The Best of Italy - Italy - page 2

collections, as well as countless churches where the walls (not to mention the
ceilings—Sistine Chapel, anyone?) sometimes seem to be little more than grand
settings on which to display masterpieces of fresco, painting, and sculpture.
LIVING LA DOLCE VITA
Perhaps all that's simply too much sightseeing. An endless litany of ruins, churches,
and museums can make for a dull vacation. You've come to sample that Italian
dolce vita (sweet life)—or even better, la dolce far niente (the sweetness of doing
nothing). And with Italy's 8,475km (5,264 miles) of coastline, there are few bet-
ter places to find that sweetness than at the beach. You just have to pick which
kind of seaside vacation—or 2-day break from the relentless sightseeing—you
want. Do you want to hang with the jet-set (the Amalfi Coast), join the ever-
increasing tourist hordes that hike from one fishing village to the next (the
Cinque Terre), grab an umbrella and beach chair alongside vacationing Italian
families (the Italian Riviera), or get off the beaten path and see what all those
places looked like before they were discovered (Puglia's Gargano Peninsula)?
Or, you can opt for an island —no, not Sicily: the tiny islands. Now you just
have to decide: Will you follow the Americans and Brits to the storied isle of
Capri and its Blue Grotto; the Germans to Capri's lesser-known neighbor, Ischia;
or the Italians down to the string of Aeolian Islands off the north coast of Sicily,
where the isle of Stromboli erupts regularly throughout the day and night like
some kind of volcanic Old Faithful?
Then again, there are always the elaborate villas and sumptuous gardens of the
Lake District —Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, Lake Garda—where the plains of
Lombardy meet the Italian Alps. Speaking of which, plenty of people prefer to
seek la dolce vita at a higher altitude. It doesn't get any higher than 3,300m
(11,000 ft.) at Punta Hellbrunner atop Monte Bianco, Europe's tallest mountain,
shared by France (which calls it Mont Blanc), and the northwestern Italian region
of Valle d'Aosta. On the other side of the country, just a few hours north of
Venice, rise the craggy peaks of the Dolomites, into which are tucked tony ski
resorts such as Cortina d'Ampezzo.
THE BEST EATS
And, of course, there's the food. Don't ask us to single out just one place in Italy
for its cuisine. We can't do it. That would be like choosing a favorite child. With
extremely rare exceptions (usually around the biggest tourist sights and in beach
resorts), it's nearly impossible to have a bad meal in Italy. These people live to eat.
Their idea of an ideal evening out is not dinner, a movie, and maybe dancing; it's
appetizer, main course, and dessert—preferably strung out over 3 or 4 hours.
Wherever you go, you'll find regional specialties to knock out your taste buds:
pizza in Naples, spaghetti carbonara in Rome, Adriatic fish in Venice, juicy steaks
in Florence, swordfish in Sicily, osso buco in Milan, prosciutto and parmigiano in
Parma, calamari in Puglia, polenta in Alpine villages, and pasta absolutely every-
where you turn. Oh, and for dessert: gelato, which makes every other frozen dairy
treat ashamed to call itself ice cream. (Here's a fun travel game: Race to see who can
be the first to sample all three kinds of Italian gelato—the ice milk of Sicily, often
delicately flavored with fresh fruits and nuts; the dense milk-and-egg-yolk-based