How to Experience Italy: What's Bella Italia About?

It isn't easy for a traveler to envision what a visit to a foreign country is going to be like and chances are, no matter where we go, it's going to be a surprise. The southern European country of Italy is a unique Utopia. Unless you have a chance to visit, you might think it's a country only for curiosities regarding the pope, monastaries and cloisters. Papal headquarters are in the Vatican City and St. Peter's Square shown in the photograph is one entrance. The monasteries and cloisters are left with hand calligraphic manuscripts, colonnades and gardens.

A commonly unanticipated truth is Italy is also a mecca of commerce, true fine art, theater, music, the latest beat in cinematography, architecture, and cuisine tourists can never forget it. A center for air flight stopovers, international train transit, city buses, automobiles, mopeds and walkers, there's no way to miss. Entire towns are hewn into the rocky sides of mountain seaside cliffs, city quarters and hillside citadinas have cobblestone streets, short vias and winding roads, painted plaster villas and murals with courtyards surrounded by gardens, sunken sunlit valleys filled with eucalyptus and olive trees, wine tasting villas with fine cheeses set subterranean for cool storage to start visitors on a non-stop trek. In the evening you'll have to stop at one of the outdoor cafes for a quiet evening of fine Italian dining accompanied by music of strolling violinists to set the mood. Outdoor restaurants are also set with tables along the ocean views. And for d'arte magnifico visit the Sistine Chapel in Rome for views of Michelangelo's ceiling paintings and murals of Adam and Eve, the birth of Christ, the assumption and resurrection, all commissioned by families of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. St. Peter's Cathedral is the home of the famous Pieta sculpture. The museums in Venice display the original masterpieces of other northern Europe including work by two Dutch painters, Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt Van Rijn. Secure mosaics from the Ottoman Empire are open to the public for viewing in the cities of Rimini and Ravenna. Then, why not take a walk up winding paved pathways and steps into the hills to see the ancient undisturbed castles from the early Middle Ages? It's one way to sit "on top of the world" with a loaf of fresh baked bread, locally churned and aged cheeses, and homeland fruits. Cappuccino bars are open in the cities in the morning and the outdoor grocery markets begin as early as the crack of dawn. Who can forget the ballet, the balls and young adult dances in Piazza di San Marco of Venice, the opera, the chic jeans, wool and leather clothing?

If you get a chance to stay a longer, the greatest Italian cities are an experience of combined small towns and family life. The friendship and warmth of a culture with ingenuity will make most visitors remember Italy for it's distinction, character and flavor. It's a stop you will not want to miss.