Major Italian cities are creating limited vehicle access zones (Zona a traffico limitato – ZHT)

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Many tourists have been fined in Italy because they enterd limited vehicle access zones (ZHT)

Read the article here

Problemi di consumo più frequenti in ambito transfrontaliero | Most frequent problems involving cross-border consumption

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Lettere tipo da utilizzare per domandare il risarcimento danni in caso di:
– Cancellazione volo
– Ritardo prolungato del volo
– Negato imbarco
– Danneggiamento bagaglio
– Ritardata consegna bagaglio
– Smarrimento bagaglio
– Autonoleggio
– Prodotto difettoso
– Contratti a distanza
– Contratti fuori dei locali commerciali
– Contestazioni spese accessorie in seguito a recesso
– Pratiche commerciali sleali
– Multiproprietà
– Lettera recesso pacchetto turistico
– Lettera disservizio pacchetto turistico
Fonte: Centro Europeo Consumatori (ECC) Italia

Sample letters to use in order to claim for compensation in case of:
– Flight cancellation
– Flight delay
– Denied boarding
– Damaged baggage
– Delayed baggage delivery
– Baggage loss
– Car rental
– Defective product
– Distance selling
– Off premises sales contract
– Extra charges (right of withdrawal)
– Unfair commercial practices
Source: UK European Consumer Centre (ECC)

World Heritage Sites in Italy

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50 Italian Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List 

Cultural
Natural

Italy – Ferrara (Emilia Romagna), City of Art and UNESCO World Heritage Site

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North-Central Italy – Emilia Romagna Region

IT – La mia bellissima Ferrara, città del Rinascimento, e il suo Delta del Po Patrimonio UNESCO
(guarda il video: Ferrara City of the Renaissance and the Po Delta A PLACE FOR THE SOUL)

Fondata nel VI secolo come porto fluviale nel territorio padano a Sud del Delta del Po, in epoca medievale da piccolo agglomerato diviene già un importante centro commerciale e politico. Tuttavia, è con l’inizio della reggenza della famiglia Este che Ferrara tocca i più alti vertici dell’architettura e del prestigio rinascimentale, divenendo una delle corti piùilluminate e affascinanti d’Europa.

Ferrara è la città che ha visto il primo “piano Urbanistico moderno d’Europa”, realizzato da Biagio Rossetti con una felicissima fusione tra nuovo e antico, unendo la trama della città medievale con il nuovo tracciato rinascimentale.

Portale turistico di Ferrara e provincia:
http://www.ferraraterraeacqua.it/it/ferrara

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EN – Lying in the middle of the Po Valley, Ferrara still has the atmosphere of the past, which blends in harmoniously with the lively atmosphere of the present.
(watch the english subtitled video: Ferrara City of the Renaissance and the Po Delta A PLACE FOR THE SOUL)

The Historic Centre of Ferrara is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a shining example of a Renaissance city that has retained its historic centre virtually intact. “The developments in town planning expressed in Ferrara were to have a profound influence on the development of urban design throughout the succeeding centuries”.

The Este ducal residences in the Po Delta illustrate the influence of Renaissance culture on the natural landscape in an exceptional manner. The Po Delta is an outstanding planned cultural landscape that retains its original form to a remarkable extent.

Official Website for Ferrara and its province:
http://www.ferraraterraeacqua.it/en/ferrara?set_language=en

Italy – Cinque Terre, Portovenere and the Islands Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto (Liguria) – UNESCO World Heritage Site

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North-Western Italy, Eastern Ligurian Riviera – Province of La Spezia, Liguria Region

The Ligurian coast between Cinque Terre and Portovenere is a cultural landscape of great scenic and cultural value. The layout and disposition of the small towns and the shaping of the surrounding landscape, overcoming the disadvantages of a steep, uneven terrain, encapsulate the continuous history of human settlement in this region over the past millennium.

In 1997 the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and  its small archipelago, were included into the list of the UNESCO’s World’s cultural and natural heritage as «cultural area of exceptional value, which represents the harmonious interaction between man and nature, to whom and to which we owe a landscape of extraordinary quality and beauty that shows a traditional lifestyle, preserved for millennia».

The area covers some 15 km along the extreme eastern end of the Ligurian coast, between Levanto and La Spezia. It is a very jagged, steep coastline, which the work of man over the millennia has transformed into an intensively terraced landscape so as to be able to wrest from nature a few hectares of land suitable for agriculture, such as growing vines and olive trees.

The human communities have adapted themselves to this seemingly rough and inhospitable nature by building compact settlements directly on the rock, with winding streets. The general use of natural stone for rooting gives these settlements a characteristic appearance. They are generally grouped round religious buildings or medieval castles.

The five villages of Cinque Terre date back to the later Middle Ages. The cultivation terraces that typify much of the Cinque Terre landscape were mainly built in the 12th century, when Saracen raids from the sea had come to an end.

Portovenere is an important cultural centre. The town is a Roman foundation, Portus Veneris. It was occupied by the Genoese in 1113. It is compact in form, giving the appearance of a fortified town, culminating in the Doria castle (early 12th-16th centuries), which dominates the settlement and is an historical palimpsest, with many traces of its medieval predecessor.

Off the coast at Portovenere are the three islands of Palmaria, Tine, and Tinetto, which are noteworthy not only for their natural beauty but also for the many remains of early monastic establishments that they contain. Palmaria and Tino have a strategic military function because of their proximity to the NATO base at La Spezia across the gulf of the same name. Because of the restricted access (Tine may only be visited once a year) their natural environments are especially well protected.

One final point should be noted. This landscape has attracted many writers and musicians, among them the English Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, the French novelist George Sand, and the German composer Richard Wagner, as well as Italian artists and writers.

The area was almost inaccessible, except by sea, until the Genoa-La Spezia railway was built in the 1870s passing through all the villages and Portovenere. This coincided with the building of the Arsenal at La Spezia, which provided alternative employment for the local people. From this time onwards there was a gradual change in the socio-economic basis of life in the Cinque Terre and Portovenere.

Source Unesco Website

Watch the video (Rick Steves’ Europe TV Show Episode | ricksteves.com)

Italy – Porto Venere (Golf of Poets), Liguria

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North-Western Italy, Eastern Ligurian Riviera – Province of La Spezia, Liguria Region 

Porto Venere and its Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)
Getting here

The village of Porto Venere (or Portovenere) and its small archipelago in front of its waters (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto islands) lie in Liguria, a region located on the Northwest coast of Italy, enclosed between the Ligurian sea and the Apennines, not far from the Apuan Alps, a mountain range in Northern Tuscany, worldwide famous for its Carrara’s historic quarries where Michelangelo selected his marble. The chief-town of Liguria is the beautiful Genoa.

Portovenere was built between the 5th century and the 13th century in Genoese Gothic style, the village is perched on the rocky promontory of the Mouths of Portovenere (Bocche di Portovenere) at the Western end of the Gulf of Poets, with its forms virtually unchanged over the centuries and the uniqueness of the ancient portals of tower-houses that line narrow in height on three or four floors, in parallel rows, on the alleys and on the descent to where you have the most beautiful image coming from the sea.

On its end stands the romantic St. Peter’s Church, notable for its ancient architecture, consisting of two connected buildings – the one latest Gothic (12th-15th Century), the other Romanesque (11th-12th Century) much older – very famous for its special panoramic and landscape values. Set overlooking the sea, the Church is the subject of numerous and famous photographs.

Its name (Portus Veneris) derives, according to tradition, from a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus built exactly in the place where today stands the St. Peter’s Church (the goddess was born from the sea foam right under the faraglione) or, as it whispers in place, just because Portovenere has always been a beautiful and romantic resort.

Portovenere and its three islands constitute the heart of the Regional Natural Park established in 2001 with the express purpose of helping to preserve biodiversity through the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora in the territory within the Gulf of Poets.

In 1997 the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and  its small archipelago, were included into the list of the UNESCO’s World’s cultural and natural heritage as «cultural area of exceptional value, which represents the harmonious interaction between man and nature, to whom and to which we owe a landscape of extraordinary quality and beauty that shows a traditional lifestyle, preserved for millennia».

Genova e i suoi tesori di arte e cultura – Italy, Genoa and its treasures of art and culture – Italië, Genoa en haar kunst- en culturele schatten

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IT – Genova vi aspetta, con i suoi tesori di arte e cultura, i musei, le mostre dedicate ai pittori messicani Frida Kahlo e Diego Rivera al Palazzo Ducale fino all’8 febbraio 2015, e all’Arte Ottomana al Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino fino al 14 dicembre 2014, l’Acquario e il Porto Antico e tante delizie della tipica cucina genovese da gustare. Gli alberghi e gli Uffici di Informazione Turistica sono pronti ad accogliervi!

Per maggior informazioni visita: www.visitgenoa.it

EN – Italy (Region Liguria) – Genoa is waiting for you, with its treasures of art and culture, its museums, the exhibitions, a.o., dedicated to the Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera running at the Palazzo Ducale until 8 February 2015, and the Ottoman Art hosted by the historical Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino until 14 December 2014, the Aquarium and the Old Port, and many delights of the typical Genoese cuisine worth to taste! The hotels and the Tourist Information Offices are ready to welcome you!

More information can be found on: visitgenoa.it/en/homepage

NL – Italië (Gewest Ligurië) – Genoa staat voor u klaar met haar kunst- en culturele schatten, haar musea, haar tentoonstellingen, o.a., van de Mexicaanse schilders Frida Kahlo en Diego Rivera in de Palazzo Ducale te bezichtigen t/m 8 februari 2015, en van Ottomaanse kunst aangeboden door de historische Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino t/m 14 december 2014, het Aquarium, de Oude Haven en de vele delicatessen en specialiteiten van de typische Genuese cuisine die de moeite waard zijn om te proeven! De hotels en de VVV-kantoren staan klaar om u te verwelkomen!

Meer informatie vindt u op: visitgenoa.it/en/homepage