Instantly Italy

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[Hidden Italy] The Eclectic Italian House of a World-Famous Swiss Clown

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Discovering and visiting hidden places in my region is one of my favorite pastimes.

Liguria is a wonderful region and, even though some of its areas are quite famous among tourists (ever heard of Cinque Terre?), there are still a lot of hidden gems that very few people know of. Sometimes even locals have no idea certain places exist and so it’s always a pleasure to discover them.

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[Hidden Italy] Discover Seborga, An Old Village in Liguria With A Unique Character

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Visiting old Ligurian villages is one of my favorite pastimes and I have been to a lot of them over the years.

I have been to Triora, which is famous for being il paese delle streghe, to Apricale and Perinaldo, two lovely perched villages in the west of the region, to Verezzi and its scenic beauty, to Bussana Vecchia and its unique story, and to many other interesting places but there was one village I still had to cross off my list: Seborga.

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[Hidden Italy] Alta Langa, A Peaceful Corner of Paradise in Piedmont

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When you say the word Langa, people immediately think of wine, cheese, and truffle.

In fact, the Langhe, the hilly area around Alba in Piedmont, is one of the most famous gastronomy areas in the whole world. In autumn, people literally flock to the region to taste its delicious wine and maybe a bit of its superb white truffle.

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The Feast of Saint John in Italy: A Magical Time of the Year

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It’s the day of Saint John tomorrow and there is some magic in the air. 

Saint John, San Giovanni in Italian, is the patron saint of many big and small Italian towns and this makes it a very special day. The day of the patron saint is a public holiday in Italy and this means that tomorrow many people will be taking a day off if the town where they work celebrates its patron saint.

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[What To See in Liguria] The Magnificent Beauty of the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia

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Sometimes it seems that heaven on earth really exists. 

This is what I thought a few weeks ago when I visited the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia, some really magnificent gardens with an interesting history that are located on the westernmost side of Liguria, right on the border to France.

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How to Avoid Crowds in Italy

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How can I avoid bustling crowds of foreign tourists when I visit Italy? 

This is probably one of the questions I get asked the most and I thought it might be interesting to answer it with a proper blog post.

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[What to see in Liguria] A day trip in Camogli

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I had been talking about going to Camogli since the Christmas holidays. 

For weeks, I kept telling my husband that we absolutely had to plan a day trip there but somehow never found the right moment to go – until this past Saturday.

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A Winter Weekend in Florence

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Florence is always a good idea, especially in winter. 

Florence is one of the most beautiful Italian cities but it tends to be overcrowded in high season and I feel this ruins its incredible atmosphere. This is why lately I have chosen to visit it in winter.

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[Hidden Italy] A walk around the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan

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One of the goals of this section of the blog is to help you discover off-the-beaten-track Italian locations.

I have specifically created this ‘Hidden Italy’ series to write about places that you might not know or that might not be on the usual not-to-miss list of Italian destinations.

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A Week in Friuli Venezia Giulia: What We Did and What We Saw

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At the beginning of August, we spent a week in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the easternmost region in Italy and one of the country’s most ignored ones, especially by tourists. 

The fact that Friuli is not a popular tourist destination is a real pity because the region is so nice that it really deserves to be more famous but it is also a blessing for those who visit it because Friuli is beautiful, authentic, genuine, and not crowded at all.

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