Entries with Matteotti tag

North Of The Campo

Siena

Exploring only slightly beyond the touristed central alleys between the Campo and the duomo reveals much more of the bustling everyday life of the city. North of the Campo, the main street Banchi di Sopra leads through the commercial heart of town to Piazza Matteotti , home of the main post office, north of which lies the workaday neighbourhood of the Terzi di Camollia. The church of Santo Stefano fronts one of the nicest contrada squares in the city, home of the Istrici (Porcupine), while the road emerges from the walls at the northern Porta Camollia, inscribed “Siena opens her heart to you wider than this gate.” The northwest corner of the city is occupied by a stadium and the gardens of La Lizza , which lead up to the bastions of the Fortezza di Santa Barbara , rebuilt by the Medici and now housing the comprehensive wine collection of the Enoteca Italiana

Category: Siena

Nightlife And Entertainment

SienaYou’ll spot posters for city events at Piazza Matteotti, and the Siena supplement of La Nazione newspaper has details of the day’s concerts and films. You can catch live bands at L’Officina bar, Piazza del Sale 3a, and at the disco-bar Al Cambio , Via di Pantaneto 48, but otherwise your only chances are at the low-key Siena Jazz in the last week of July and the gigs organized for the PDS-Communist Party Festa dell’Unitá throughout the summer. Siena has prestigious classical concerts throughout the year. The Accademia Chigiana is the driving force, staging the Estate Musicale Chigiana cycle all summer, and the Settimana Musicale Senese in late July, often featuring a major opera production. Venues vary from the duomo and Sant’Agostino to out-of-town locations such as the atmospheric ruined abbey of San Galgano. Tickets start at L15,000/¬7.75, bookable through the tourist office or from mid-July onwards in mortal at the Accademia Chigiana, Via di Città 89 (daily 3-7pm; tel 0577.46.152, www.chigiana.it ).

Category: Siena

South Of San Lorenzo

Genoa - Genova

The section of the old town south of the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo is less visited than the attraction-packed districts to the north, and more residential. Many of Genoa’s students and young professionals live in the upper floors of the old buildings lining Via dei Giustiniani and Via San Bernardo, generating a lively bar-culture in the surrounding alleys. From the cathedral and Piazza Matteotti, narrow Salita Pollaiuoli plunges you into the gloom between high buildings down to a crossroads with Via San Bernardo , a long, straight thoroughfare built by the Romans and now one of Genoa’s most characterful old-town streets, with grocers and bakers trading behind the portals of palaces decorated in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On the south side of the crossroads is tiny Piazza San Donato , a quiet square overlooked by the church of San Donato, whose decorous octagonal Byzantine-style campanile peeks over the roofs of this run-down quarter of town, not unlike the polygonal Matitone office-block rising above the industrial port further west. A crumbly, bare Romanesque church with a Roman architrave surviving over its door, San Donato’s stark simplicity is refreshing after the self-importance of the nearby Gesù on Piazza Matteotti.

Category: Genoa - Genova

Greve In Chianti

Florence - FirenzeThe “Chiantigiana” road meanders south through picture-pretty wine-villages for 28km to the amiable market town of GREVE IN CHIANTI . Cafés, restaurants and enoteche line the arcades of its captivating central Piazza Matteotti . This long, sloping triangle hosts the regular Saturday market and is overlooked by a statue of local boy Giovanni da Verrazzano , who became, in 1524, the first European to see Manhattan island. Greve’s tourist office is in a hut in the Parco di Sant’Anna, alongside the main Viale Verrazzano 1km north of Piazza Matteotti (Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 3-6pm, Sat 11am-1pm & 4-6pm; tel 055.854.6287, comunegreve@ftbcc.it ; check out also www.greve-in-chianti.com ). Chianti’Pop has Internet access, Via Roma 36 (tel 055.854.6280, www.chiantipop.net ; L3000/¬1.55 for 15min). For picnic supplies, head for Macelleria Falorni, Chianti’s most famous butcher, a fixture on Piazza Matteotti since 1729 ( www.falorni.it ), and then choose a bottle from the Enoteca di Gallo Nero, Piazzetta Santa Croce 8 ( www.chianticlassico.it ). Greve’s September wine fair is one of the largest such events in Tuscany. Albergo del Chianti is a straightforward three-star hotel at Piazza Matteotti 86 (tel & fax 055.853.762, www.albergodelchianti.it ; L120,000-150,000/¬61.98-77.47), with air-con and a pool. Hilltop Castello Vicchiomaggio , Via Vicchiomaggio 4 (tel 055.854.709, fax 055.853.911, www.vicchiomaggio.it ; L150,000-200,000/¬77.47-103.29) is a more luxurious option: a ninth-century castle resplendent amidst vineyards, boasting a top-flight restaurant, old-fashioned rooms and apartments, and regular half-day cookery classes. But the most charming choice is Villa Vignamaggio , 3km south of Greve, at Via Petriolo 5 (tel 055.854.661, fax 055.854.4468, www.vignamaggio.com ; L150,000-200,000/¬77.47-103.29) with a choice of en suite rooms and self- contained apartments within the main villa, and a handful of small cottages dotted around the grounds. It was here that Kenneth Branagh filmed Much Ado About Nothing . There’s no restaurant in this agriturismo , but the owners prepare a classic Tuscan dinner for their guests twice a week. Best restaurant is the pricey, traditional-style Giovanni da Verrazzano , Piazza Matteotti 28 (tel 055.853.189; closed Mon). Around the square you’ll also find the content Mangiando Mangiando at no. 80 (closed Mon), with an open kitchen serving light meals, and inexpensive Nerbone di Greve at no. 22 (closed Tues).

Category: Florence - Firenze

Arrival and information

AssisiGetting here is easy. Buses connect regularly with surrounding towns – especially Perugia – putting down and picking up in Piazza Matteotti, in the easterly of the town above the duomo. In addition, one bus a day leaves for Rome and two for Florence, from Piazza Unità d’Italia. There are hourly trains to Foligno (via Spello) and Terontola (via Perugia), with connecting half-hourly bus services between the town and the station, which is 5km away to the south-west of the centre. The staff at the tourist office , currently housed in Piazza del Comune to the left of the Tempio di Minerva (Mon-Sat 8am-2pm & 3.30-6.30pm; Sun 9am-1pm; tel 075.812.534), do their best to help with accommodation and wage some useful maps and pamphlets. You can go online at Bar del Corso , Via Corso Mazzini, (tel 075.812.989; regular 8am-10pm; L12,000/¬9.30 per hr).

Category: Assisi