Italians call it Il Bel Paese, the beautiful country, for good reason. It seems that in Italy beauty is the driving force for everything. This is evident in all things Italian. Breathtaking landscapes, magnificent architecture, superb art, top fashion, exquisite cuisine, fantastic cars and unique scooters, all have one thing in common: they are beautiful. It is as simple as that.
Our love for this country started from our very first trips there and is growing every time we visit. Its beauty often leaves us speechless and unable to express the feeling we get when we are in Italy. We feel at home more than we have ever felt in any other place, our own country included.
Our life’s goal and dream is to see as much of our beautiful world as possible. However, if we ever faced the impossible dilemma of having to choose whether to see the whole world but never to visit Italy again or to only travel to Italy for the rest of our lives, we believe we would wholeheartedly choose the latter.
So, read on and get to know Italy through the eyes of two travellers whose hearts are forever left in the most beautiful country in the world.
Once in Venice, it is highly unlikely that you will want to let it out of your sight. It is a city of unique, almost dreamy, beauty. That’s why we are adamant that travellers should not do Venice in a day but try to spend as much time as possible there. This way, there will also be time to visit the nearby Venice islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello and enjoy one of the best day trips from Venice.
Venice is a destination unlike any other. The floating city got us under its spell from the very first moment we laid eyes on its beautiful canals and pastel-coloured buildings. Walking around Venice’s picturesque cobblestone streets is enchanting. Yet seeing the city from the water is pure magic. Be it a private gondola ride, a vaporetto ride or a Venice boat tour the best vantage point to marvel at the charms of La Serenissima is the water.
Undoubtedly, the gondola is the ultimate symbol of Venice. It’s hard to imagine that the sleek black vessels used to be colourful in the past. The noble families who owned gondolas used them as a means to show off their power thus turning their lush decoration and vivid colours into some kind of competition. It was in the early 1600s when the Senate decided to bring this competition to an end by forbidding all other colours but black. Evidently, a gondola ride is among the top things to do in Venice.
Few cities in the world are so immediately recognisable as Venice. Who hasn’t been enchanted by its beauty just by looking at pictures of the Grand Canal and the pastel-coloured palazzi lining it? Yet there is no shortage of stories from people who have been disappointed by the city. “It’s expensive”, “it smells bad”, “it’s too crowded” are the commonest complaints and they are not entirely ungrounded. Εspecially the latter. However, La Serenissima, as Venice is traditionally known, is a unique, almost unbelievably beautiful city. A fairy-tale destination unlike any other. So, what to do in Venice to fully immerse yourselves in its magic? First and foremost, understand its peculiarities and you will have the time of your life in this masterpiece of a city.
When I started planning our Bologna trip, I knew we had to take day trips to both Ravenna and Parma for the obvious reasons: the former is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, while the latter is the birthplace of prosciutto ham and parmiggiano reggiano cheese. As I researched, I decided we should also visit Modena. Soon I realised that there was still enough time for yet another day trip. Bologna boasts an excellent location, allowing easy day trips to cities like Verona and Venice. However, it felt wrong just to sneak peek at said destinations rather than plan a future trip just for them. So, I thought we should stick to the Emilia Romagna region and opt for a more laid-back destination, like Ferrara.
If you are part-time travellers with a tight schedule, it takes a lot of brainstorming and rough planning to decide upon your next destination. However, if your motto is Italy is always a good idea and you live in neighbouring Greece, things get a tad easier. Therefore, when low-cost airline Ryanair added Bologna to its direct flights from Athens schedule, there wasn’t much to think about. Both Katerina and I are utterly and totally in love with Italy. So much so that we want to go everywhere in the country. Having already been to Rome twice and after a dreamy road trip through Tuscany a few years back, it felt just about the right time to visit a more laid-back Italian city. So, off we were for yet another chance to enjoy la bella vita among adorable locals. And taste some of the world’s most exquisite food in the process.