Delicious Italy

Savvy Venice - you must be joking!

We received an email from SavvyTravel based in London asking to swap links. 

A very precise request as the website wanted a link from a food tour related page in return for a link to their Venice shopping page.

All we can say is that when we read the SavvyTravel Venice comments on eating out in the lagoon city, we naturally declined.

Their page begins 'Venice is a great city - pity about the food'.

From their point of view the reference is strictly to the well beaten track around Saint Marks and there is some truth here.

But the overall tone is to suggest it's not even worth trying to discover the rich cuisine of the city because, in effect, it does not exist anymore.

And even if you do you'll be massively out of pocket.

According to SavvyTravel Venice, and the all too clear image in the left column of the page, you'd be better off at Burger King!

How ungenerous.

What is the scope of this website and on whose experience are these opinions based.

We want names.

www.travelsavvy-venice.com/eatingout

Croatia - land of truffles, fine wine and olive oil

'Croatia - land of white truffles, fine wine and olive oil'.

Not exactly, but the actual pay off line being used by the Croatian national tourism board is a lot more subtle in relation to their neighbour just over the Adriatic Sea.

That's Italy by the way.

The actual line is 'The Mediterranean As it Once Was' and it is a statement full of intent. 

But it is the Croatia Tourism Food ad which really sits up and looks you straight in the eyes

In particular the line our gastronomic friend in the spot relishes saying: 'the wine produced in Croatia was so good, it was considered the best in the Roman Empire'. 

http://press.croatia.hr/video%5Farhiva/

Mike Barrett's Travel Guides

Our Greece contact Mike Barrett has suggested a new video to promote the country. 

You can view it at Mike's dedicated Greece Travel Guide.

The site www.greecetravel.com is a comprehensive personal compilation of all the Greek sites that matter for anyone considering a visit and by somebody who lives there.

Do read Mike's introduction on the homepage and, as its Easter, here is Mike's page on Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday.

Greece - the true experience

If you haven't seen the latest television advert for the  Greek National Tourism Organisation then make sure you do.

Launched together with a new logo and the 'Greece - the true experience' tag line, its a real gem. 

Above all it manages to combine the old and the new and seamlessly suggests Greece as a destination for both urban backpackers and off the beaten track oldies.      

It builds on the previous 'Follow Your Senses' and 'Live Your Myth' ads which now seem like works in progress to today's real deal.

Above all, it communicates a positive image of the country with essential values which will take Europe forward. 

Respect.

Terravision v Sit Bus

The heavyweight bus battle to transfer low cost airline passengers between Ciampino Airport and central Rome is currently being won by Terravision.

But the company may be in for a harder fight in the later rounds as rival Sit Bus Shuttle gains some extra pounds.

We're not referring to the ticket price (Sit undercuts Terravision by 2 euros) but the now marked difference in offer.

Sit now runs a service much like Terravision used to - no frills, cheap ticket, get there on the half hour and off you go.

Terravision now has its own brightly illuminated coffee bar, proposes a non stop hop on hop off service and promotes online booking.

Such additional services are more than welcome, but they may raise expectations.

We understood that Terravision always gave priority seating to customers who booked online.

Now its seems everyone has to make a visit to the dedicated coffee shop to receive their e-voucher before getting on board.

At least that is how it was explained to us when we turned up last week to take our seats.   

Meanwhile, the half empty Sit Bus Shuttle pulled silently away as we waited for the next ride, although we arrived at Ciampino in more than enough time.

By the way, for the ultimate in hassle free city to airport travel, try the Liverpool Street - Stanstead Airport Express. Every 15 mins, lots of seats, no waiting in the rain. The difference in price can be made up by one less coffee or scratch card inflight.   

The Apenines or Appennines

How do you spell Apenines? Or is it Apennines?

Many organic search engine tip gurus suggest online content managers mispell a range of some widely used keywords to benefit form typings erors.

Goggle instead or Google etc or Delicious Italy instead of Conde Nast Italy Traveller, or Traveler.

The one guaranteed to come out wrong(ly) every time is, in Italian, Appennini, the central mountains of the Italy peninsular, which have just been red flagged by the Type Pad spell checker.

Wikipedia spells it Apennines, while others spell it Apeninnes, the later 100% incorrect.

A travel journal published in 1835 in the New York Mirror is titled 'to the Apenines'.

So what's the correct version? The Oxford English Dictionary says 'Apennines' but it also says Piedmont.

We like and use Appennines after the Italian original, right or wrong. 

Lord Nelson in Sicily

A college student in Kansas recently got in touch as she is compiling a research paper about Sicly and the famous three legged trinacria.

There is a lot of history surrounding the trinacria and it seems to involve the whole of western Europe.

A story of myths, tribes, facts, fiction and good old yarns stretching from Isle of Man to the Island of Capo Passero.

Strangely enough, Celtic symbolism crops up near Bronte on the slopes of Mount Etna, in the unlikely location of Admiral Horatio Nelson's forgotten estate.

The entrance is guarded by a large black Celtic cross with the inscription “Heroi Immortali Nili”

The land was given to Nelson as a thank you gift by Ferdinand IV for the Admirals' help in repressing Bourbon influence in the island.   

Apart from having one arm and kissing Hardy, Nelson is perhaps most famous for his affair with Emma Hamilton.

Lady Emma was the wife of the British ambassador in Naples and the very keen eyed can spot her portrait on the ceiling of the lounge of the St Regis Grand Hotel in Rome.   

Regional airports

Following on from the previous post, it has been apparent for a long time that the real motor for the growth of tourism to the Italian regions has been the low cost airlines - Ryanair and Easy Jet above all.

And it seems that in the very near future Rome will be served by another low cost destination, Viterbo.

There is local pressure to reduce the number of flights to Ciampino.

While some may be redirected to Fiumicino, Latina and Frosinone were also considered.

The former loses out due to its poor road connections, while the latter means a huge cost moving military personnel.

To think that a few have blamed some of the troubles of Alitalia on Italy having too many regional airports.   

Distretto Culturale

The variety and cultural diversity of the Italian regions makes holidaying in Italy a continuous joy and surprise.

But a real headache to coordinate into any sort of national tourism plan.

The theory which seems most credible is to create a series of so called Distretto Culturale.

These are zones which group together territorial elements which can be promoted, or rather marketed accordingly - from accommodation & restaurants to museums & national parks.

Bottom up, if you like, rather than top down.

Grouped together they would form a series of unique proposals and an umbrella brand for Italy.

Organisational theory offers models suggesting how this may happen.

But as with the actualisation of any marketing plan, this requires the goodwill, involvement and coordination of all the stakeholders.

Above all, local people who live and work in these Distretto Culturale and who have most to gain.

Worlds best statue

What is the world's best statue?

Has to be something from the Italian Renaissance, some thing by Michelangelo, David? Has to be, so perfect that on our recent trip to Carrara we were told that an extremely rich American citizen has created an exact copy with the same marble used for the original.

Trouble is he might have copied the wrong one.

For those in the know the world's best statue, or statues, are the Bronzes from Riace in Calabria.

A wonderful BBC television program coincided with our return from Carrara and built a convincing argument.

Firstly, the Greek world represented their Gods in human form. The ancient Egyptians didn't. But the Egyptians knew how to work stone on a massive scale. The Greeks applied the techniques and created life sized human forms. Eventually perfectly.  Too perfectly in fact and they strove for an even more human representation. They managed it by exaggerating slightly the human body and pose to render it more dynamic. Art was never the same and we've been exaggerating the human form for our own visual please ever since, including Michelangelo. 

So get yourself to the National Museum of Reggio Calabria and see the Riace Bronzes close up.