Travel Italy: Vacation Packages, Tips, Tours of Italy

Those who are visiting Florence in the last week of July, have the chance to experience a trip into the Middle Ages.

The town of Vinci, Leonardo’s hometown, around 40 km from Florence, is hosting the Unicorn Festival.
It is a medieval festival featuring elves, witches, duels, magic shows, archery contests and Gothic music.

When: July 24 - 25, 2010 (annual)
Where: Vinci (surroundings of Florence)

- How to get there
By rail: take the Florence - Pisa train, get off at Empoli station. From there, take bus — Copit line — to Vinci.

Details of Unicorn Festival can be found on http://festaunicorno.com/.

The Opera Festival, annual lyrical festival of Tuscany, offers a series of performances from June through July in Florence and Siena.

The locations for the 2010 Opera Festival include The Boboli Gardens, possibly the world’s greatest example of Italian-style garden, located in the ancient heart of Florence and the San Galgano Abbey, splendid ruins of a Middle Ages Abbey, located in the surroundings of Siena.

When: June 7 - July 31, 2010 (annual)
Where: Boboli Gardens (Florence) and San Galgano Abbey (Chiusdino - Siena)

Festival details and programme can be found at festivalopera.it.

Florence offers ice-cream lovers a very unique chance to learn the secrets of Italian ice-cream.

The last week-end of May, Florence hosts the ice-cream festival: “Firenze Gelato Festival”.

Workshops on ice-cream making, an exhibition and tasting sessions will be held in the finest squares of Florence.

Details of the festival and information on how to get a festival card for discounts on tastings are available at http://www.firenzegelatofestival.it.

when: May 28 - 31, 2010 (annual)
where: Florence

Those who are visiting Florence at Easter can enjoy the ritual of “Sacred Colombina“.

The Sacred Colombina with Explosion of the Cart — L’ Esplosione del Carro — is a major attraction for both tourists and local residents.

Easter Sunday morning, huge crowds gather in the Piazza del Duomo to watch a dove-shaped rocket, called the Colombina, fly out of the Duomo and ignite a huge wooden cart-structure — the Carro — in the square outside.
During the Easter Mass, the Colombina travels out of the Duomo along a wire, sets fire to the huge array of fireworks attached to the wooden cart and returns back into the church.
When: Easter Day (11am).
Where: Florence - Piazza del Duomo.

Below is a video of the ritual in 2009.

Pitti Immagine is sponsoring the fifth edition of “Taste“, the Florence’s fair dedicated to excellence in Italian food as well as the biological diversities of foods in the global age.

Taste has become a regular salon of Italian taste, a meeting place for all the top Italian and international members of the high end gastronomic trade as well as a lively attraction for the increasingly demanding audience of quality food enthusiasts.

With “Taste Tour” visitors have a chance to sample the products proposed by the companies exhibiting at Taste, where it is possible to learn more about the gastronomic treasures of Italy: from cream of black truffle soup to Parmesan cheese chocolates, from Prunilli tomato “passata” to alfalfa honey, from handmade dry egg pasta drawn through bronze dies to medieval oven-baked Prosciutto, matured buffalo milk cheese, balsamic vinegar preserve and Taggiasche olive jam…

When: Mar 13 through 15, 2010 (annual - Mid March week-end)
Where: Florence (at Stazione Leopolda)
Details of “Taste” are available at http://www.pittimmagine.com/en/fiere/taste/.