Published on Friday, June 12, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Rome’s gladiator barracks, part of the city’s famous Colosseum, may soon be accessible to the public—thanks, in part, to the Kuwaiti government. An ancient tunnel linking those training chambers to the main arena could be restored with funds from a multi-million dollar grant from Kuwait, writes The Telegraph. The Ludus Magnus (Great Training Facility) was the...

Published on Sunday, June 7, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Twenty five artifacts that had been wrongfully acquired from their Italian sources were returned by U.S. officials.  The pieces include vases, frescoes, and sculpture, some of which museums, universities, and private collectors had earlier turned over to authorities when their provenances were discovered. “Italy is blessed with a rich cultural legacy and theref...

Published on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Last week, the exhibit Pompeii and Europe: 1748-1943 opened at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, in collaboration with the Pompeii archaeological site.  A noteworthy portion of the exhibit will be 86 plaster casts painstakingly restored from the ash-encased human remains recovered from Pompeii in 1863. The 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius resulted in...

Published on Monday, June 1, 2015 by Kathy McCabe I’m Steve Perillo of Perillo Tours. I have a video series called Steve's Travel Tips to share all the insider Italy travel tips I have learned over a lifetime of travel to Italy. In this video, I'm talking about a hot topic that travelers are always asking me about!  How to pack for Italy.  Learn the ins and outs of packing for a trip to Italy by watching my l...

Published on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 by Kathy McCabe If you’ve ever wished you could travel in a time machine, Duke University researchers are about to grant that wish. At the end of May, the Museo Civica Reggio Emilia will debut an exhibit that allows visitors to see what Reggio Emilia, a town in the region of Emilia-Romagna,  would have looked and felt like 2,000 years ago. That’s right, looked and felt—beca...

Published on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The final episode of AMC’s celebrated series Mad Men  had its finale in an iconic cultural moment that was filmed, not in California (as you might believe), but on a hilltop near Rome! The 1971 Coca-Cola television commercial in which people from around the world sang a jingle about love and harmony was actually produced, not by the fictional Don Draper, but by a...

Published on Friday, May 15, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The International Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) has once again given Italy the highest number of Blue Flag beaches, bringing Italy's total to 280. The Blue Flag designation means that a beach meets the organization’s high eco-standards for cleanliness and sustainability. FEE Italy President Claudio Mazza says that the constant increase, up from 248...

Published on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Italy and ancient architecture go together like pasta and marinara sauce—but as frequent travelers know, not all ancient architecture in Italy was built by its natives. The ruins at Paestum on the Tyrrhenian Sea were once a major Greek city; now the area’s three beautifully preserved Greek temples provide testament to the place known as “Poseidonia” in the fif...

Published on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Visitors to Rome's Colosseum will once again be able to walk in the footsteps of the gladiators. Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini announced that he will approve putting the floor back in the iconic amphitheater. "Rebuilding the arena of the Colosseum, taking it back to the way it was until the 19th century, is the best way to protect the monument," Franceschi...

Published on Sunday, May 3, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Stars are twinkling brightly in Italy right now—at least stars of the movie variety. Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber are all in country this week, and giving the paparazzi plenty of photo opps. Bieber, the new kid on these cobblestoned streets, plays a male model in Ben Stiller’s Zoolander 2, in which Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Christine Taylor (Mrs...