From time to time I go to Milan for a walk. For those living in the North of Italy it’s quite easy to get there by train, and it makes a perfect day trip destination.
There are 5 places in particular that I like. And they can all be visited on foot.
Duomo and Gallery
Duomo e gallery don’t have much in common, but they are so close one to the other that I consider them part of the same stop.
The Duomo is the symbol of Milan. It’s the largest church in Italy and it took almost five centuries to build it. Its beauty is impressive, so rich in details, with these pinnacles that you can see from close if you go up to the terrace.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was built at the end of the XIX Century in a Renaissance style. It’s Milan’s living room, a pedestrian path lined with historic and luxurious restaurants and shops. The central dome in glass and iron is what captures my mind mostly, in particular with the late afternoon light.
At the other end of the gallery, when coming from Piazza Duomo, you end up in Piazza della Scala, where you can find the Opera House of Milan, one of the most prestigious in the world.
Piazza Gae Aulenti
Piazza Gae Aulenti is one of the most recent areas of Milan, inaugurated in 2012. It represents the contemporary Milan, and I link it to the City in London because of the skyscrapers occupied by offices. Here you can see the Unicredit Tower, that with its 231 meters is the tallest skyscraper in Italy.
From this square you can also see the palace with the Vertical Forest.
I don’t particularly love skyscrapers, but this area is very nice, a good example of urban redevelopment. It’s a very green place, despite all the concrete, because it was built with a great attention to the environment: some windows around the square and the tree lamp have photovoltaic cells that produce power for the buildings.
Sforza Castle
The Sforza Castle dates back to the XV Century and is situated at one end of Parco Sempione. In the past it was one of the most important fortresses of Europe, and together with the Duomo it’s one of the landmarks of Milan.
Nowadays here you can find some museums and interesting exhibitions.
Navigli
The Navigli are channels that connect Milan to lakes Maggiore and Como and to Po river. In the past they were used to reclaim the land, water the plantations and for trade (for centuries Milan was a fluvial harbor).
Today, the area is best known fo the spritz aperol and the aperitivo. There are traces of its old history, like the “Vicolo dei Lavandai”, the alley of the laundrymen, that still displays an old basin used until the 1950s; there are art galleries, many cafes and restaurants. It’s a hipster area of Milan.
Cimitero Monumentale
I’ve kept the Monumental Cemetery as last site, but it’s actually my favorite. Maybe because a cemetery is not the first place you think of visiting when you are in a new city.
Ho tenuto il Cimitero Monumentale per ultimo ma in realtà è quello che mi piace di più. Forse perché un cimitero non è il primo posto che ti viene in mente di visitare quando sei in un posto nuovo.
The Monumentale was inaugurated in 1866 and hosts the remains of important figures of Milanese society. What I like are the statues, the chapels, the amazing funeral works, most of which cost more than my apartment. You should spend a day there to see enough of them.
The Itinerary
These five sites can be seen in one day during a walk around Milan.
From the train station you can walk to Piazza Gae Aulenti, and from here heading West you get to the Monumental Cemetery.
The Sforza Castle is at one end of Parco Sempione, that you can reach following an alley that starts from the entrance of the cemetery. You can cross the castle and if you take the alley right at your front you can get to Piazza Cardusio, from where you can see the Duomo.
From the Duomo it’s a 30 minutes walk to the Naviglio Grande. Probably by the time you are here it’s the right time for an aperitivo. From here you can go back to the station on foot (about one hour, but I was quite tired at this point), or you can take the underground at Porta Genova station.
I suggest to walk in Milan, as it is beautiful, full of palaces, small gardens and arches that surprise you at any corner.
Conegliano is a medieval town in Treviso, Veneto, that in 2016 celebrated 1000 years of history.
Via XX Settembre, the main road in the old town
I visited Conegliano on a Sunday in June 2016 with other Instagrammers. We did a tour of the town and participated to the historical reenactment in the evening.
On the way to the castle
The first documents of Conegliano date back to 1016. At first there were only some houses, then a castle was erected, on top of the hill, and later a whole village was built around the castle. In the Middle Ages Conegliano was quite important in the trade business, and the many frescoes on the outside walls of the houses of the town testify it. But the frescos have suffered bad damages in the last century, due mainly to the pollution.
Details of the main square
Conegliano was a walled town with two gates, one of which is still visible while the other has been substituted by two more modern towers; a central lane connected the two gates and cut the village in half. There were 72 towers, of which only 2 have remained. During the Venetian control, the doge thought it would be easier to rule the town if there were no towers, in case its people would uprise.
Part of the castle is still there, on the hill, with a great view on the whole town. It now hosts a bar-restaurant and a beautiful garden.
The Castle
The main square in town is named after Giovanni Battista Cima, better known as Cima da Conegliano, its most illustrious citizen. Cima was born here towards 1460 and became a famous painter after he moved to Venice. He was mainly commissioned paintings of saints, but Cima often used his beloved Conegliano as backdrop for his paintings; his paintings are an important testament of how the town looked like at the time.
For the last 30 years Conegliano in the month of June has organized a 10-day long festival, with various shows and events in medieval settings; a dinner with decorations and food from the Middle Ages, a parade in medieval costumes and a live checkers game in historical costumes are the main events. On the Sunday that we were there, we could marvel at the parade, but unfortunately the live game was cancelled due to the rain. People have been working at the festival for months, tailoring costumes and training for the parade and the game; the rain was a real drag.
Parade in medieval costumes
Nowadays Conegliano is the heart of the production of Prosecco, the world-famous sparkling wine. Spades and drawbridges have left place to vines and barrels.
You can see more pictures from Conegliano on my Facebook page:
I was recently in Rome and one evening, looking at the shots of the day, I realised I had a lot of pictures of statues, that I don’t normally take interest in. Looking a bit longer I also noticed that they were all statues of fountains.
It looks like fountains are one of the aspects of Rome that I like. In fact, if you think of it, they are true pieces of art, designed by important artists.
Here are some of my favorites I found around Rome.
Fountain of the Triton, piazza Barberini
I fell in love with the Tritone the first time I saw it, more than 20 years ago. It depicts a Triton, a minor sea god of Greco-Roman myths, and it is located in Piazza Barberini, not far from Trevi fountain. Its masculinity and the posture always attract me. This fountain and statue were made in travertine in 1642-43 by baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, on commission by Pope Urban VIII.
Triton Foutain in Piazza Barberini
In a corner of the same square there’s another fountain, less impressive but still curious. It’s the Fountain of the Bees, requested by the same pope as the Triton fountain, the bees representing the family of the pope. It was used to water the horses.
Bees Fountain in Piazza Barberini
Fountains of Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is one of the most beautiful squares in Rome. It’s known worldwide for its architecture, the palaces around it and in particular the three fountains. They are imposing and impressive.
The first fountain you see when entering the square from the Southern side, coming from Largo Argentina, is the Moor Fountain (Fontana del Moro), representing a Moor surrounded by four Tritons spilling water. Tritons and dolphin were in the original design by Giacomo della Porta, dating 1575, the statue of the Moor was added almost 80 years later, and it was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Moor Fountain in Piazza Navona
Probably my favorite of the three fountains in Piazza Navona is the middle one, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers, Danube, Ganges, Nile and Rio de la Plata, representing four continents). It was Bernini again who sculpted it between 1648 and 1651, commissioned by Pope Innocent X.
Some curiosities about this fountain: to get the commission Bernini gave as a gift a copy in silver of the fountain to the pope’s sister-in-law; so he got the commission, stealing it to his life-long rival Borromini. The fountain was so expensive that the pope had to rise the price of the bread, which didn’t make the people happy of course.
Fountains at Pincio and Parco di Villa Borghese
Fountain of Moses
Every time I visit Rome I go to Pincio, the terrace above Piazza del Popolo. It has one of my favorite views of Rome. While I was there the last time I saw this statue that caught my eye. It’s in a fountain, surrounded by papyrus, and it is called “Moses” because it depicts a woman reaching out to a baby in a basket, like Moses. The baby can be barely seen, through the papyrus, but I loved this green encircling the beautiful lady.
A little further, closer to Villa Borghese, I found the fountain of marine horses, embellishing this incredible park. It dates back to the end of the XVIII Century.
Fountain of Marine Horses in Villa Borghese
The Turtles Fountain
The Fontana delle Tartarughe (Turtles Fountain) is in Piazza Mattei, in the Jewish ghetto.
According to legend the fountain was built by Duke Mattei in one night to impress his future father-in-law, that saw the fountain one morning from a window that was later walled to prevent other people from enjoying the same view. Truth is, the fountain was built in 1588, while the Mattei Palace was built in 1616.
Turtles Fountain
Trevi Fountain and Barcaccia
There are two more fountains that are very beautiful (and probably the most famous in Rome), Trevi fountain and the Barcaccia (Fountain of the Boat) at the Spanish Steps, but they are always so crowded that I can’t really enjoy them much.
Trevi fountain
Constructions at the Trevi fountain started in 1732 with Nicola Salvi, and were finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini. It is well remembered for the scene of Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita”, the movie from 1960 directed by Federico Fellini. Today you can’t step into the fountain, but you can toss a coin (turning your back to it), in the hope to come back to Rome. Coins should go to a local charity, but I’ve seen people stealing them late in the night (a few years ago, I don’t know if it still happens).
The Barcaccia was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to Pietro Bernini in 1623, which built it probably with the help of his son Gian Lorenzo. The fountain is built slightly below street level because of the low pressure of water in this location.
There’s another fountain that I liked, a bit out of the town center, at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria. It’s a pretty fountain with three cute bronze dolphins and a nice jet of water. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on this.
We have to thank the popes (and their riches), if we can enjoy these beauties. In particular Pope Urban VIII, that wanted to erect a fountain in every major square of Rome. I visited all these fountains in a day (except for the last one), during a 20 km walk itinerary that I like to do every time I am in Rome.
It was quite busy up there, it’s becoming more and more popular to go to the mountains at weekends.
Sundays in Campofontana
Campofontana, in the Natural Park of Lessinia, is very convenient for those that live in Verona and Vicenza, and it’s beautiful.
The itinerary
Usually when I go to Campofontana I take the road that from the Cemetery goes up towards the famous beech, passing by Contrà Pagani.
A couple of times I also went to Mount Telegrafo, not this time (due to headache).
Last Sunday I wanted to try a different path, that I had heard about. I took the road that cuts to the left just before the town of Campofontana, there’s a sign directing to Agriturismo L’Incanto.
This road passes contrade Grisi and Zocca and after the last contrada there’s a gravel road (on the right) and a path (on the left).
The path, number 251, goes through a thicket, that is the reason why I wanted to walk there.
Beechwood
And here was the nice grove that I had heard about. A beechwood, to be precise.
Beechwoods are particularly nice, trucks are clean and high, the undergrowth is also neat.
Another beechwood I like a lot is the one in Cansiglio, that is much larger, but this one in Campofontana is closer if you live in Vicenza like I do.
We stopped to take some pictures because it was too beautiful.
Snowdrops
And here comes the surprise: snowdrops.
You could barely see them, they were just the promise of a white lawn.
There were so many, it was almost impossible not to step on them.
Lodges/ agriturismi
Agriturismo Bucaneve
Surely, this agriturismo couldn’t have a different name (Bucaneve is snowdrop in Italian). You can get there by car, but of course the short walk in the wood is recommended.
It’s a nice location, near the wood but sunny, at least at lunch time.
Rifugio Monte Torla
The Torla has become very popular since it opened in 2018.
I don’t know if they refurbished an Alpine cottage that was already there, but that is the style. Beautiful inside and outside. In the toilet the sink is huge, like those of the great-grandparents.
We ate at rifugio Torla, but there were too many people. It felt like the beach in Summer.
Next time I will probably stop in another of those agriturismi nearby. Better to book, by whatsapp as there’s no signal there.
gnocchi:
Monte Veronese and fumed ricotta
Cold cuts and cheese
Bona la mostarda!
Going back we took the other road, the one that goes higher, near the contrada Pagani.
Smog!
These last weeks the smog alert was high in our cities. And you could see it from up there.
There was a pink-grey strip that looked pretty, like low clouds lighten by the setting sun.
But no, it was smog, pollution.
Walking back
Contrà Pagani
Anyone who has been to Campofontana before knows Contrà Pagani.
It’s a typical contrada of the Cimbri, the population of the area.
Campofontana and Natural Park of Lessinia are beautiful in every Season.
It is true that recently they have become very popular, a bit too much to my taste (usually you go to the mountains to find some peace).
But it must be the fashion of these years, Dolomites are swarmed with tourists too.
It’s ok, as long as the mountain doesn’t suffer from this, as we should all enjoy the beauties of Nature.
But it’s important that we respect it.
A week later…
One week later we went back to Campofontana because it had snowed and I was looking forward to a walk in the snow and to check out the snowdrops. We also found some other pretty flowers (the winter roses, we call them). Love.
This time we walked a bit more. We went up to Porto di Sopra and we wanted to hike to the Telegrafo, but we took the wrong path.
Yesterday, Boxing Day (Saint Stephen here in Italy), I went to Mount Marana (on the Little Dolomites) with my brother, following the usual path that starts at the right of Contrà Gebbani.
There were many more people that had our same idea; it was sunny and warm, even too warm for December.
I must say that it was harder than usual.
Maybe because I was heavy with winter clothes and a backpack (usually in Summer I hike on shorts and a water bottle), or I was heavy with the Christmas lunch of the previous day; or simply I’m out of shape (I don’t do much activity anymore).
But at the end it took us the same time as usual (about one hour and 15 minutes).
The path was quite clean and dry until what we call the quarry. From there it was muddy (the snow was melting), with a bit of snow and a short part icy and slippery.
But nothing a 42yo out of shape couldn’t do.
Of course, had there been more snow, I wouldn’t have gone, because I don’t have the tools nor the knowledge.
We didn’t stay too long on the peak, despite the sun it was a bit chilly.
Going back down we met a group of youngster that were going up to spend the night there.
