The Best of Italy - Italy - page 9

MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO ASSISI (UMBRIA) Though most Italians are
not overtly devout, faith remains one of the cornerstones of Italian culture and
society, and there are few better places to see it in action than at the Basilica of St.
Francis in Assisi. Masses run constantly, and are best on a Sunday—and if you can
swing it to be here on Easter, you just might have a transcendent experience. See
p. 211.
LEARN TO MAKE THE PERFECT SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE (BOLOGNA)
Every Italian is proud of his or her local cuisine, but every Italian also agrees that
the best cooking in Italy is done in Bologna. But don't just dine there; take a
morning stroll through the food markets and gourmet shops, and then learn how
to prepare its signature dishes with an afternoon cooking lesson. See p. 244.
MASTER AN ANCIENT CRAFT (VENICE) Tourists shell out big bucks for
marbleized paper in Italy, but instead of bringing home a trinket you can bring
home a whole new skill learned from a master craftsman. And besides: How many
teachers do you know who serve snacks and wine at the lessons? See p. 330.
GO BACK TO SCHOOL (ITALIAN RIVIERA) Genoa University's annual
summer school is aimed at improving foreigners' spoken Italian and grammar,
and also acts as a crash course on Italian culture and history, with guest speakers
from various faculties lecturing on anything from Italian cinema and art to con-
temporary politics. Best of all, the course, which is usually 2 weeks in September,
is held at the beautiful Villa Durazzo in Santa Margherita Ligure, with gorgeous
vistas of the Ligurian sea. See p. 478.
GET INTO THE UNDERBELLY OF NAPLES (NAPLES) You need to dig
deep to really understand a city's history, and Napoli Sotterranea (Underground
Naples) does it better than anyone else. Take one of the winding tours through
the complex of ancient underground aqueducts and cisterns that have been bomb
shelters and modern-art venues. See p. 495.
SLEEP IN A TRULLO (PUGLIA) Every visitor spends half the time in cen-
tral Puglia snapping endless photos of its iconic whitewashed round huts with
conical stone roofs. But trulli can be more than just a postcard sight; you can actu-
ally set up temporary housekeeping in one and feel what it's really like to live in
one of these ancient structures. See p. 534.