Montréal’s metro and buses make up Canada’s busiest rapid-transit system.
01.09.2023 - 02:47 / forbes.com
Post-pandemic “revenge travel” is in full swing, and tourists are flocking to Italy in droves like never before: with the country poised to break all tourism records in 2023, visitors–especially from the U.S.–are expected to beeline to Italy over other European destinations for the foreseeable future, to revel in the ineffable magic of la dolce vita.
One destination that’s having a distinct moment? Naples, the gritty, iconic capital of the Campania region, perched on the glittering Gulf of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius–arguably the world’s most famous volcano–and the gateway to the incomparable Amalfi Coast, a perennial Italian tourism center. Thanks in part to HBO’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan Novels, as well as some recent cultural coups–including the opening of the new site of the renowned Galleria d’Italia Naples last summer–the long-overlooked city is returning to its Grand Tour heyday, and once again attracting discerning international travelers keen to explore its complex and myriad charms.
Founded around 600 BCE as Neapolis (“New City”) by the Greeks, Naples, like all great ancient cities, is one steeped in legend and lore. Case in point: the city’s oldest castle, the 12th-century Castel dell’Ovo–literally “castle of the egg”–owes its name to the Roman poet Virgil, who is said to have buried a magical egg deep in the fortress’s foundation. The tale was as simple as it was full of foreboding: if the egg stayed intact, Naples would remain safe from all catastrophes–but should it break, the castle, and the city itself, would fall. If Naples’s ongoing renaissance and the castle’s status as one of its most popular tourist attractions are any indication, the plucky egg endures.
But there’s no more compelling Neapolitan narrative–or source of civic pride–than the story of its pizza, which enjoys deity status in this seaside metropolis, its birthplace and spiritual homeland. While the original fast food’s roots reach back to the flat, hearth-baked breads of the Greeks and Etruscans, Italy’s earliest settlers, the arrival of the tomato–which Spanish conquistadores brought to Europe in the mid-16th century from the New World, where the Aztecs called the plant “tomati”–charted the course of pizza’s evolution from the early 1700s as a distinctly Italian invention.
Its official birth arguably dates back to 1889, when Queen Margherita of Savoy, consort of Italy’s then-king, Umberto I, observed Naples’s poor eating pizza in the streets. Intrigued and reportedly tired of courtly cuisine, she summoned the city’s most famous pizzaiolo (pizza maker), Raffaele Esposito, who made her three of his celebrated creations. Her favorite bore the colors of the national flag, adopted upon
Montréal’s metro and buses make up Canada’s busiest rapid-transit system.
I was feeling restless at 3:15 p.m. on a Friday. "Crazy idea," I said to my husband. "How about we get out of town?"
For Europeans, fall in America looks like the stuff of wanderlust, with fiery trees and pumpkin spice lattes à la Gilmore Girls.
Talk of the “invaders” started in the early spring. Along Italy’s northern Adriatic coast and in Tuscan fish farms workers were pulling up their nets and finding them chewed to threads.
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The first time I traveled for two weeks with a backpack, it was the lightest I'd ever packed for the longest trip I'd ever taken. I had everything I needed, but I was surprised to find that I could have packed even lighter.
I've never really considered myself a Swiftie — that is until I found myself rearranging my entire honeymoon for a chance to see Taylor Swift perform in Italy next summer.
Italy may be best known for its epochal cities and dazzling seaside havens, but the country’s hilltop towns and borghi—medieval throwbacks found from the Alpine north to Sicily—also draw throngs of visitors—more than three million trek to San Gimignano alone each year. While the most popular hilltops are in Tuscany and Umbria, you’ll find the most unusual one, Seborga, on the western Italian Riviera, not far from the French border. Yes, Seborga has all the bells and whistles you might expect of an Italian hill town—a palace fortress, cobblestone alleys barely an arm span in width, knock-out views and hyper-local rustic cuisine, but in addition it has a ceremonial head of state who isan elected prince or princess, its own currency, stamps, and national anthem. Seborga’s recent history, unlike that of any other village in Italy, centers on a decades-long quest to become a stand-alone principality, like Monaco, which on clear days, you can see from one of its lookouts.
Some visitors to Venice will have to start paying a daily tourist fee of 5 euros ($5.36) next year. The initiative covers the introduction of a new tourist flow management system to discourage day trippers on certain dates.
Air Canada is expanding its international flying schedule for the summer of 2024, especially to destinations across Europe, including a new year-round route between Montreal and Madrid.
The gateway to Switzerland’s Bernese Alps, Thun is as quintessentially Swiss as you can get. Lake Thun is bookended by its namesake town to the west and the adventure sports hub of Interlaken to the east, and has long provided an escape into nature for Swiss travellers in the know. However, the region has remained somewhat under the radar to holidaymakers from further afield. The result is a series of quiet, trail-woven vineyards, castle-sprinkled shores, myth-laden caves and never-ending mountain views — all perfect for a short summer or autumn break.
The type of accommodation you choose during your travels can often make or break a trip.