Personalise your travel to Italy with a theme to suit your specific interests.
Cultural travel is catered for in in-depth group tours or by individual arrangement even for a half day with specialist companies.
You can experience your preferred activity from a single day to as long as your holiday, from hiking or biking hidden trails, to cooking and painting courses, pottery and ceramics painting, truffle hunting, fishing and more. Day activities include wine tastings, cooking lessons, accompanied walks of naturalistic or cultural pursuits, gourmet itineraries to name but a few.
For specialist UK agents, please contact the Italian State Tourist Board.

GREAT GARDEN TOURS
Living works of art, evidence of our love for nature, beauty and art. You can visit privately-owned gardens from North to South of our peninsula not normally open to the public, where the actual owners and other experts will reveal their treasures.
You will see splendid floral arrangements; discover history, architecture and rare exotic plants grown with passion in these jewels of our artistic patrimony. You can visit specialised garden centres and flower shows accompanied by the best guides in the subject. e-mail: info@grandigiardini.it
For information: www.grandigiardini.it

SHOPPING
Great stockists outlets Personal shoppers Quality and value for money: the best combination in Italy in many ways! In recent years a fashion in itself is developing through the industry of stockists outlets. Many are located near the major cities of Milan and Florence, but also in other regions where the actual factories are located, namely, in Abruzzo, Marche, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont and Veneto.
A personal shopper can make it all happen in the shortest time, between High Street shopping and stockists outlets. You can obtain information at your hotel of stay or local tourist board.
For specialist UK agents, please contact the Italian State Tourist Board.

PERFORMING ARTS AND OTHER EVENTS
PRE-BOOKABLE TICKETS Jazz, Opera, Ballet, Concerts and Theatre, Traditional Pageants, Calcio Storico, the Palio and the Carnival. Italian Serie A Football, Six Nations Rugby in Rome. Formula One Monza and San Marino Gran Prix For ticket agencies in the UK, please contact the Italian State Tourist Board. You can also write directly to the venue or ask your travel agent if they can obtain them through representatives in Italy.
Hotel managements will also assist their guests in obtaining tickets for events in their cities. Usually a request for tickets must be accompanied by the relative amount due. Tickets are not generally posted from Italy, but held at the box office.
MOST OPERA HOUSES, CONCERT HALLS AND FESTIVALS ACCEPT BOOKING OF TICKETS AND PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD THROUGH THEIR WEBSITES.

JAZZ
IJFO: International Jazz Festivals Organisation
Piazza Danti, 28, 06122 Perugia
Tel. +39 075 5732432 Fax. +39 075 5722656
e-mail: info@umbriajazz.com
www.ijfo.org or www.umbriajazz.com
Pescara Pescara Jazz Festival – July 2008
Teatro D’Annunzio Lungomare C. Colombo 122,
65126 Pescara. Tel. +39 085 693093
www.pescarajazz.com info@pescarajazz.com
Umbria Jazz Festival Perugia Umbria Jazz –11-20 July 2008-
Associazione Umbria Jazz, P.O. Box 228, 06100 Perugia .
Tel. +39 075 5732432 Fax +39 075 5722656
e-mail: info@umbriajazz.com
www.umbriajazz.com
Verona Verona Jazz Festival – mid/end June
Tel. +39 045 8077201 (open 09.00-13.00 and 16.00-19.00)
e-mail: spettacolo@comune.verona.it
www.estateteatraleveronese.it

CONCERTS AND BALLET
Major symphonic cycles and recitals are organized at all times of the year by music conservatories, associations and clubs with the participation of world famous artists. Most major opera houses have symphonic concert seasons and ballet seasons. A famous International Ballet Festival is held at Nervi, near Genoa, in July.

OPERA
Italy’s opera ancestral home offers visitors a rich choice of operatic seasons throughout most of the year. The Teatro alla Scala of Milan, the Teatro San Carlo of Naples and the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome are world-renowned for technical perfection of performance and detailed magnificence of scenery and costumes. Their opera season lasts normally from December to June, as do the seasons in Italy’s other major opera houses: Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Teatro Regio, Parma; Teatro Comunale, Florence; Teatro Vincenzo Bellini, Catania; Teatro Comunale, Bologna; Teatro Comunale Verdi, Trieste; Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa; Teatro Regio, Turin; Teatro Lirico, Cagliari. Shorter seasons are presented by the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Busseto, the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia and other theatrs in Italy’s smaller cities.
In the summer, spectacular open-air opera is presented at the Arena in Verona (June/August), Teatro all’aperto Puccini in Torre del Lago near Lucca (July/August), the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata (July/August) and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (June/August). During July and August the Teatro Rossetti in Trieste presents an Operetta Festival.
The most important Italian festivals of the performing arts are the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (opera, concerts, ballet, drama) in Florence (Apr to July), the Festival of Two Worlds (opera, concerts, ballet, drama, art exhibitions) in Spoleto (mid-June to mid-July), the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (August), the Ravenna Festival (June/July) and the Opera Festival in Martina Franca in Apulia (end July/August).