Product Description
This is a comprehensive guide to one of the most beautiful but comparatively little known parts of Italy. Fully illustrated with colour photographs throughout, the book covers both winter and summer activities. More than 50 walks are described and details given of 30 different skiing areas. There are also sections on history, geology, food and wine and flora and fauna. For anyone visiting the Dolomites this book is invaluable not only as a practical guide but as a r… More >>

Dolomites of Italy

Colombia: a place you just have to visit, with its plenty of momentum, friendly people, Colombia has a natural beauty and a country that is fun and safe to explore.

The coastal Caribbean city of Cartagena has great tourist infrastructure mixed with its colonial architecture and history. All the major cities here have fairly large International airports, and flights are often easier and cheaper.

Panama:  when you mention Panama, what comes in the mind is canal. While you may not hear much about it, this country has lots of tourists’ attraction sites than canals only. Panama has a little bit of everything to offer travelers from the lush jungle highlands to excellent surf ad beaches on the pacific side. Add the mix friendly people with diverse and rich culture and you have yourself an equation for a perfect destination.

Cambodia: Siem Reap is just a bit south of Bangkok and it offers a far more authentic and less slick look into the culture while still having well developed infrastructure. One of the benefits here is Angkor Wat temple complex, most visitors use it as a staging area for their time.

Argentina:  Bariloche in Argentina is a city jammed with winter and summer activities. Its stunning scenery in almost all directions makes it popular among those touring different places in the region.

Australia: the island of Tasmania in Australia though it’s a small state is enough to keep most travelers occupied for the entire trip, with its incredible landscapes, national parks, nature reserves and world heritage sites are just but a few great options to fill your days in Australia.

Bangladesh:  This is definitely a place worth to look for when travelling to Asia. The capital city Dakar is the obvious place to start with, the people here are welcoming and friendly. The port city of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar the worlds longest beach are some of the must go places in Bangladesh.

Italy:  travelers need not to be told to go to Italy, but many people need to be told about the many big Italian Island besides Sicily. Sardinia is one of them; it has long been a vacation destination for Italians. It’s a haven for anyone who loves the outdoors.
Senegal- If you are looking to explore the real Africa you should consider visiting Senegal as your entry point. Its fascinating and easily accessible culture makes it a safe place to be.

Germany:  fun loving?  Berlin in Germany is fairly filled with interesting and amazing new tourist attraction. It has plenty going for including a feel that is somewhat exotic compared to some other countries.

Syria:  Damascus in Syria is one place where you can feel like you are truly stepping back in time. It is the oldest city in the world but this part of the city looks, smells and sounds like it did long ago. It’s full of history and credibly affordable.

So every one, 2009 is the year of travelling to your destination go for it!

A Museum in almost every city is a support to my point of calling Italy the Heart of Art & History. The museums feature cars, entertainment, science & Technology, painting etc…  In Genoa (Italy) there is a Historical City Centre which is the biggest in Europe.

There are 20 National Parks in Italy, where you can have a perfect view of Lakes, mountains, plants and unique animals, the Italy parks are full of them.

The Beaches in Italy are well known for the cleanliness & safety; this is very true & is supported by the fact that “Italy beaches are being awarded Blue Flag in continuity from years.” Blue Flag is awarded to a beach which is clean & safest.

Italy also offers a lot to the people who love biking & hiking, each region in Italy offers a fantastic bike trails for touring & exploring various sites which may be uncovered in the tourist maps due to various reasons. For the ones who love hiking, here are a few places which you will love:

The National Park of the Gran Paradiso Tour the Dolomites (Starting in Ortisei, Italy) Tour the Italian Lakes District (Starting in Milan, Italy) Hiking at the Cinque Terre (Starting at La Spezia) Hiking at the National Park of AbruzzoHiking at the Majella National Park in Italy

All the above places are ought to be visited, but coming to the cities in Italy, there is a lot more to see. On a tour to Italy you will know that eating & drinking is a way of life, Italy is the leading producer of wine in the world. In Italy, open arms always welcomes you to have the best food in the world, no matters where you have it, at the big hotels or small road side restaurants, you will be welcomed & served the best.

Rome:

Rome is a city having many hidden historical sites, to see them spend one day walking in the streets of the city; these small sites are fun to visit if you want to take a leave from the city’s bustling crowd.

Florence & Venice:

These two cites are found on the map of anyone’s Italy vacation, specially for the honeymoon couples as these two cities are among the most romantic places in the world.

Genoa:

This city was the European capital of Culture in 2004. Here you can find the historical city centre, the one I mentioned above & also the Aquarium which is the largest in Europe.

Spas in Italy:

Though Italy has been famous for thermal spas & springs since the time of Hippocrates. Today you can find thermal spas in almost every region attracting tourist by serving them something more than just a bath. Spas can also be found at the locations close to cultural & leisure attractions…

If you are staying in Rome, consider booking a hotel in the neighborhood near the centrally-located Termini, which is a hub for the trains serving the airport as well as most subway and bus routes. It’s easy to orient yourself because no matter where you go in Rome, most transit routes intersect through the Termini station.

Hadrian’s Villa (Villa Adriana) and Villa d’Este in Tivoli are examples of day trip destinations just outside of Rome which are easy to get to by bus. Thanks to UNESCO World Heritage funding these sites are beautifully maintained and will remain in the world’s cultural patrimony for generations to come.

The Villa d’Este is a Renaissance villa originally commissioned as a summer residence by the son of Lucrezia Borgia. The main reason to visit is to see the the gardens, which are built on multiple levels with dozens of ingenious water features. Even in the twenty-first century, the fountains provide relief from Roman summer heat. Several fountains were engineered with pipe organs which after five centuries continue to tweet with birdsong or produce music on the hour.

Down the hill from the Villa d’Este, the Villa Adriana is a huge 250-acre complex. Originally created as a summer residence two millenia ago, Emperor Hadrian eventually made his Villa the permanent seat of his Imperial government, conducting the business of the Roman Empire from there.

Roman residents are justly proud of their history and anyone who tours Italy, even during the high tourist season, will find most locals are willing to help tourists do as the Romans do.

Further Information

If you are going for Italy travel for yourself however, then there are lots of things you are going to want to do. Start off with setting up a hotel or other means of lodging for yourself. You are going to need a place to stay while you are in Italy after all, and so this should be the first step taken for your Italy travel guide. Make sure that you find an apartment, villa or other type of Italy travel accommodations that are going to come with the features and amenities that you need.

Then for your Italy travel guide you are going to want to start planning out different activities. One thing that most people fit into their Italy travel guide is checking out the local restaurants. If you love Italian food, then you are never going to taste it any better than the authentic food that you get in Italy. Also for your Italy travel guide, you are going to want to check out Venice.

This is one location in Italy that you are not going to want to leave out of your Italy travel guide. It is very unique, and cars are almost nonexistent here. The city is built on 117 small islands and is linked to the mainland service town of Mestre by a road and rail causeway.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa will also be great to fit into your Italy travel guide. This tower is about 56 meters high and is inclined in relation to the vertical by 4 meters. This is one of the most popular attractions in Italy and therefore one that you are definitely going to want to check out. When anyone speaks of Italy they speak of the Leaning Tower of Pisa so you are not going to want to miss out on.

There are lots of other great things that you could fit into your Italy travel guide again and regardless of what you choose to do the most important thing is that you get to do things that interest you and which you are going to enjoy.

Many lovers see Italy as an idyllic getaway, perfect for helping their relationship blossom. With a romantic atmosphere, amazing food and great wine to enjoy by candlelight, all while being serenaded by street musicians, there’s no reason not to fall in love with Italy – or to share the experience with your loved one.

However, with so many fantastic cities and towns to choose from in Italy, it can be hard to decide on a romantic getaway destination. So why not go with one of the most classic choices, and travel to Rome with your partner this summer? Rome has so much to offer in terms of romantic sights and activities, you and your loved one are sure to come away with an experience to remember.

Any romantic getaway in Rome should begin with a leisurely stroll through the city, visiting some of the most beautiful sights. Among the most romantic are the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, Via Sacra, the Borghese Gardens and Piazza Navona – along with countless others. You also won’t want to miss out on an evening stroll along the Tiber River – another of Rome’s most quintessential romantic activities.

Of course, there are also various famous viewpoints across the city, perfect for lovers to experience together. Two of the most popular views of Rome are from Gianicolo hill – overlooking Trastevere, the Pantheon and the monument to Vittorio Emanuele in Piazza Venezia – as well as from the Pincio at the edge of the Borghese Gardens, where you’ll get a great view of the Vatican. Less known – but offering stunning views just the same – is the orange grove at Parco Savello on the Aventine Hill.

Once you and your partner have experienced some of the most beautiful sights and views in Rome, it’s time to plan some romantic activities. Why not join a wine-tasting tour, or perhaps take a cooking class together? Italy’s wine is undoubtedly one of the most romantic aspects of the country, so learning more about it as a couple is a great activity for your romantic getaway. Similarly, you can learn how to make some of those delicious Italian dishes you’ve tried on your getaway by participating in a cooking class!

Of course, there are many other romantic activities for you and your loved one to experience while in Rome. The Estate Romana Festival, for instance – on from late June through early September – offers various musical and cultural events such as jazz, classical music, film and theatre – making it an ideal couple’s activity. The White Night (Notte Bianca) festival, on the other hand – on in early to mid September – hosts various events such as music, dance, and theatre performances, while shops, museums and restaurants stay open late – a perfect setting for a romantic summer getaway!

Thankfully – particularly for those living in Europe – all of these attractions are only a few hours away. Rome flights are served by the city’s two main airports, Ciampino and Fiumicino, making holidays in Rome easily accessible for anyone looking to exploring the Eternal City.

The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author and is intended purely for information and interest purposes only. It should not be used to make any decisions or take any actions. Any links are included for information purposes only.

Useful tool Flashbooking staff has put at travellers’ disposal is the London Pocket City Guide: this free travel guide of London contains, just in a few pages, all the essential information and very good suggestions about the Great Britain Capital as shopping areas and markets, Museums and Art Galleries, budget restaurants and cheap accommodations, classic itineraries you can’t miss, transports and a lot more.

Flashbooking.com is a young dynamic hostels-booker that provides students, independent travellers, backpackers, conscious tourists, families etc. with an online secure booking service.

A growing database of selected budget accommodations worldwide from cheap hotel deals, Cheap Hostels London, B&B, apartments, campsites and guesthouses is easily available online with all relevant information about location, description, contacts, prices, instant real availability, customer ratings, facilities and pictures.

In particular Flashbooking.com provides a large accommodation offer in London where there are plenty of budget solutions in youth hostels, typical British Bed and breakfast London and budget hotels.

In Flashbooking website you can also get a quite exhaustive list of London Events as well as the main festivals, exhibitions, concerts and cool things to do and see in other top European cities.

Moreover, for anyone that owns a personal website, the travel guides (Rome, Amsterdam, Paris and more coming on soon!) come for free and can be used as an extra travel resource for theirs users.

We are looking forward to finding the best accommodation for you on your next trip!

1 The Uffizi Gallery Tip

The Uffizi Gallery contains some of the most important and greatest art collections in the world. It is also the world’s oldest museum. Most tour guide books and online travel sites will urge you to ensure that a visit to the Uffiizi is included as part of any Florence vacation, no matter how short. What most of them fail to tell you, or at least stress with sufficient emphasis, is that without a pre-booked ticket, you may not be able to visit the Uffizi at all!

My wife and I had a three day holiday in Florence at the beginning of April 2005. We had planned on visiting the Uffizi Gallery and as soon as we checked in at our hotel we telephoned the gallery to purchase tickets. After several attempts without our calls being answered, we asked the hotel reception to do the booking for us. They explained that it was nearly always difficult to get through on the booking line and that our three day stay might not provide sufficient notice to make a booking possible. Despite this, the hotel staff were most happy to keep trying whilst we enjoyed the other wonders of Florence. We decided to check out the situation for ourselves the next day but discovered queues that hardly seemed to move, stretching for an enormous distance around the area of the Uffizi. Queuing all day was certainly not the way we wanted to spend our time in Florence, so we decided to leave things in the capable hands of the reception staff whilst we enjoyed the other attractions that we had come to see. The following evening, we were informed that after many fruitless attempts at getting through on the booking line, success had finally been achieved but only to receive information that all tickets were sold for the following day. We consequently missed out on seeing many of Florence’s greatest art treasures and our top travel tip for anyone visiting Florence on a short stay vacation is to book tickets for the Uffizi Gallery online some time before their holiday.
2 The Inside Tip for the Duomo

Another of the wonders of Florence not to be missed is the Duomo. Actually, it is impossible to miss this magnificent building because it dominates the city and can be seen from virtually everywhere. Savour the views of it whilst enjoying a coffee at one of the cafes in the surrounding piazza. Walk around it, pausing every now and then to appreciate it from every aspect. View it from more distant, elevated, positions around the city. This was once the largest cathedral in the world and even now, nearly six hundred years after it was built, it is the fourth largest. Florence always insisted on everything being the biggest and the best but what really makes the Duomo unique is its dome or “Cupola”. When Fillipo Brunelleschi undertook this masterpiece of renaissance architecture, no one believed that such a dome was possible. The secret had been lost for over a thousand years but Brunelleschi travelled to Rome to unravel it by examining the dome of the ancient Pantheon.

My tip for the Duomo is to ascend this incredible feat of engineering. You can do so by entering a stairway that leads up inside the dome, between its inner and outer shells. When you reach the top, you can step outside onto an external gallery that provides magnificent views of the city and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. This gallery was never finished however, so your views are restricted to northerly and westerly directions.
3 Palazzo Vecchio – David’s Copy Tip

Perhaps the next most famous landmark of Florence is the Palazzo Vecchio. Once again, it is a building worth enjoying from every aspect on the outside before entering to explore its fascinating, art filled, interior.

My tip for the Palazzo Vecchio is to spare a few minutes looking at the pollution-streaked COPY of the world’s most famous statue, realizing that although the original Michelangelo’s David is safely inside the Accademia, the copy is standing just where the original once stood.
4 River Arno Cross Over Tip

This tip is to retreat from the busiest tourist attractions of the city centre and to cross the Arno river via the Ponte Vecchio. The crowds on this wonderful, historic bridge will probably be even more tightly packed than in the central Piazzas you have just left but within a hundred metres of the other side, they will have thinned out and you can explore the delights of the Boboli gardens and the Palazzo Pitti before walking up the meandering paths to the Piazzo Michelangelo which stands on a beautiful hill overlooking Florence and its surrounds.
5 A final Florence travel tip – Avoiding “Stendhal Sydrome”

Florence has so much beauty that every year, there are a few tourists who have to be treated at local hospitals for a condition known as “Stendhal Syndrome”. Symptoms range from feeling faint to complete exhaustion. Stendhal was a French tourist whose nineteenth century tour of Florence overloaded his senses so much that he collapsed with these symptoms.

My final travel tip for a short vacation in Florence is not to try to pack too much in. Even if Florence’s wealth of art treasures, beauty, and architectural achievements don’t actually send you running for medical help, they can easily overwhelm a tourist who fails to heed this advice.

Naming top ten travel destinations could prove easy, but how relevant such a list is, that is debatable. This article refers to the most popular locations identified or recognized starting from the statistics made with international travel agencies, and on the basis of travelers’ reviews posted on various web pages.

To many tourists, Latin America is the perfect place to go on holiday: there is the beauty of cities like Rio de Janeiro and the mystical attraction of Peru and the ancient Maya and Inca cultural remnants. The cultural impact, the leisure activities combined with favorable climates, make this part of the world become the holiday destination of millions of tourists from all over the world.

Europe deserves its good name for the great sights it offers to travelers: Paris, Rome, Venice, Spain’s Arab treasures and the misty lands of Ireland and Scotland, and these are just a few of the things that make the old continent one in the top ten travel destinations. Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza require a special mention here, as they complete the list of exotic resorts in the European part of the world.

The Egyptian Pyramids and Morocco mark any foreigner who visits them, and travel agencies sell thousands of touristic packages for holidays on to the North of Africa. One of the features of African resorts consists in the constant touristic push and a magic harmony in the mixture of cultures that mingle so much in the crowded North-African cities. Whether you choose a well known resort or a more discreet one, this part of Africa will always rank among the top ten travel destinations.

Moving further on to the distant countries of the Far East it is impossible not to notice the fascination with Nepal and the ancient Buddhist temples on the roof of the world. It is the Nepalese capital city, Kathmandu, with its thirteen hundred years of history that embraces most of the tourist crowds. As for the climbing of the Everest, very few courageous people dare to challenge their limits on the crests of Himalaya.

Last but not least, lots of great sunny islands can be included in a top ten travel destinations list: Bali, Jamaica, Crete, Hawaii and many others, which is why the list proves virtually limitless, as so are the beauties man and God created. It goes without saying that the places that you take most to the heart are those you’d also like to visit, and therefore, anyone can create a list of top ten travel destinations.

Cheap holidays to Rome are going to please the entire family. Everyone who travels to Rome has something exciting to say about the city. Whether you are going for love or going to see the historical sites, Rome is going to offer something you have never experience anywhere else. Since there is something to do no matter what time of the year you visit Rome, you can plan to enjoy fun days and exciting and entertaining nights. You are going to find the many different restaurants with different cuisines are as exciting as the historical sites.

One can only imagine the city from above when thinking about Rome. When you enjoy the rooftop restaurants or the stairs to the top of the hills, you will see sites you have never seen in pictures. The summers are hot and the winters are cooler. You will enjoy the long walks and the free attractions and sites that can only be seen in Rome. If you want to see some of the musicians that play in Roman amphora’s in the hillsides, you can take a short trip to Testaccio. You can actually spend an entire day in this area. You can close your eyes and feel the music that fills the air.

Besides the historical sites and the musicians, you can take the Cat and Culture Tour. This is something everyone should experience. The cats are feral and find their homes around the ancient ruins and the pyramids. The cats seem to be everywhere you look. You will not get close to the cats as they run and hide from people who try to approach them, but they are lurking around everywhere. The cat population of feral cats is amazing to many people. There are over two thousand colonies of wild cats.

If you want to see parts of Rome that not seen or known to many visitors, you can explore the underground Rome. The cities, archaeological sites and catacombs are extraordinary. The underworld of Rome is amazing to explore and see. You can inquire about seeing the underworld once you arrive in Rome. However, if you plan to see the St Peter’s Basilica, you need to plan. An entire city under the Vatican and you can see it all. Can you imagine seeing a city under a city? It is so amazing that one can only imagine the thrill. Your cheap holidays to Rome are going to offer more of a fun education that will be appreciated.

You will find that in Rome, there are not just the usual attractions, but attractions you never hear about from anyone. Everyone who wants adventure should visit Rome and the secret underworld or the homes to the feral cats that roam the streets of the city. There is always time for fine dining and some relaxation by the pool, but once you arrive in Rome, you will want to get started on your adventures as soon as possible. One thing for sure, whether you are planning your cheap holidays to Rome for love or adventure, you will find both.