Entries Tagged "italy travel blog"

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Starting June 5, 2010 Alitalia will restart nonstop service from Los Angeles to Rome Italy. Alitalia will be the only airline to offer a nonstop flight to Italy from the West Coast of the United States.

The new flight to/from Los Angeles will operate with 5 weekly frequencies (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) on a Boeing 777-200 with 291 seats.

Flights depart at 9:25am from Rome, Fiumicino and arrive in Los Angeles at 1:25pm (local time), after 13 hours of flight time. From Los Angeles, the flight will depart at 3:25pm (local time) and land in Rome at 12:15pm the following day, after 11 hours and 50 minutes of travel time.

The flight schedule was studied in order to provide Alitalia passengers originating from other domestic Italian and regional European cities with convenient connections from Rome, Fiumicino to Los Angeles. The afternoon departure from Los Angeles allows for connections from many cities in the Southwest.

Passengers flying to Rome from Los Angeles in Magnifica Class, Alitalia’s long haul business class, will be able to experience the new service offered in partnership with some of Italy’s finest brands: new catering featuring Italian chefs who reinterpret traditional regional recipes; the best Italian wines selected by the Italian Sommelier Association; blankets and pillows by Frette; and flatware and dishes by Richard Ginori.

With the addition of the new Los Angeles - Rome route, Alitalia will serve seven North American gateways: New York JFK, New York Newark, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Toronto and Los Angeles. Alitalia offers service from Atlanta and Detroit through codeshare with its SkyTeam partners Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Do you have amazing pictures of Italy you would like to share?

Fodor’s has partnered with Princess Cruises for the “Show us Your Italy Photo Contest.”

First-time visitors to Italy come in search of la dolce vita (the good life) and they quickly learn just how easy it is to escape completely. A romantic gondola ride in Venice. A walk in Caeser’s footsteps in ancient Rome. A meal of fresh tortellini in Bologna. There are thousands of discoveries to be made and places to explore, which provide travelers with plenty of reasons to visit again and again. Share the moments and photos that made your trip to Italy special for a chance to have your photograph featured in Fodor’s Italy and receive a suite of Fodor’s latest full-color guides (ARV = $130).

Runner-up winners will have their photographs featured in a slideshow on Fodors.com and will win two (2) Fodor’s guides of their choice (ARV = $45). In addition, if any photographs are selected to be included in a future Fodor’s guide, those entrants will also receive a complimentary copy of the guide in which their photo appears.

Enter today and tell friends and family who have traveled to Italy to enter as well. The “Show Us Your Italy” contest closes November 26, 2009.

Looking to travel to Italy in 2010, visit our Italy website for an amazing selection of Italy tours, Italy cruises and Italy rail packages.

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."

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Are you longing to trace your family tree and visit the birthplace of your ancestors in Italy? We can make your desires happen. Think about a cruise or a tour that departs from or ends in Rome and add a few days to the start or end. We can take you to remote villages anywhere in Italy by private car or train if train access is available. You would be surprised at the local train service Italy offers. Here in the United States we should take lessons from the European train network. Trains leave on time and take you to the most out of the way places.