A Fine Evening in Genoa
Visitors to Genoa’s old port area could be in for a little surprise, for the city’s authorities are cracking down on drinking in the street.
This summer I spent some time down in Genoa and stayed in my friend Mauro’s appartment which overlooks Genoa’s attractive and relatively recently refurbished former dock area.
This zone has many bars, restaurants, Genoa’s famous aquarium, shops, and other attractions. It certainly manages to draw the crowds who stroll round during the evenings at most times of the year, often stopping off for a drink or a meal in one of the area’s restaurants.
However, despite the outwardly relaxed atmosphere, there is something tourists need to watch out for. Read more
Marvellous May
May in Milan is a wonderful month. It’s when the balmy weather starts to kick in, just before the steaminess of late June, and the just about unbearable heat of July.
The temperature hovers around 24 or 25°C in May, and those from northern European nations will find that coats are just not necessary.
Jeans can become too hot and sweaty in this period, and I just find the things too heavy from June onwards.
However the best thing about this period is the late evenings/nights, because they are balmy enough to encourage you to sit outside chatting over a cool beer.
May is a great time to come to Italy too. It’s not high season, so prices are reasonable. The kids are still at school, so the holiday resorts have yet to become chaotic.
Yep, May is probably one of the best months to come and do a spot of sight seeing, or just for a quick weekend city break.
Go on, do yourself a favour, come to Italy in May.
Atac Rome!
No, not literally! ATAC is the Roman equivalent of Milan’s public transport company - ATM. Like ATM, whose site I talked about in my ‘A useful site, almost - ATM Milan‘ post, ATAC also has a site which allows you to calculate routes around Italy’s capital.
Despite my slightly disparaging comments and owning to my knowledge of Italian, I often use Milan’s ATM site to find out how to get to where I want, so the Roman system should also prove helpful.
You can try out the service by visiting the ATAC site and clicking on the little Union Jack flag in the at the base of the header on the right.
You can even set the date and time of your journey, which means things like summer timetables should be taken into account.
Not sure what ‘private’ and ‘public means’ means. Maybe if you flag ‘private’ a helicopter will be summoned just for you! Fun, but probably more costly than a simple bus ticket!
Route planning options include:
- The quickest with (With what? - possibly refers to the options above)
- few transfers (Fewest transfers?)
- few short walks (Fewest short walks - presumably from one stop to another)
Then just choose your point of origin and your destination, hit the ‘Calculate’ button, and see what happens.
The English language is improving, as on the date I wrote this initially, the English language section of the ATAC site was a bit of a mix between Italian and English, now, it’s all in ‘just about’ English.
Let me know how you get on, or if you find yourself going round in eternal circles in the Eternal City.
Happy travelling!
Let Chianti Sculpture Park re-capture that holiday mood
My writings on Gianpietro Carlesso caused me to ‘come up in conversation’ the other day while Chris Bright was chatting fellow American and Milan based Sean Carlos, and, as a result of Sean’s recent email, I’ve been darting around the web looking at sculpture related things. There is some interesting stuff out there, and some future posts will be dedicated to them, and, in turn, I hope, help the lives of struggling artists become, well, less of a struggle. High hopes indeed, I know.
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