Archive for 'Day Trips'

Italy's Lake District – comprised notably of Lake Garda, Lake Como, and Lake Maggiore – is one of the country's most desirable upscale resort locations. Here you will find pretty lakeside towns, wonderful scenery, excellent hiking trails, brilliant water sport facilities, and endless things to see and do in the most magical of settings. However, if you're interested in all of these traits and getting a little bit off the beaten tourist path, then we recommend actually foregoing these better-known destinations in favour of the lesser-known but no less lovely Lake Orta. A favourite getaway of the wealthy and cosmopolitan set of Milan, locals have largely kept this absolute gem to themselves but it can (and should) be readily visited if you have found a vacation rental in Lombardy and you happen to be looking to experience the delights of the Italian lakes without busloads of other tourists to contend with.

If you're looking for a wonderful sun holiday destination, then a luxury villa in Sicily is a perfect option. Boasting incredibly hot and sunny summers, a unique and diverse cultural history, a rich cuisine, a striking landscape, and lots of truly amazing beaches, this slice of paradise on earth has all that you could ask for for an idyllic summer getaway.

Then, off the western coast of Sicily you will find the three Isole Egadi, also known as the Aegadian Islands or Egadi Islands in English; Favignana, Levanzo, and Marettimo. While not as famous as the dramatic and volcanic Aeolian Islands or as chic and exclusive as Capri, this group of Sicilian Islands have their own perfectly laid-back appeal. Expect smaller crowds of international tourists (this is one of those spots Italians have largely kept to themselves), better value for your money, stunning azure waters and excellent swimming and diving spots, and lots of surprises along the way – all of it making the Egadi Islands and ideal place to spend some time if you have found a luxury villa in Sicily and are exploring this part of Italy.

The Archipelago of the Egadi, in addition to the islands of Favignana, Levanzo, and Marettimo, is also home to the islets of Formica and Maraone. There have been archaeological findings indicating the presence of people on the islands dating back to at least the Paleolithic era and prehistoric cave paintings suggest that these islanders have always lived with, and by, the sea. To this day, fishing remains a core industry on the islands, though overfishing in previous eras has lead to a great decline in the numbers of fish in the waters surrounding the Egadi and in the value of the industry to the local area. The islands have also gone through many different rulers and changes throughout the centuries. They have been a key Carthagian stronghold, a stepping-stone of the Arabs in taking control of Sicily, owned by Genovese bankers, and then a branch of the lucrative tuna empire owned and run by the Florio family in the 19th century, until they finally became a part of the Italian state in 1937.

Sicily – with its incredibly hot and reliably sunny summers, slow pace of life, and excellent beaches – is one of the Italy's best holiday destinations for sun-worshippers and those looking to relax and to well and truly get away from it all. Idyllic as the island, as a whole, is, it is perhaps most impressively perfect on the island of Panarea. Panarea, the smallest and chicest of the Aeolian Islands, is located not far from Lipari and is the kind of place that attracts celebrities, fashionistas, and Italy's wealthy youth. With the kind of perfect sheen that comes from places in which tourism is, without a doubt, the prevailing industry, there is little by the way of an authentic experience or local heritage, but there is a stunning landscape, cute towns lined with neat streets full of pretty little white-washed buildings (big developments, thankfully, have not descended on the place) framed by colourful flowers, one of the few sandy beaches in the Aeolian islands, a harbour full of luxury yachts, scenic walks and hiking routes, a vibrant party scene in July and August, and peace and tranquility for the rest of the season. Incredibly expensive during the summer months (and though it is more affordable outside this period, it is essentially boarded up between November and Easter), we recommend heading for a day-trip or for a couple of days if you have found a vacation rental in Sicily and are up for exploring all that the island has to offer.

The Tuscan Coast is dotted by lots of incredible surprises and little gems, among them being the vibrant seaside city of Viareggio in the Province of Livorno and its epic Carnival celebrations and the famous Elba Island, to which Napoleon was notoriously exiled. Not far from Elba is another, lesser-known delight, the island of Pianosa. One of the smallest islands in the Tuscan Archipelago, it is an almost entirely uninhabited beauty located in the glimmering Tyrrhenian Sea and is a must-see for those who have found a vacation rental on the Tuscan Coast and are interested in exploring the most interesting and lovely hidden corners of the area.

So incredibly flat that it is barely visible, and often described merely as looking like a darker blue line in the sea, Pianosa was first inhabited in the late Stone Age and then was a Roman settlement before Pisa and Genoa began to fight over the land in the 12th and 13th centuries. Variously inhabited by pirates, fishing colonies, and military officers, the island became a maximum security prison in 1868 and remained home to prisoners, with many particularly dangerous Mafia criminals among them, until 1998. Upon the closure of the prison, almost everyone left with just a few people remaining on the island today.