Travel

/

Home & Leisure

What's new in Italy and Spain for 2015

By Rick Steves, Tribune Content Agency on

Spain and Italy are working hard to accommodate hordes of travelers hungry to experience their delightful cultures.

The big news in Florence is the food scene. The steel-and-glass Central Market has undergone an exciting resurgence. The top floor is now an inviting, upscale food court, and several of the restaurants stay open late. On the ground floor of the market, vendors still sell meat, fish, and produce. The open-air San Lorenzo Market, whose stalls used to surround the Church of San Lorenzo, still sprawls down the streets ringing Central Market.

Florence now has an EATaly, part of a growing chain of foodie mini-malls that are popping up in big Italian cities. The slick, modern mall has a gelato counter, pastry shop, gourmet grocery store (with kitchen gadgets), and a cluster of food counters serving pastas and pizzas, main dishes, and daily specials.

On the art scene, Florence's Duomo Museum, with works by Michelangelo and Donatello, is closed for renovation until November 2015.

In Siena, the Santa Maria della Scala museum is open after an extensive renovation, displaying some of the most ancient Byzantine reliquaries in existence -- many made of gold, silver, and precious stones. And a new section covers Siena's history.

In Padua, you can get 40 minutes inside the Scrovegni Chapel to view Giotto's marvelous frescoes (instead of the usual 20 minutes), if you pay 4 euros extra and visit during evening hours.

 

If you want to see Bolzano's Otzi the Iceman -- the hiker found entombed in a glacier for 5,000 years -- without getting buried in lines, buy your ticket online at least one day in advance, print it, and bring it with you to the archaeological museum (www.iceman.it).

If you're Romeward-bound, book your hotel room and Vatican Museum tickets early. Pope Francis is a big draw -- and, as anywhere, with crowds come pickpockets. Beware of any commotion -- even caused by children and pregnant women -- in the Metro and anywhere crowds form. Wear a money belt.

In ancient Rome, the southern part of the boulevard, Via dei Fori Imperiali, near the Colosseum has reopened to traffic. For a while in 2014, the road was a pedestrian zone on weekends and only open to buses, taxis, and bikes on weekdays.

Across the Mediterranean, throughout Spain's Catalunya region and particularly in Barcelona, restaurant menus have traditionally been in Spanish and Catalan, but these days -- with the feisty spirit of Catalan independence stoked -- you'll often find menus in Catalan and English without Spanish.

...continued

swipe to next page

(c)2014 RICK STEVES DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

Comics

Pedro X. Molina Mike Smith Phil Hands Breaking Cat News Adam Zyglis Marshall Ramsey