The Palermo On Ice skating rink will colour winter in the Sicilian city up to 7 January.

Sanitised skates and disposable socks and caps

For adults and children Palermo’s skating rink awaits in Via Duca della Verdura. At the rink they will find disposable socks, caps and skates that are sanitised before and after use. And, in full compliance with safety regulations skaters, will be accompanied by a professional skater. 

The XL rink is open daily up to 7 January

This year's skating rink exceeds 800 square metres of ice and the XL facility is completely covered. It will be open every day until Saturday, 7 January 2023, from 9 a.m. to midnight (on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays it will close at 1.00 a.m.). The entrance fee is €7 for a half-hour and €9 for an hour, and the price includes skate rentals, disposable socks, skate sanitisation, and shoe storage. 

Norwegian is returning to Italy with the addition of seven new routes for the summer of 2023, bringing the total number of direct routes to 29 operating on 12 airports. 

“We expect last year’s positive trend to continue in 2023”

During next summer the company will operate over 5,000 flights in Italy, with over 900,000 seats available.

"The summer season that has just ended has demonstrated that there is a strong desire to travel to and from the Nordic countries, and we expect this trend to continue in 2023," says Magnus Maursund, group director for network, pricing, and optimization at Norwegian. "We are now well prepared to meet the expected increase in flight demand."

A fleet of around 85 aircraft against the 69 of summer 2022

The news for the Italian network therefore foresees, from Oslo to Bari two weekly flights from 22 June until 6 August; two weekly flights to Bologna from 22 June until October and two weekly flights to Milan Bergamo from 22 June, all year round.

From Bergen Airport flights will depart for Milan Bergamo twice weekly from 30 April until October. From Copenhagen Airport there will be two weekly flights to Bologna from 22 June throughout the summer; two weekly from Naples from 24 June throughout the summer and two weekly from Palermo from 23 June, only for the summer high season until 6 August.

Many routes have been confirmed for summer 2023

All remaining routes have been confirmed, including four from Rome Fiumicino to Oslo, Bergen, Copenhagen, and Stockholm; four from Pisa to Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki; and four from Venice to Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Olbia has three routes to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, and Catania has three routes to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. Finally, there are routes from Milan Malpensa to Oslo and Verona to Oslo.

From fifth to fourth. A small but an important comeback made by Italy with regard to international arrivals.

Italy is second to France and ties with Spain

In fact, Italy ranks fourth in the world for international tourism arrivals with a revenue of €21.3 billion, up +22.7% compared to 2020.  With 9% of preferences Italy is second only to France (11%) and ties with Spain. These figures come from Enit's elaborations on Istat, Unwto, and Bank of Italy data, released today for the presentation of the BIT, scheduled at Allianz MiCo (FieraMilanocity) from Sunday 12 to Tuesday 14 February 2023.

Italy has the highest increase in international airline bookings 

According to Enit in November Italy has the highest saturation rate of the hotels booked through Ota among the main European countries (37%), while the saturation of non-hotels is estimated at 39%. And in this same month Italy has the highest increase in international airline bookings at 392,000, which is +65% over 2021.

An acceleration of the recovery to 65% of pre-pandemic levels 

The UNWTO reports an acceleration in the international recovery that has now reached 65% of pre-pandemic levels. In the third quarter alone, international arrivals are estimated at 390 million, 50% of the total since the start of the year. Europe continues to lead the rebound. Between January and September, it welcomed 477 million international arrivals, or 68% of the world total, reaching 81% of pre-pandemic levels.

Travellers are looking for sustainable choices

While the progressive elimination or reduction of restrictions in almost all countries has certainly contributed to growth, the real boost seems to come from new travel styles. It is no coincidence that the Sustainable Travel Report 2022 from Booking, which surveyed 30,000 respondents in 32 countries, shows more conscious, sustainable and respectful choices throughout the travel experience, right from the time of booking. Some 93% of Italians, and 81% on a global scale, consider it important to travel sustainably.

Italian politics really don’t understand tourism. There’s no two ways about it. The obscure detachment between politics and tourism is marked by decades of misunderstandings, underestimations, unjustified absences and troubled relationships. In short, it has been wrong right from the start.

An entire class of politicians, some of whom are more and some less good and competent, has failed to give a hand to an industry that could be sailing along on oodles of money, and be filling the treasury with oodles of taxes. The point is that when tourism needs support and backing, politics quite simply disappear. Just like that. Like smoke from a bonfire that melts into thin air.

Giuseppe Aloe
Editor in Chief

Modena, which is in central Italy between its two more famous sisters Bologna and Parma, is famous as the town of slow food and fast Ferraris

The birthplace of Ferrari and Pavarotti

Although relatively small (the population is just 185,000) it is packed with personality. An hour by train, or two by car, from Florence, it is a must-visit for its foodie scene with Parmesan, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar topping the bill. Packed with history and art Modena is also the birthplace of automobile genius Enzo Ferrari and tenor Luciano Pavarotti. 

A motor-lovers paradise

Being smack in the heart of Italy’s Motor Valley it is also home to such famous brands as Lamborghini and Maserati and the Maserati Factory, together with the Enzo Ferrari Museum, is a must for anyone even remotely interested in cars.  Modena shot to international culinary fame in 2016 when Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana was voted the number one restaurant in the world. This feat was repeated again in 2018 and Bottura continues to be up there with the world’s best and most innovative cutting-edge chefs. 

Culture lovers will marvel at the Cathedral and they can climb the Ghirlanda Tower which, like the cathedral and the main Piazza Grande square, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Much of the architecture and art in the town is thanks to the Estes, the princely Lombardy family that played a great part in the history of Medieval and Renaissance Italy and ruled in Modena from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century. 

An Art Nouveau food market

For foodies there are visits to cheese factories, to farmhouses that produce the prized balsamic vinegar and to wineries that produces the charming and much underrated sparkling Lambrusco red wine.  Another must is a visit to the town’s Albinelli Market which opened in 1931 and is Modena’s oldest. In Art Nouveau style it is also one of Italy’s most beautiful food markets and the vendors delight in letting customers try their produce. They also like to share the secrets of how best to cook and serve the goods on display, turning a simple market visit into a journey into the lore of Modena’s extraordinary gastronomic traditions.

A paradise for gourmets

Modena is also famous for its tortellini, hand-rolled egg pasta dumplings with meat, vegetables or cheese that can be served in broth or tossed in tomato sauce. It also has two nationally revered specialties linked to Yuletide, the zampone which is a cured stuffed trotter and the cotechino which is made with pork intestines. For information https://www.visitmodena.it

Chianciano Terme, which is famous for its spas, museums and hospitality, is relaunching its image by enhancing and promoting not just its world-famous mineral springs and spas, but the town itself and its appealing environs. The objective, shared by local tourism players, is to promote a new concept of thermal wellness, a paradigm shift between the past and a vision projected towards the future.

This was the theme of the first Programme Conference on Tourism held at the end of October, with Chianciano Terme hosting the main Italian associations and federations together with leading tour operators and industry players. An important occasion for Chianciano Terme, thanks to Massimo Caputi, president of Gruppo Terme Italia (the new owner of Terme di Chianciano) and the town’s mayor Andrea Marchetti with the support of regional councillor for tourism Leonardo Marras and Francesco Tapinassi, director of Toscana Promozione.

A fascinating Etruscan museum

With its rich historical and cultural heritage Chianciano Terme is home to one of Italy’s most beautiful Etruscan museums. The Archaeological Museum of Chianciano Terme is a real gem, and a must-see for anyone visiting the renowned spa resort. The museum recounting the Etruscan civilization, is housed in an old granary dating back to the early 19th century and is spread over four floors. 

The Etruscans left little written evidence

"The museum opened in 1997,- explains Roberto Betti, president of the Geo-Archaeological Association, - following a long period of work by our local volunteers. Everything there was found and restored by the volunteers, the aim being to show through the objects and the context who the Etruscans were, as this mysterious people left little written evidence of their civilization.”

A gallery of sacred 13th-19th century Art 

The excavations began is 1986, uncovering a 7th-century B.C. princely tomb that has been reconstructed in the museum’s first room. The tour through the reconstructed Etruscan tombs in the underground cellar is very suggestive, displaying many grave goods and mysterious human-shaped cinerary vessels, called canopic jars. Another important collection, the Museo della Collegiata, reopened last June in collaboration between the Diocese and the Proloco of Chianciano. In the 18th-century Palazzo dell'Arcipretura, the museum houses is a gallery of sacred 13th-19th century art.

Hotel Villa Ricci has a new holistic centre

Tradition, hospitality and innovation are the key ingredients of the historic Hotel Villa Ricci which opened in 1958. "My grandmother Elide started with a guesthouse, welcoming the first tourists. Today we have 90 rooms and have made many investments, inaugurating a 250-seat conference hall in 2006, and in 2008 the Holistic Wellness Centre, which was further enhanced in 2011.""We have clients who return year in year out, and we continue to introduce new products like the Holistic Centre.”  Villa Ricci’s La Coccola restaurant is also popular with non-resident guests and on the menu has a wide choice of traditional and farm-to-fork Tuscan specialties.  

The Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) is one of Rome's legendary attractions and most famous symbols, monolithic marble mask that in 1632 was walled into one of the outside walls of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. The church is just a short walk from the Coliseum and from the central Piazza Venezia Square and the mask, with a bearded face, hollow nose, eyes and mouth is one of the most popular stops on a tour of Rome.  Not so much for its artistic merits, but for the legend that lies behind it and has captured people’s imagination.  

The mask was once a manhole cover

Of course there is more than one legend associated with the mask, but the most popular links it with the gods of water and of the river Tiber which flows close by. Compared to its fame today the mask – which is almost two metres in diameter - this attraction started out life as a very common and simple manhole cover. Which is why scholars favour the theory that the face belongs to a deity linked to the world of water. 

A test for lying merchants

In ancient Rome, in fact, manholes often bore the effigy of river deities, as they “swallowed” rainwater and carried it towards the sea. Another legend would have it that the mask was the cover for a scared well at which Roman merchants swore their honesty when buying and selling. Anyone suspected of telling a lie was put to the test and had his hand put into the mask’s mouth. If he had told a lie the hand, it was said, would be bitten off by the avenging god.  

The mask plays a comic role in William Wyler’s iconic Roman Holiday when Gregory Peck, taking Audrey Hepburn on a Vespa tour the Eternal City, stops at Santa Maria in Cosmedin and has the actress put her hand into the mouth.  Nothing happens to her, but when he puts his hand in he roars in pain, but quickly reveals to the relieved Hepburn that it was only a joke.

The Foro Boario was Rome’s ancient meat market

The mask is in the area of the former Foro Boario, which was Rome’s cattle market, and is a particularly fascinating part of the Eternal City. It has many ancient monuments including the richly decorated Arch of the Argentari, the four-sided the Arch of Janus which must have housed sculptures in its many niches, and the little circular Temple of Hercules Victor. 

The basilica has a beautiful inlaid pavement

Most visitors to the Mouth of Truth as so busy getting their photos taken that they don’t even look inside the church, which is a great pity.  The brick campanile of the basilica is one of the most beautiful in all of Rome and inside it has a very beautiful geometrical inlaid Medieval Cosmatesque stone pavement.  For information: https://www.turismoroma.it

Enna is the navel of Sicily and also Italy’s highest regional capital, a sleepy little medieval town perched on a high plateau at 1,000 metres asl. It is situated in the centre of the island, roughly 130 kilometres southeast of Palermo and 85 northwest of Catania 

It is the only Sicilian province that is landlocked, but with its many nature reserves and the stunning views from the town - especially those of Mount Etna – it leaves a lasting impression on visitors.   The town is in two parts, the historic hilltop town known as Enna Alta and the modern town, Enna Bassa which is below. 

Of the 20 original towers in the old castle only six are left

Narrow, winding streets lead up to the cliff-hanging Norman Lombardy Castle. This was built as a fortress and later embellished by Frederic III of Aragon who transformed it into his summer residence.  Of the 20 towers that protected it only six have survived and from the Torre Pisana, with its crown of crenellations, on a clear day it is possible to see all three of Sicily’s coasts.

The cathedral has a clock tower on the facade

The Via Roma is Enna’s central shopping street and on the main Piazza Vittorio Emanuele square stands a handsome bronze fountain which is a reproduction of Bernini’s 17th century The Rape of Persephone. The Cathedral, built in the 14th century by Queen Eleonora, wife of Frederick III, was Sicily’s first Norman cathedral. It has a handsome façade while inside there are two aisles flanked by massive Corinthian columns, and three apses. 

Enna had seven monumental city gates

The only monumental gate remaining of the original seven old city gates is the Arco Janniscuru. It is located in the middle of a stone staircase along which there are many burial caves dating back to the Neolithic period, including the Grotta della Guardiola which is one of the most important. The Archaeological Museum in Palazzo Varisano shows prehistoric, classical, and medieval finds, and in all has over 1,500 artefacts in its ten rooms. 

A troglodyte village with cave dwellings

The Vallone Canalotto Byzantine village is a few kilometers north of Enna. Dating back to between 535 and 827 A.D. the homes and other troglodyte areas formed a fortress in the rocky outcropping. Today in the caves it is possible to see places of worship, burial rooms and canals that supplied water at different levels.

The Lake Pergusa Nature Reserve has an ancient necropolis

The Lake Pergusa Nature Reserve, some six six kilometres from Enna, is a paradise for birdwatchers. The nearby archeological site of Cozzo Matrice has the remains of  an ancient fortified village with walls dating back to 8000 B.C., the ruins of an ancient temple and a large necropolis. For information: https://www.turismoenna.it