Torre Alta, Tramonte, Tramonte di Brancoli, Vallebuia, Vecoli, Vicopelago, Vinchiana.
Main sights
(June 2008)
Piazza Anfiteatro
Piazza Anfiteatro
The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini is open to the public. At nearby Torre del Lago there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded facades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
* Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
* Piazzale Verdi
* Piazza Napoleone
* Piazza San Michele
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
* Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
* The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
* The ancient Roman amphitheatre
* Church of San Michele in Foro
* Basilica di San Frediano
* Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
* Casa and Torre Guinigi
* Museo Nazionale Guinigi
* Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
* Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
* Palazzo Pfanner
* Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked amongst the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal font. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures
* Passeggiata Mura Urbane (which is a street all over the city on the bastions, and which pass from these balconies: Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; also pass over these gates: Porta San Donato, Porta Santa Maria, Porta San Jocopo, Porta Elisa, Porta San Pietro, and Porta Sant' Anna.)
* The fortified city is surround by these street: Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi, Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento and Viale Giosuè Carducci from outside.
Culture
Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La bohème and Madama Butterfly), Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of Bruno Menconi and artist Benedetto Brandimarte.
Lucca annually hosts the Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition saw Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napoleone.
Lucca also hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Italy's largest festival for comics and related subjects.
History
The island was probably settled by the Romans, and in the 6th century was occupied by people from Altino, who named it for one of the gates of their former city. Two stories are attributed to how the city obtained its name. One is that it was initially founded by the Buriana family, and another is that the first settlers of Burano came from the small island of Buranello, five miles to the south.
Although the island soon became a thriving settlement, it was administered from Torcello and had none of the privileges of that island or of Murano. It rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles. The lace was soon exported across Europe, but decline began in the 18th century and the industry did not revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened. Lacemaking on the island boomed again, but few now make lace in the traditional manner as it is extremely time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Culture and main sights
Burano is also known for its small, brightly-painted houses, popular with artists. The designer Philippe Starck owns three houses. Other attractions include the Church of San Martino, with a campanile, the Oratorio di Santa Barbara and the Museum and School of Lacemaking. The colours of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot. This practice has resulted in the myriad of warm, pastelly colours that characterises the island today.
Good tip?
(0)
Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
Will go back again just for the ice-creams, the Gondolas are a rip off so beware, or do a deal first. The shops streets are fasinating , as is the history of the buildings.
Avoid drinking in St Marks square the'll charge you 2 arms 2 legs for a coke, find an ice-cream booth they sell cold drinks also keep loose change for the loo's.
The night life is romantic and there's live music twinkling lights in St Marks square, try and go in the local August holidays it's busy but worth it, Even thunder storm;s are romantic at night.
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(+1)
Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
Avoid the tourist season and Venice will be one of your favorites! Without the crowds it feels like you are the only person in this amazing labyrinth of a city. Have a glass of wine at one of the restaurant on either side of the Piazza San Marcos and listen to the competing orchestras. It's much more expensive, but worth it to enjoy the music and see the couples dancing in the square to the music.
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Verona, Veneto Region, Italy
Home of Romeo and Juliet, you can still see the balcony where the lovers whispered their secrets to each other. Verona also is home to the ruins of a Roman Coloseum, which has been restored and is used as an opera house and civic music hall. Worth a visit!
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Verona, Veneto Region, Italy
Really Nice Place if you enjoy Italian Food. It also has an ancient roman arena where opera and music concerts take place. I had the chance to see "Aida" there in July 2002 and it was awesome!!
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Vicenza, Veneto Region, Italy
Bar Sartea www. sartea .it the best place in town for a drink and good music in a friendly place.
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San Rocco di Piegara, Veneto Region, Italy
San Rocco is a very small village in the lower Lessini mountains northeast of Verona. It features a lovely parish church and a surprising selection of hiking boots! If you are coming from Verona, allow plenty of time for your 22 km drive up the mountain. Follow the (sporadic) signs to the Hotel Cristina, a place where you can get a good meal and a room with a view.
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Verona, Veneto Region, Italy
Home of Shakespear's Romeo Juliet . For any fan of Shakespear, RomeoJuliet, Literature, Romance, the Juliet's balcony is a must see. Today it's a museum, with some interesting stuff in there. Besides, it's simply cool to have your pic taken there... :-)
The arena is worth a visit as well.
This is also the place where we almost missed McDonalds, because it looked like a regular Restaurant with gold letter ing!
The arena is worth a visit as well.
This is also the place where we almost missed McDonalds, because it looked like a regular Restaurant with gold letter ing!
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Verona, Veneto Region, Italy
Beautiful city! Don't forget to go see Juliet's balcony. You can also take a picture with the gold statue of "Juliet". Her right boob has been touched do much that it's now black.
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Campodarsego, Veneto Region, Italy
just a small town. But it is not far from Padua, or Venice and a lot of small towns with lots of History.
If you like riding your bike just be there on the last Sunday of May, there is a 'riding meal' in 9 stops around town. so fun!
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Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
There's a trattoria on the island Vignole, where usually only the locals eat. It's low priced and the food is delicious, a lot of fish and pasta. You take the vaporetto from Venice to Vignole, then follow the sign to the trattoria. It takes quite a while, but it 's really worth it, especially if you're up for something authentic and not the usual tourist food.
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Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
Dont travel with a group in venice!!!
- after you diembarked from your opereta boat, go alone and dont stick with the group. the group tours show san marco and realto- and stick 3 hours to unesseary explanations. venice is small and easy to get around- go always by foot and alone- so you will reach all the shops. by the way- there is a small market on the beach right after san marco
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(+3)
Caorle, Veneto Region, Italy
Hmmm... are you German? Brittish? NO? well, Caorle is.... quite a place out there, in the middle of nowhere. Unlike the stereotypical idea, the truth is that the place is a little town where locals work their ass of in the summer season... the beach is crowded of umbrellas standing on a row, in a perfect, straight line. There is no space for your own towel...
Basically, its just a little beachtown that is trying to make money out of foreign (mainly german and british) tourists in the summer months. YOU NEED A CAR, because there is not much to do in the village.... with a car you can get to venice and other cities, which you shouldnt miss if you are in this part of italy.
Seriously... there is not much to see or do... if you wanna party, choose Jesolo instead of Caorle... if you go for the beach, go further south where the water is clear.... or why not to Croatia, same sea, but less people and cheaper...
If you still go... enjoy!
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(+2)
Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
A map is pretty much useless in Venice as not much is labeled. Instead, use the arrow signs that point you towards major sites to navigate.
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(+2)
Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
When in Venice, dodge any restaurant that caters 'tourist menus'...they are overly expensive and not worth the money. Instead dare to get lost in the many small alleyways throughout the city and dine where the locals dine.
...and make sure you buy an ice cream cone when in Venice. The Italian 'gelatti' is quite delicious indeed !
Good tip?
(+1)
Venice, Veneto Region, Italy
Will go back again just for the ice-creams, the Gondolas are a rip off so beware, or do a deal first. The shops streets are fasinating , as is the history of the buildings.
Avoid drinking in St Marks square the'll charge you 2 arms 2 legs for a coke, find an ice-cream booth they sell cold drinks also keep loose change for the loo's.
The night life is romantic and there's live music twinkling lights in St Marks square, try and go in the local August holidays it's busy but worth it, Even thunder storm;s are romantic at night.
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Padova, Veneto Region, Italy
- Acc or ding to a tradition dated at least to Virgil's Eneide, and rediscovered by the medieval commune to gl or ify itself, it was founded in 1183 BC by the Trojan prince Anten or
- The Scrovegni Chapel ( Cappella degli Scrovegni ) is Padua's most famous sight. It houses a remarkable cycle of frescoes completed in 1305 by Giotto.
- The Palazzo della Ragione , with its great hall on the upper flo or , is reputed to have the largest roof unsupp or ted by columns in Europe.
- The most famous of the Paduan churches is the Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova , locally simply known as "Il Santo".
- In the Piazza dei Sign or i is the beautiful loggia called the Gran Guardia , and close by is the Palazzo del Capitanio , the residence of the Venetian govern or s, with its great do or , the w or k of Giovanni Maria Falconetto
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Burano, Veneto Region, Italy
History
Ancient and medieval city
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 5th century.[1] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the 10-11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s Divine Comedy includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277 Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.
In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.[2].
Republic of Lucca
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Lucca was the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries. In 1805, Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". This affair is commemorated in the famous first sentence of Tolstoy's War and Peace:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes.(...) And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan, the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions [to be annexed to France] before Monsieur Bonaparte, and Monsieur Bonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations?" (spoken by a thoroughly anti-Bonapartist Russian aristocrat, soon after the news reached St. Petersburg).
After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.
Frazioni
The municipal territory of Lucca includes eighty-one “fractions”: Antraccoli, Aquilea, Arancio, Arliano, Arsina, Balbano, Cappella, Carignano, Castagnori, Castiglioncello, Cerasomma, Chiatri, Ciciana, Deccio di Brancoli, Fagnano, Farneta, Gattaiola, Gignano di Brancoli, Maggiano, Massa Pisana, Mastiano, Meati, Monte San Quirico, Montuolo, Mutigliano, Mugnano, Nave, Nozzano, Nozzano San Pietro, Nozzano Vecchia, Ombreglio di Brancoli, Palmata, Piaggione, Piazza di Brancoli, Piazzano, Picciorana, Pieve di Brancoli, Pieve Santo Stefano, Ponte a Moriano, Ponte del Giglio, Ponte San Pietro, Pontetetto, Saltocchio, San Cassiano a Vico, San Cassano di Moriano, San Concordio di Moriano, San Donato, San Filippo, San Gimignano, San Giusto di Brancoli, San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, San Lorenzo di Moriano, San Macario in monte, San Macario in piano, San Michele di Moriano, San Michele in Escheto, San Pancazio, San Pietro a Vico, San Quirico in Moriano, San Vito, Sant'Alessio, Sant'Angelo in Campo, Sant'Ilario di Brancoli, Santa Maria a Colle, Santa Maria del Giudice, Santissima Annunziata, Santo Stefano di Moriano, Sesto di Moriano, Sorbano del Giudice, Sorbano del Vescovo, Stabbiano, Tempagnano di Lunata, Torre, Torre alla Maddalena, Torre Alta, Tramonte, Tramonte di Brancoli, Vallebuia, Vecoli, Vicopelago, Vinchiana.
Main sights
(June 2008)
Piazza Anfiteatro
Piazza Anfiteatro
The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini is open to the public. At nearby Torre del Lago there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded facades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
* Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
* Piazzale Verdi
* Piazza Napoleone
* Piazza San Michele
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
* Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
* The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
* The ancient Roman amphitheatre
* Church of San Michele in Foro
* Basilica di San Frediano
* Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
* Casa and Torre Guinigi
* Museo Nazionale Guinigi
* Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
* Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
* Palazzo Pfanner
* Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked amongst the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal font. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures
* Passeggiata Mura Urbane (which is a street all over the city on the bastions, and which pass from these balconies: Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; also pass over these gates: Porta San Donato, Porta Santa Maria, Porta San Jocopo, Porta Elisa, Porta San Pietro, and Porta Sant' Anna.)
* The fortified city is surround by these street: Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi, Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento and Viale Giosuè Carducci from outside.
Culture
Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La bohème and Madama Butterfly), Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of Bruno Menconi and artist Benedetto Brandimarte.
Lucca annually hosts the Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition saw Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napoleone.
Lucca also hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Italy's largest festival for comics and related subjects.
History
The island was probably settled by the Romans, and in the 6th century was occupied by people from Altino, who named it for one of the gates of their former city. Two stories are attributed to how the city obtained its name. One is that it was initially founded by the Buriana family, and another is that the first settlers of Burano came from the small island of Buranello, five miles to the south.
Although the island soon became a thriving settlement, it was administered from Torcello and had none of the privileges of that island or of Murano. It rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles. The lace was soon exported across Europe, but decline began in the 18th century and the industry did not revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened. Lacemaking on the island boomed again, but few now make lace in the traditional manner as it is extremely time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Culture and main sights
Burano is also known for its small, brightly-painted houses, popular with artists. The designer Philippe Starck owns three houses. Other attractions include the Church of San Martino, with a campanile, the Oratorio di Santa Barbara and the Museum and School of Lacemaking. The colours of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot. This practice has resulted in the myriad of warm, pastelly colours that characterises the island today.
Ancient and medieval city
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 5th century.[1] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the 10-11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s Divine Comedy includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277 Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.
In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.[2].
Republic of Lucca
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.
Lucca was the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries. In 1805, Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". This affair is commemorated in the famous first sentence of Tolstoy's War and Peace:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes.(...) And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan, the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions [to be annexed to France] before Monsieur Bonaparte, and Monsieur Bonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations?" (spoken by a thoroughly anti-Bonapartist Russian aristocrat, soon after the news reached St. Petersburg).
After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.
Frazioni
The municipal territory of Lucca includes eighty-one “fractions”: Antraccoli, Aquilea, Arancio, Arliano, Arsina, Balbano, Cappella, Carignano, Castagnori, Castiglioncello, Cerasomma, Chiatri, Ciciana, Deccio di Brancoli, Fagnano, Farneta, Gattaiola, Gignano di Brancoli, Maggiano, Massa Pisana, Mastiano, Meati, Monte San Quirico, Montuolo, Mutigliano, Mugnano, Nave, Nozzano, Nozzano San Pietro, Nozzano Vecchia, Ombreglio di Brancoli, Palmata, Piaggione, Piazza di Brancoli, Piazzano, Picciorana, Pieve di Brancoli, Pieve Santo Stefano, Ponte a Moriano, Ponte del Giglio, Ponte San Pietro, Pontetetto, Saltocchio, San Cassiano a Vico, San Cassano di Moriano, San Concordio di Moriano, San Donato, San Filippo, San Gimignano, San Giusto di Brancoli, San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, San Lorenzo di Moriano, San Macario in monte, San Macario in piano, San Michele di Moriano, San Michele in Escheto, San Pancazio, San Pietro a Vico, San Quirico in Moriano, San Vito, Sant'Alessio, Sant'Angelo in Campo, Sant'Ilario di Brancoli, Santa Maria a Colle, Santa Maria del Giudice, Santissima Annunziata, Santo Stefano di Moriano, Sesto di Moriano, Sorbano del Giudice, Sorbano del Vescovo, Stabbiano, Tempagnano di Lunata, Torre, Torre alla Maddalena, Torre Alta, Tramonte, Tramonte di Brancoli, Vallebuia, Vecoli, Vicopelago, Vinchiana.
Main sights
(June 2008)
Piazza Anfiteatro
Piazza Anfiteatro
The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini is open to the public. At nearby Torre del Lago there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded facades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
* Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
* Piazzale Verdi
* Piazza Napoleone
* Piazza San Michele
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
A close up of the front facade of the San Michele in Foro.
* Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
* The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
* The ancient Roman amphitheatre
* Church of San Michele in Foro
* Basilica di San Frediano
* Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
* Casa and Torre Guinigi
* Museo Nazionale Guinigi
* Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
* Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
* Palazzo Pfanner
* Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked amongst the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal font. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures
* Passeggiata Mura Urbane (which is a street all over the city on the bastions, and which pass from these balconies: Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; also pass over these gates: Porta San Donato, Porta Santa Maria, Porta San Jocopo, Porta Elisa, Porta San Pietro, and Porta Sant' Anna.)
* The fortified city is surround by these street: Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi, Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento and Viale Giosuè Carducci from outside.
Culture
Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La bohème and Madama Butterfly), Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of Bruno Menconi and artist Benedetto Brandimarte.
Lucca annually hosts the Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition saw Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napoleone.
Lucca also hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Italy's largest festival for comics and related subjects.
History
The island was probably settled by the Romans, and in the 6th century was occupied by people from Altino, who named it for one of the gates of their former city. Two stories are attributed to how the city obtained its name. One is that it was initially founded by the Buriana family, and another is that the first settlers of Burano came from the small island of Buranello, five miles to the south.
Although the island soon became a thriving settlement, it was administered from Torcello and had none of the privileges of that island or of Murano. It rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles. The lace was soon exported across Europe, but decline began in the 18th century and the industry did not revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened. Lacemaking on the island boomed again, but few now make lace in the traditional manner as it is extremely time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Culture and main sights
Burano is also known for its small, brightly-painted houses, popular with artists. The designer Philippe Starck owns three houses. Other attractions include the Church of San Martino, with a campanile, the Oratorio di Santa Barbara and the Museum and School of Lacemaking. The colours of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot. This practice has resulted in the myriad of warm, pastelly colours that characterises the island today.
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