Shanghai Daily Wednesday 15 July 2015 FEATURE B3

Experience a taste of la dolce vita

“...any visit should include a stay in Rome. Speaking as a proud Italian, I believe that our capital is among the most beautiful cities in the world.

Consul General of Italy in Shanghai

My COUNTRY

This is the year of the Milan Expo — so the famed city in northern Italy is the place to be!

I’d advise everybody to visit Milan Expo 2015, which opened in May. The expo area covers a million square me-ters, including 130,000 meters covered by pavilions from 145 states, representing 94 percent of the world’s population. The site also features 12,000 trees.

Milan Expo 2015 runs until October 31. For the latest infor-mation go to www.expo2015.org or download the iPhone or Android app.

But once you’re in Italy for the expo, there are many other places you ought to visit.

In Venice, you can go to the house of Marco Polo and visit the Accademia Gallery, which has an unbelievable painting collection, and you can also see Palazzo Ducale (The Doge’s Palace), where there is an amazing collection of artworks and historical artefacts from China.

If you go to Florence, you should visit the Uffizi Muse-um, one of the most beautiful museums in the world, where

you can find amazing works by Renaissance giants Botticel-li, Michelangelo and Raphael.

And of course, any visit should include a stay in Rome. Speaking as a proud Italian, I believe that our capital is among the most beautiful cit-ies in the world. It’s filled with amazing antiquities from the Roman empire, like the Colos-seum and the Forum, plus many other landmark sites, including the Vatican.

The Borghese Gallery is one of the world’s most beautiful museums. In a setting steeped in history, you can admire famous works by artists including sculptor Antonio Canova.

Of course, Italy is not only famed for its beauty but also its food — which for an authentic taste should feature the best quality ingredients, though needn’t cost a fortune.

Each region has its own specialties. Venice, for example has lots of fish dishes, while in Bologna you should try Parma ham, tortellini and ragu sauce.

Wine also varies from region to region and a vineyard visit is recommended. In Italy we

have 400,000 wine produc-ers cultivating 4,000 kind of grapes. To put this in context, some other renowned Euro-pean wine producing countries only cultivate 15 varieties.

Lovers of the grape will find no better place to explore than Italy, where wine-making is so steeped in tradition. In Flor-ence, the Frescobaldi family have been making wine with-out interruption for 750 years, while the Antinori and Mazzei families have been doing so since 1420.

I doubt there is another place in the world where you can find a family still produc-ing wine without interruption for so many centuries.

Chinese citizens planning to travel to Italy need a visa. Last year, the Italian Consulate in Shanghai issued 111,000 visas and this year, because of the expo, we’ve doubled the size of the visa section so we may eas-ily double the number issued.

It normally takes us 36 hours to issue a Schengen visa for travel in 26 European countries.

So come and visit Italy and experience la dolce vita!

Roam around Rome in 48 hours

DAY 1A first visit to Rome must

include the Colosseum, the Impe-

rial Fora and St Mark’s Square,

also known as Piazza Venezia.

Enter at Altar of the Fatherland,

or II Vittoriano, to enjoy the views

from the cafe on the terrace.

Continuing on Via del Corso, the

main street of central Rome and

the fashion street of Via Condotti,

which is an excellent place to

stock up on luxury brands such

as Prada, Dior, Tods and Fer-

ragamo. At Piazza di Spagna,

the square featured in the film

“Roman Holiday” where Princess

Ann (Audrey Hepburn) bought

flowers and ice cream, you can

eat at Gina or continue on Via del

Corso and have lunch at Gusto

in a side street. For both restau-

rants, reservations are strongly

recommended.

Dining options for later in the

Trastevere area include having

an aperitif at Freni e Frizioni, and

dinner at Sicilia in Bocca, or at

Pizzeria ai Marmi — also called

Dal Cassamortaro.

For those who have already

visited Rome, check out Pigneto,

one of the most hip districts in

the city. For an aperitif go to at Da

Necci 1924 and have dinner at

Primo al Pigneto.

Also strongly recommended is

the pizza of the pizzaiolo Bonci

at Pizzarium or you can have the

burger at Open Baladin.

Left: Piazza di Spagna, the

square featured in the film

“Roman Holiday” where

Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn)

bought flowers and ice cream.

For the second day, you can

visit St Peter’s Basilica and the

Vatican Museum. Reserving tick-

ets through www.rome-museum.

com is strongly recommended.

From there you can go along Via

del Governo Vecchio visiting the

bijoux stores, vintage clothes

shops and eateries, before you

arrive the Baroque-style square

Piazza Navona and Campo de’

Fiori, or Field of Flowers at its

south. Another place for a leisure

stroll is the Mercato Monti.

For fans of architecture, visit

the Maxxi Museum designed by

Zaha Hadid, Museum of Modern

Art in Rome (MARCO) or Sta-

dium of the Marbles, the Rome

auditorium Parco della Musica

and Ponte della Musica, the

bridge that cross the river Tiber in

Flaminio district. Another option

is the Palazzo delle Esposizioni,

Rome’s largest exhibition center

on Via Nazionale (National Street).

After all that culture you can

take a well-earned drink in Open

Colona, on the terrace of the ex-

hibition center.

If you want to buy Italian

fabric, go to Longo on Piazza

dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, a

square at the center of the old

Jewish ghetto. Head to Giolitti

or Fassi for a bite of gelato, the

Italian ice cream.

DAY 2

Gelato, the Italian ice cream

Above: The Vatican Museum