Italian Travel Guide

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Italy as one of the most ancient European civilizations is unknown to none. Italy had been the land of Roman Empire for long. Today the country has a rich history and tradition that speaks for itself and gathers tourists from all round the world. Italy is a place known for its wonderful cities and their archaic art and architecture. There are great Roman structures like Roman Colosseum and Pantheon; the Sistine Chapel, sculptures by maestros Leonardo, Michelangelo etc. and many more attractions that can make your vacation a dream come true.

A Walk through the Italian Cities-

The cities of Italy are quite popular across the globe. For instance the land of Julius Caesar i.e. the city of Rome also known as the Eternal City has an aura of exotic Roman art and architecture. Rome is famous for its architectural masterpiece of the Colosseum, the National Gallery of Ancient Art which in itself is a magnum opus and displays the work of Bernini, Raphael and Titan. The Capitoline Museums houses the complete history of Rome, the Gallery of Modern Art presents the 19th and 20th century at work by eminent artists and the Galleria Borghese museum in Rome has the largest art collection in the world.

The city of Venice seeks no introduction. It is the city where tranquility prevails and the beguiling art and architecture makes everyones day. The visitors are attracted by pulls like the Grand Canal, the museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Oriental Art in the Santa Croce region of Venice, which put at parade the art work from countries like Japan, Indonesia and China. Also worth visiting are the Academy of Fine Art and the Correr Museum known for its Renaissance art.

The fashion city of Milan has always been inviting visitors. It is a primary economic and cultural center of Italy. Milan is popular for the Romanesque architecture in the Lombardy region of which Milan is a part; The Cathedral of Milan that is a paradigm example of Gothic architecture. The Milan museums include some of the fascinating museums in the world. For instance the Brera Gallery that presents the tour de force of geniuses like Raphael and Giovanni Bellini. You can also gaze at the awesome The Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples at the Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie church.

Since the entire Italy is swarming with museums and art, the city of Florence too grounds few wonderful ones. The Uffizi Gallery which is best known for the art work of Sandro Botticelli Birth of Venus, Leonardo da Vincis strokes, and apart from these the Dutch, French and Spanish work of art it displays.

Besides this, Florence is thronged for its delectable cuisine, hill slopes and the oldest archaeologically significant region of this place i.e. the Tuscany region. One among the wonders of the world, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is nestled in the Italian town of Pisa in the Tuscany region.

The Vatican City is a center of attraction in Italy particularly for magnificent Sistine Chapel, designed by the architect Baccio Pontelli and feathers added to it by Bernini. The galleries of this Chapel present some of the exclusive art works-paintings and sculptures like run-of-the-mill, the archaic bronze statue of Apoxyomenos, Michelangelos sculpture The Pieta and so forth.

After these Italy has many other cities that have always been welcoming visitors with their pleasant surroundings and amazing art work.

So one should, in ones life time definitely bask in the glory of the skill of distinguished artists, painters and architects, no where else but Italy.

Italian Travel Guide

Ferrara an Alternative Destination for Your Italian Journey

TOP TRAVEL DESTINATIONS – http://routebyroad.com

The usual trip to Italy proposes the celebrated cities of Venice, Florence or Rome. You will be often lodged in an international hotel, usually very expensive, and you will probably get an aseptic reception and a low quality price ratio. You will be quite lost in a large city area with a heavy traffic and you will share your visits to monuments and museums with mass tourism.

Sometimes it happens that small is better. You can plan instead to visit Ferrara, a small medieval and renaissance city of Emilia Romagna, in the north of Italy. It has been recently declared a Unesco world heritage site, because of its magnificently conserved ancient urbanistic structure, superb monuments and artistic treasures and the rich and varied surrounding territory. In Ferrara and its countryside you can plan your stay in a little hotel, a guesthouse, a bed & breakfast or a farmhouse where you will find a quite cheap accommodation and a warm welcome.

In Italy there is plenty of magnificent old cities, but Ferrara is something different. It hasn’t been involved in the frantic transformation and modernization that caused a lot of Italian cities to loose their identity and soul. Ferrara is, in some way, a world apart. The ancient city wall, that had in the past the purpose to defend the city from hostile military attacks, is still preserved. It prevented Ferrara to grow out of control, and also preserved the urbanistic tissue of the city. The ancient narrow alleys had been conserved and the bicycle is still the most utilized vehicle in the city. In fact Ferrara is internationally renowned as the bicycle’s city. In the 15th century Ferrara reached its maximum development, under the power of the Este family. The Maecenatism of the Dukes of Este was a very effective attractant for a lot of artists, in particular architects like Biagio Rossetti, Girolamo da Carpi, Giovanni Battista Aleotti, painters like Piero della Francesca, Francesco del Cossa, Dosso Dossi, Cosme Tura, and literates like Torquato Tasso. This offered the stimulus for the accumulation of so many artistic treasures in Ferrara and the development and renaissance transformation of the city. The Cathedral, masterpiece of Nicol, the magnificent and perfectly preserved powerful Ferrara castle, the world famous the Palazzo dei Diamanti, masterpiece of Biagio Rossetti, with its over eight thousand diamond shaped ashlars, and the superb fresco cycle of the Months in Schifanoia Palace, masterpiece of the Officina Ferrarese, a very rare renaissance cycle of paintings of profane subject, are only the main attractions of Ferrara.

Moreover, the surrounding territory is extremely rich of artistic and naturalistic points of interest, first of all the Delizie Estensi, ancient country residences of the Este family. The main of these, the Belriguardo Castle, was a little Italian Versailles where the court spent the summer time, and was celebrated by Goethe in his Italian journey.

The near Delta of the Po River is a precious naturalistic area, protected under the natural reserve of the Delta del Po Park, and is one of the best spots in Italy and in Europe for birdwatching with more than 300 different species of birds registered.

The last but not the least reason to visit Ferrara is its high quality gastronomy, with first of all the ancient Ferrara bread, the renaissance ciupta, still prepared with the old recipe and protected as an European mark IGP, with its unique and strange shape that recall in the same time the male and the female symbols, and the Salama da sugo.

Ferrara an Alternative Destination for Your Italian Journey