Published on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 by Kathy McCabe As part of a three-year initiative to promote the culture of contemporary fashion, Florence’s Pitti Palace will feature a collection of more than 200 photos shot by German fashion designer and photographer Karl Lagerfeld. Called Visions of Fashion, the exhibit is an anthology of Lagerfeld’s work, including a self-portrait, unpublished works, photos published in fa...

Published on Friday, June 10, 2016 by Kathy McCabe On June 1, high-speed passenger trains began cruising through Europe’s – and the world’s – newest and longest railway tunnel, cutting travel time between Zurich and Milan by one hour. The new Gotthard Base Tunnel is 57 kilometers (35.4 miles) long and was carved through the central Swiss Alps. It is almost four times longer than the original Gotthard Tunne...

Published on Sunday, June 5, 2016 by Kathy McCabe A new feature will allow the public to see the Roman Forum in a new light this summer – literally, as the Forum will be illuminated by LEDs and open for nighttime tours for the first time. The lights cast white and yellow highlights onto the site’s most famous structures, drawing attention to details on parts of the Forum including the via Sacra, the monument�...

Published on Monday, May 30, 2016 by Kathy McCabe On Sardinia’s west coast, a beach that is home to dozens of cats has become a popular tourist destination. Feral cats have lived on the beach in the small fishing village of Su Pallosu for more than a century, when they were brought to the beach by fishermen to control the mice population. Today, about half of the 61 resident feral cats are related to the original c...

Published on Thursday, May 26, 2016 by Kathy McCabe This spring, a previously off-limits and isolated island 23 miles off the coast of Tuscany is opening to the public for guided tours for the first time. The northernmost island in the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, Gorgona is also the smallest and hardest to access — understandably so, as it is a prison that necessarily controls interactions with outsiders. Previ...

Published on Sunday, May 22, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Like a carnival fun house set amid wild greenery, the Park of Monsters — also called the Gardens of Bomarzo and Sacro Bosco (sacred grove) — is meant to shock visitors with its bizarre, spooky statues and structures. Pier Francesco Orsini, also known as Vicino, was a condottiero, a leader of professional military free companies, or mercenaries, and commissioned th...

Published on Monday, May 16, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Tucked away inside the Frasassi Caves like a pearl in an oyster, the Temple of Valadier may well be one of the hardest churches to get to in Italy, but also the one with the best view from its entrance. The Frasassi Caves are located in the town of Genga, in the Le Marche region, and are a popular site with visitors, but few make the steep one-mile trek through the mo...

Published on Thursday, May 12, 2016 by Kathy McCabe If your Italian travel plans include Venice this summer, be aware that your wait for a classic vaporetto (water bus) ride may be longer than you expect. As reported in The Local, Venetian authorities have authorized residents to board first. Starting in June, at eight water bus stops (including Canal Grande, Santa Chiara, Santa Lucia e Rialto, San Marco, Lido, Mura...

Published on Monday, May 9, 2016 by Kathy McCabe This month at Milan’s Natural History Museum, a new exhibit may herald “a new species:” the skeletal remains of a Titanosaurus dinosaur that was unearthed in the Prenestine Hills near Rome is now on display. This Titanosaurus would have been a long-necked herbivore, about 19 feet long and weighing nearly 1,200 pounds. These measurements are slightly smaller t...

Published on Thursday, May 5, 2016 by Kathy McCabe The Italian government recently announced it will allocate 1 billion euros to 33 sites around the country, with the largest sum of 70 million euros going toward restoration of a stone jail built in 1795 on the island of Santo Stefano in the Tyrrhenian Sea (pictured). Mussolini’s fascist regime sent political prisoners to the jail before it closed in 1965, and it has...