Published on Monday, January 4, 2016 by Kathy McCabe They say there’s nothing new under the sun—and that might go double or triple for Pompeii, the ancient Italian city once and forever devastated yet preserved by the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius. For centuries, visitors have seen the same structures and interiors, including the Fullonica di Stephanus (Stephen’s Drycleaners) and the notorious Lupanarium bord...

Published on Monday, December 21, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Before Rome was the modern center of Christianity, its religion consisted of rituals and practices introduced to the city from all over the Roman Empire and honoring various gods. Eventually, those pagan religions faded as Christianity rose, but one fascinating relic of pre-Christian worship has been renovated and opened to the public for the first time: a pagan basil...

Published on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 by Steve Imagine your loved ones receiving a Perillo Tote Bag, Travel Brochures, DVD and Gift Certificate for any of our 2015 vacations! A travel certificate, like the one shown above, will be customized according to your wishes. Your gift can go toward any escorted tour to Italy, Greece, Hawaii or Costa Rica. The certificate can also be applied toward a customized vacation to...

Published on Sunday, December 6, 2015 by Kathy McCabe As Rome prepares for a Jubilee Year (otherwise known as a Catholic Holy Year), city authorities have banned actors who dress up as ancient centurion guards and charge tourists for photo opportunities of and with them. According to Reuters, new and extended security measures for the Jubilee include making sure visitors to the capital are not subjected to the centur...

Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Italy will be the site of filming for a new film version of DC Comics’ Wonder Woman story, details learned when one of the principal actors, Saïd Taghmaoui sent photos out via social media of his costume and his colleague Chris Pine’s. (Those posts have been taken down since.) French actor Gal Gadot will play “Wonder Woman” in the film whose current/workin...

Published on Friday, November 27, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The city of Trapani on the island of Sicily was named the best Italian destination in terms of both price and quality by travelers who took part in a Trivago.com online survey; Cagliari (on Sardinia) and Lecce (in Puglia) came in second and third. "The objective of the Best Value Index is to draw a map of the cities that offer tourists the best compromise between ...

Published on Saturday, November 7, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Last week, Italy’s culture ministry named Mantua the country's 2016 Cultural Capital, meaning that the northern city of 50,000 will be awarded one million euros to finance projects to enhance its historic status. Mantua, home to the powerful Gonzaga family from the 14th to the 18th centuries, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2007, because despite its small ...

Published on Monday, November 2, 2015 by Kathy McCabe In a previously discovered ancient Roman villa underneath the town of Positano, on the Amalfi Coast, further excavations have unveiled more treasures. Brilliantly colored frescoes, an extraordinary safe, part of the home’s white mosaic floor, and bronze furnishings reveal that the owners were wealthy and possibly nobles – especially given that the safe consist...

Published on Friday, October 9, 2015 by Kathy McCabe After sparring with France for years over which country produced the most – and best – wine, Italy has outpaced France in annual wine production, just surpassing France’s 46.4 million hectoliters of wine. At an estimated 48.9 million hectoliters, Italy is now the world’s largest wine producer, according to European Union data provided to Coldiretti, an Italian...

Published on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 by Kathy McCabe It has been more than a century since Romans were able to visit an aquarium in their city, but the wait is almost over, as the city’s brand new Sea Life Rome Aquarium is scheduled to open in spring 2016 in a completely underground structure located underneath the artificial lake the modern EUR district of Rome. The stars of the aquarium will include sea turtles, ...