ITALY: THE SOUTH

It's time to go down to the dirty south, a.k.a: Rome, Naples, Capri, Campobasso, Bari, Catanzaro then Sicily. Let's get this thing started!


At the end of January until the first week of February, I visited Rome (my first trip to Italy actually) and fell in love. Such a beautiful city full of beautiful people and amazing history, food, things to do, places to see. If I lived there, I would never get bored. I will post some pictures from the web but also some of the pictures I took (again) so you can oogle over how fabulous that city is. I miss it dearly and the people I met/stayed with there...hoping to go back to Roma before the end of 2013! 

In Italy's capital, Rome: 

1. Turn your back to the Trevi Fountain for just one second so you can make a wish. 

2. Drop your jaw at the Colosseum. 

3. Wander around Travestere; grab a snack, snap some beautiful pictures and feel like an Italian.  

4. Grab an authentic slice of Italian pizza or a calzone in one of the many shops around Rome. 

5. Take a step back in time at the Roman Forum and the Pantheon. 

6. Go shopping in the beautiful Zara...it's mind-blowing.

7. Have a snack on the Spanish Steps.

8. Visit the extravagant St. Peter's Basilica. 

9. Spend the rare rainy afternoon in the Vatican Museums. 

10. Strain your neck by staring up at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. 

11. Smell the spring flowers in the Villa Borghese Gardens then go to the Borghese Gallery.

12. Stare the eye candy with an espresso and cannoli in hand at Piazza Navona.

13. Enjoy "the best gelato in Rome" at I Caruso...I personally enjoyed a caramel gelato at a small shop next to the Trevi Fountain but hey, I'll try this place next time I am in Rome.

14. Walk over to Piazza del Popolo or the Quirinal Palace.

15. Party the night away at Shari Vari, La Maison, AKAB, Gilda or Babel. 

I remember watching Eat, Pray, Love and they took a trip to Naples for a big ole slice of pizza:

1. Famous pizza? Okay! Go to Da Michele for a slice of melt-in-your-mouth pizza.
2. This place about to bloooow, bloooow (Ke$ha reference, sorry) at Mount Vesuvius...aka the 'stratovolcano' in this region.
3. Dive into the piles of garbage...just kidding, please don't.
4. Go to an opera at the beautiful Teatro di San Carlo...it was built back in the 1700's!
5. Spend a few hours at the Naples National Archaeological Museum (my brother would love this!) or Villa Pignatelli. Ladies, go to the Coral Jewellery Museum, it's apparently one of Naples' most beautiful places.
6. Wander over the Royal Palace of Naples.
7. Feel like you are in Game of Thrones are Castel Nuovo, Castel Saint Elmo or Castel dell'Ovo.
8. Forgive your sins at San Gregorio Armeno, Santa Chiara, Naples Cathedral, Saint Domenico Maggiore, San Lorenzo Maggiore or Pio Monte della Misericodia.
9. Take a walk through Villa Comunale, Villa Floridiana or Parco Virgiliano.
10. Visit the beautiful Certosa di San Martino (monastery).
11. Be a vampire (sorry, too much True Blood) underground in the Catacombs of San Gennaro.
12. Get sexual...okay not literally, but visit a sexually explicit/erotic museum called the Secret Museum...maybe it's Naples best kept secret?
13. Okay, there tons of churches, aside from the ones listed above, so go visit them you like historic churches with beautiful architecture.
14. Party the night away (after eating tons of pizza and gelato) at Piazza di Spagna, Madison Street or Riot.
15. Take a walk, with gelato in hand, along Spaccanapoli.

When you visit Capri, please do not wear capris:
1. Snap some pics for Instagram at the photogenic Faraglioni.
2. Walk along the Via Krupp.
3. Go to the beach...I would hope this would be the first thing that comes to mind.
4. Smell the flowers in the Garden of Augustus.
5. Visit the Villa Jovis ruins.
6. Bring your water-safe camera to Blue Grotto, Red Grotto or White Grotto (caves).
7. Eat a caprese salad in Piazza Umberto I.
8. Go medieval at Castiglione.

Okay, so when I listed various Italian cities/towns to visit, I thought that Campobasso would be interesting but to be honest, there is hardly anything to do/write about there. The only thing that struck my attention was that there are good picture opportunities in the smaller towns or villages surrounding Campobasso.

In Bari...be sure to hit up the bars?
1. Visit Italy's 4th largest theatre, Teatro Petruzzelli.
2. Visit the beautiful Basilica di San Nicola and the Bari Cathedral.
3. Be artsy fartsy at the Pinacoteca Proviniciale di Bari.
4. Spend a gloomy day the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
5. Drink up at Divinae Follie, Club Cafe Del Mar or Caffe Mozart.

Catanzaro, oh the things to do...
1.  Visit the beach and relaaaax.

2. Historic site: Parco Archeologico di Scolacium and the Angoli.

3. Grab dinner an Italian dinner at Circo or Antonio Abbruzzino.

4. Satisfy your sweet tooth at Bar Centrale.

5. Meet some other tourists on the My Bella Vita Travel day tour.

Sicily...this place is too beautiful for my eyes:
1. Climb to the top..or try...of Mount Etna.
2. Snap some Instagram photos at Agrigento, Valley of Temples or Segesta Temple.
3. Get clean during a thermal bath at Vulcano.
4. Take a dip in San Vito lo Capo or sunbathe at Mondello Lido.
5. Get holy at the Palermo Cathedral or Monreale Duomo.
6. Prepare your ears for some opera at the Teatro Massimo.
7. Recover from sunburn at Stanze al Genio, Palermo.
8. Grab a bite to eat in Syracuse at Trattoria La Foglia or Osteria da Mariano. In Palermo, at Sant'Andrea or Cucina Papoff.
9. Smell the Italian flowers in Palermo at Orto Botanico.
10. Enjoy walking up the Caltagirone...seriously though, the steps are ceramic and so beautiful!
11. Walk through the fish market in the morning...bring some nose plugs?
12. Visit Erice, a hilltop village with lovely views.

The next post will be on: Ecuador!

Travel on wanderlusters!

P.S. exciting stuff: I am taking a family trip this summer to either Barbados, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic- I have never been there (or even to the Caribbean) so I am really excited!