Category: italy

Island Life: Spending Four Divine Days on Ischia, Campania, Italy

On By Laura Ferries WriterIn italy3 Comments

Getting there

Ischia was the second destination of a holiday following two days in Naples, and what an impression it has left.

After booking the flights, we knew we would want to spend some days at a calmer pace on a nearby island but the only one we knew of was Capri. Capri looks stunning and attracts millions of visitors each year for good reason, however, we had read about the crowds and we wanted something quieter.

Zooming in on Google Maps, we saw two small islands to the south-west of Naples, in the Gulf of Naples / Tyrrhenian Sea, called Procida and Ischia. Both looked beautiful but Ischia seemed to offer more in the way of good restaurants and had better reviews in blogs we read, so we booked the boat and an apartment and were set for what would make one of all of our favourite holidays to date.

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Forza Napoli! Two Memorable Days in Naples, the Capital of Campania, Italy

On By Laura Ferries WriterIn italy2 Comments

(In this blog entry, I am going to use both Naples and Napoli interchangeably)

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In Italian, the word vespa means ‘wasp’.

In Naples, the Vespa rules the roads; motor-wasps darting around and causing people to jump out of the way in alarm, warned by the ever-present revving and droning in the air.

Seconds after leaving our apartment for the first time on the main road of Corso Umberto I in the Centro Storico of Napoli, a Vespa crashed into the back of a car, halting traffic, which allowed us to cross the chaotic road but resulted in both drivers having to swap details. We took this as an early warning to be extra-mindful when crossing the roads in Naples.

Enjoying an espresso on the apartment balcony listening to the traffic on the street below

The constant buzz and rush of traffic and honking horns is the soundtrack to Napoli, and while it means that wearing earplugs at night is vital for a decent night’s sleep, it also mingles with laughter, jovial sing-song by workers, the ding of a bell to signify a pizza is ready, shouts of “attenzione” or “Forza Napoli!” adding to a general sense of hilarity, zest for life and rolling with the unpredictability in the best-humoured way.

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What to See and Do in Turin: City of Chocolate and Coffee

On By Laura Ferries WriterIn italy1 Comment

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

Turin, or Torino as it is called in Italian, is located in the north of the country as the capital of the region of Piedmont.

Turin is a beautiful and classy location for a winter city break, nestled close enough to the Alps to glimpse stunning snow-covered peaks as you fly into the airport.

Turin is famous for its chocolate, coffee, Juventus football club, and for being the home of Fiat and the location of Alfa Romeo’s headquarters; both Italian automotive icons. Most recently, Turin hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 (and will be passing the baton on to my home city of Liverpool in 2023!). Nutella was created in the nearby town of Alba too!

Before Italy’s unification in 1848, Turin was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, of the Kingdom of Sardinia under the rulership of the Duchy of Savoy (despite being so far away!) and notably the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy after unification. This rich history means that Turin is the third economic city of Italy after Milan and Rome.

We arrived in Turin from Manchester on the 17th December and it was very cold but a dry sort of cold that is actually really refreshing. I bought a pair of gloves as soon as we arrived but I am a fan of cold places, having loved previous trips to Iceland, Stockholm, Finland and Estonia. I’m a January baby from the north of England after all.

A cold Italian city is a lovely place to visit round Christmas and Turin certainly looked festive and cosy at all turns. Italy does sun-soaked beach days well and it likewise does twinkly Christmas very well too, strings of fairylights and candlelight for everywhere the eye can see.

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What to See and Do in Arezzo: The Italian City of Marble and Gold

On By Laura Ferries WriterIn italyLeave a comment

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

I’m finally getting round to writing this over three months after visiting Italy as work and life take over!

We’ve just booked flights to Italy again for Christmas where we will be seeing Turin and Pisa (flying into the former and out from the latter 8 days later) so it felt opportune to write about Arezzo before I come back from this next trip and have more to write about!

We were on our third day in Tusany, after visiting Montepulciano, when we decided to visit Arezzo- a small city in eastern Tuscany- on a day of torrential, horizontally-slanted rain.

It was August and still warm enough for vest and shorts but the rain came down cold and we spent a good portion of the day running out of the rain and into shelter. Conveniently, the city is lined with numerous porticoes where we could wait it out before digging back in to see the sights while we could.

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How to Sound Natural When Speaking Italian: 25 Useful Expressions

On By Laura Ferries WriterIn italian, italy5 Comments

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

I have been learning Italian for just over two years now and after five trips to the country and living with a native Italian speaker, I am happy to have made decent progress. I sat a GCSE in Italian in May/June of this year with a colleague; we met up once a week to revise and we did a fair amount of past papers and Zooms with a tutor and other exercises which lead to us both achieving a grade 9 (the highest grade at GCSE now, higher than the old A* I have to add!).

I don’t get much time to study intensively as my job consumes so much time and I have my poetry, social life, family etc, but it is good to maintain as much exposure to the language as possible to keep it ticking over. I still remember a tip a woman gave me when I first set out on my language learning journey which was to keep it in your life in some small way every single day. Even when you can’t actively sit and study, playing music, looking at an Instagram page or Whatsapping someone in your target language.

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