Good Things From Italy - Le Cose Buone d'Italia

A Mediterranean climate…fresh, simple, delicious cuisine…culture that surrounds you…wine, the very best of it… If this sounds like your paradise, then take a closer look at Italy.

The Frasassi Caves (or Grotte di Frasassi) is one of the largest subterranean cave systems in Europe. It was discovered fairly recently, in 1971, and has been open to public from 1974. Of the 18 kilometres of underground caves that have been explored, just 1 kilometre is open to guided public tours. It's likely that the cavern system is much larger, some estimates putting it at 35 kilometres long. [...]

As the capital of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna is a city so rich in history and charm you’ll instantaneously fall in love with. From a walk under its wonderful arcades and a handmade tortellini tasting, let Swide give you 20 good reasons why you should go to Bologna next weekend. [...]

Piazza dei Miracoli – The Square of Miracles in Pisa is known worldwide thanks to its landmark, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. A minor miracle on its own, the famous leaning tower is one of four buildings in this exquisitely elegant and stylistically consistent complex.

Prior to some massive restoration work which finished in 2001, the Pisa tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees. It still leans almost 4 degrees, and with a height of about 56 metres it looks like it is barely able to stand. The origin of the tower is dated to 1173 and it was completed about 200 years later. The tower startet to sink and tilt in 1178, after the construction of the second floor had started, mainly due to the shallow foundation of only three meters set in soft and unsteady soil. A major tourist attraction on its own, the tower is an integral component of the impressive totality of Piazza dei Miracoli, the Square of Miracles. [...]

Cantiano is a little town in Le Marche, situated in the Apennine Mountains, 40 km south of Raffaello Sanzio’s birthplace, Urbino. The town sits on the base of a deep cut valley with towering hills all around and the little hamlet of Il Borgo clings to the side of Monte Petrano.
The views across the Sierra Burano are gorgeous, with Monte Catria, crowned with a massive iron cross, being one of the stand out features of the landscape. The countryside is littered with ancient bridges, mysterious tunnels and Romanesque churches. [...]

La Torcia Country House offers apartments situated within the walls of the castle of Loretello, which is surrounded by the picturesque Le Marche landscape.
Within these castle walls our guests will be able to enjoy the peace and quiet of an ancient village, and will be able to share the natural rhythm of everyday life together with its residents.
Loretello is a rural castle, but it is also a microcosm of community life. Within its walls whole families have lived through good and bad times that, from one generation to the next, have contributed towards the history of this village. Even today, there are people who have always lived here, who continue to live in an atmosphere suspended between the past and the present. Guests can enjoy the pace of life within the castle walls, punctuating time with the chime of the church bells, the days slowly turning into night and the succession of the seasons.
Guests will experience moments of great intensity that they can relive any time their thoughts return to this magical place.[...]

Acqualagna’s is the second largest truffle fair in Italy. We are talking above 15,000 people over two weeks.
This appears to be a very generous year, and prices reflect the abundant finds by being exceptionally low. The quote last sunday was around €1,500/kilo for large ones and as low as 1,000 for tiny ones (for a comparison, it was about four times as much five years ago, a very scarce year). [...]

Where to stay, where to eat and what to do in Le Marche

This part of Italy thrives on its insider status; it doesn't do mass tourism well - take the almost entirely fake 'medieval' fortified village of Gradara, or the Virgin Mary pilgrimage town of Loreto. But what Le Marche does, magnificently, is cultured ease and rural seclusion. There are even a few wild, flower-decked stretches of rocky coastline with driftwood beaches accessible only by boat or on foot. [...]

Tuscany offers many different experiences, on one hand there are the art cities such as Florence, Siena, Pisa and Lucca, on the other there’s the countryside with its towns, villages, hills, castles and vineyards.

One of the best things about Tuscany is getting lost in the small roads of the territory and discover new hidden gems: beautiful and ancient towns where we can feel a different atmosphere from everywhere else in the world. If you don’t know from where to start, here you’ll find a list of 36 charming small towns that boast the Bandiera Arancione. [...]

Every single man wants to date an Italian woman right? But with the cultural differences it can be a fraught business. Here together some do's and don't’s for dating Italian women.

1. Dress to impress
2. Impress her friends
3. Be a gentleman
4. Tick the boxes
5. Compliment her
6. Play for laughs
7. Don’t talk politics
8. Don’t talk religion
9. Don’t get (very) drunk
10. Take her some place nice
11. Be open
12. Wine and roses

The mainland resort of Sorrento and the island of Capri complement each other perfectly, says Sue Lawley.

Capri and Sorrento are a perfect combination — two jewels of the southern Mediterranean sitting side by side. Sorrento for two or three nights and Capri for four would give you plenty of time to absorb the charm of both places. The romance of one and the magical mystery of the other are guaranteed to make for an enchanting week away. [...]

August 19 marks the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Rome’s first emperor Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.

To commemorate the date, a series of special events and openings will be launched in the Italian capital [...]

This group of caves [Frasassi Caves] is one of the most famous in the country. Located in the central region of Marche, the caves were reportedly first discovered in 1948, though most sources state that 1971 is when they began to be explored. They feature a series of linked chambers, one of which is a bizarre shape that feels like an endless tunnel when in fact it is one very long chamber. Today the caves are open to the public for daily visits, and they are estimated to be around 190 million years old.

This is the List of the best caves in Italy

1. Blue Grotto - Capri
2. Duino Mithraeum - Duino, Trieste
3. Ear of Dionysius - Siracusa
4. Grotta d'Ispignoli - Nuoro
5. Grotta dei cordari - Siracusa
6. Grotta del Cavallone - Lama dei Peligni, Chieti
7. Grotta dello Smeraldo - Conca de' Marini, Salerno
8. Grotta Gigante - Sgonico, Trieste
9. Grotte di Borgio Verezzi - Savona
10. Grotte di Castelcivita - Salerno
11. Grotte di Castellana - Bari
12. Neptune's Grotto - Alghero, Sassari
13. Nereo Cave - Capo caccia, Alghero, Sassari
14. Pagliacci Cave - Rodi Garganico, Foggia
15. Pastena Cave - Frosinone
16. Pertosa Caves - Muraglione, Salerno
17. Toirano Caves - Savona

Vibrant, chaotic and gloriously dilapidated, Naples is a place where life, romance and death are passionately entwined. Stanley Stewart falls in love

Here is the mystery. ... there was a dramatic discovery in 1492 made while workers were repairing mosaics inside the church [of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme]. What they found was a brick inscribed with the words Titulus Crucis, meaning Title of the Cross. This refers to the wooden title nailed above the cross of Christ. [...]

Taking part in one of these festivals is absolutely one of the best ways to enjoy Italy and its ancient traditions, breathing the unique atmosphere of its typical commemorations. So if you are planning to travel around Italy in 2015, take note of its most unmissable events and get ready to be immersed in a Medieval or Renaissance atmosphere, enjoying the most genuine side of Italian traditions. [...]

Narrow lanes lined with earth-hued houses climb up a steep hill to the powerful bulk of an early medieval fortress: the small village of Sant’Agata Feltria, in Le Marche, looks straight out of a fairy tale at any time of the year. In December, however, it becomes even more special because it turns into a miniature Christmas village. Piazza del Mercato becomes home to Father Christmas, his reindeer and his elves, drawing children from all over Le Marche and neighbouring Romagna, who flock to Sant’ Agata to hand their letters to Father Christmas’ own PA. But there is much for grown-ups too—stalls are crammed full with baubles and honey, mistletoe wreaths and truffles, statuettes and formaggio di fossa. The scent of candles, the music of bagpipes and hundreds of Christmas lights fill the streets. [...]

Urbino in Le Marche had its heyday in the Renaissance, and its appearance hasn’t changed much since then. For this reason Urbino is often considered one of the most adorable hill towns in Italy. [...]

The Frasassi Caves were discovered by chance in 1970 by a speleological party. It’s one of those places everyone in Italy knows about, and with good reason.

The caves are located in the central region Marche, in the municipality of Genga, province of Ancona. They are placed amid the stunning Frasassi Gorges. [...]

Italy may not be as famous for its chocolate as Switzerland and Belgium, yet the country has a long tradition associated with chocolate making. [...]

If you don't want to be taken for a tourist in Italy, you should drink coffee as and when the locals do.

Coffee is so much a part of Italian culture that the idea of not drinking it is as foreign as the idea of having to explain its rituals. These rituals are set in stone and not always easy for outsiders to understand.

The city is famous for being the birth place of Matteo Ricci, a 17th century humanist and mathematician. Ricci was the first Westerner to visit Beijing in 1601, and would go on to translate various classics like Cicero and Euclid into Chinese.
Macerata is a fairly wealthy city, whose economy is mostly based on agriculture.
If you're in town, there are a few places you should visit. You should start with the Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia, [...]

The Message In A Bottle hitmaker, 62, headed to the class with his wife Trudie Styler and Italian former footballer Paolo Rossi. [...]

The singer recently sparked controversy when it was revealed that he is charging visitors at his Tuscan estate, Il Palagio  to help him pick grapes and olives. [...]

Here is a nice, shaded hike below Lake Fiastra starting at Monastero at the cemetery.  One can visit the canyon dug by the river over millions of year and walk through the water between the tall rock walls and also visit the Grotta dei Frati or cave of the monks where they lived in this hermitage ages ago. [...]

If your plans for the weekend don’t include a jousting tournament, it probably means…you aren’t in Ascoli Piceno, Italy! The first Sunday of every August is celebrated with a medieval jousting tournament that brings tens of thousands of people to the small town on Italy’s eastern coast. The day is to honor Saint Emidio, the protector of Ascoli Piceno. [...]