Archive for 'Tourist Attractions'

In the last post, we introduced the pretty and historic Tuscan town of Montelupo Fiorentino, located just outside Florence and its grand and long-standing tradition in ceramics. A typical Tuscan village, surrounded by beautiful hills, it is home to over 120 producers of its famous ceramics to this day but it is also home to the Museum of Ceramics, which is excellent at giving insight into the importance of the Tuscan ceramics from Montelupo in the history of Italian and European pottery. If you are interested in artisanal goods and craftsmanship, it is a must-see and is also a pleasant museum experience that is a stone's throw away for those who have found a vacation rental in Florence but, also, a little removed from the bustling tourist crowds of the city.

Montelupo Fiorentino is a pretty village, located just on the outskirts of Florence, that has been an important centre for handmade ceramics in Tuscany since the Middle Ages. Montelupo ceramics were traded and dispensed all across Europe and quickly became synonymous with quality and beautiful craftsmanship. Today, it is home to plenty of workshops still producing the pieces and a museum dedicated to the craft, the Museum of Ceramics in Montelupo. If you have found a vacation rental in Florence and are interested in Tuscany's long legacy of excellence in all of the arts but need a break from the busy historic centre and bustling museums of the city, this is a great place to soak up the region's history of artisanal prowess and even shop it, all while enjoying a slower pace and calmer lifestyle.

The Brera Picture Gallery, or Pinacoteca di Brera, is Milan’s main public art gallery and has an incredible collection of works from over six centuries of European art, boasting pieces by the likes of Rubens, Titian, Correggio and Anthony Van Dyck.

Housed in what was, originally, a 14th century monastery, it became an academy in the 18th century where, in order to educate the students of architecture, sculpture and various other arts who studied there, a collection of casts after the Antique was established. These initial collections of sculptures used for educating students then grew and began to include paintings and, in the 19th century, the academy and the gallery that had grown up were formally separated.

Picture this: you've found a vacation rental in Lombardy and you are spending cold winter days with the Italian Alps, a cute Alpine town and a building that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Grand Budapest Hotel unfolding in front of your eyes as you sit in a hot tub in a spa, soaking your stress away. Then you get out of the hot tub and go get a treatment or go skiing or sit in front of a blazing fireplace in your cosiest clothes with a hot drink and a good book on hand...what could be lovelier than that? You've had a tough, long year, why not treat yourself with the ultimate winter spa getaway in Italy? Why not plan a trip to Bormio.

Murano glass is one of the most famous craft products in the world and is an artisanal glass that has been made on the Venetian island of Murano for centuries. The artisans of Murano were world leaders in innovation and design and created some of the most stunning glass objects that the world has ever seen. Today, they are still employing these centuries-old techniques and making all sorts of things from works of art, to trinkets, to household objects. These pieces are characteristic souvenirs for tourists visiting the city and there are are a number of factories and some individual artists' studios at work on the island to this day.