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Lunch » People » 4initalia » Lists » My top 10 Favorite Things to Do in Italy. Okay, 8, Because the Site Wouldn't Let Me List 10

My top 10 Favorite Things to Do in Italy. Okay, 8, Because the Site Wouldn't Let Me List 10

Feb 8, 2010

by 4initalia

I lived in Italy for a year, so I had time to visit the tourist sites described in the guidebooks, which were well worth seeing. But I also got a chance to "live like a local." Actually, with no car, and living in an apartment with little hot water and no water pressure, I lived worse than a local. By all means, see the major tourist attractions. But give yourself a little time to just...be....in Italy. If you'd like to read more about what that was like, I have a funny blog on Wordpress, at 4initalia. Or check out this list of things I most loved doing:

Piazzas

Piazzas are where Italians go to drink. Wonderful things, like cappuccino (before 11 a.m.), espresso, (after 11, and any time thereafter) and always, wine. While you sip, you watch Italy go by. There is always something going on: a violinist, creating swirls of colored sound and throwing it against the ancient stone, young people beguiling each other with their skinny jeans and studied nonchalance, North Africans in rich cottons peddling paperbacks, Gypsy women, in faded mismatched prints, skirting the edges of everything, and always, ambulances trolling for business.

Street Markets

Even small Italian towns hold an open air market from around 9 a.m. to 2, on the same day every week. At an open air market, you can buy last season's couture (with the labels removed), curtains, great leather, and gloriously fresh produce. How do you know what's worth buying? Follow the nonne, the Italian grandmothers. They've been going to the same market since before WWII, and they know which vendors sell the best stuff at the best prices.

Walking

The greatest thing about living in Italy was the simple joy in just walking around. I lived in Modena, Pavarotti's birthplace, where winding streets wandered like poets lost in thought. The town was over a thousand years old, so in the town center, there were elements of architecture from every age: Roman, Medieval, Renaissance. A terracotta bust peered over the same street for 500 years. An art restorer's shop window held seashells of antique paint. And every hour, bells called to each other to mark passing hours, and centuries. Just walk: Italy will do the rest.

Churches

Italian churches have created comfort and joy for hundreds of years. Even in the most bustling of cities, to enter one is to wrap yourself in time. When you realize that people have sought peace in that same space for centuries, through famine, and wars, and disease, you recognize that we share with those before us the same travails. Sometimes just taking the time to listen to eternity is enough. But if you lift your eyes, and take in the art, and architecture, your soul lightens. I'm not Catholic, but I'm a believer in the power of beauty, and art, and the communion of souls.

Gelato

In Italy, gelato is an art. Gelato has rich and intense flavor, because it contains less butterfat than ice cream. Ordering gelato is an art in itself: you have to watch carefully, to see if you stand in line, (which means ordering anarchy) or you take a number, which only barely cuts down on the chaos. Either way, when your turn is called, you have to be ready. Do you want a cup (coppa?) or a cone? How many flavors? Two, three? Do you want whipped cream on top? In Modena, one gelateria offered 70 flavors, with exotic names: Amarena (chocolate, cherry, cream) Malaga (rum raisin) - so hard to choose! Another offered cones, but pressed the flavors into petals so you in your hand a frozen flower. Mmmmn.

Campaniles

Italian cities are full of church bell towers. To climb one is to become part of history: the towers were built to warn the town of approaching invaders, or fire, or gathering weather. As you climb the treacherous stairs, look for the small hand holds and tiny ledges that permitted the tower watchers to ascend to the windows. And if you are fortunate, you can be inside the tower when the bells ring. The deep tones will massage you from the inside out, and caress your very soul.

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is a group of five towns built into cliffs along the Ligurian Sea. The houses are painted the colors of gelato, and the Ligurian Sea is aquamarine glass. Each town is a separate treasure, starting with Riomaggiore, the first in the chain. You enter Riomaggiore through a tunnel lined with a mosaic of brilliantly colored glass. The towns are tiny and welcoming, and you can reach them by a walkway that carries you along a crystaline sea, or by train or ferry. Cinque Terre is for lovers, and for families, and for travelers who want to savor the best of Italy.

Museums

Unlike the major museums in the big cities, like the Vatican in Rome, small town museums are never crowded. There is time to linger, and to marvel that Italians made so many incredibly beautiful things, and preserved them. In Modena, the town museum has a special room for maps, and illuminated manuscripts. There is a map from the 1600s that intricately details the coastline of the Americas. This map was only recently discovered hanging in an ordinary deli. it had served as a screen until ten years ago, when a historian realized that it was a precious piece of geographic history. But it's also art - rich in color and shading. The Modena Museum also has a textile room, with fabric for the fashion forward socialites of eight hundred years ago. And a sienna glass, etched and delicate, that survived centuries.

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devora February 08, 2010

This list was an absolute pleasure to read. It makes me want to visit Italy now more than ever! I'd really love to go there and attempt to live like a local for a few weeks. By the way, what were the two other items that you wanted to add to this list? You can actually add up to 35. If you need a hand, just let me know ;) Thanks for sharing!

4initalia February 08, 2010

HI Devora! I hope you do go to Italy!! And write your own list! To live like a local, rent an apartment, so you have to buy food and cook. That is an adventure all by itself - you can't.touch.the.produce (at a fruit stand, only the owner touches the goods, in a supermarket, you wear plastic gloves). In a supermarket, you pay to pay for a shopping cart (a 1 euro coin unleashes the locked carts, but you get it back when you return the cart) and have to bag your own groceries...and trying to buy hair care products is fun and confusing. My other two items? 9. Listen. When I walked through town, and passed through crowds, I would close my eyes and just listen to the language. Italian is so beautiful, and I loved hearing the deep low syllables roll by. 10. Go to an accetaia, a place that makes and sells traditional balsamic vinegar. Real Modena vinegar is thick and sweet, because it's aged, for up to 100 years!! An accetaia can be in a farmhouse - the one we visited was incredibly charming - we got to eat grapes off the vine, see the 100-year old wooden barrels - so fun, and fascinating. You can also go to a cheese factory, a proscuito place - and understand how hard it is to make the things that taste so delicious!

devora February 08, 2010

I would love to make a list like this of my own someday! :) That's very interesting about the produce, but makes total sense and is more sanitary. I actually like the sound of that a lot. I've been to a few supermarkets in the states that require a small deposit, like a quarter, to use their carts. It makes sure that people bring them back to the right place!

By the way, if you want to add those two items to your list, I actually added listen and accetaia to the site. All you have to do is click on "edit" underneath the title of your review and go from there. I would really love to visit an accetaia some day. I absolutely love specialty shops, whether for cheese, wine, bread, pastries, olive oil, etc. An accetaia sounds so neat! :)

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