The magic of Christmas enchantingly embraces Garda Trentino with Christmas markets and coloured lights.

Activities for the whole family

In Garda Trentino, an enchanting area between Lake Garda and the Brenta Dolomites, Christmas is a real fairy tale: Christmas lights are reflected on the surface of the lake, and the air is filled with the scent of cinnamon, chocolate, and mulled wine creating a magical Christmas atmosphere. To make the experience even more special, there are many activities for the whole family, from markets where you can sample typical specialities, to encounters with Father Christmas and his famous green opponent, the Grinch.

Market stalls and genuine local flavours

The markets start in mid-November and last up to the beginning of January, bringing with them stalls selling all kinds of local handicrafts, such as those to be found at the markets of Canale di Tenno and Rango, where agricultural tools, wooden toys, and delicious traditional country dishes are on display. In its historic centre Riva del Garda welcomes the Di Gusto in Gusto market which is a gastronomic village where you can discover the many flavours of this region, from wine to cold cuts and cheeses. There is also guaranteed fun for children with the Father Christmas House in the Rocca di Riva del Garda fortress.  

Apt Garda Trentino Ph Prugnola (Calavino)

Discovering the art of distilling grappa

But the friendly grandfather in red is not the only character in this fairy tale because, from 6 December to 6 January the Bastion of Riva del Garda will once again host the home of the Grinch, the little green animal known to all as the anti-Christmas. And if the Grinch doesn't steal it first, the village of Santa Massenza will let visitors discover the authentic spirit of Christmas with the Night of the Alembic Shops, an exciting itinerant journey through the historical art of distillation to discover how true Trentino grappa is made. 

An exhibition of cribs and EVO tastings 

Bringing the Christmas events to a close from 30 November to 22 December the Castle of Drena, will host an exhibition of handcrafted cribs. In addition to the nativity scenes, dancing, music and traditional crafts will enliven the weekends while, for those who prefer outdoor activities, there is the Foiling Experience in Torbole on beautiful Lake Garda, in the company of an expert guide. And also an excursion through olive groves to discover all the secrets of EVO oil production, and taste this traditional product. Garda Trentino is the perfect destination to experience a magical Christmas and this year the Christmas tree in St. Peter's Square in Rome  - a magnificent 29-metre spruce chosen for its thick and majestic foliage - comes from the Garda Trentino’s Ledro Valley. For information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Just minutes from Aosta, Pila offers a world of winter sports and spectacular scenery. 

A paradise for skiers and snowboarders

The opening of the 2024/2025 winter season is set for 30 November 2024. With a modern cable car that connects the town to an altitude of 1,800 metres in just 18 minutes, mountain lovers can enjoy perfectly groomed slopes and breathtaking alpine landscapes. Pila is a paradise for skiers and snowboarders, with 70 km of runs suitable for all levels: from blue runs for beginners to black runs for experts. And freeride enthusiasts will find exciting routes through the woods, while two safe trails are dedicated to ski mountaineering.

New for the 2024/2025 season

This winter the new Couis lift will take skiers and snowboarders from Pila to Couis 1 in just 5 minutes, eliminating waiting times, and improving the overall experience. The lift, equipped with 10-seater cabins, will replace the old chairlift which dated back to the 1980s. By December 2025 the Stella del Couis refuge at 2,700 metres will also be completed, and accessible even to non-skiers, offering unparalleled views of Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Grivola and Gran Paradiso.

Culinary traditions and events 

After a day on the slopes the Aosta Valley culinary traditions awaitsvisitors with genuine flavours like the famous PDO fontina cheese, Arnad lard and local wines. There are many typical restaurants and huts in Pila serving typical dishes such as polenta, game and homemade desserts, and they are renowned for their quality cuisine and family hospitality. The season is enriched by events such as the Christmas celebrations and the I Light Pila torchlight procession on 15 February 2025, added to which there are many cultural attractions and the Marché Vert Noël Christmas market.  

For information: https://domani.pila.it

The Michelin-starred Idylio by Apreda at The Pantheon Iconic Rome Hotel has had a revamp and has moved outside the hotel. 

Aimed at non-hotel guests

The Idylio Restaurant is remaining in the hotel’s immediate vicinity, not far from the Pantheon, in the beating heart of the city. The move is aimed at further enhancing the asset, and bringing the Rome hotel's F&B offer even closer to non-hotel guests. The restaurant features a large and scenic central hall, an intimate area for more intimate moments, such as romantic dinners or private meetings, and has an open wine cellar.

“This new space represents an evolution for Idylio”

“We are proud to present this new space, which represents an evolution for Idylio,’- says Emidio Pacini, CEO and founder of the Idylio Group. – This operation is a reflection of our continuous desire to improve and innovate our catering and hospitality facilities. This new venue in the heart of Rome is on a square that is attracting increasing interest from investors interested in exclusive projects. I have personally taken care of every detail of this new opening, to satisfy an increasingly demanding clientele. The new Idylio by Apreda invites you to enjoy some unique culinary experiences.” 

Smart, easy dining at lunchtime

The gastronomic concept from chef Francesco Apreda is also new, as is the midday opening with a menu designed for guests who want to treat themselves to a gourmet lunch, for those looking for a quick break, and for those who want to approach fine dining for the first time through an easy and smart dining formula.

The WTM Global Travel Report cited the blend of business and leisure travel as driving tourism growth.

Business and leisure are a leading niche

Business travel has defied post-pandemic expectations, and when extended with leisure now represents the top opportunity for tourism growth, according to the findings of the Tourism Economics’ Travel Industry Monitor 2024 survey for the WTM Global Travel Report.  Citing a blend of leisure and business travel as a tourism growth opportunity, the report identified it as the leading niche.

In-person meets are “still highly valued”

Business travel’s performance has been “something of a surprise relative to prior expectations,” the report notes, with the post-pandemic persistence of online meetings and events expected to be the cause for its decline.   On the other hand, in-person meets are “still highly valued” and business overnights and spending have surpassed previous peaks. The report goes on to note that business travel is being built largely around business events whose annual growth of around 19% in 2024 outstrips a growth of around 11% for leisure visits according to Tourism Economics.

Business travellers are staying longer and spending more

While business travel’s growth is expected to slow somewhat to around 17% in 2025, against the  2024 to 2030 period, such visits are predicted to grow by around 50% against a growth in leisure visits of a little under 30% for the same period. It further emerged that business travellers are staying longer and spending more per trip and while the volume of international business visits currently remains 6% below pre-pandemic levels, the number of overnight stays are 3% higher than in 2019.

Remote working has had a positive effect 

Such extended visits are partly thanks to the trend for ‘bleisure’ - the combining of business trips with extra days of leisure tourism, notes the report which adds that remote working has had a positive effect, enabling travellers to be more flexible about working overseas around their leisure time. However pure leisure travel, which is also seeing extending lengths of stay, remains the most important travel segment in terms of volume and spending, comprising 69% of arrivals and 80% of global travel spending. 

The WTM provides valuable intelligence to travel pros

Juliette Losardo, exhibition director for World Travel Market London added: “WTM’s aim is to help attendees navigate change, ensuring travel professionals are equipped for the year ahead. Commissioning the WTM Global Travel Report supports our commitment to providing attendees with the latest trends shaping the travel landscape. The WTM Global Travel Report is produced in conjunction with Tourism Economics, part of Oxford Economics and was unveiled on Tuesday 5 November at WTM London which runs 5-7 November at the Excel exhibition and convention centre.

The official public presentation of Savona's candidacy dossier for Italian Capital of Culture 2027 is scheduled for 18 November. 

The bid covers a vast territory

The dossier entitled “New Routes for Culture” is the result of a long and intense participatory process involving 40 municipalities, 27 institutions and 27 cities in the North West, Italy and the Mediterranean. The Savona 2027 bid is a plural bid, involving a vast and united territory. The process, which began in the spring of 2023, has led to nine strategic development themes being identified and to be implemented in 9 renovated spaces in Savona and in symbolic places in the area.

A team effort with many local players

Savona 2027 has obtained the support of numerous bodies and partners including the Region of Liguria and the InLiguria Regional Agency for the Promotion of Tourism, the Province of Savona and various trade associations, among others. 

With Saboris Antigus 2024 Sardinia and Crete shared the same flavours, as the islands were gastronomically twinned.   

Sardinia and Crete have a common heritage

Trexenta and Sarcidano, the historical regions of central-southern Sardinia, recently organized a weekend of events on the eve of the debut of the new edition of Saboris Antigus. During this cycle of food and people events the link between Sardinian and Cretan culture were investigated and celebrated. The theatre for this two-day October intercultural connection were Nurri and Selegas with food becoming a means of storytelling, a vehicle for building ties, and an instrument for relations between apparently distant territories.

Similar local products on both islands

Crete - which has also been elected European Region of Gastronomy for 2026 - shares not just a rich cultural and archaeological heritage with Sardinia, but also an agricultural and cereal vocation of excellence that has allowed it to build a culinary tradition that has many points in common with Sardinia. For example, the Cretan Chodro (in Greek, χόνδρο), a typical product of the local cuisine, is a kind of pasta made with sour milk and coarse wheat and very similar to the Sardinian Fregula. Then there are the different types of bread, as well as products such as snails and olive oil, of which both islands can boast a historical production of excellence.

Synergies for future promotions

During the event Cretan chefs, together with their Sardinian colleagues, demonstrated the ancient similarity between the two islands, accompanied by a food anthropologist. The aim of the twinning, in addition to building an intercultural connection and a better understanding of the similarities and differences between two island traditions is also to build a solid interrelation between the two islands, creating a series of joint promotion and exchange activities, of which this first meeting was both a model and a starting point.

For ENIT the Italian national tourist board, the United Kingdom represents a key international market for Italian tourism, and in recent years it has seen a significant trend of recovery and growth. 

Increases in overnight stays and expenditure 

Since last year, there has been a sustained increase in both the number of UK travellers choosing Italy (+32.5%), which exceed 6.2 million, and in overnight stays, which total over 34.7 million (+15.9%), for average stays of over 5.5 nights. The growth in expenditure, which stands at €4 million 536 million, a +27.2% rise over 2022, represents the core of this market's deep and diversified interest in what Italy has to offer tourists.  Some 52.4% of overnight stays and 63% of expenditure are motivated by leisure holidays, with 26.2% of nights spent visiting family and relatives and accounting for 16.8% of total expenditure, to which should be added around 5% of nights spent visiting friends. Seven per cent of the overnights, totalling 10% of expenditure, were for occasional trips, while 6.5% of the overnights were for study trips, accounting for 2.2% or some €100 million in expenditure.

Culture and art cities dominate

A further €43.4 million was spent on honeymoons, amounting to 205,000 overnight stays.
Almost half of the chosen destinations are related to occasional trips. Among the planned itineraries, cultural locations and the art cities dominate, with a share of 31.5% of the total number of overnight stays - around 11 million - and as much as 37.4% of tourist expenditure, amounting to €1.7 billion. This is followed by seaside destinations, which, with over 4.3 million overnight stays and €600 million in tourist expenditure, account for 12.5% and 13.2% respectively. Lake resorts with 937,000 overnight stays and €231.2 million of expenditure are on the podium as the third type of stay preferred by the British market.

Mountain and green tourism choices are popular 

Among the more niche choices, mountain holidays count 697,000 overnight stays and an expenditure of €132.5 million. These are followed by green tourism, with over 591,000 overnight stays and €92 million spent (a 50% rise on last year).  Amongst the motivational niches, food and wine trips account for 274,000 overnight stays and over €39 million in tourist spending, with sports holidays counting 153,000 overnight stays and generating €23.3 million.

From 2 to 5 December, Sorrento will turn into the capital of cinema with the 47th edition of the Professional Days of Cinema.

The theme this year is the Next Generation

Over 1,500 industry experts will take part in workshops, conferences, events and screenings, while the general public will be able to attend previews and meet the most popular film stars. This year, the theme is Next Generation, and it looks at the tastes and habits of the younger generation, in a magical atmosphere that officially kicks off the Christmas celebrations. A journey for industry experts and big screen lovers and an opportunity to enjoy a few days in the new and refined 5-star luxury hotel Ara Maris, one of the few that is also open at Christmas and New Year.

Celebrating Christmas in Sorrento

The 2024 edition will open to the public with the inauguration, which this year will be on Monday 2 December and will officially kick off the screenings and conferences, right up to the eagerly awaited Golden Ticket evening, which has now become an eagerly awaited appointment for all the people of Sorrento. In addition Sorrento dresses up with many events that officially open the programme to celebrate the Christmas festivities.

Refined stays at the Ara Maris

Visiting Sorrento’s marvellous coastline on the occasion of this event dedicated to the art of cinema is magical and truly unique, added to which a refined stay at the Ara Maris, offers all comforts for those who also travel for business, without renouncing the magical Christmas atmosphere of the Sorrento Peninsula. This contemporary hotel stands out for its strategic location, the starting point for admiring and exploring the beautiful coastline and deep blue sea. From sailing trips to trekking, to the beautiful islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida nearby, there are numerous activities on offer for visitors. For information: www.aramarishotel.com