Showing posts with label castle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label castle. Show all posts

Monday, December 3, 2007

New Years Eve 2007 in Italy




Another year is over and we have to think about how we would like to say good bye to the year 2007 and how to welcome 2008!

After Christmas, this is the most special time of the entire year and every year we are put in front of the same question: What to do for New Years Eve? How to make it special this year?

Well, why not going to Italy
? One of the most beautiful countries in the world, with its world famous Tuscany, well known for its high levelled wines, its fantastic landscapes and its so romantic medieval cities and towns?

Wake up the first morning in 2008 in a real Italian medieval Castle like Castello di Vicarello near Grosseto, Castello di Tocchi in Siena or in one of the period residences as Relais Villa Petrischio in Cortona, Villa Marta in Lucca and you will feel like you stepped back in time for a few hundred years!
If not a castle, then a typical rural farm house: San Gimignano with its famous 14 towers, Siena, Arezzo, or a nice hotel in Florence!

Or Rome, where the city surely does not sleep this night in between two years? Where everybody is celebrating around the city in the piazzas, or in some typical restaurant or dancing club?

A special night could be organized in a Castle like Castello Orsini in Rocca Giovine where one has the choice between a
Gala Dinner including welcome drink with champagne for € 150,00 where the table is reserved all night long, a
Gala Dinner for € 130,00 where the table is reserved all night long, a
Buffet dinner for € 90,00 and the
Disco for € 40,00

Or at the Naif Cafè in the city center of Rome where you can choose between a

Gala Dinner for € 120,00 and a
Buffet Dinner for € 60,00

Otherwise, without wanting to organize too much in advance, just enjoy the Eternal City with its fireworks and celebrations throughout the city, having a walk and dancing through it.


Maybe better somewhere on the seaside? No problem: the Amalfi Coast has certainly has plenty of offers for this period. For instance the famous living cribs, outstanding in Praiano, Raito and Pogerola, or the sub pilgrimage to the ceramic crib in the Grotta dello Smeraldo (the cavern of the emerald) in Conca dei Marini.

If nothing of the above mentioned should be fine, there are so many wellness destinations in Italy. Just take some time to relax and book a beautiful spa hotel or some thermal accommodation as for example Abano Terme, Montegrotto Terme, Chianciano Terme.

Another great destination might be the Piedmont like Alba or Asti
. So many of Italy’s famous wines and truffles come from that region which offers a breathtaking landscape and many nice medieval villages.

It is not too late to look for a perfect New Years Eve 2007/2008. Many of the accommodations even have really interesting packages and special offers. Check out your best fitting accommodation for this very special night of 2007 with Dream Destination Europe and you can be sure to spend an unforgettable end of year in Italy!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Italy on horseback

About a thousand million Euros is the turnover – 1 million of horseman, more than 400 thousand horses and more than 50 thousand people employed. These are the dates of the AIA (Associazione Italiana Allevatori) and of the UNIRE (Unione nazionale incremento razze equine).

This means an entire army of lovers of this sport and the horseback tourism which generates in Italy a turnover of around 6,5 thousand millions of Euro.

In the Italian region Veneto, precisely in Verona, the wolrds most important international fair, the Fieracavalli, takes place every year at the beginning of November in a space more than 1.800 m².

Italy’s tourism has a huge amount of offers addressed to horseman. In all over Italy there are the farmhouses, the so called agriturismi, which are located in the countryside, where it is possible to take part in the every day’s life of the farmers. They teach for example, how to produce bread, honey, marmalade and much more, and many of them have a riding school.

In Tuscany for example, there is the Regional Park of the Maremma where it is possible to explore it in a very nice and exciting way on a horseback trekking tour. There are many tours offered for both, experts and non experts, to explore this protected area.

During this excursions very often it is possible to get near animals like wild boars, fallow deers, cows and Maremman horses. A two hours trekking tour is a quiet horseback walk through the oak wood and it is suitable for non experts. For who has more time, there is a tour of three hours in which they reach the Abbey of San Rabano. For great experts there is a one day tour of approximately 6 hours which leads through diverse areas of the Regional Park: the agricultural area, the Mediterranean landscape, the pine forest, the marsh until reaching the river Ombrone.

Also near Pisa, in the surrounding hills, there are plenty of tours offered to get in contact with the still intact nature of the area. As well as in the area of San Gimignano for example the farmhouse Il Meletto, or in the Chianti area the Fattoria la Presura or Santa Maria a Poneta.

But not only in Tuscany, in all over Italy there are so many nice places to be discovered, and why not on back of a horse?
In the Region of Lazio there are some very nice farmhouses like Borgo il Ducato, or in Piedmont the La Piccola Fattoria, La Collina degli Scoiattoli, or Red Wine where they offer horseback riding.
In Umbria there is the Madonna delle Grazie, L’Elmo, Relais Il Cantico della Natura, in Veneto the Tenuta Goro Veneto and the Castle of Lispida.
Concerning Sicily there can be found Colle d’Ooro and Gigliotto where to explore the area like the knights did.
Visit Dream Destination Europe for more accommodations for your Italian horseback vacation.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Medieval Italy

History in Italy goes back to ancient times and therefore it is very rich in archaeological sites and Etruscan, Roman and Romanesque buildings as well as many from other periods. Thanks to clever renovation and rebuilding some of these have become historic homes. Castles are now exclusive places for fascinating and exciting holidays.

Spending a vacation in a castle is a real magic experience. Sleeping, where once kings resided, in castles and manors all over Italy where their historic flair, style and charm turn Italian history and culture into a very personal and vivid experience.

Spending a holiday or a weekend in a castle means entering into a “World of Dreams”, stop the daily frantic rhythm by going back in time where to discover antique traditions, artistic architecture, interiors furnished with the most precious antiques, paintings and tapestries. These castles today offer the most modern comforts for relax, sport, health. A romantic break out, a going back to former times, a discovering trip of the Medieval Italy – simply a not usual vacation.

Tuscany for example is one of Italy's world famous regions with its enchanted landscapes from the mountain to the sea, with its towns with museums, cathedrals, historical buildings, streets, towns like Florence, Siena, Pisa and many more. Tuscany, full of ancient Etruscan and Roman ruins has a wide variety of castles and historic residences to offer.
But obviously not only Tuscany is famous for its medieval flair and period residences. Also Umbria, Veneto, Piedmont, the countryside around Rome and Sicily have a lot to offer.

If you have always dreamed of a wedding in an ancient castle then there is no reason for you to file those fantasies away. Your castle wedding in Italy awaits only your orders.
Most of those castles are very well organized for weddings and other kind of celebrations.
New Year as an unforgettable night back in ancient history?

The refined traveller desires new emotions discovering in period residences a world suspended in time, where luxury and tradition meld together into one, in ideal settings in which to appreciate the tastes and fragrances of authentic recipes, wines and products of the land and sea.


Relais Villa Petrischio, Castello di Vicarello, Castello di Lispida, Castello del Poggiarello di Stigliano, Castello di Camino, Castello di Spaltenna and Castello di Pavone are only a few of Italy’s many castles where to spend the perfect medieval holiday.