Italy Right Now - February 2009

Italy Right Now, February 2009 we go to Venice for Carnival (Carnevale), when Venice overflows with people wearing masks celebrating with parties before Lent. While in Veneto we travel to Verona on Fat Tuesday for the gnocchi festival. And of course St. Valentines, named after an Italian priest from 265 AD, who penned a love letter before being executed for his love. Engaged couples head to Naples . We go to San Remo for the music festival, one of the oldest and most important festivals for Italian singers. And finally, Milan Fashion Week 2009 for Women is in February, a must visit for fashionistas as Italy's famous brands put on fashion shows in Milan.

Italy Travel: How to Ski in Italy

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Venice Italy Travel: Venice Day Trip to Verona

Verona is only one hour and 30 minutes by train from Venice.

Verona is a wonderful day trip from Venice although longer than a Venice day trip to Vicenza, which is about one hour by train, or a Venice day trip to Padua, which is only 35 minutes by train from Venice. Venice is a magical city but with so many desitnations around Venice the traveler is wise to spend a few days around Venice to explore the Veneto region in Italy before moving on to Italy's other two of the big three, Florence and Rome. Below Isabella Dusi introduces WebVisionItaly.com viewers to Verona.

Venice Day Trip to Vicenza

Venice Day trip to Vicenza, in the region of Veneto with Isabella Dusi visit the birthplace of Andrea Palladio and today the third largest industrial city by export in Italy.

Vicenca is home to twenty three buildings by Palladio. The famous ones include:

• The three-dimensional stage a the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, designed for the Accademia degli Olimpico. Construction had started on this project when Palladio died in 1580.;
• Palazzo Thiene, which Palladio turned into a Palladio building although Palladio was not the original architect;
• The Basilica Palladiana, centrally located in Vicenza's Piazza dei Signori, of which Palladio himself that it might stand comparison with any similar work of antiquity;
• The Villa Capra (also known as "La Rotonda"), located just outside the downtown area;
• Palazzo Chiericati, home of Vicenza's museum;
• Palazzo Barbaran Da Porto;
• Palazzo Da Porto Breganze;
• Palazzo Porto in Piazza Castello; and
  
• Villa Gazzotti Grimani, in the frazione Bertesina.

Click below for a video introduction to Vicenza and after the jump more video about Vicenza Italy and Andrea Palladio.

Venice Italy Travel: City of Merchants and Traders

Venice is a magical city in the region of Veneto Italy, whose people, the Venetians live in the sea among 400 islands. This city has always been a mercantile city. Piazza San Marco is the center of Venice and one of Europe's largest squares. A visit to Venice, one of Italy's maritime powerhouses, is to learn about how the context and physical location of Venice had everything to do with its rise to wealth and mercantilism. As Malcolm Gladwell recently wrote in outlines, so much of success is predicated on context, location, and timing. In Venice this is certainly the case.

By living literally in the sea Venetians spent time looking outward with an open mind toward what was to be discovered in the Mediterranean and in the case of Marco Polo as far away as China. While the church was running its crusades Marco Polo was trading with Arabs and Asians, bringing spices, silks, jewels, and of course pasta back to Venice in the 12th century. The merchants of Venice such as Murano Glass is another example of the Venetians taking best practices from around the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas and incorporating them into their glass making style and process to create something uniquely Venetian. At the same time continental Europeans were not equipped to invade a sea-land empire to steal the wealth giving Venice the time and space it need to grow into the world's richest city. Inevitably Venice's location and its efect on the Venetians led to the Venetian's success in commerce and trade with foreign cultures and people. Venice is another example from the Italic peninsula of how importing the best practises of the cultures they traded with and then putting a unique stamp leads to long term success and prosperity, much like the Romans, and the Etrucans before them who created the first United Nations and League of Nations in 500 BC, created their own wealth and success.