Acqua Veritas

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By admin | Filed in News | 11 comments

Italy has long been the world’s largest consumer of bottled water, but now Venice is fighting back! According to the NYT, venetian officials have now started a campaign to encourage more people to drink tap water instead of bottled water. They are fed up of the amount of plastic bottles floating around the city and the sheer cost of rubbish collection. Therefore they have come up the brand Acqua Veritas. I think that it is a fabulous idea! Not only because I am fairly eco-conscious but also because I think it will improve the reputation of the city. This is a fairly light-hearted story and so the more publicity it gains, the more people may want to visit Venice. So not only a good environmentally friendly idea, but perhaps also a good tourism marketing campaign.

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Does George Clooney help tourism?

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By admin | Filed in Destinations | 5 comments

I was having a slow day today, watching some tv etc. when I had a random thought: Has George Clooney helped tourism in Italy? As many people know, and is often reported in the press, George Clooney has an amazing villa at Lake Como. Now my thought process went like this…. If the fact that George Clooney lives at Lake Como is reported so often in the press, does that mean that more people know where and how beautiful Lake Como is? And does that make more people want to visit there and maybe actually visit? I have no evidence or data to back my theory but I just wanted to put it out there.

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Earthquake hits central Italy

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By admin | Filed in News | 8 comments

As you have all probably heard by now, a devastating earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the city of L’Aquila early this morning killing more than 134 people, according to Reuters. Rescue workers are struggling through rain to try and save those who are still trapped. The earthquake hit around 3:30am this morning and many people were still asleep. Many houses, churches and other buildings have been destroyed and the number of homeless people is around 50,000. Silvio Berlusconi has declared a national emergency and flown to the affected area. His cabinet is said to be providing €30 million for emergency assistance. My heartfelt condolences go out to those affected by the earthquake.

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Economic slowdown hitting Italy

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By admin | Filed in News | 32 comments

According to the npr website, the economic slowdown has finally hit Italy with the tourism sector shrinking by 25% since 2008. Apparently it is the Americans who the Italians are missing the most as data from the Bank of Italy shows that there were 2.5 million American tourists in 2006 compared to just 1.75 million in the first nine months of last year. This is worrying news as the tourism industry is worth 10% of Italy’s GDP and 150,000 people who were dependent on tourism have already lost their jobs. With a lack of italia.it website and fewer local tourists, Italy may not have seen the worst of this recession yet. However, more people may now be able to visit Italy with big brands having to cut their prices!

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Borsa Internazionale del Turismo

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By admin | Filed in Trade Fairs | 3 comments

Today marks the beginning of the Borsa Internazionale del Turismo (BIT) show in Milan. It runs until Sunday and is one of the most important travel shows in the world with exhibitions by countries as far away as Tourism Australia and the Department of Tourism and Resorts of Georgia, amongst others. Last year there were over 5,000 exhibitors from 152 countries and 108,500 trade visitors from all across the world. Therefore it’s important that we do the best job we can and try and encourage the world to come and visit Italy!

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Snow chaos

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By admin | Filed in News | 5 comments

So, as most of you have probably already realised, there is a lot of snow today…. especially in the Milan area. You just can’t escape the stuff. Now as much as I love snow (and I do, believe me), it can be quite a pain. Especially if you are one of the thousands of people who were planning to fly today from Malpensa or Linate airports, or if you are David Beckham waiting to fly into Milan from Dubai. But if you’re stuck anywhere today, just enjoy the fact that you have a day off and maybe go outside and play in the snow! :D Or think of all those people who pay a lot of money to go on holiday somewhere where it snows and you have it for free.

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Earthquake hits Italy

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By admin | Filed in News | 55 comments

An earthquake hit the cities of Parma, Milan, Genoa and Florence today, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale. The National Institute of Geophysics in Rome has said that the epicentre of the earthquake was near Parma. According to Italian news reports, two churches have minor damage but no-one is injured. I have experienced earthquakes before and they are pretty scary stuff! I’m just glad that no-one was injured and that the magnificent architecture of Parma, Milan, Genoa and Florence was not damaged. However, for Italy this earthquake was relatively strong. The last strong earthquake occurred in Molise in 2002 and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale.

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Emergency landing in Rome

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By admin | Filed in News | 13 comments

I have just seen an article on the FOX news website about how a Ryanair flight from Frankfurt had to make an emergency landing at Ciampino airport in Rome. Birds hit the aircraft on the approach to the airport and were sucked into the engine whilst landing! Thankfully no-one was seriously injured but the airport was temporarily closed. I have flown many times to Ciampino airport and it’s a very pleasant airport. Especially as it is also used as a VIP airport so who knows who you might see! ;D

By the way as I was there I looked for some Rome apartments. Here you find some good.

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New flights from Bologna

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By admin | Filed in Airlines | 26 comments

Yesterday, Ryanair announced that from March 2009 they will be offering seven new international flights and four new domestic flights from Bologna. Ryanair estimates that these new routes will bring 800,000 passengers to Bologna each year. So good news for local tourism! Ryanair also believes that the flights will support 2,000 local jobs. The new routes include destinations such as Edinburgh, Paris and Bari. Now I’m a big fan of low-cost airlines as they do what they say on the tin: They get you to your destination with no extra frills or costs. So Bologna, here I come!

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Calling all artistic types

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By admin | Filed in Destinations | 2 comments

If you have not heard, since July 1st the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery in Florence have had extended opening hours. Now as I’m a big fan of the Arts, I would recommend everyone to take advantage of this offer. The galleries are now open until 10pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays but the extended hours end on September 31st 2008. The Giovanni da Milano exhibition at the Accademia Gallery is also open later until 10 pm on Thursdays with special free entrance. The galleries are open everyday except Monday, if you fancy going another day. So if you want to go and have a look, you had better hurry up!

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