In a recent article Catherine Sabino from Forbes explored Italy in an alternative way: she looked at some of the country’s most popular destinations and found lesser-known but equally appealing options for a holiday, or looked at them from an entirely different lens.
Let’s take Venezia, for instance: instead of talking about its artistic and cultural appeal, Sabino wrote about its Lido and the private and public beaches offering respite to visitors after a day of exploration. I mean, if it was good enough a destination for Audrey Hepburn and Aristotle Onassis during the glamorous heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, why shouldn’t it be for us?
Other interesting choices were Lake Maggiore, with its mesmerizing blend of Alpine and tropical landscapes, selected as a refreshing departure from the crowds of Lake Como, or the Tuscan Riviera, to be explored instead of the region’s much more popular and iconic countryside. Similarly, Sabino suggested opting for Liguria’s Riviera di Ponente — the one with San Remo — instead of literary buffs’ favorite Riviera di Levante, known for Porto Venere and Cinque Terre. The author concludes her trip with a visit to Cilento, in Campania, selected instead of the Amalfi Coast, for a quieter but just as charming vacation in the sun.
Sabino’s piece got me thinking: how many times do we take places for granted? And how often do we think we know everything there is to know about a place when in truth, we are only familiar with one single facet of its history and culture?
Let us take Milan, for instance, a city known for its dynamic fashion and finance sectors but often underestimated when it comes to arts and history. Once the capital of the Western Roman Empire, Milan became even more central to the cultural development of the peninsula during the reigns of the Visconti and Sforza dynasties, whose influence is immortalized in the city’s breathtaking architecture and artistic landscape. Thanks to the patronage of these powerful families, Milan became an important center of the Renaissance: it wasn’t certainly by chance that Leonardo ended up here, leaving his mark in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where we can, still today, admire his Ultima Cena. And we shouldn’t forget the Pinacoteca di Brera, which hosts illustrious works by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian, among others, nor the city’s contemporary artistic scene, probably the most lively in Italy.
Moving east from Milan, in the region where Western and Eastern Europe meet, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, we encounter Trieste. Known for its commercial role, especially as part of the Habsburg Empire, the city can also be explored through the lives and legacies of Umberto Saba, Italo Svevo, and James Joyce, three seminal authors of European literature.
Umberto Saba, born in Trieste in 1883, is especially known for his simple yet emotionally profound poetry on love, solitude, and identity. His connection with Trieste deeply influenced his work, particularly Il Canzoniere (The Songbook), which reflects his life and the city’s evolving landscape over fifty years. Trieste’s multicultural atmosphere and its port’s stories became essential elements of inspiration for Saba, whose portrait of Trieste brings together the personal and the historical. Key locations, like his wet nurse’s house in Via del Monte and the Antiquarian Bookshop in Via San Nicolò he frequented, both mentioned in his works, can still be visited today.
Trieste has been the birthplace of another great Italian novelist, Italo Svevo. His work La Coscienza di Zeno (Zeno’s Conscience), delves into psychoanalytic themes, reflecting both his complex relationship with his birthplace and the influence of James Joyce, his friend and mentor, who also resided in Trieste. And indeed, we couldn’t speak about literary Trieste without mentioning him, James Joyce. The multicultural environment of the city contributed to the creation of Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and to the conception of his masterpiece, Ulysses. Trieste’s cafe culture, diverse populace, and its position as a cultural and political crossroads deeply influenced Joyce’s work, particularly his exploration of identity and narrative innovation. There are still plenty of places in town with a deep connection to Joyce, from Piazza Ponte Rosso, where he first resided, to Via della Sanità, where his last home in Trieste is located, as well as places like the Berlitz School and the Stella Polare cafe, where he started writing Finnegan’s Wake.
The city honors its literary giants with statues — Saba’s in Via Dante, and Joyce’s in Via Roma — that are central to literary tours, just like the Museo Sveviano and the Joyce Museum, which also organizes yearly Bloomsday celebrations.
Last but not least, let’s take an alternative look at Florence, the capital of the Renaissance, which, however, also has an important role in the world of fashion, offering a distinct perspective alongside Milan. Home to iconic fashion houses like Gucci, established in 1921 by Guccio Gucci, and Salvatore Ferragamo, founded in 1927 by Salvatore Ferragamo himself, the city has a rich heritage in luxury fashion and is a focal point for important international events like Pitti Immagine, a leading trade show for menswear and contemporary fashion trends. The biannual event, held at the historic Fortezza da Basso, draws a global audience of designers, buyers, and fashion aficionados. The city’s fashion identity is also shaped by its thriving artisanal tradition, with workshops and ateliers specializing in leather, shoemaking, tailoring, and textile design.
As you can see, Catherine Sabino made a fair and interesting point: there is so much to explore and learn behind every single place we visit. It’s up to us to discover the hidden and lesser-known and, who knows, perhaps discover more about ourselves while we are at it.
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