Editor’s Note: October/November 2024 Dream of Italy Issue

This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the October/November 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 190 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here.  Venice—you absolutely must visit it at least once in life. I contend one of those times must be during the winter because the light at that time of year in Venezia …

Podcast Episode #17: Experience Authentic Italy in 2025 with LivTours

        Transcript with Show Notes Embedded:  Angelo Carotenuto: At LivTours, we pride ourselves to make sure that the dreamer, the traveler, can live an experience, a destination from every angle. Kathy McCabe: This is Kathy McCabe. Welcome to the Dream of Italy Podcast. You know me from the PBS travel series, Dream of Italy and the award-winning …

Italian Cities and Tourist Sites Cracking Down on Overtourism in New Ways

Tourism to Italy hit a record high in 2023 with registered arrivals at accommodations at 134 million (with similar numbers expected in 2024) and locals and visitors alike are feeling these numbers, with streets and sites feeling more crowded, reservations harder to come by and just a general sense that certain cities and sites are overrun.  Italy is the fourth …

August/September 2024: Parma City Guide, Guidebook Author Confessions

Big Parma Few of Italy’s small cities rival the cultural (opera, history and more) and culinary (Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma to start the list) offerings that elegant Parma presents…If you haven’t been yet, make it your next must-visit in northern Italy with this city guide including where to stay and my God, of course, where to eat. “Dream Job”: …

Editor’s Note: August/September 2024 Dream of Italy Issue

This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 190 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here.  Did you get the word play on “Big Parma”? Like “Big Pharma”? All credit for the title and the cover story goes to contributing writer Kevin Raub. Parma, with just 200,000 …

Italian Poem: Settembre by Luigi Pirandello

This appeared on the back cover of the August/September 2024 issue. SETTEMBRE di Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) Le speranze se ne vanno come rondini a fin d ’anno: torneranno? Nel mio cor vedovi e fidi stanno ancora appesi i nidi che di gridi già sonaron brevi e gaj: vaghe rondini, se mai con i raj del mio Sole tornerete, le casucce …

Dream Big: Planning Ahead to Attend the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics

With the Paris Olympics and Paralympics wrapping up, all eyes are on Italy which will  host the XXV Olympic Winter Games, “Milano Cortina 2026” for shorthand, in 2026.  Italy last hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006 in Turin. I was so lucky to attend the Torino Games and have to tell you that it was one of the most exhilarating …

Preview of Travel to Rome During the Vatican’s Jubilee in 2025

As Rome gears up for the Vatican’s Jubilee in 2025, visitors from around the world are eagerly planning their pilgrimages to the Eternal City but that doesn’t come without headaches for all who plan to visit Rome in 2025. Celebrated every 25 years, the Giubileo or  Jubilee, also known as the Holy Year, is a time of universal pardon and …

June/July 2024: Enna Sicily, Learning Italian From Netflix, Tuscany’s Il Silene

Sicily: From the EnnaSide Out This part of central Sicily, awash in storybook rolling hills that color-shift between off-putting brown (August to November), wheat-fueled yellow (June and July), flower-peppered whimsical (spring crocus, autumn mandrakes, marigolds, meadow daisies) and, at its most beautiful, verdant Crayola green (March to early May), has always given back to those willing to put in the …