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Grand Canal Venice with Gondolas

Italian Travelers: Sightseeing Today!

Italian Travelers: Sightseeing Today!

Best Kathy Twitter Pic edited for blog  Follow Caterina and read about Italian travelers and sightseeing today in Italy in the Conversational Italian for Travelers series of books!

The Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook begins each chapter with a dialogue from a story about the character Caterina, an American girl who travels to Italy to visit her relatives. As the story continues from one chapter to the next, we learn Italian, and about Italy, in an engaging way through Caterina’s experiences.

Sightseeing in Italy 

In our story, Caterina visits her relatives in Italy during August, when most Italians go on vacation. So of course, all the family members in our book become Italian travelers! Italian travelers usually go to the beach or the mountains during their Ferragosto holiday and often enjoy sightseeing during that time.

Feel free to listen in on Caterina and her relatives when, as Italian travelers in the lakeside town of Stresa, they carry on a conversation to plan their day of sightseeing on www.LearnTravelItalian.com.

The Cultural Note below, adapted from the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook, gives some general guidelines about sightseeing in Italy that all Italian travelers may find helpful when planning their vacation this summer.
—Kathryn Occhipinti


 

Italian Cultural Note:
 Taking in Italian Culture and Shops

Many books have been written about the art and architecture of Italy. Even those who would not normally spend time admiring works of art often find themselves drawn into one of the many museums, historical palaces, or churches in Italy. A complete list would be exhaustive, but for the curious, a short list of some easily recognizable works of art and architecture—and where to find them—is included at the end of this section.

As many of you may or may not know (I did not when I went to Italy for the very first time), the Mona Lisa (la Gioconda), a famous portrait by the Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci, is not on this list, as it is in Paris, at the Louvre!

The Last Supper (L’Ultima Cena), da Vinci’s most well-known fresco, can thankfully still be viewed in Milan despite the destruction of the adjacent walls of the monastery during the bombing of World War II. The fresco survived because of the dedication of the townspeople, who protected it with sandbags. The monastery has been rebuilt, and the Last Supper now exists in a climate-controlled environment, which protects its fragile paint from heat and humidity. A limited number of visitors are admitted each day through the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

The larger museums in Italy often open remain open from 8 to 9 a.m. through 7 p.m. Smaller museums may close at 1 p.m. for siesta and reopen later in the day, around 4 p.m., so it is advisable to check the hours of operation. Museums may be closed on Mondays. There may be extremely long lines at some of the most famous museums and sites (the Vatican and the Colosseum in Rome, or the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, for instance), but now it is fairly easy to buy tickets ahead of time, over the Internet, by phone, or through tour guides.

Churches are usually open for viewing from early in the morning, about 7–8 a.m., until 12:30 p.m., and then reopen from 4 to 7 p.m., every day except Sunday (when services are held).

The island of Sicily is a trip in and of itself—with ancient Greek ruins, many Baroque architecture UNESCO world heritage sites and even entire cities, stunning beaches, and Mount Etna, a week is barely enough to see all the island has to offer. Sicily has once again become a travel destination as the world has taken notice of the island’s treasures. Sardinia, the second-largest Italian island, has long been a destination of the very wealthy, who vacation along the secluded beaches along the Costa Smeralda, or Emerald Coast.

For those who prefer shopping to, or along with, their dose of culture, shops in Italy are usually open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., close for lunch, reopen between 3 and 4 p.m. and then usually remain open until 8 p.m. Most family-run shops are closed on Sundays and may be closed on Mondays.

One of the most famous shopping strips in the world is actually on a bridge—the old bridge, or Ponte Vecchio, in Florence, where gold and jewelry are found in abundance. Florence is also known for its handmade leather goods, and small shops with handmade items in a multitude of colors are found throughout the city.

Venice is known not only for its architectural beauty but also for wonderful, hand-painted masks for Carnevale (Mardi Gras). The smaller islands of Venice offer wonders of their own. Visit the famous beaches on the Lido for relaxation. Or visit the island of Murano to watch the centuries-old technique of creating beautiful, hand-blown glass pieces, a large variety of which are available for purchase and can be shipped back home. The small but picturesque island of Burano, with its brightly colored houses, is the oldest center for handmade lace still in existence in the world today.

Milan and Rome are known as fashion centers. It would be difficult to miss the high-end shops that line the piazza around the Spanish steps in Rome, but even the side streets offer beautiful clothing and a dazzling variety of shoes. Most mid-sized cities in Italy also have a good number of designer boutiques. The greatest discounts are found during the last week of July, when almost every shop puts up signs in their window advertising discounts (sconti) of 50% or more at the end of the season.

A note on visiting Italy during August—during the weeks of the Ferragosto holiday in early to mid-August, most small shop owners and restaurant owners will close their businesses and head for the beaches or mountains. Smaller towns may seem deserted to the visitor. It may be best to stay in the country for these weeks in August, as the Italians do!

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Italian Traveler’s Guide to Sightseeing 

Milan: Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper—Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Il Duomo (di Santa Maria Nascente)—fifth-largest cathedral in the world

Lake region: Lago Maggiore and Lago Como

Florence: Uffizi Gallery of Art

Michelangelo’s statue of David at the Academy Gallery

Il Duomo (di Santa Maria del Fiore)—third-largest cathedral in the world

Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)

Piazza della Signoria

Pitti Palace

Boboli Gardens

Palazzo Vecchio

Pisa: Leaning Tower in the Campo dei Miracoli

Siena: The Palio horse race (August 16)

Rome: Vatican museum

St. Peter’s Basilica—largest Catholic cathedral in the world

Michelangelo’s Creation frescoes at The Sistine Chapel

Colosseum/Roman Forum/Baths of Caracalla

The Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

Villa Borghese museum

Villa Medici

Pantheon

Victor Emmanuel Monument

Piazza Navona

Piazza del Popolo

Abruzzo: Tivoli Gardens

Naples: Ruins of Pompeii

Amalfi Coast

Island of Capri

Venice: St. Mark’s Square

St. Mark’s Basilica and Campanile

Doge’s Palace

Grand Canal: gondolas and Rialto Bridge

Island of Murano: hand-blown, decorative glass

Island of Burano: handmade lace

Art Biennal (Biennale Arte)

Peggy Guggenheim Museum

Lido beaches

Verona: Juliet’s balcony (from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet)

Castelvecchio

Lago Garda—largest lake in Italy

—Adapted from Conversational Italian for Travelers, “Cultural Note—Taking in Italian Culture and Shops,” by Kathryn Occhipinti

Best Kathy Twitter Pic edited for blog

Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the
Conversational Italian for Travelers
 series of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area.
“Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”

Join my Conversational Italian! Facebook group and follow me on Twitter at StellaLucente@travelitalian1  and start to learn Italian today for FREE!
Conversational Italian! Facebook Group
Tweet @travelitalian1 for Stella Lucente Italian

YouTube videos to learn Italian are available from © Stella Lucente, LLC.
Learn Conversational Italian.

More information on and photographs of Italy can be found on Facebook Stella Lucente Italian and Pinterest Stella Lucente Italian.
Facebook Stella Lucente Italian

Pinterest Stella Lucente Italian

Visit learntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy! Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC

Italian Travelers: Sightseeing Today!

High speed Italian trains

High-Speed Italian Trains Freccia and Italo for Travel in Italy

High-Speed Italian Trains Freccia and Italo for Travel in Italy

FollKathryn for learntravelitalian.comow Caterina in the
Conversational Italian for Travelers series of books!

The Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook begins each chapter with a dialogue from a story about the character Caterina, an American girl who travels to Italy to visit her relatives. As the story continues from one chapter to the next, we learn Italian, and about Italy, in an engaging way through Caterina’s experiences.

High-Speed Italian Trains Freccia and Italo for Travel in Italy

One of the first things Caterina must do after her plane lands in Italy is find her way on the Italian railway system. To listen to dialogues from Chapters 4 and 5 about Caterina’s encounters as she buys a ticket and boards a train in Italy, go to the interactive dialogues on our website at learntravelitalian.com/interactive.html.

For more images and links to the high-speed Italian train system, visit our Pinterest Site, Stella Lucente Italian.

The Cultural Note below, also from the textbook, describes the exciting new high-speed Italian trains of the Freccia and Italo railway systems that have streamlined travel between the major cities in Italy.
—Kathryn Occhipinti

 


Cultural Note: Freccia and Italo Railway Systems for Travel in Italy

The future of train travel is here in Italy today, under the old Trenitalia Ferrovie dello Stato railway system, to which has been added a new network traveled by a fleet of beautiful, high-speed Italian trains—the Freccia (arrow) trains. The high-speed Italian trains for the railway line Frecciarossa (red arrow) link the major cities of Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin, and Venice and travel up to 175 miles per hour across the country. It is now possible to travel from Milan or Venice to Rome on these high-speed Italian trains in about 3 hours. This Italian network is linked to major European cities outside of Italy as well and can be an efficient way to extend travel plans to neighboring countries, with restaurant cars and sleeper cars available for longer journeys. These cars are also equipped with WiFi for a small fee. The Frecciargento (silver arrow) and Frecciabianca (white arrow) trains are part of this new family of high-speed Italian trains and link smaller cities and towns. For a slightly higher fee, they provide a more comfortable ride than the older local trains and make fewer stops. Ask about the availability of these high-speed Italian trains when purchasing a ticket at the station. Or go to the official Trenitalia site, www.trenitalia.com, and click on one of the three silver tabs in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage for the high-speed Italian Freccia train of your choice.

High speed Italian train Italo
Self-service machine to purchase tickets to ride on an Italo railway high-speed Italian train

Italo is a privately owned company that also offers high-speed Italian passenger train service. Italo offers a club membership for frequent travelers, with private waiting rooms at the train stations and special cars with reclining leather seats, personal TVs, WiFi, and meal service. Look for the bright red automatic ticket machines, or purchase tickets at the Italo ticket offices in the train station. For more information on the Italo family of high-speed Italian trains or to purchase tickets online, use the Italo website at www.italotreno.it.

Read all about this new high-speed Italian train network and learn about traveling throughout Italy on the different classes of trains offered by Trenitalia and Italo on the website The man in Seat 61 at www.seat61.com. Click on the link for Italy and search for “A beginner’s guide to train travel in Italy” to see pictures of each type of train and learn more about the accommodations that are offered.

All of the high-speed Italian trains require a reservation (prenotazione), and the ticket issued will have an assigned car (carrozza) and seat (posto) for each passenger. Look for the car number on the side of the train, or ask the conductor, who will come out of the office to the platform when the train enters the station before departure for the next stop. Tickets for the high-speed Italian trains, as well as local trains, can be purchased online in most cases, starting 60 days before departure, and in some cases, up to 90 days. These online tickets may be discounted up to 60% off the price paid at the train station, depending on how far in advance they are purchased. Beware, though—the timetables change in mid-June and mid-December each year, so be sure to check them again before departing if you have bought tickets in advance. An alternative site, all in English, is www.raileurope.com. And remember, along with your ticket, you will need a valid personal ID to travel between European cities. Or, if you choose ticketless travel (within Italy only), you will need the registration number.

Have fun visiting the Trenitalia and Italo websites!

 Adapted from Conversational Italian for Travelers, Chapter 4, “Cultural Note,” © 2012, Stella Lucente, LLC, by Kathryn Occhipinti. 

Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases
Conversational Italian for Travelers Just the Important Phrases (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions) is YOUR traveling companion in Italy! All the Italian phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to Italy are right here and fit right into your pocket or purse.

   Available on amazon.com and Learn Travel Italian.com

Best Kathy Twitter Pic edited for blog

Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, is the author of the
Conversational Italian for Travelers
 series of books and a teacher of Italian for travelers to Italy in the Peoria and Chicago area.
“Everything you need to know to enjoy your visit to Italy!”

Join my Conversational Italian! Facebook group and follow me on Twitter at StellaLucente@travelitalian1  and start to learn Italian today for FREE!
Conversational Italian! Facebook Group
Tweet @travelitalian1 for Stella Lucente Italian

YouTube videos to learn Italian are available from © Stella Lucente, LLC.
Learn Conversational Italian.

More information on and photographs of Italy can be found on Facebook Stella Lucente Italian and Pinterest Stella Lucente Italian.
Facebook Stella Lucente Italian

Pinterest Stella Lucente Italian

Visit learntravelitalian.com/download.html to purchase/download Conversational Italian for Travelers and find more interesting facts and helpful hints about getting around Italy! Learn how to buy train tickets online, how to make international and local telephone calls, and how to decipher Italian coffee names and restaurant menus, all while gaining the basic understanding of Italian that you will need to know to communicate easily and effectively while in Italy. —From the staff at Stella Lucente, LLC

High-Speed Italian Trains Freccia and Italo for Travel in Italy