Welcome to Italy Logue, your one-stop Italy travel guide. You'll find whatever you need for your trip to Italy - including Italy hotels and hostels in Italy, as well as tidbits about Italian food and wine, the Italian language, news from Italy, and what makes the Italian culture so special. This is the Italy travel guide for people traveling to Italy or just dreaming about it!
An Italy Logue reader recently sent me a note drawing my attention to a website that I thought I’d pass along to everyone. I’ve talked before about the budget beds which can be found in many of the monasteries and convents in Italy which have opened their doors to modern-day travelers, and I’ve also mentioned the challenge of locating websites (or even contact information) for these convents and monasteries. The best resource I knew of before was a book called “Bed and Blessings,” which unfortunately appears to be out of print - and was last printed in 1999, making the possibility that some of its information is out of date much more likely.
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For this Italy photo of the week, we’re in Florence:
Michelangelo’s David is, perhaps, one of the most famous images of Florence. And yet the one that’s outside the Palazzo Vecchio - the one everyone poses in front of for photos, and the one pictured above - is only one of three Davids in the city (at least there’s only three I know of - and that’s not counting all the crappy souvenirs you can buy of David statues, either). The real Michelangelo masterpiece, which once stood in this spot at the door of the Palazzo Vecchio, …
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When I was planning my last trip to Italy, I’d already heard about the Moleskine City Notebooks - and in fact I already had the one for Milan, the city where I was going to be based. But when I first heard about these little gems, they didn’t yet have many cities covered. By the time I arrived in Milan and found out that Moleskine was headquartered in Milan, I contacted someone there and had three more Moleskine City Notebooks sitting on my desk the very next day. I had been sent the notebooks for Rome, Venice and Florence, three cities I was planning to visit during my stay, so it worked out perfectly.
At first, I wasn’t totally clear how I’d use my City Notebooks. They’re perfectly sized to fit in most purses (even the smaller travel-sized ones) or jacket pockets, so I carried my Milan book with me everywhere during my first week back in Italy. I used the maps to mark a few of the locations of restaurants and gelato shops I tried, but I kept forgetting about the book in my purse until after I’d left the location I wanted to remember. Clearly I was going to have to get more used to the thing.
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Since the Emerald Fields hostel in Florence is in an apartment building about a 10 minute walk from the train station, I can only assume that the name “Emerald Fields” refers to the beautiful Tuscan hills that surround the city. In any case, you probably aren’t expecting rolling green fields in your hostel anyway, so the lack of them in this hostel won’t be too much of a shock, I hope.
The Emerald Fields hostel location is the main headquarters and reception area for the three hostels under the same management umbrella - the other two are Emerald Palace, which is right across the street, and Emerald House, which is closest to the historic center on Via Guelfa. You’ll book rooms in any of the three locations using the same booking system, and you’ll need to check in at Emerald Fields even if you’re staying in another location. As mentioned, Emerald Palace is a short walk across the street once you’ve checked in, but Emerald House would be quite a walk (especially with heavy bags) if it weren’t for the Emerald Fields policy of driving Emerald House guests to that location once they’ve checked in. It’s a very nice perk.
When I visited, I got tours of Emerald Fields and Emerald Palace only, so that’s what I’m going to focus on here - these two properties are the ones with dorm rooms (Emerald House only has double rooms, more like staying in a really budget hotel), so they’re really the only ones that can be considered true hostels anyway.
[more]There are lots of reasons why I may never drive a car in Italy. For one thing, I’m not one of those people who “loves driving” even in the U.S., so I have no problem letting the husband - who does love driving - take the wheel when we travel. And don’t get me started on how crazy I think Italian drivers are. But even on a more basic level, I’m not sure I’d ever be able to park a car in Italy.
The streets of Milan are, like many big cities in Italy, always rife with examples of - shall we say - creative parking. Many of the sidewalks are extra wide, and fully 1/2 to 2/3 of that space is taken up by parked cars. Yes, parked cars on the sidewalk. And not half on the sidewalk, half on the street, either - they drive up onto the sidewalk at the “driveways” which are positioned periodically along the sidewalk, and then slot their little cars into their spaces. Word to the wise - if you’re walking down a sidewalk around the time folks are leaving for work or around the time they’re returning home, don’t have your head buried in a book or you might just end up doing a face-plant into a Fiat Panda.
Although I was based in Milan during my last trip to Italy, I was gallivanting around the country for roughly half of the entire trip. So, although I do know Milan quite a bit better than I did before, I still feel like there are surprises waiting for me around every corner. One of those surprises was actually discovered by the husband, who pointed it out to me later. It’s a little surprise I completely fell in love with, even more so because it’s unassuming and looks like almost no one pays attention to it. It’s Milan in braille.
Tucked to one side of the grand pedestrian walkway that is the Corso Vittorio Emanuale II, leading from the Duomo to the Piazza San Babila, is a small pedestal with what looks like a miniature representation of central Milan on the top. It looks crudely done at first glance - you can recognize the Duomo, for instance, but you might think it’s a pretty half-hearted attempt at making it realistic-looking. The reason for this is clear once you get closer. Central Milan’s streets and major monuments are all marked in braille, as the whole thing is meant for blind visitors to get an “overview,” if you will, of the city.
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