Favorite things in and about Italy
 

What is your most favorite experience, sight, drive, winery, restaurant, etc. in Italy?

>>Important! Why is it your favorite?

If you can, please give specific location, address, contact info, cost, links, etc. (Anything that will help a Fodorite enjoy the same.)

Feel free to link up another thread on this topic.

Grazie!

Rome and Venice are a must. The whole country in one huge beautiful scene. Ligurian coast is awesome. My favorite of the northern lakes is Lake Como. Least favorite part is the Adriatic coast. In the north, Bolzano is a wonderful town. There is a world-class museum there where the Iceman is. There is incredible food and wine everywhere. Eat at the tratatorias where you see bunches of locals eating and drinking. Skip the restaurants unless there is a special occasion. The little places where the locals go are far more fun.

Hi

Well, Rome in general is pretty great in my opinion :-) I have posted a trip report with pictures, links, restaurant "reviews" etc on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm :-)

My wife and I also went to Venice a couple of years back and that was pretty nice too :-) I have posted a trip report from that trip on http://gardkarlsen.com/italy_venice.htm

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Thank you fisches and gard!

fishes - I know it's hard to be specific, but for instance the museum you note, which one is it and do you have address or link for others to find easily?

gard - Thank you as well for the great links to your site. Always a pleasure to peruse your travels. Lovely :)

What I'm aiming to do here is to end up with a list of places and things with precise locations and contact info so it's easily printable and easy to coordinate should it fit into someone's wishes.

Thanks for your input!

the first thing i did when arriving in Italy is head for the caffe and get a cappuccino - even if it's late in the day when i guess Italians don't usually drink them - i not only love the coffee but the caffe atmosphere - from the whizzing noise of the steam mixing up the coffee to the coffee smell. I can now get cappuccino, decent cappuccino in my home town but there nothing like one in Italy!

Maybe it would be less overwhelming if you asked about one region or province at a time, and then the big cities separately.

Lunch at Antico Ristorante Pagnanelli in Castelli Gandolfo (http://www.pagnanelli.it/Dicono%20di%20noi.html) . . .

Walking around Orvieto in the sun (a good day trip from Rome via the train). . .

Sitting on the terrace of my room at the Hotel Ancora in Positano (http://www.htlancora.it/ - ask for the room with the huge balcony and hot tub)

Lunch at Paper Moon in Milan, after a morning of shopping . . .

Driving through the Tuscan countryside, with no clear destination in mind . . .

The Borghese Gallery in Rome. I had not really heard of this before I started visiting this board. I didn't think I was a huge fan of sculpture, but some of the sculpture in the Borghese is truly incredible.

I'm also fond of the Uffizi in Florence. If you have a decent guidebook or guide, you can get a pretty good eductation in western European art in just a few hours.