Italy is one of the great countries of the world to visit. The architecture is spectacular, the food can be fantastic and the people seem to pride themselves on being nice (gentile). I have had the good fortune to spend two weeks in Italy during he Spring of 2006. Many of the notes linked to on this page were written when I was planning that trip. I am currently planning a trip to Rome in the Spring of 2007.
Trenitalia is the intercity Italian Train System. My notes on purchasing Trenitalia train tickets on-line can be found on the above web page link.
Weather in Italy (via weather.yahoo.com)
Italian dictionaries
I've been taking conversatonal Italian in preparation for my visit to Italy (my weak attempt at not being an "ugly American"). I've purchased a small travel dictionary, but it contains only a basic vocabulary.
There are a number of English-Italian, Italian-English dictionaries on-line. Many of them are not complete, or do not provide all of the conjugations when you look up a verb. The best on-line dictionary I've found so far is WordReference.com.
WordReference.com is the work of Michael Kellogg. It runs GoogleAddWord adds, so it is not entirely non-commercial. But there are no unpleasant pop-ups or intrusive adds. The two Italian dictionaries are shown linked to below:
Google Translate is an on-line resource that does machine translation of foreign languages. There is also a Google Translate app for cell phones that will translate speech to foreign text.
From their founding in the early Christian era, Monasteries and Convents have had to be self-supporting. While a few Monasteries were supported Convents were supported by endowments and charitable contributions, most had to support themselves through their activities. In the middle ages farmed or copied and illuminated books. Even in modern times the Trappist Monasteries support themselves through products they make.
Monasteries have always allowed guests, although in the past the guests were usually there for religious reasons. As the number of monks and nuns has fallen, some Monestaries have converted some of their extra space into rooms for tourists. The site Monastery Stays has listing for Monasteries and Convents throughout Italy.
Notes for my trip to Venice, Siena and Bologna, April 2006
This web page includes links to sub-pages with lists of hotels in Venice, Siena and Bologna that I created while doing research for my trip. There are also notes for each city. For quick reference, the links to the hotel pages are listed below.
Guide Books: Italy, Venice, Siena and Bologna
A list of guide books that I used to prepare for my visit to these cities and as references while I was there.
Notes on Venice, Siena and Bologna
There are some notes I wrote for myself on Venice, Siena and Bologna which may also be useful to you, dear reader.