Italy - Independent travel videos and travel photography

Italy

If you have to pick only one country in Europe to visit I think that this should be Italy with no second thoughts. Somebody once said that Italy is great because everybody who lived there had to build a monument. So people died and the monuments remained. It may be or not the case but Italy is overwhelmingly filled up with monuments. Wherever you go there are mansions, palazzos , loggias, statues, fountains, stadiums, arches, temples, museums and galleries, masterpieces of humanity, a remarkable collection which you cannot find elsewhere in the world. We traveled in Italy many times till now and still counting. From the hectic North where the pace is relatively similar with the one in Northern Europe to the paced life style of the South and especially in Sicily, Italy is inviting you to stay and enjoy the atmosphere, the food and its heritage.

We strolled the banks of the canals of the Serenisima Venice, a place that shocks you, no matter how many pictures or videos you saw about it, we visited Padova with the amazing church of San Antonio, Palladio's Vicenza, Verona, Parma and the hectic but very fashionable Milan. We continued to the mosaic covered churches of Ravenna, dual capital of the Roman Empire and to Bologna.

From San Pietro, to the Pantheon, to Fontana di Trevi and Piazza Navona, to Coliseum and Piazza de Spagna wherever you go around Rome there we reminder not only of the famous long gone Roman Empire but of the more present and more widespread empire ever existed, the Vatican. A little north of Rome you cannot avoid stopping in the medieval hill top city of Orvietto, with a charming old quarter and a basilica paring with the Duomo of Siena.

Tuscany stays at the heart of Italy and not only geographically. Siena is one of the most beautiful cities of Italy having a medieval town center looking like hundred of years ago, where almost everything is a work of art, where it is still run in July and August the Palio , a traditional horse racing competition dating from the old times. From Siena you go to San Gimignano de Belle Torre, a small romantic city, where not many of the Belle Torre are left but they still enchant. Florence is a must, with its museums, squares and basilicas. Michelangelo may not be still around but the city lives out of his heritage. Near Florence is Pisa with its Torre Pendente and the exquisitely sculpted baptistery and Lucca with its beautiful architecture. We visited also the enchanting small cities of Tuscany of Pienza. Montepulciano, Volterra and Certaldo. From there we enjoyed a day trip in the beautiful landscape of Cinque Terre.

Going south of Rome you get to Naples, with its magnificent museums containing the art collected by the Farnese cardinals, becoming in time famous and influential popes, and with the mosaics and artifacts found in Pompei. Visiting Pompei is a must, to see how the misfortune of history can preserve to our time a mode of life that otherwise would be completely lost. South of Napoli is also Paestum that has the best preserved Greek temples from Magna Grecia. And also, south of Naples is one of the most beautiful road in Europe, Costiera Amalfitana, a 50km asphalt belt cut in the mountain which is winding through the beautiful cities of Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Salerno. From Sorento you can get a boat to the Island of Capri, where you can see the town of Capri and Anacapri and visit Villa de la San Michele, famous from the world renowned novel Storia de San Michele by Axel Munthe. If you go all the way down South , in Basilicata, you visit the interesting the city of Matera, a city dug in stone, where 20000 people lived in caves till 1956.

Come and see our travel video about Southern Italy, from Matera to Napoli, and you will never forget.