Travel Tuesday Special - Italy May Activities Not to Miss!

With the (sudden and unexpected) onslaught of summer, my thoughts have turned to playtime - and it seems that the Italians can't wait for the insane amount of wonderful summer activities to get underway.  So, here's a sneak preview:

Florence hosts its first-ever Gelato Festival - now that's something icecream about!   may 28-31


Visitors to Florence will find the entire city turned into one big outdoor gelateria, divided democratically into traditional & industrial variations.
My sister says that Florence has the best gelato in the boot, so, anyone who is fortunate enough to be there at this time really lucks (or licks!) out.
Add to this the (real) closing of the streets all around the Duomo (no traffic at all compared to other pedestrian zones) and, you're taken back to the 1950s when the central piazza was filled with people and plants.  The hosts are even planning an open-air ice-cream themed dinner.
Now - how they're going to get this to jive with the city ordinance of 'no loitering' - 'no eating' around those parts is another question...But, Buon Appetito!
check out ItalyMag for details

Not to be outdone in new groovy cultural initiatives, Rome is unearthing their treasures in year 2 of the Roma Nascosta initiative.  If I recall from last year, there was no idea on the posters how to sign up and what monuments you could visit - so the entire thing remained very nascosta (hidden) -- note website and details on said poster, a text book case of publicity in Italy.
This year, they've come up with a calendar and a way to make a reservation (book fast!) and if you dig deeper, you may even find the info in English.

And, to know more about things happening in Rome, we suggest you go to InRomeNow - who publishes a listing of all the happenings in town monthly.

And, in early June, if you're in Milan, you can enjoy all the movies from the Cannes Film Festival - the annual event which makes living in Milan the rest of the year endurable.  Turns out that Rome also does the Cannes film festival redux, so now there's something more to cheer about!