Tuesday, February 5, 2008

GOLOSARIA PER I BAMBINI


Nel primo weekend di marzo il Castello di Camino aderirà alla manifestazione GOLOSARIA indetta dal CLUB PAPILLON con una manifestazione per i bambini, curata dall'Associazione Culturale e di Promozione Sociale “Castello di Camino Monferrato”.

L'Associazione, sorta nel 2003, da anni si occupa della conservazione e della promozione del castello monferrino, definito da molti uno dei più bei castelli piemontesi tanto per la posizione panoramica quanto per lo stato di mantenimento.

A partire da sabato 8 marzo dunque, si potranno visitare le sale del castello, la cantina, la foresteria e il maesteso parco, il tutto avvolto nella cornice di personaggi in abiti e costumi d'altri tempi, sarà possibile degustare piatti della tradizione piemontese e ammirare le bancarelle dell’artigianato d’eccellenza.

Personaggi in abbigliamento storico animeranno le due giornate del castello, proponendo la propria attività: si avranno quindi danze, canti, duelli, musici e giocolieri, giochi e spettacoli di vario genere, soprattutto per i bambini.

La manifestazione aprirà le porte al pubblico la mattina di sabato 8 marzo intorno alle ore 11,00 fino alle 19.00
Nella giornata di domenica 22 aprile l'apertura è prevista già dalle 10,30, fino alle 18.00
.
Verranno anche attivati brevi laboratori e stages o di musica o di giocoleria o combattimento per bambini..
Sempre per i bambini, visto il successo dello scorso anno, saranno presenti anche un paio di pony, con i quali sarà possibile giocare alla giostra della quintana: ogni bambino cavalcando il piccolo cavallo ed imbracciando una lunga lancia, dovrà colpire un bersaglio posto su un manichino.

Insomma l’8 e il 9 marzo si presentano come due intense giornate di festeggiamenti e grande coinvolgimento del pubblico di ogni età.

Anche i per genitori e per gli amanti della buona cucina saranno comunque previsti stand enogastronomici e punti ristoro anche con menù speciali per i bambini.

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 28, 2007

The Chianti Sculputre Park


The Chianti Sculpture Park is located in Tuscany about 11 km north of Siena. The area is famous worldwide for its beautiful hilly landscape, its vineyards and the evergreen olive trees and cypress trees. Quiet medieval villages are scattered here and there; the small hamlet of Pievasciata, with its church of San Giovanni Battista, dating back to the XI century, is just one kilometer away.The Chianti Sculpture Park offers each of its visitors a unique experience. In an untouched wood of ilex and oak trees in the heart of Sienese Chianti many internationally renowned artists from five continents have created imposing contemporary sculptures in accordance with their own creative ideas and style. Piero Giadrossi the founder of this Park, has travelled extensively for over 20 years and has always collected small and large contemporary sculptures.
His vision was to share with the discerning visitors of Tuscany, his love for sculpture and so he decided to create a permanent exhibition along a shadowy trail which runs through a beautiful wood of oaks. Each artist chose the site for his or her installation, thus each work becomes a unique presence in the corner of the wood where it is mounted.
To select the artists Piero was helped by an Art Committee and careful thought was given to the nationality and the media used. “All the sculptures therefore, can be considered to be truly site-specific, which explains their harmony with the trees, the sounds, the colours, the light, and every other element of the wood. In fact, these man-made works do not extend beyond the limits of nature, rather, they integrate with it and enhance it,” says Piero Giadrossi.
Twenty countries are represented so far and this makes the Park truly unique in Italy. One of the objectives of the Park was to give room to artists barely known in Europe, but famous in their country of origin; significant talents that otherwise would have no exposure to the western public.Temporary exhibition will be held annually in the amphitheatre. Opposite the entrance of the Park an old building which was a pottery, has been transformed into a large art gallery and so visitors who have admired the large sculptures in the Park can have a chance to admire smaller works made by the same artists.How to get to the Chianti Sculpture Park:Milan-Rome highway: Firenze Certosa exit.Superstrada to Siena: Siena Nord exit.Left onto SS 222, towards Castellina and then take a right turn after 1.5 km towards Vagliagli. Drive for about 8 km and then turn right towards PIEVASCIATA. It is a country road and you will find the Park at your right after about 4 km.From Rome: drive the Superstrada around Siena until you find the Siena Nord exit. Then follow the instruction above. Opening hours:April - October from 10:00 am to Sunset.From November to March it is advisable to call first: 0577-357151
Visit Dream Destination Europe
for your accommodation in Chianti, Tuscany.

Florence, the pearl of Italian culture

The wonderful masterpieces and great works of architecture enriching the everyday life of Florence, the capital of Tuscany. One of the most important collections of paintings in the world can be found in the Uffizi Gallery and other magnificent paintings can be seen in the Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, hosting among others Tiziano’s and Raffaello’s masterpieces.

The city is famous for its Duomo, the Baptistry and many other wonderful churches, for Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio and Ponte Vecchio, where you can still find fifteenth-century shops. Other important cities in the region are Siena, Pisa, Arezzo, Pistoia, Lucca, Livorno, Grosseto, Massa Carrara.

In addition to art, Tuscany offers outstanding natural settings, such as the National Park of the Argentario and the Isola d’ Elba. In the countryside, among the vineyards and olive groves, are wonderful villages and castles, a reminder of Tuscan life in the Middle Ages.

To make your stay in Florence unforgettable Dream Destination Europe will provide you with all the assistance you might need, from the moment of choosing where to stay, right through your holiday thanks also to our team in loco. Come and chose from our wide selection the ideal accommodation for you.

Discover Florence in “kiddie size” Florence Visitor Centre designs Disney guide for children

Over 160,000 copies of the “Disney Guide to Florence” have already been distributed in the U.K. The project was born as a joint collaboration between “Disney Publishing Italia” and the “Agenzia per il turismo di Firenze” (Apt) with support from the “Provincia di Firenze”.

The guide which touts Florence as the ideal family vacation spot was offered free-with-purchase at 57 Disney stores for one week only. The publication is geared towards attracting new visitors to Florence by depicting works of art and city monuments in “kiddie size” making them more interesting and comprehensible even to the youngest of tourists. The original Italian version was distributed with the weekly children’s magazine, “Topolino”.
For the best family accommodations check Dream Destination Europe http://www.dde-europe.com

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.