Archive for 'Must See Attractions'

Milan is one of the most impressive fashion capitals in Italy and in the world with a long and lauded sartorial history, plenty of incredible boutiques, headquarters and flagship stores of many of the world’s most famous designer labels, designer cafés, restaurants, and bars, fashion museums, ample opportunity for stylish people-watching, and so much more besides. However, as more and more of the clothing market turns to vintage and resale in a bid to make the industry much more sustainable, savvy and stylish travellers who have found a vacation rental in Milan might be looking for some of the best places to shop for clothes in search of a new home. As such, we have compiled a list of just five of the must-see vintage stores in Milan in order to kick off your trip to this fashion fanatics’ dream holiday destination. Read on, get shopping, and go green.

The Venice Biennale is an annual event that takes place in the city of Venice in Italy and is, on alternate years, an art exhibition and then an architectural exhibition, with art being on odd years and architecture on even years. It is an international showcase of the best and brightest design talents from all around the world and attracts around 300,000 tourists from all over the globe to Italy. If you have always wanted to visit the city, now is a great time to book a Venice vacation rental and to head to the city to experience the 58th edition of the Biennale International Art Exhibition. Entitled, “May You Live In Interesting Times,” it will be open to the public until the 24th of November 2019 and was inaugurated on the 11th of May. Venice and the wider Veneto region always have abundant charms to offer but with the Biennale taking place, it is all just that much more colourful, exciting and fascinating.

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.

If you have found your perfect vacation rental in Veneto and are thinking about spending some time exploring the wider region and all that it has to offer, then you should definitely ensure to set aside a day to head the few kilometres just outside of the city of Verona to the Moreniche hills overlooking Lake Garda, where you’ll find the Parco Giardino Sigurtà. Often listed as one of the most beautiful gardens in the world and with good reason, it is a truly breath-taking place and a perfectly idyllic spot to get well and truly away from the humdrum surroundings of daily life to experience something utterly refreshing and rather extraordinary.

First established as a park all the way back in 1617 and now combined with a modern garden, the park was sold by its last owner, Dr Carlo Sigurtà, in 1941 and was then opened to the public in 1978. It extends over a whopping 600,000 square meters and is made up of a diverse landscape including woodlands, a medicinal herb garden, a grotto, 18 (yes, eighteen!) flowering ornamental lakes, incredible fields of flowers, a dog cemetery, the Hermitage, the Great Lawn, the Great Oak, a farm, and more. The scale and variety is utterly staggering and the whole thing is an amazing sight to behold with plenty to keep anyone more than occupied for a day (or several!).

Those who are interested in archaeology and who are planning a trip to Italy will find themselves in no short supply of incredible archaeological sites and museums to visit. Considering the country's long and complex past, with many different periods of rule and civilizations, it makes sense that these archaeological institutions are dotted all over the country and, among them, are some of the most famous examples in the world. For every Pompeii and Colosseum, however, there are also endless local sites worth perusing. If you have found a vacation rental in Sicily, for example, you may want to head to the island of Isola di San Pantaleo, which is basically one great archaeological site called Mozia, to explore the past.

Mozia can be reached by ferries that launch from two spots on the lagoon shore between Marsala and Trapani. Run by two different companies, these ferries leave and return continuously throughout the day (except during lunch) and return tickets cost around five euros. When you get to the island, you will find a ticket office by the ferry jetty where you can pay for admission to the island and museum. On the island are basic facilities like a restroom, benches, a water fountain to get a drink, and a little cafe serving pastries, pizza, and some other small bits to eat and drink.