Italy Archives - Planet Whitley

Orto Botanico, Padua: The world’s oldest Botanic Garden

At Padua’s World Heritage-listed Orto Botanico, the world’s oldest botanic garden throws up some surprises on where our food comes from. Why the Padua’s Orto Botanico is World Heritage-listed Sometimes the new can rudely shoulder-barge the old out of the way without intending to. And…

gardens, Italy, Padua

The Crypt of Tibias and Femurs at the Convento dei Cappuccini in Rome.

The Capuchin Crypt – Rome’s most ghoulish attraction

The Capuchin Crypt inside the Convento dei Cappuccini in Rome is not for the easily shocked. Inside are six chambers decorated with human bones, skulls and skeletons. The most macabre attraction in Rome? No-one knows who decorated the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, Italy. There are…

art, dark tourism, Italy, Rome

Why Rome is a brilliant city for solo travellers

Attraction-heavy Rome is an ideal destination for self-indulgent travel without the family. The treat of alone time You only start to realise how great travelling on your own can be when you rarely get to do it any more. It’s a similar vibe to when…

Italy, Rome, solo travel

Cat in the Largo di Torre Argentina, Rome.

How Julius Caesar’s assassination site became a cat sanctuary

Among the ruins of the Largo di Torre Argentina in Rome, a colony of cats has made a happy home. Visiting Largo di Torre Argentina Largo di Torre Argentina in Rome is a very odd place. Roads fairly heavy traffic flank what should be another…

Italy, Rome, wildlife

View from the top of the Torre di Asinelli, Bologna.

Why Bologna is Italy’s most underrated city

Five reasons to consider Bologna as your next Italian city break. When most people think of an Italian city break, they tend to think in terms of the big trio – Rome, Florence and Venice. But there’s one Italian city that flies under the radar…

Bologna, Italy

The Last Supper in Milan: Can I get tickets on the day?

Do not turn up at the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan expecting to see Leonardo’s The Last Supper on the day. Individual tickets sell out weeks in advance, but you can get in with a tour guide. Where is Leonardo’s The Last Supper?…

art, Italy, Milan, museums

The two things Rome’s piazzas sadly lack

The famous squares of Rome There’s a certain romance to the grand piazzas of Rome. Bernini’s symmetry and classicism makes St Peter’s Square justifiably revered worldwide, the grand fountains of Piazza Navona provide a glorious focal point for the café terraces and elsewhere, restaurants spill…

Italy, parks, Rome

How travelling as a parent has changed me

When seeing the world becomes less important than letting little people see it. Daisy and the Sistine Chapel “Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!” came the cry from upstairs, followed by the unmistakable thud-thud-thud of the world’s least demure princess. My eight-year-old burst into the living room…

children, family travel, Italy, parenting, Rome

In praise of the decent restaurant within a short walk of your hotel

Repeat after me: Not every meal needs to be an adventure. Before I write this exhausted. I have spent four days on my feet, walking back and forth across Rome, and having my ankles repeatedly brutalised by its savage, merciless cobblestones. It is my last…

Italy, restaurants, Rome

Michelangelo's frescoes from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Why I hated the Sistine Chapel

I went to see one of the greatest pieces of art ever created, and it was awful. The Conclave Fantasy If I was a cardinal, I would drag the Conclave to elect a new Pope out as long as possible. It would be a shameless…

art, Italy, Rome