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Ciao! Are you someone who would love to meet locals in Italy? At Creative Edge Travel, we think meeting locals is the #1 secret to more meaningful travel and opening yourself up to unexpected opportunities. I’m so excited to announce our Locals in Italy series where we’ll be introducing our personal friends and partners so you can learn about their cultural traditions, try recipes right from their kitchens, and explore everyday life in Italy through the eyes of a local! Simon

I learned to live like Italians, in Italian time (+/- 15-20 minutes… or sometimes an hour), with that famous easy-going Italian attitude...

When it comes to romance, Italy is probably the country most associated with passionate lovers, breathtaking scenery, and movie-moment experiences like riding in gondola in Venice or clinging to your special someone on a Vespa with the wind in your hair. Each city in Italy has worthy claims to being the most romantic, but only one can claim the true story of Romeo and Juliet- and that’s pretty hard to beat! In the beautiful city of Verona, you can gaze upon Juliet’s supposed

I’m sure you know that as a traditionally Catholic nation, Italy follows the tradition of Lent, or in Italian, Quaresima . BUT did you know that Mexico isn’t the only country with piñatas? Italy has them, too! And did you know that Italians cut old ladies in half in a tradition that started dying out about 15 years ago? What on earth do all these things have to do with each other? This is going to take some explaining, but just stick with me here- I promise it will be well wo

How to find the best gelato when traveling in Italy..that is the question! “But..isn’t all gelato good?!” you might ask. Ah…my wee one, you’ve yet a lot to learn! Yes, I suppose on some level, cold creamy sweetness is always good. But once you taste the real gelato, you won’t want to waste a single scoop on “mediocre”. Here are 5 ways to make sure you’re getting the best gelato while wandering about Italy. (You should probably start taking those notes now…). 1. If it’s a mile

At Creative Edge, we love learning about really unique and interesting cultural traditions- and trust us, there are some very unusual ones-… like the small town in Southern Italy that dresses up real [dead] chickens in little outfits with politically-satirical speech bubbles (yes, this is a real thing- google “Sagra del Pollo Castellana Grotte”). Coming from the same region (and in fact, the same town) is La Notte de I Fanòve, celebrated the night of January 11 in Castellana

I’m currently living in Florence on a constant lookout for off-the-beaten-path Italian experiences. But like, experiences experiences. The kind that you can’t wait to tell people about but when you do, you quickly realize it’s no use– they weren’t there and they can’t fully understand the level of raw beauty you’re trying to convey. On a recent day trip to a village called Anghiari, I fell upon one of those experiences. It was really more like falling upon one of those peop

I want to tell you about sitting down to a plate of donkey with locals in Mantova last night. You read that right, donkey. ​​ It was my last night in Mantova, a town known for its majestic governmental palaces from the Renaissance, and I wanted to take myself out for a glass of wine to soak in the local aperitivo culture. I chose a bar that was intimate and lively, with well-dressed people standing in small groups around the bar and flowing to the tables outside (despite the