things to do in italy – Travel World Heritage

12Jun201329Jun2015

Archaeological Area of Agrigento

Julio Moreno Italy, UNESCO World Heritage Site agrigento, italy, things to do in italy, valley of the temples 2 Comments

Location: Agrigento, Sicily, Italy

Visited: July 29th, 2012

Background and Opinion:

The Archaeological Area of Agrigento, also known as the Valley of the Temples (Valle Dei Templi) is one of the best preserved signs of Greek civilization and architecture still standing today. With the earliest building, the temple to Heracles, being built at around 890 BCE, the history of the temples spans almost 3000 years. By comparison, when Angkor Wat was completed, this site was almost two thousand years old! Just the fact that anything remains is a minor miracle. The main structure, the temple of the Concordia is almost completely intact giving one of the most insightful views into ancient Greek architecture.

The archaeological area is divided into two main zones across southern Agrigento. On one side of the road, upon entering the area, is the temple to Zeus and Polloux. Not much remains of these besides a few scattered columns and some large atlases, an architectural column in the shape of a man (possibly Zeus himself?) Despite this, it is still quite incredible to see. On the far side of the temples was a hidden garden which cost 5 Euro to enter. While I am going to label this a tourist trap, the jam that the lady in charge sold was definitely worth it (4 Euro). In fact, I am eating it as I type right now, almost a year later (maybe not a good idea).

The other side of the ruins has the more impressive and complete temples of Heracles, Hera, and Concordia.

Before coming across this Open Travel article, I actually had no idea Read more →

09Jun201318Jul2013

Ancient Rome Adventure and My Detailed Italy Itinerary

Julio Moreno Italy, Travel Itineraries italy, things to do in italy, travel itineraries 0 Comment

I have a sneaking suspicion that people don’t really dislike the idea of a planned out trip, they just hate the work that comes with the ‘planning’ part of it. Many hard core travelers rave about how they just ‘go with the flow’ without plans and see where that takes them. Some of them even shun the idea of planning as ‘not real traveling,’ evident in this forum discussion. I like that idea too, but I like to have a back up plan as the pieces don’t always fall into place. I have seen countless of these travelers searching for things to do in the hostel they are staying in during the trip! To me, this is a complete waste of time which could be spent actually enjoying a new place. Trust me, you don’t want to be that guy who spends his day staring at a map and trying to figure it out the day of.

Recently, I was looking at my old pictures and found one of a map of Italy. It was a Google map which I made during the brainstorming part of my summer of 2012 trip to the land of Ancient Rome. When I was about to hit delete, I thought, “this is the kind of thing I wish I could find online to give me an idea of potential travel routes.” Then, it hit me, why not post my Italy itinerary of what I did on that trip, in the hopes that someone will find it useful, or entertaining at the very least.

Here is my Italy itinerary, with a map of my route along with a short run through of what happened.

[Note: Because I was traveling with my mother and brother, the itinerary was a lot more rigid than I prefer. Nonetheless, it went great!]

The Actual Route I Took:

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July 28th

* Fly to Bologna, Italy for an overnight layover – This went as planned, with no time to Read more →

27Feb201311Apr2013

Three things were not enough, so here are three more things you can do in Venice. Why didn’t I just make a list of 6 things to do in Venice? Well, it is easier for me to handle three at a time, and I think it’s easier for you, the reader, to get bite sized information than an overwhelming list. I digress:

1) Visit Murano or Burano

I must admit that I was not originally impressed with Murano. It was sold to me as a better version of Venice. In fact, it is like Venice, but smaller, who would want that? Now that I think of it though, maybe some people would (after visiting Venice enough time). Murano is famous for its continuing tradition as a glass producer. There are still plenty of shops who offer tours for 5 Euro and produce some of the finest glass in Italy. While I didn’t personally have time to visit Burano, I have been assured that it is similar, which is why I clumped them into a single entry.