Popular Sights

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Once the domain of kings and wealthy nobleman, modern Naples is a lively, working port city along the Amalfi Coast. It is surrounded by Cape Miseno on one side and the Sorrento peninsula on the other and across the blue waters of the Bay of Naples lies the charming isle of Capri. Its modern skyline is dominated by the heights of the not-too-distant Mount Vesuvius.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

One of the most beautifuk ports on the Italian Riviera. Portofino has hosted both real and Hollywood royalty. Not only did the Edward VII and Wallis Simpson choose this idyllic spot for their honeymoon, Richard Burton once proposed to Elizabeth Taylor here. For a spectacular bird's-eye view of the harbor, visit the Castello Brown Museum.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

"Siena’s Piazza del Campo is a town square shaped like an oval slopping gently down to the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia, it is divided into sections representing the city’s nine rulers in the 1400s, known (bluntly enough) as the Council of Nine. But the Piazza’s striking medieval ambiance is not only due to the surrounding architecture – but for a race. For most of June, July and August, the entire city is devoted to Il Palio, a series of horse races held in the Piazza whose ancient passions makes the Kentucky Derby seem like a fly-by-night event. The festival’s contours have not changed since the 1100s, when members of the city’s 17 contrade, or town districts, began to compete with one another in track events. The two central races are held every July 2 and August 16, but the pageantry and excitement dominate Siena for the entire summer. "

Saturday, October 31, 2009

"What’s the best vantage point to ponder the most illustrious town square in Florence, the Signoria? An outdoor table in the venerable Caffè Rivoire – preferably over a delicious, if not painfully expensive cioccolata con pane, a dark and mud-thick hot chocolate. Late at night, when the crowds have gone, you can search the long shadows and imagine that very little has changed here since the 1400s. The Signoria is the most elegant sculpture garden in Europe. Masterpieces include the splendid Neptune Fountain by Ammannati, Hercules and Cacus by Bandinelli and a precise copy of Michelangelo’s David, all strategically poised in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. This grand public space has been the centerpiece of Florence since the 15th Century, the golden age when the city was established as the most beautiful in Europe. Eminent merchants in their ostentatious finery met here to discuss business in the midst of Florence’s raucous daily life."

Friday, October 23, 2009

"The only prisoner to ever escape from the Doge’s Palace was also Venice’s most famous lover – Giacamo Casanova. The fashionable young man-about-town was arrested by the secret police in 1755 for making blasphemous jokes and thrown into the cells called the Piombi, or Leads. (Named after the palace’s lead roof, they were located in its hot, airless attic.) The spurious charge was evidently trumped up by one of the elderly Venetian magistrates, who were enraged that Casanova was courting his mistress."