Italy Arts Guide: CIty by CIty Guide to Italy Art Exhibitions

The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

BASSANO DEL GRAPPA - Museo Civico: 22 works by 16th-century master Jacopo da Ponte, show marks 500th anniversary of birth; until June 13.

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Inca, Origins and Mysteries of the Civilisation of Gold; 250 artefacts, until June 27.

CASTELFRANCO VENETO - Casa del Giorgione: home-town show marking 500th anniversary of Giorgione's death; 130 works by Veneto painter and other Renaissance masters including Bellini, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian; until April 11.

COMO - Villa Olmo: Pieter Paul Rubens, 25 works plus 40 by painters of his circle including Van Dyck, Jordaens, Thulden; until July 25:

FERRARA - Palazzo Diamanti: 20th Century Masterpieces from the Maeght Foundation; some 100 works by Matisse, Kandinsky, Chagall, Miro', Leger, Calder, Giacometti, Bonnard, Braque and others who showed their work at the gallery of Aime' Maeght in Paris; until June 2.

FORLI' - Musei di San Domenico: Flowers: Nature and Symbol from the 17th Century to Van Gogh; 100 works from international museums including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Courbet, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Klimt; until June 20.

GENOA - Villa del Principe: Genoa's most celebrated palazzo celebrates its reopening with a show gathering 80 landscapes in the Doria Pamphilij collections including Caravaggio's Rest on the Flight into Egypt; until September 26.

MILAN - Palazzo Reale: Goya and modern masters, 184 works by Spanish great and later artists including Miro', Picasso, Bacon and Pollock; until June 27.

- Triennale: Roy Lichtenstein, 100 works from the Guggenheim, Whitney, Vienna's Moderner Kunst museums; until May 30.

- Palazzo Reale: Egon Schiele and his Viennese contemporaries; 80 works on loan from Vienna's Leopold Museum; until June 6.

NAPLES - six city museums: The Return of the Baroque, 350 works and 27 tours; until April 11.

PARMA - Three city venues show Parma University's huge archive on 20th century Italian art; Palazzo del Governatore (art, photography), Galleria San Ludovico (fashion) and Scuderie della Pilotta (architecture and design), until April 25.

PIACENZA - Fondazione Ricci Oddi: 19th-Century Tuscan Painting, Macchiaioli and beyond, 40 works; until May 2.

POMPEII - Entrance to site: exhibition on city's final day on August 24, AD 79; scale of destruction; history of digs; current risks from Vesuvius; present show until August 1 but will later be part of a permanent display introducing visitors to the site.

RAGUSA - Palazzo Garofalo: Ten Ancient Greek helmets loaned for first time ever by Pergamon Museum in Berlin, some from Olympia, flanked by five similar artefacts hauled up from Sicilian waters and normally on show in regional museums; until April 28.

ROME - Palazzo Massimo: Treasures from Morgantina; 16 ancient Greek masterpieces from southern Italian site returned by Met; until May 23.

- Musei Capitolini: The Age of Conquest: The Lure of Greek Art in Rome; masterpieces looted from Greece between the third and first centuries BC; until September 5.

- Scuderie del Quirinale: Caravaggio, 24 masterpieces from Italy and abroad including Musicians from the Met, Lute Player from the Hermitage, Amor Vincit Omnia from Berlin, Uffizi's Bacchus, David With the Goliath's Head from Borghese, Fruit Bowl from Biblioteca Ambrosiana; till June 13, first of string of events marking 400 years since his death.

- Fondazione Roma Museo: Edward Hopper, 170 works mostly from New York's Whitney Museum including The Sheridan Theatre, New York Interior, Pennsylvania Coal Town, South Carolina Morning, Summer Interior, Morning Sun, Second Story Sunlight, A Woman in the Sun and Girlie Show; until June 13.

- Vittoriano: From Corot to Manet, The Symphony of Nature; 170 Impressionist works including Corbet, Boudin, Pissaro, Sisley; until June 29.

- Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo: The Secret of Marble, Painted Marble From Ascoli Satriano; 11 Ancient Greek works from the ancient city of Ausculum in Apulia including griffins returned by Getty Museum in 2007; until April 18.

ROVERETO - Mart: From the Stage to the Canvas, 200 paintings depicting theatre productions by such artists as David, Delacroix, Fussli, Degas, Ingres and many others; until May 23.

SIENA - Santa Maria della Scala, Opera della Metropolitana and Pinacoteca Nazionale: 'From Jacopo della Quercia to Donatello, Early Renaissance Art in Siena'; 300 works including 20 polyptychs reconstructed for the occasion, 25 restored works, loans from around the world; until July 10.

TIVOLI - Villa Adriana: Show charting rise and fall of Hadrian's Villa; dozens of artefacts returned from collections around the world; until November 1.

TREVISO - Casa dei Carraresi: The Secrets of the Forbidden City, Matteo Ricci at the Ming Court; until May 9.

VIGEVANO - Castello Visconteo: Leonardo da Vinci's output during his time in Lombardy; 'virtual codex' on flying, botany, mathematics, weaponry, astronomy, engineering and architecture; until April 5.

Weather in Italy Today - Fresh Spring Weather perfect for Italy Travel

Beautiful Goa Church

Beautiful Goa Church

Top 10 Most Visited City Destinations in Europe

Before you set off on a backpacking holiday in Europe you will firstly of course have to have a fairly rough idea of which European cities you want to visit on your travels. Although spontaneity is important to a certain extent on any backpacking trip (as you will naturally want to gain new experiences and learn new things), you obviously don’t want to miss out on the best holiday destinations in Europe simply through poor pre planning. If sheer popularity in terms of visitor volume is anything to go by, then the city destinations below must qualify as “must visit” places for any young backpacker during your backpacking holiday around Europe. Listed below are the 10 most frequently visited cities in the continent of Europe - based on visitor numbers.

1. London
2. Paris
3. Rome
4. Barcelona
5. Dublin
6. Madrid
7. Amsterdam
8. Prague
9. Moscow
10. Vienna

Make sure you find the time to visit at least some of these fantastic city destinations on your trip! Remember, this list is compiled purely from visitor volumes - there are also several cities not on this list that I would highly recommend visiting! Please check out my other post to find out my personal thoughts on what are the best city destinations in Europe. My list is compiled slightly differently to this one - but that is simply because I have had a really great time when I have visited other less popular locations and stayed there!

The Large Panama City Beach

The Large Panama City Beach

awesome place for refreshing and relax from stress

The Large Panama City Beach

The Large Panama City Beach

awesome place for refreshing and relax from stress

Be Prepared: Ensure You have the Right Equipment when Backpacking in Europe

When planning any backpacking holiday in Europe a key concern for any traveller will always be what essential clothing and equipment to take with you on your excursion. Now, obviously you have a limited amount of space even in the most spacious and high quality modern rucksacks, plus you will also have to consider what baggage allowance your flight will allow you - so this of course makes packing the right gear for your backpacking destination all the more essential.

If you are thinking of any major hiking or adventure excursions on your trip always ensure you have taken the right quality of equipment and clothing for your trip. You will need a good quality sleeping bag and tent for example if you are considering camping in eastern or central Europe and also in the UK - particularly in winter months - when temperatures can drop well below 0 Celsius even on low ground. Always also take the right maps, head torch, survival bag and a compass and ideally a GPS - plus your mobile phone.

If you plan a backpacking or hiking trip to the more mountainous or hilly areas it is also highly recommended that even in the summer months you pack warm and fully waterproof and windproof clothes. Hats, gloves and good quality water proof clothing from quality brands such as The North Face are all but essential even in summer months in many European locations - but make sure even then you select the correct products for your chosen location as climates can vary greatly across Europe according to your backpacking destination and the seasonal weather conditions of that area of the continent. Always plan in advance and don’t leave anything to chance. If in doubt study the local weather conditions carefully and prepare for the unexpected.

Top 10 Backpacking holiday Destinations in Europe

Well I’ve been spending the last few hours of an excellent bank holiday weekend reminiscing about some of the many great cities I’ve visited across Europe over the past 12 months or so. I’ve managed to drill this down to my personal favourite top 10 backpacking holiday destinations that I would suggest to any young traveller making a trip to Europe - believe me, these are fantastic places to visit that you can’t afford to miss out on. My list is purely based on my own opinions and experiences, and takes into account a wide range of key factors that I felt affected my enjoyment of the locations and destinations the most - such as climate, nightlife, people, tourist attractions, value for money, scenery etc. Anyway here’s the list - please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment on my travel blog or by using the voting panel in the left hand side of the blog.

1. Budapest
2. Krakow
3. Prague
4. Dubrovnik
5. Rome
6. Amsterdam
7. Barcelona
8. London
9. Paris
10. Venice

Please note these are based only on my own experiences and views - please feel free to disagree with me! I also welcome any personal recommendations from your own backpacking holidays about what you believe to be your top 10 best backpacking holiday destinations in Europe - so as always feel free to post here!

Best European Party Destinations for Backpackers: Amsterdam

As any backpacker travelling around Europe will no doubt be aware, Holland’s capital Amsterdam has an excellent reputation of being one of the best European cities for young backpackers to go and party until the early hours – and deservedly so. The city offers up numerous bars where party goers can enjoy some cool pints of Heineken, many great restaurants in which to eat out with your friends and of course the famous coffee shops - such as the Grasshopper. Many of the best bars and coffee shops are located in the infamous Red Light District in the city – a definite eye opener for any young traveller and certainly not for the fainthearted – particularly after daylight hours. Always be safe and stay with friends when visiting this area. During the day the Heineken brewery is a good place to visit during your stay in the city of Amsterdam, and there are also many museums covering a range of tastes and functions from the arts, history of the city, and even a torture museum! If you are on a backpacking holiday in Europe but are limited by a low budget, then a simple stroll along some of Amsterdam’s many canals can be a great way of seeing the city and its beautiful architecture and style that have a unique flavour all of their own - and is in itself a nice way to spend the afternoon in the outdoors when you’ve had a few too many beers the night before and are in need of some fresh air! All in all whether you are backpacking, looking for a fun weekend away in Europe or on a big do with your mates – Amsterdam is undoubtedly the place to go and party in Europe.

Exuberant Genoa - Genova Italy Travel

genova italy travel

Exuberant Genoa - Genova Italy Travel

genova italy travel