This is the 8th post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March and that you can read here.

At Home in Italy

Often, I get the question: What is your favorite European country? My answer is always the same.  I like all European countries because they each offer something different.  But the one I’m most drawn to is Italy; it feels like HOME.

For me, home is a place that is warm and welcoming; a place I go to for comfort, acceptance and relaxation.  And there was no better example of ‘home’ than my grandmother’s house.  My grandmother’s home was where the entire family congregated; everyone was welcome and even strangers became family.  Grandma always had something delicious cooking on the stove filling the house with wonderful aromas.  We were encouraged to linger for hours around her kitchen table eating, talking and laughing the day away.

It may sound strange, but upon landing in Rome’s Fiumicino Airport (5600 miles from where I live), I often say, “Ah, I’m home!” And I have found little pieces of “grandma’s house” all over Italy.  Like when I enjoy a dinner at Rome’s Ditirambo and owner Daniel (like a cousin I see once a year) pulls up a chair at my table to catch up on life’s events.  Then there’s Dana (like the sister I never had) at The Library , whom I swap photos and stories with.

No visit to Grandma’s house was complete without a down-home country meal.  For me, Cortona’s La Bucaccia where Romano (like my big brother), his wife, Agostina (a.k.a. my favorite sister-in-law), and their daughter Francesca (like the little niece I’ve always wanted) warm my heart with their hospitality and my tummy with meals that would make Grandma proud!

Staying overnight at Grandma’s was always special. I remember simple things: bed linens crisp from drying on the line, waking early in the mornings to raid the hen house for eggs, and the night sounds of crickets and frogs singing through open windows. Those memories come alive when I arrive at Livernano. Sitting deep inside the Tuscan hills, Livernano evokes the simple life my grandmother treasured.

I miss Grandma. And when I’m in residence in Texas, I am homesick for the open arms of my Italian family, the taste of their fresh homemade cooking, and the simple and beautiful life of their country.  I miss HOME.

This week’s guest writer

Julie Gilley is an European Travel Consultant.  She specializes in creating unique vacation experiences for the independent traveler.  She is the founder of My Far and Away Itineraries and author of the travel blog, Travel with Julie.  She has a passion for experiencing a destination, not just passing through it.

But most importantly, she is a lovely person and a very interesting lady. You can also find her and follow her up close on Twitter and Facebook.

Today, I went online to find out a bit more about this holiday, and I actually found out that July 4th is a day to celebrate even if you’re not from the States (damn Italians, every occasion is good to party!!)

Anyway, here are the 10 good excuses I found to have a day off even if we are in Tuscany, and not at all American.

1. We have to be sympathetic with our American friends, so we could still celebrate the 4th of July! In the end, this day is a celebration of independence and freedom, and who doesn’t like and need that? These are certainly values that we should remember and celebrate a bit more in Italy too, especially these days…
2. Being a 50% Canadian family, we could celebrate the 374th birthday of the city of Trois Rivières, founded on July 4th 1634. A way to celebrate new beginnings!
3. We could also celebrate progress in civil rights remembering the 183rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the State of New York (July 4, 1827).
4. We could celebrate our freedom to travel by remembering the 173rd anniversary of the first long-distance railway ever opened: the Great Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool officially inaugurated on July 4th 1837. Or the 124th anniversary of the first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train that arrived in Port Moody (British Columbia) on July 4th 1886.
5. We could celebrate dreams come true and the anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (July 4th 1865) or of the NASA’s Pathfinder landing on the surface of Mars in 1997.
6. We could celebrate women’s rights: on July 4th 1903, Dorothy Levitt was the first woman to compete in a motor race.
7. We could celebrate the importance of culture and free speech by remembering the terrible massacre of Polish scientists and writers by the Nazi during the capture of the Polish city of Lwów in 1941 or the first first broadcast by Radio Free Europe in 1950.
8. We could celebrate moral integrity by remembering the anniversary of Samuel Richardson’s death (July 4th, 1761): who has ever explained better than him that “virtue is indeed rewarded” in hundreds of pages of epistolary novels?!
9. We could celebrate love, passion, nature and life, with all our vices and virtues, by remembering the controversial first publication of Walt Whitman’s book of poems Leaves of Grass in 1855.
   
10. We could celebrate spirit of community by remembering Garibaldi’s birthday: he was born on July 4th 1807. You see? I told you I would find the perfect excuse for Italians to celebrate!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
W. Whitman – “America”

March 8 is Women’s Day in Italy, here called “Festa della Donna” even if the official name would be “Giornata internazionale della Donna”. This “holiday” is controversial: according to some people there should be no reason to have a special day dedicated just to women as if they were “endangered” creatures; others believe that women’s achievements should be celebrated and the difficult conditions in which many women still live throughout the world should never be forgotten.

Personally, I think it’s a nice thing to remember the important women in our lives and that it is also important to be aware that, for women, things are not always as easy as they are for men, not even in societies in which there is apparent sexual equality. However, I do not think that women should have any special celebration just for being women, and they should find the time to go out and have fun with their girlfriends more than just one day a year, as if that was the only time when their “lords and masters” let them out for their prison-yard time. If they can babysit/iron/take care of them on March 8, well, they can certainly do it any other day of the year.

Here is a Wikipedia article about International Women’s Day.

In Italy, the symbol of Women’s Day are mimosa flowers, which are in bloom in this period. I would therefore like to take advantage of this occasion to “celebrate” some of my favourite women on the web (and some in real life too!) with a virtual branch of mimosa!

Over the year, I have met many incredible women who, besides being interesting, funny and smart, are also great professionals and share more than one passion with me. Over time, they have encouraged me, supported me, entertained me, inspired me and, I have to say, in some cases, fed me too!

My virtual bunch of mimosa goes to:

Letizia (@MadonnaDP), the owner and great hostess of the beautiful Agriturismo Alla Madonna del Piatto near Assisi, in Umbria. She is the person who manages to bring friends together in the warmth of her home and puts up with the crazy stuff! She is an excellent cook, renowned for her authentic cooking lessons and for her great food blog.

Giulia (@vallenuova), the most ecological inn-keeper you will find in the Marches and beyond (believe me!!!)! She has a great agritourism on a working farm near Urbino, Valle Nuova,  and she is working really hard to make tourism greener and more sustainable and authentic.

Rebecca (@brigolante) has three lovely guest apartments in her agriturismo Brigolante near Assisi, in Umbria. She is a funny, witty, beautiful woman. As soon as her webmaster finisher her blog, you’ll see what she can do! LOL In the meanwhile, enjoy Rebecca’s Ruminations!

Monica (@monicacesarato), THE multitask woman! She lives in the city of the world famous “Ponte dei Sospiri”, where she runs the Faronhof B&B, she teaches Italian as a Foreign Language in Venice and traditional Italian and Venetian cooking! We are real wonderwomen, so now we have better find a way to meet in person!!!

Diana (@DianaBaur) who runs a fine B&B in Aqui Terme in Pedmont,  She is also a creative lady, a real artist, and a graceful host, but most importantly, a graceful woman.

Megan (@bellavitaitalia), another beautiful, smart and resourceful women I have trouble to keep up with! She lives in pretty Lerici, in Liguria, not far from the Cinque Terre and has something new on her plate every time we speak!!! You can read about the stuff she does on her Bella Vita Italia website!

Eleanor and Maureen, the creators and managers of an independent publishing house based in Tuscany called Pari Publishing, in a small medieval village called Pari. Small communities survive because there are resourceful women like them. One of their latest books, would be the perfect gift for Women’s Day: Unveiling the Breath: One Woman’s Journey into Understanding Islam and Gender Equality.

Lorella (@boutique_events) is a gifted flower designer based in Tuscany, Fiori e Dintorni, and my partner in our wedding and event planning business, Boutique Events. She is a real artist and a great friends!

Kim (@kimmer999) and Pauline (@PaulineK): they are the heart and soul of the Slow Travel great website and of its community Slow Talk. Without them, I wouldn’t have probably met most of the great people mentioned in this post, so thank you ladies!

Donna (@MaremmaGuide) is the publisher of a great website about my home area, the Maremma. Incredibly enough, we haven’t found the perfect time to meet yet, but we absolutely have to. It’s a great thing that there is finally someone else in the area as passionate as me about it and certainly determined to make people see how beautiful and pleasant the Maremma is.

Robin (@MyMelange) is a talented photographer and publisher of a great blog about travelling to France and Italy. She has recently started her own travel consulting business and she is already very appreciated!

“Girasoli“  – I know she doesn’t like having her name published online – (@girasoli), whom I had the pleasure of meeting for lunch in Pisa, after many years of chatting online on forums and twitter! She has an interesting blog called Shave Ice and Gelato.

Sheila (@italytutto) has a great website that gathers all the major blogs about Italy. A great resource. I’ve recently had the pleasure of meeting her in Pisa over lunch and I think this might be the beginning of a friendship! She divides her time between England and the Lunigiana, in Tuscany.

Judy (@divinacucina): one of the most renowned and appreciated teachers of traditional Tuscan cuisine and a real prodigy in the kitchen! She has recently published a fabulous book and she has a very interesting website called Divina Cucina.

Evelyn (@Journeywoman) is the woman traveler par excellence. She is the CEO of Journeywoman, the largest online travel resource for women.

Alexandra (@arttrav) is an art history professor living in Florence and she publishes an incredible online magazine called ArtTrav. She is also the mind behind @tuscanyart and @TuscanyActive, of the Voglio Vivere Così social media team of the Regione Toscana (Tuscany).

Other incredible ladies I’ve met online are Kathy (@dreamofitaly, editor of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy), Nancy (@ItalyTravelista, owner of a tour company and publisher of the great ItalyTravelista Blog), Julie (@TravelwithJulie, publisher of a fabulous blog about travelling in Italy), Jessica (@italylogue, a BootsnAll’s resident Italophile with a lovely blog and website – Why go Italy), Laura (@FacingTheStreet, a freelance travel writer specializing in ways travellers can live like locals on the road – you can read it all on her Facing the Street blog), Melanie (@italofileblog, publisher of the interesting Italophile blog), Roz (@miabellavita, an Italian from a long lineage of fine cooks now living in the States – check her La Bella Vita), Robbin (@robbin_g, how do you get from being a recording engineer to being an international wine expert? She did it! Check her Vineyard Adventures! I haven’t forgot we had decided to meet while you are in Tuscany lady!!!), Lisa (@wanderlustwomen – a spirited travel journalist who publishes on this interesting website Wanderlust Women Travel), Molly (@amalari – freelance journalist and owner of these beautiful vacation rentals in Lucca), Catalina (@catascraft – a very talented artist creating beautiful illustrations and taking great photos, check her blog), Nazzarena (@NazzarenaArman – we have an agreement that I will not talk about pizza with her… ooops, I’ve done it again! She’s a talented wedding coordinator living in the UK), Erica, Barbara and Oriana (@TuscanyNova, @TuscanyTunes, @TuscanyTrends, @TuscanyTips, @ShopInTuscany, @tuscanyfit… yes, essentially the Voglio Vivere Così Social Media Team!), Karen (@toptraveleurope, editor of the great sites Europe Top Travel Content and Europe à la Carte), Laura (@lauradebe – a tech girl and social media addict, she says. I suspect she’s the mastermind behind @ToscanaIN – I haven’t forgotten about our lunch in Florence, don’t worry!), Kathy (@kathygori, an eclectic, interesting woman: screenwriter and a lover of Indian cooking with a blog that I adore, The Colors of Indian Cooking), Lulu (@Calabrisella - not sure why she wants to leave Toronto to go to Calabria, but we will find out by following her great blog Calabrisella Mia! LOL), Franca (@FrancaPorter, owner of my next dream holiday destination, the beautiful Au Belle Fleur B&B in France) and Janice (@solotraveler – the most adventurous woman out there, who’s not afraid of flying alone! Check her blog Solo Traveler!)

Who did I forget? If you want to add some virtual mimosa love below, please go ahead!

Every time I go to the UK or North America I come back thinking that, even if they don’t have a fraction of the tourist attractions we have in Italy, the difference is not so evident in the end, because they know how to make the best out of what they have. Tourism promotion and infrastructure in those countries is simply exceptional. The materials, the campaigns, the museums: everything is for the common people, and all the tourism businesses are equally promoted and enhanced.

For a discussion on the more democratic and less élitist attitude towards museums and culture in general, see this article on Tuscany Arts, the blog about art in Tuscany by the region tourism promotion team. Actually, I should say that the Regione Toscana represents a noticeable exception in the sad panorama of Italian tourism promotion: Tuscany is trying to fully exploit the visibility given by social networks through its “Voglio Vivere Così Social Media Team” and All Thing Tuscany.

But since I feel a bit grumpy today, and a brief Twitter exchange with two very interesting people, Andy Hayes (@andrewghayes) and Flip Florence (@FlipFlorence), inspired me, I’ll just list a few things I don’t like about Italian tourism promotion.

1. I don’t like most official websites. I don’t find them attractive at all and they are rarely suitable to perform the function a tourism-related website should perform, i.e. attract the traveler, make him or her dream of the location, convey the spirit of the place. They are often very plain, graphically unappealing, too “crowded“, often old and dated in their look. Often, they work fine in Explorer but not in Firefox or Safari. They are usually not suitable to be browsed on mobile phones.
2. Most recent articles on official tourism websites are only in Italian. Many sites don’t even bother having all the textual content translated. Therefore, it often happens that the most interesting and recent stuff on the home page does not have a corresponding version in the other languages of the website, which makes it impossible to use the information unless you want to take the time to translate it yourself. Some of the translations are really bad, clearly not done by professionals. I’ll never forget the title on the cover of the official Pisa tourism magazine that we distributed to over 200 participants in an important conference we had spent a year planning: it promoted the “51th Regatta” (Bad English 101).
3. I find it upsetting and unacceptable that most official sites, including the national ENIT ITALIA one, do not include regularly-licensed self-catering accommodations: Case Vacanza. We pay the same taxes as hotels and other “strutture turistico-alberghiere”, and we go through the same amount of trouble to comply with all the safety and hospitality regulations and yet, vacation rentals are not even a category in the accommodation search on the website (whose navigation, by the way, is made up of two dreadful buttons named accommodation and accommodation 2).
4. The promotional material is often useless. I remember the book that the Maremma tourism promotion distributed last year and which was full of completely useless stuff for the tourist and it was more suitable as a phone book than as a resource that accommodation facilities could make available to their guests. And it looked expensive too, in glossy paper, with a hard cover binder. Basically wasted money. The publications are often wordy, and boring. Guides to museums and monuments, or cities sound like lectures rather than entertainment, which is what tourism is for most people. The graphics once again are plain. I think the country lacks real communication professionals specifically trained for tourism communication.
5. There is no coordination between the different entities in tourism promotion, and this results in a general confusion in which much energy is wasted to attain very poor results. The regional site and council has nothing (as far as I can see) to do with the local tourism councils (e.g. Terre di Siena – just redesigned, Maremma tourism council, Pisa Unica Terra, etc.), and with the “consorzi” (another Italian mystery… basically associations of private business owners who can get public money…), and the local tourism associations (associazioni turistico-culturali or ricreative) and pro-loco associations (village and town associations). The result is that there is no central database of events. There is no sharing of resources. If you want to know what’s going on in Tuscany you need to check 30 different sites, and most of the time you’ll have no idea of what’s going on, because the page is only in Italian.
6. At the local level, which is what is most relevant for local tourism businesses, events are almost always planned at the very last minute, which is of absolutely no use if you work with foreign guests and want to use the events as a means to promote the area. We need the events planned and published at least 6 months in advance. And we need stuff that is good for both Italians and foreigners.
7. Most of the promotion is always focused on the major “pull factors” of an area, that is on the most popular stuff. The stuff everybody already knows about. Even if I understand that you need the “hot spots” to attract people, you also need to promote the lesser-known destinations that are off-the-beaten-path for no good reason than not having been promoted well before. I remember Montalcino °before Brunello was Brunello”: the town was just as beautiful, the wine was just as good, but the marketing and advertising campaigns had not been nearly as effective. There are many other places that are just as beautiful as Montalcino or Cortona, just as well located, but which have not had that massive amount of money poured into promoting them, or a rich American writer who bought a house there and wrote 2 novels about it, or vampires saving mortal girls in their main squares. It should be the tourism councils’  job to promote the territory, and not the local Castello Banfi’s.
8. Most of the initiatives promoted by local tourism councils involve some larger private business, which in the end is after its own profit. Consorzi are like that most of the time: they usually involve a bunch of desperate accommodation facility owners and a travel agency that manages their promotion and reservations. The larger the consorzio the smaller the visibility of the individual properties, yet the profits of the travel agency remain the same. Every year the local tourism council organizes seminars for the tourism business owners and every year the same large web agency gives a presentation, offers a free evaluation of your website and pours a bunch of professionally sounding words into non-web-savvy people’s ears (web 2.0, viral marketing, social networks, open websites, etc) and then tries to sell their services. Nobody needs to spend money for what they offer. The council should teach people how to do it themselves. Then, if they want, they can choose to pay someone to do it for them, but not without first knowing how easy it is. And ultimately I don’t understand how a public institution selects a private business to give it such overwhelming visibility. It doesn’t seem fair to all the other similar agencies, the local ones, that pour their money into the area and are never contacted to give presentations or offer suggestions. Another Italian mystery.
9. I know that in international fairs some tourism promotion agencies offer free holidays and other free stuff. How do they decide who is to offer the free stuff (and hence to get all that publicity)? I’ve never been contacted once.
10. The Italian government now offers “holiday vouchers” to low-income families. That is a good idea, because it creates opportunities for the tourism businesses and it improves the economy. I admit the first time I took a look at the website I was upset because it was not possible to sign up to be one of the places where you can spend the vouchers, and yet there were so many commercials about it, etc. Now they have reopened the subscriptions again, so that problem is solved. What’s not solved or fair is that if you accept holiday vouchers, in order to cash them you have to go to one of the branches of Banca San Paolo, you get reimbursed 45-60 days later and you have to pay 4% + VAT as a processing fee… Now, why in the world should I pay 4% + IVA for accepting vouchers?! If the State wants to give that money to Banca San Paolo it should come out of their pockets, not ours! Another Italian mystery.

When I was a child, I remember that around carnival time, I would go with my mum to some fabric shop and haberdashery to buy all my grandma needed to make a costume for me. I remember some really cool princess-style dresses, especially a yellow dress with a large tulle skirt with colourful cloth flowers, which I wore many times after that year’s carnival party!

What I also remember, though, is that 30 years ago traditional carnival  stock characters were the main inspiration for costumes. I think they are not so common anymore: now kids seem to prefer superhero costumes and the like.

Le Maschere Tradizionali, the traditional carnival stock characters, are impersonations of “human types” in a caricature style. They originated in the 16th-century tradition of the Italian Commedia dell’Arte (the Comedy of Art), “a professional form of theatre that began in Italy in the mid-16th century, and was characterized by masked “types,” the advent of the actress, and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios”.
More on Commedia dell’Arte…

Some of the most famous characters

Pulcinella – a white outfit, a funny pointed hat and a black mask with a big nose, Pulcinella is the traditional Neapolitan carnival character. He’s chatty, a bit crazy and very lazy! He has a mandolin, he likes to sing and eat and sometimes he hits the other carnival characters with the long stick he always has with him.

Arlecchino – he was my favourite! Also known as Harlequin in English, he has a colourful outfit, a large hat and a black masque. He’s a mischievous servant, a bit of a scoundrel and swindler, but, deep down, he’s wise and good natured. His girlfriend is Colombina.

Colombina - or Columbina, is the only girl among a crowd of male carnival characters. She’s a lively and smart young female servant. She is pretty and a bit of a liar and she speaks in the Venetian dialect. She loves her young Lady Rosaura very much and she goes out of her way to make her happy. She has a white and blue dress and a large flounced skirt. She makes fun of everybody: a flirtatious and impudent character!

Pantalone – also a Venetian character and the victim of Columbina’s intrigues. He wears a red suit and a black mantel. He’s grumpy, stubborn and annoying. Pantalone doesn’t like spending his money: he’s a very tight, old Venetian merchant who complains all the time.

Dottor Balanzone, or the Doctor – he’s from Bologna and he’s all dressed in black, and has a book under his arm. He’s angry, disruptive and he doesn’t listen to anyone else from any of the fields that he claims to know about (which are many). He is pompous, and loves the sound of his own voice but he often talks nonsense.

Gianduia - he’s the traditional carnival character of Turin. He’s a witty, funny and smart peasant who is actually called Gioan d’la douja (literally, Giovanni of the wine – douja in the local dialect) because he goes to all the bars in Turin and ask for a glass of wine! Gianduia has a girlfriend, Giacometta.

Brighella – he’s from Bergamo. He has a white and green outfit. He’s a masterful liar, a smarter version of Harlequin. He’s funny and cheeky with women. His name comes from the fact that he’s a fire-eater. Brighella can play and sing and he knows how to party.

Rugantino – he’s from Lazio. He’s dressed up as a gendarme and he’s arrogant, big-headed and cruel. He’s also a fire-eater.

Stenterello – he’s from Tuscany. He has a distinctive blue jacket with chequered red and white wristband. He’s generous, smart, wise and optimist.

Scaramuccia – also known as Scaramouche, is a roguish clown character who wears a black mask and black trousers, shirt and hat. He is usually portrayed as a buffoon or boastful clown. He’s from Campania. He’s lazy and he gets beaten often. He’s big-headed but he is often quiet.

Capitan Spaventa – or the Captain, is from Liguria. He has a yellow and orange suit, a hat with feathers, a long mustache and pointed beard and he carries a long sword that he drags around making a lot of noise. He fights his battles with his witty speeches.

Sandrone - he’s from Emilia Romagna. He has a red hat and a green jacket. He has a ruddy face and he really loves wine. He’s an ignorant but smart peasant.