Why Go to Viareggio? It's In Tuscany in Italy. Why not?

Problem
My British friends want to know whether I recommend Viareggio in Italy for a holiday. They are retired and not into beach holidays but want to use it as a base for touring, not by car but public transport. What is for and against going to Viareggio?

Answers
First, how do you pronounce it? Via - reg - ee - oh. The double g makes a soft J sound.

All the Brits have loved it for years. To put it another way, it is popular, like Benidorm and Torremolinos and Blackpool. It's popular. It's full of tourists. Why does everybody go there?

Firstly a huge long straight sandy beach edged by hotels. Miles of sun loungers and sunshades. Yes, you may have to pay, if those beach items are the property of some business other than your own hotel.

It's a strip. I was disappointed. I'd previously done the Amalfi drive, all scenic hilltop views and cute little coves. But not room for coachloads of tourists, huge hotels, and yards of ice cream sellers, which is what you get at Viareggio. (Also check whether you get a white sandy beach, a grey stony beach, or rocks, or a harbour with boats and no swimming but lovely for sitting in the sun and shade under an umbrella by the water.)

I suggested that my first my friends should use Streetview to take a look at the resort and any hotel which is offering them a good deal.

Next, they should make a list of their favourite destinations or excursions. Check in both directions. For example, it might be cheaper to stay in New York and visit Washington DC, or cheaper to stay in Washington DC and visit New York. Similarly compare London and York, or Viareggio and tourist sites.

Which cities offer the most accommodation? And is it mostly big expensive hotels, or little family run guesthouses? Will you be near the pick-up points for tours at the big hotels? Or near the bus stop and train station at the guest house?

Tuscany or Umbria or both?
Tuscany is on the west coast of Italy and had famous tourist sites such as the leaning tower of Pisa. If you want beaches, go to Tuscany.

We once stayed in Lido de Jesolo - and took an excursion (at extra expense) to Venice.  We were disappointed to be not as near to Venice as we had expected. We spent more time and money than expected going to Venice, and less time than we had intended in Venice.

Why Umbria?
I travelled most recently to Umbria as a guest of the tourist board. I was very taken with the cpaital Perugia, with its huge Etruscan gate against the gigantic sheer cliff face. It does involve some uphill walking on cobblestones.

If you want to swim and have a generous budget, a couple of the larger hotels have wonderful indoor and outdoor pools. One hotel's spa has underwater jets and an indoor-outdoor pool.

The other top hotel has an indoor swimming pool with views of historic ruins.

We stayed in a romantic restored castle. The outdoor pool was closed in the off season.

Try Tuscany
If you want flat sand to stroll along the water's edge, the sea with waves, people, then you want Viareggio in Tuscany.

My relatives did a driving tour of Tuscany and Umbria. See my other posts on Italy.

The Viareggio carnival is held early in the year, between January and March.
The Puccini music festival is in July-August.

Excursions
Puccini's house.
Pinocchio Park.
Lucca towers.
Pisa - about 20 miles.
Florence - about 60 miles.

Useful Websites and Links
LANGUAGES 

http://duolingo.com
http://www.dummies.com/languages/italian/italian-greetings-and-good-byes/

earwormslearning.com

https://translate.google.com/ (Useful for translating into English.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

LEARNING ITALIAN LANGUAGE

https://wikitravel.org/en/Italian_phrasebook (pronunciation)

TRAVEL
Tuscany
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/06/see-rossi-multiple-motorcycle-winner-on.html

Viareggio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viareggio

Umbria
http://umbriatourism.it
https://twitter.com/UmbriaTourism
@UmbriaTourism  
#loveUmbria

Italy
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

See Seaside Tuscany (Rossi's Area of Italy) and Adjacent Inland Umbria

Tuscany
Tuscany, which many tourits visit in June to see Rossi racing in the MotoGP, is on the west coast of Italy. Tuscany is a favourite area to visit for British and other holidaymakers. You can have culture, art and architecture, in the medieval cities such as Florence, or laze on the sandy beach at Viareggio.

Some tourists like to combine a trip to Tuscany exploring further around Italy with a tour taking in neighbouring inland Umbria. This is what members of my family did previously.

Tuscany's Must See sights
I had been to Tuscany several times without even registering it as Tuscany. I knew the landmarks which I visited as a teenager with my parents when you could put your car on a plane and fly to Europe. We went to see the landmark Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Then Florence and its Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), a medieval bridge filled with shops across the river Arno.

Florence:
Bridge Ponte Vecchio;
Ufizzi Gallery.
Pisa: leaning tower.

Umbria's Must-See sights
Assissi, two grand buildings connected with St Francis of Assisi. Numerous churches and museums with frescoes of St Francis. Museums of wine and olives.

Perugia, the capital of Umbria, with its massive Etruscan gateway built against the looming cliffside, with cobbled paths leading up to the main fountain square and medieval buildings. (See my previous posts on Umbria.)

Massive Etruscan gateway to Perugia, hillside capital of landlocked Umbria, Italy. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Perugia, underground city.

Italian Spelling and Pronunciation
Note that in Italian a soft c (like the s sound in Venice, with a z becoming ts as in Venezia, and Ufizzi, and instead of K for hard sounds like the English word kick, a double c followed by h, as in Pinocchio and Vecchio). In English we place an e after the hard g to make a J sound, as in garage, but in Italian you double the g, as in Viareggio.

Useful Websites
Umbria
www.umbria.it

Italy
www.italiantouristboard.co.uk

Tripadvisor
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187893-s301/Tuscany:Italy:Arriving.And.Departing.html

Wikitravel
https://wikitravel.org/en/Tuscany

Wikivoyage
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tuscany

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

See Rossi, Multiple Motorcycle Winner On Home Ground In Italy

Flag of Italy

Problem
How do you get a good seat when Rossi is announced in pole position (front of the racers at the start of the race)? Some enthusiasts sleep overnight in 'seats' ready for the next day, after the day when pole position is announced. They know that after the announcement that Rossi is in pole position, there will be even greater demand for the best seats.

Go online and you can watch the race, and previous races. You can see the yellow smoke from supporters celebrating. The supporters of Rossi are wearing yellow caps and yellow tee-shirts.

The red white and green of the Italian flag edges the circuit. Britain and public roads worldwide have yellow no parking lines along the edges of roads. Italy has red white and green. Like sitting inside a giant colourful cake.

My family are wearing headphones watching re-runs of races on the largest screen in the home. They race to the supermarkets in England every Wednesday to buy Motorcycle News.

Rossi has won for about ten years, from about the age of 19 to 29 and though he might be ageing a bit and past his peak and slowing down he is still highly successful and highly popular everywhere, but especially in his homeland.

My family went to Italy, to Tuscany, one year to watch. They recall, "It's a wonderful circuit, up in the mountains. A great ride up and terrific views. Unique. Nowhere else like it."

See next post on what else to see in Tuscany and neighbouring Umbria.
(See my previous posts on Umbria.)

Italian Spelling and Pronunciation
Note that in Italian a soft c (like the s sound in Venice, with a z becoming ts as in Venezia, and Ufizzi, and instead of K for hard sounds like the English word kick, a double c followed by h, as in Pinocchio and Vecchio). In English we place an e after the hard g to make a J sound, as in garage, but in Italian you double the g, as in Viareggio.

UK
Visit the national motorcycle museum.

USA and Worldwide
In the USA and worldwide many motor museums display not just cars but also motorbikes. See my previous posts on Harley and other museums.

Useful Websites
REPLAYS / TICKETS
www.motogp.com
UK
http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/product-category/books/biographies-rider-profiles/valentino-rossi/
ITALY
Airlines:
www.alitalia.com
pinocchio.it Park to entertain the children, with a butterfly house and the popular puppet, Pinocchio.

Learn Italian online for free:
https://www.duolingo.com/course/it/en/Learn-Italian-Online
I have several posts about learning Italian and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Where To Find Italian Chianti And What To Notice

Problem
Where does Chianti come from and how will I find one I like?

Answer

Chinati has been called, "The unmistakable Taste of Tuscany". Tuscany is the area on the West coast of Italy.

I went to a guided tasting at Prowine Singapore in 2018 when we tasted six different wines, with information from speaker Edwin Soon. He told us that the Chianti region has hills to catch the sun, and terraces to stop erosion. A river keeps the temperature even, not too cold in winter, but cools the vineyards in summer. Too much water leads to watered down wine.

Where Is It From

Chianti comes from a region stretching between Rome and Pisa and Florence. A prime attraction in Tuscany is the leaning tower of Pisa, leaning like a tipsy bottle of wine. Since these are some of the most popular tourist destinations, if you've been to Italy the chances are you have drunk wine from the local Chianti region, whether or not you knew it, chose it and liked it.

In the old days there was plenty of cheap Chianti, drunk young and not necessarily good, in a bulb-shape bottle, so it had not established a great reputation. However, local producers got together to enforce standards and classify the wines so buyers knew which was which.

The locals wanted to protect their regional name and identity.  Now you will see D.O.C . , quality wine from a specified region the Italian equivalent of the French AOC, Appelation or name, of Origin Controlled, in Italian D.O.C. Denomination of Origin Controlled.

Chianti Classico
I assumed that Chianti Classico was old style, like Classic Coc Cola. I was wrong. Chinati Classico is a region.

What about D. O. C. G?  The extra G for some wines shown on the labels? G stands for guarantia, guaranteed, the upper stratum, or very best of the DOCs.

What is the difference between a co-operative and a consortium? A co-operative is a group which co-operates, operates together, to make wine. A consortium is a group, a trade body, people who have already made wine who come together to market and sell it.

If you get a chance, on holiday or business, go to a place which offers tastings so that you can compare wines, or order two different wines or glasses of wine with a meal and make a note of which you prefer and why?

Red and White
For years I did not drink red wine. It tasted sour and gave me headaches. Later I larned this was due to tannins. Is it an allergic reaction, or just an intolerance? An allergic reaction would make my eyelids and mouth swell up. Panic-stricken. An intolerance just makes me feel headachey and nauseous. Unhappy.

Dry or Sweet?
Do you prefer a dryer or sweeter wine? Can you tell the difference when drinking a wine of a specific good year? I discovered that I like sweet wine and if it's dry the year doesn't matter to me because I don't like it anyway so no point in paying more for myself.

I tried five dry wines, and the Chianti Rùfina D O C G Riserva 2011 had a distinctive aroma. If I had to choose a dry wine to please others or to go with savoury food or because I had no chance to choose a sweet wine, this is the one I would go for.

Colours of red wine.

Compare the colours of two wines of different ages. The one on the right is browner and older. Wines deepen in colour as they age, like apples going brown. Like ripening fruit, the wines from late-picked grapes are sweeter.

Many people would choose a sweet wine only to go with sweet food, with dessert. My firm favourite was the sweet Chianti - I had not even known anybody made sweet Chianti. The one I sampled was Vin Santo del Chianti Monespertoli D O C Riserva 2007.

How can we remember the name? Vin Santo means holy wine. Del Chianti means of the Chianti region. Monte - mountain. Spertoli - that's the only hard part to remember. I'll just think of myself and the wine maker as experts. Montespertoli. It is a riserva, reserved from 2007, not just bottled early and sold off cheaply when it was plentiful, but has already spent more than ten years maturing.

Italian - English
colli - hill
del - of (the)
consorzio - consortium
Fiorentini - from Florence
Superiore - superior or better
Riserva - reserved or saved - extra special, worth your time and money reserving it and storing it to sell later
santo - saint
vin - wine
vin santo - holy wine
vino - wine (noun)

Useful websites
WINES FROM CHIANTI IN ITALY
General Information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chianti
Information from the Chianti suppliers
www.consorziovinochinati.it
READING WINE LABELS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_wine_terms
TRAVEL TO ITALY
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
WIKIVOYAGE
Information in the free encyclopaedia without the advertisements.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Chianti
WIKITRAVEL
The free travel website which also carries advertising which could be handy if you are ready to book and need companies and prices.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Chianti
TRIPADVISOR
Reviews from members of the public plus travel ads and price comparisons.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187895-c3060/Florence:Italy:Tuscany.Chianti.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. See later post on tannins and quality.

Italian regions: eg Liguria, Christopher Columbus, Genoa and Portofino

Problems
Which regions of Italy contain which well known town?

Answer:
Here's a summary and some mnemonics or memory aids.
First which region is where?

I could look at them north to south.

For convenience I have put them in alphabetical order.

	North-West Nord-Ovest	Aosta Valley Liguria Lombardy Piedmont	Milan
	North-East Nord-Est	Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Trentino-South Tyrol Veneto	Bologna
	Centre Centro	Lazio Marche Tuscany Umbria	Rome	1
	South Sud	Abruzzo Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Molise	Naples
	Islands Isole or Insulare (adj)	Sardinia Sicily	Palermo

ABRUZZO
AOSTA VALLEY
APULIA
BASILICATA
CALABRIA
CAMPANIA - (Positano, Amalfi drive; I've had a painting of pretty Positano on the kitchen wall for decades!)
EMILIA-ROMANA
FRUILI-VENEZIA GIULIA
LAZIO
LIGURIA - Genoa (Portofino, San Remo)

LOMBARDY
MARCHE
MOLISE
PIEDMONT
SARDINIA
SICILY
TRENTINUO-SOUTH TYROL
TUSCANY - Florence
UMBRIA - Perugia
VENETO

Regions[edit]

Flag	Region Italian name							Capital city				Metropolitan cities
	Abruzzo Abruzzo							L'Aquila				-
	Aosta Valley Valle d'Aosta							Aosta				-
	Apulia Puglia							Bari				Bari
	Basilicata Basilicata							Potenza				-
	Calabria Calabria							Catanzaro				Reggio Calabria
	Campania Campania							Naples				Naples
	Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna							Bologna				Bologna
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia							Trieste				-
	ITALY							Rome
	Lazio Lazio							Rome				Rome
	Liguria Liguria							Genoa				Genoa
	Lombardy Lombardia							Milan				Milan
	Marche Marche							Ancona				-
	Molise Molise							Campobasso				-
	Piedmont Piemonte							Turin				Turin
	Sardinia Sardegna							Cagliari				Cagliari
	Sicily Sicilia							Palermo				Catania Messina Palermo
	Trentino-South Tyrol Trentino-Alto Adige							Trento				-
	Tuscany Toscana							Florence				Florence
	Umbria Umbria							Perugia				-
	Veneto Veneto							Venice				Venice

Here are my memory aids for the major cities and regions:
AA Aosta is in the Aosta Valley.
FT Florence is in Tuscany.
GL - GenoA is in LiguriA.
ML Milan in Lombardy; MiLan in LoMbardy.
NC - knackered and camping outside Naples in Campania; good and bad Company in Campania in Naples.
RL Rome is in Lazio. rOme is in laziO. Roaming through lazio, I am lazing oh.
UP - Umbria is the region whose capital is Perugia; UmbrIA and perUgIA
PS - Palermo is in Sicily
PT and TP - Piedmont you'll find Turin; Turin in Piedmont; Turin, turning in at the foot of the Mountain; pIedmoNT -TurIN
TTT Trento in Trentino-South Tyrol. TRENTO in TRENTinO- sOuTh TyrOl.
VV - Venice is in Veneto. VENice is in VENeto.

Story
The Liguria Tourist board PR company sent me a story about Liguria having lots of highly rated blue flag beaches. I frowned at the email. I'd never heard of Liguria where was it. Why hadn't she sent me a map which showed the location Liguria and some well known towns.

LIGURIA
Where is Liguria? Do I know it?
Of course the tourist board's job is to pump out focused stories. My job as a journalist to to research the area and make it popular and snappy and visually appealing and exciting. As Gandhi said, 'be the change you wish to see'. I looked up Liguria. Of course I know Liguria.

My next question is, anybody famous, any famous historical event connected with the area. Genoa. Birthplace of Christopher Columbus. You can't get more famous than that! You can't miss Columbus. You fly in to Christopher Columbus airport in Genoa.

Now I have set myself the task of memorising all the regions of Italy.

More story and pictures about Genoa and Christopher Columbus, including pictures, are in the next post.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liguria
http://wikitravel.org/en/Genoa
http://www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/liguria.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.