The perennially popular vacation spot, the island of Capri usually calls to mind images of breathtaking beaches, isolated inlets, cozy restaurants and bars with beautiful sea views to enjoy over a glass of wine on tranquil afternoons. This year, however, Capri is not only serene, but silent. To protest cuts in the local ferry service, islanders have gone on strike, …
Travel Alert: Italian Taxi Drivers to Strike
Travelers’ plans will be hindered next week due to a nation-wide taxi drivers’ strike in Italy. The strike is the drivers’ opposition to a new initiative of Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s center-left government. In an effort to revitalize the sluggish Italian economy, the government is making moves to liberalize some of Italy’s most protected industries, including taxis, pharmacies and law …
Vatican Reopens Missionary Museum
As a part of their 500 year celebrations, the Vatican on June 21st reopened its Ethnological Missionary Museum after an extensive, five-year renovation project. The museum is organized into four main sections, devoted to Asia, Oceania, Africa, and America, with smaller subdivisions within each sector featuring displays devoted to specific countries and their religious practices. The Asia section is the …
Volcano Discovered Off Sicilian Coast
Sicily is always full of surprises. Last week, an immense underwater volcano was discovered just 30 meters off of Sicily’s southern coast, near the city of Sciacca. The volcano was discovered by an oceanographic team who was attempting to study the mysterious island of Ferdinandea , which appeared off the coast of Sicily in 1831, only to disappear within the …
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Finding an Italian Cooking School
This is an excerpt from the July/August 2004 issue of Dream of Italy: So you want to attend a recreational cooking school during your next visit to Italy. Where do you begin? On the Web, of course. Try one of the following sites: Gourmetget.com: Marlene Iaciofano’s Gourmet Getaways site features her own cooking tours as well as detailed information on …
Prepare to Pay Significant Fuel Surcharges This Summer
In the past week, American, United, Delta, Northwest and U.S. Airways have all moved to increase their transatlantic fuel surcharges by $10 one way. This brings the total fuel surcharge to $75 one way and a whopping $150 for a round-trip flight to Europe. Remember, that’s just the fuel surcharge, and doesn’t include the additional taxes and fees tacked on …
Was Christopher Columbus Piemontese?
Historians and descendants of Christopher Columbus will meet in Turin this weekend to discuss whether the explorer was really born in a small town in the region of Piedmont and not in the port city of Genoa, as has been thought. The Italian news agency ANSA reports that conference organizers claim Columbus was born Cuccaro Monferrato, a village of just …
Vesuvius Reveals Secret Past
Smithsonian Magazine reports in its June issue the discovery that Italy’s Mount Vesuvius erupted about 2,000 years before its 79 A.D. eruption to famously covered Pompeii. And that’s not all, Vesuvius may be due for another eruption in the next few hundred years. Here’s what the magazine says: Sure, Mount Vesuvius erupted in a.d. 79 and entombed Pompeii. Now a …
We All Scream for…GELATO!!
This is an excerpt from the (July/August 2004) issue: When investment banker Michael McGarry’s wife received a year-long art history fellowship in Bologna and Rome, he wasn’t sure what he would do while she was working. A visit to Bologna’s La Sorbetteria convinced him that his calling was gelato. And so began a year of first-hand research that culminated in …