What to do during your free time in Italy?
Here are some suggestions:
Venice
St. Mark's Square
Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's Square, is Venice's most famous square. What appears to be a rectangle is actually a trapezium, and when you look up at the basilica, the piazza seems very large, although it is only 175m long. On both sides of the piazza are the "Procuratie" buildings, which housed the procurators of San Marco.
Rialto Bridge
For a long time this was the only way to cross the Canal Grande. A previous bridge was replaced by this one, designed by Antonio da Ponte, built 1554-1591. You find a variety of shops on the bridge selling souvenirs, fruit and vegetables.
Basilica di San Marco - Campanile
You get a splendid view from the tallest bell tower in Venice. It can be seen from the lagoon, and once you have reached the top, the whole lagoon can be seen from above. Even though the tower was erected at the beginning of the 20th century, it is an exact replica of the 15th-century bell tower. In 1609, Galileo Galilei exhibited his telescope here, and during the carnival, the bell tower used to serve as a stage for the tight rope-walkers who entertained the doge with their acrobatics.
FLORENCE
Ponte Vecchio
Best known of all Florence's sights, this bridge was the only one spared by the retreating Germans in 1944. Over the centuries flooding took its toll and only few traces of the 10th-century bridge remain. Today's bridge, built in the middle of the 14th century, was originally filled with a variety of shops that included wool merchants and greengrocers. Grand Duke Fernandino I had these replaced with goldsmiths to gentrify royalty's route to Pitti Palace, reached via the Vasari Corridor that passes over the bridge.
Uffizi Galleries
The Medici family reserved rooms for their prestigious collection during use of the gallery as magistrate's court in the 1700s. The gallery contains works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Botticelli's Birth of Venus. The corridors, ceilings with splendid frescoes, are lined with Roman and sixteenth-century sculptures. We advise to make reservations BEFORE your arrival in Florence if you wish to visit the Uffizi Gallieries.
Galleria dell'Accademia
The Accademia Gallery is best-known for Michelangelo's "David," removed after four centuries from Piazza Signoria. It is housed in a specially constructed hall. Other works by Michelangelo include some of his "Slave" series and his sculpture of San Matteo. You can also find an impressive collection of paintings from the 13th to 16th century. Among the gallery's most important works: a Sienese school Crucifix from the 13th century, 24 panels by Taddeo Gaddi representing scenes from the life of Christ and St Francis and Giovanni da Milano's Pietà.
Piazza del Duomo
The legendary duomo is famous for its dome: Brunelleschi's Renaissance masterpiece, completed in 1436, created a double dome shell so that the dome is entirely self-supporting. Building started in 1296 on the site of the Roman basilica of Santa Reparata of which there are still visible remains. The existing neo-Gothic façade was added in the 19th century. Covering a massive 3600 square meters, the frescoes inside the dome depict the Last Judgement.
ROME
Trevi Fountain
Tradition has it that throwing a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain guarantees a swift return to the eternal city. Anita Ekberg's dip in it was immortalized in Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita', and Italian actor Toto even sold it to an American, passing himself off as its owner. Designed by Nicola Salvi for Pope Clemente XII, it was completed in the second half of the 1700s. The statues in the centre represent Neptune supported by Tritons on either side while rococo-style Poli Palace provides the perfect backdrop.
Pantheon
Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa, restored by Domitian, and subsequently rebuilt by Hadrian (who added the dome) before being turned into a church in the early 7th century by Pope Boniface IV. The building's sole source of light is the opening at the dome's apex (the oculus); according to popular legend, this formed the base for the bronze pinecone that is now in the Vatican's 'Pigna' courtyard, where it is used as a fountain. Many famous Italians are buried in the Pantheon, including Renaissance painter Raphael and King Vittorio Emanuele I.
Trastevere
This area of Rome was originally built to be a city port where storehouses held goods at the time of Augustus and continued to do so until the end of the 19th- century. Trastevere then became a downmarket residential quarter and has now developed into a very desirable quarter. The heart of the district is Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere with its church, a 17th- century palazzo and a fountain, having been designed by architects such as Bernini, Fontana and Della Porta. There are still some well-conserved medieval houses.
SORRENTO
Shopping
Going around for shopping certainly is one of the most amusing and curious activities. The variety of articles and shops is so wide that you have too much to choose from. The center of Sorrento shopping is Via S. Cesareo, the beating heart of the town.
Museum Correale di Terranova
The Correale Museum is located on what was once land belonging to the territory called Cape of Cervo or Xeres, given to Zottola Correale in 1428 by Queen Joanna II of Angevin. The small building Correale built there was restructured in 1700 and in the early 1900s, with Pompeo and Alfredo Correale became a sort of cultural coterie.