Published on Sunday, November 24, 2019 by Kathy McCabe To the delight of art lovers, Italy’s popular free museum Sundays are back. This popular program, which offers free entry on the first Sunday of the month for both Italian and foreign visitors at state-run museums around the country, was introduced in 2014 by Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. About 15 million visitors took advantage of the offering in total Ho...

Published on Monday, September 30, 2019 by Kathy McCabe After his friend’s murder at the hands of Neo-Nazis 11 years ago, street artist Cibo decided to take his art in a new direction: using art and creativity to erase hate. In his native region of Verona, Cibo – a pen name that means “food” in Italian – covers up offensive and hateful graffiti with cheery cartoon paintings of food. Cibo has been a street arti...

Published on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 by Kathy McCabe The Venitian beach resort of Bibione  will ban cigarettes beginning at the end of May, in time for the summer crowds. The beach is the first to ban smoking in Italy, and intends to eliminate cigarette butt pollution and the exposure of visitors to secondhand smoke. Italy banned smoking in enclosed public places, such as offices and restaurants, in 2005, but so far ha...

Published on Sunday, February 26, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Italy’s National Commission for UNESCO has applied for UNESCO World Heritage status for its famous sparkling wine, Prosecco  – specifically, for the hills of the Prosecco-producing towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. If the UNESCO headquarters in Paris approve the proposal in 2018, the northern Italian region would be among just nine other wine-producing regi...

Published on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The Italy Mix is a weekly post about the most interesting Italy and Italy travel news and human interest stories around the Web. Here are our top picks for this week: Lesser Known Rome:  This brief video gives travelers ideas of less famous places to visit in Rome including Centrale Montemartini where ancient artwork on display in a decommissioned power station. ...

Published on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 by Kathy McCabe Intrepid divers, swimmers and spectators can all the world’s deepest swimming pool, which opened in June at a thermal spa in the Veneto. The pool, which holds which holds 1,135,939 gallons of thermal spa water, is named named Y-40 Deep Joy after its 40-meter depth. Designed by architect Emanuele Boaretto for scuba diving and underwater photo shoots, the rectang...

Published on Saturday, July 20, 2013 by Kathy McCabe When visiting Venice, it is well worth taking a day trip (or multi-day trip) to the countryside of the Veneto to see the stunning villas designed by Andrea Palladio. The beautiful one above is Villa Barbaro. Photo by Gruenemann, flickr.com...