Tag Archives: Italy

Cool Venice Apartment: chilled Cannaregio

9 Mar

lounge & dining area @ cool venice apartment (Image by HWL)

Searching for accommodation in Venice meant wading through websites offering a fearful combination of the fussy, the twee and the bland. Then, somehow, we stumbled across the self-described ‘Cool Venice Apartment’ on Facebook. Set in the Cannaregio district of Venice (a five minute walk from Ca d’Oro), the apartment is owned by a group of like-minded friends who pooled together for a two-bedroom pad in Venice. (And why wouldn’t you?)

Great things about the location – Venice is tiny so once you get your head around the maze factor everything is within walking distance. For us it made sense to steer clear of the heavily touristed San Marco and set ourselves up near useful things such as a bakery, supermarket, well-priced cicheti bars and some of Venice’s best restaurants!  Staying around here will also enable you to soak up the neighbourhood atmosphere without too much danger of being elbowed by tour groups over breakfast.

textures: ceiling beams, terrazzo & arched windows (Image: HWL)

Traditional Venetian flats are set over three floors – the first floor is essentially an entry way/storage area with staircase (left vacant presumably as a flood precaution), second floor is the living area and the third floor is for bedrooms. In this case the flat occupies only the first two floors, but is nonetheless extremely generous in size. While the master bedroom is a bit bigger with more clothes storage the second bedroom (with twin beds) is very light and spacious so there’s really no need for anyone to feel like they’ve drawn the short straw. The flat has lovely views from most rooms, the kitchen is well-equipped, and the bathroom has a jacuzzi (noisy, but after all that walking around its worth a try at least once).

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Pins & Needles: Urban Graffiti in Italy

26 Oct

Rethinking the urban landscape in Grottaglie, Italy (Image by HWL)

Sometimes simple is simply good. We just came across this video depicting an obscure installation by street artists Brad Downey and Akay… For the Fame Festival 2011 in Grottaglie, Italy, this year, they created a myriad of playful artworks, including a pasta curtain, a Tipping Point paint-meets-donimo effect street painting, shenanigans involving brooms and the deletion of cars (now that’s the kind of Tidy Town campaign we’d like to see more of). Hope you enjoy their little video for more details, see the FAME blog page here.

BTW Brad Downey and Akay’s tipping point installation reminds of this bit of shenanigans by the veteran Swiss artist Roman Signer. For the surreal and mechanically minded, it’s a cracker.

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Escapade in Puglia, Italy

27 Jul

Double room, at Masseria Don Cirillo, in Puglia. (Image by HWL)

In the boot heel of southern Italy, pre-war Puglia was known for its desperate poverty. Post-war it’s better known for its polluting power stations. Nonetheless it is beautiful in a savage kind of way, and your chances of encountering shoals of Englishmen baffingly dressed in white suits and panama hats are fairly low. Touristic perks include lovely whitewashed villages (Ostuni, Martina Franca, UNESCO-heritage listed Alberobello) and the coast opening onto the Adriatic and the Ionian seas.

This post was written primarily for people looking for places to stay or visit during – or after – the street/graffiti art FAME Festival in Grottaglie so entries are listed according to their proximity to the town – however you can ignore the Grottaglie references and just pluck out the bits relevant to your own Puglian escapade. We got tired writing it up, so we’ve slacked off and popped some of the text into captions. Click onto the pics to connect to the relevant website. (Click here for accomodation etc in Grottaglie.)

Puglia is famous for its trulli houses which are round and cute with conical roofs – very Lord of the Rings. There are historic explanations for these mortar-less constructions involving cruel lords, high taxation and long-suffering peasantry, but we’re not sure if they’re true. Within a half-hour’s drive of Grottaglie you’ll find these two.

Martina Franca: Perhaps the interiors are not quite as artistic as the suggestion following, but it is inviting and has good reviews about the home & host. It sleeps four & has a lovely garden setting. It’s 19km to Grottaglie, 3km to Martina Franca.

Puglia Trullo: This two-bedroom trulli house has a minimum stay of one week – but there’s no charge for extra guests (it has a couple of inviting looking couch/day-beds). Ideal if you want to split the rent with friends (or recruit some) & use it as a base to explore the area once the festival is over. Looks kind of homey & would lend itself to dinner parties with lots of lovely local produce. It’s 22km to Grottaglie, 3km to Martina Franca, 20mins to the sea.

Alberobello: A cute UNESCO heritage listed village populated with trulli houses that have largely been converted into souvenir shops. The whole thing has a Disney-esque theme park vibe, but it’s still a rather pleasant day-trip. We had one of the best meals of Puglia here at Ristorante La Cantina (Vico Lippolis, 8). The entry way is slathered with restaurant guide stickers and now we know why. In a town where it would be all too easy to serve up over-priced codswallop to the tourist crowd, La Cantina takes immense pride in its produce. We loved their version of the local specialies such as fave a cicoria (chicory with mashed broad beans) and orricchiette served with walnuts and greens. Meals are served in a downstairs cavern-type situation with an open kitchen where we watched the chefs painstakingly placing grapes on a tart, alas we couldn’t wait until it was finished.

Cute as a goddamn retro button! Ristorante La Cantina & Vespa in Alberobello. (Image by HWL)

Casa Albergo Sant’ Antonio: If you want to sleep in Alberobello, a simple yet atmospheric option is a former monastery on the hill situated around a courtyard garden. The rooms have a spartan yet pleasing feel (terracotta flooring, wooden-shuttered windows, plain linens) appropriate to its former use hosting young priests on holiday. (Anyone for badminton?) The manager offers a warm and multi-lingual welcome.

Some of the most atmospheric places to stay in Puglia are converted masserias – fortified farmhouses – turned into guesthouses. Here’s a couple of  chic yet reasonably priced options that are around 45 minutes to two hours from Grottaglie.  Note: all photos are of standard double rooms.

Masseria Alchimia: whitewashed masseria gets a minimalist make-over with dollops of Eames & a whiff of Ronchamp. This is the standard room which has a little kitchenette for basic self-catering. Also features artwork by local & international artists. It's near the sea, about 3km to Fasano, 1hr to Grottaglie. Well priced!

Standard room at Studio 68: hipster hotel in Lecce. Puglia’s largest city, Lecce, has a beautiful old quarter & one of the area’s best accommodation options. Studio 68 offers boho-chic, roof-top terrace & a cool vibe. In keeping with the region, rates are fair starting at €80/100 with breakfast. They’ll also lend you a bike. (Hot dang!) Day-trippers to Lecce can head to Il Caffè di Liberrima (Corte dei Cicala) for coffee, apero, post-card writing etc.

Borgo San Marco: a 15th century masseria converted into a bohemian-friendly guest house complete with swimming pool. Great place to chill. Located about 50km from Grottaglie, just outside of Fasano. Bring your sketch-book.

Masseria Don Cirillo (as illustrated at top): Simple, rustic rooms in lovely gardens with a swimming pool. Breakfast is served on the terrace or in your room if you're feeling lazy. Located off the high-way near the coast 35min to Gallipoli, 2hrs to Grottaglie. The excellent restaurant http://www.MulinoDiAlcantara is near-by. (Image by HWL)

For sea-side jaunts head to Gallipoli, an atmospheric village on the Ionian sea. The water looks stunning though last time we were there, the beach front had been partly colonised by rusting scaffolding (suggesting it may be around for a while) and someone had helpfully piled some rubbish (televisions, mattresses etc) ito the middle of the beach. (As you do.) No, it wasn’t an art installation, more’s the pity. Moving right along, take in the fantastic views from one of the water-front cafes, but stick to drinks unless you are in the mood for banal food, dismal service and bus tours. For lunch and dinner we recommend, La Puritate, a traditional restaurant in the mid-range price category. Even if you don’t score the best table, the seafood antipasto is just divine and the service is excellent. Reservations recommended. (Via Sant’Elia 18. Tel: 0833/264205.)

Sea-side hi-jinx at Gallipoli (Image by HWL)

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FAME Festival: guide to the epicentre of street art

22 Jul

Street artist Erica al Cane offers a delightfully unlikely interpretation of a symbiotic relationship (Image by HWL)

We’re in a run-down house put to artistic use in a large garden populated by mud and odd bits of broken glass. A sort of mosh-pit has formed under the veranda where Angelo Milano, covered in glitter like a grunge version of Gold Finger, is spinning like a demented top while the crowd thrashes out – bemusingly – to re-mixes of 90′s dance hits. Above us, a very big, very pink cartoonish penis has been spray-painted across the ceiling. The overall ambiance is akin to a fertility rite as imagined by Keith Haring and manifested in Italy via Google translator. The location is Studio Cromie, Grottaglie, Italy, an unlikely epicentre of street art. The occasion, closing night of the FAME Festival which had begun oh-so-civilly with a gallery opening and dinner hosted at Milano’s grandfather’s house.

Nunca predicts the Euro fall-out in Grottaglie (Image by HWL)

Founded by Angelo Milano of Studio Cromie, FAME references both the Warholian 15 minutes and the Italian word for ‘Hunger’; particularly pertinent in this historically poverty-stricken part of southern Italy that still falters behind the prosperous north.

In the lead-up to the festival in September, the elite of the world’s street artists descend on Grottaglie to paint the walls of neglected buildings, apartment blocks and laneways in the historic quarter, transforming it into a maze of art, Big Ideas, strange tales, satirical jokes and unexpected presences. The festival centres around a gallery exhibition where attendees can purchase tangible artworks, chiefly prints, which helps fund the festival and keeps Studio Cromie ticking over. (If you can’t make it to the festival prints are available for purchase online and obviously the street murals are open all year around.)

Work by British street artist Lucy McLauchlin at FAME Festival gallery, 2010. (Image by HWL)

ARTISTS: This year you can expect to see Italian artists BLU, superstar of the scene, Erica al Cane  whose animal-themed works are incredibly cute and twisty and 108. The Euro contingent includes the witty and incisive ESCIF, wall-sculptor Vhils and the German artist Boris Hoppek. Brits include Word to Mother and the lovely Lucy McLauchlan (last year her works so pleased the neighbours that they bought her drinks and snacks while she worked). Also keep your eyes peeled for US paste-up star Swoon and the geometrically inclined Momo. See the FAME Festival website for a complete list.

Street artists Ben Ellis & Blu at the Monastery (Image by HWL)

TIPS: The festival is fairly organic so keep your eyes open and follow the crowd. In the event that you miss something crucial, e.g. the address for the closing party, try this technique: drive/walk around Grottaglie looking for hipsters and when you find some, just ask where the party is! (Grottaglie is a small town. ) Anyone wanting to visit the festival should check out the FAME Festival website but based on our experience, we thought we’d pull together some of the gaps with a bit of a travel guide for the uninitiated.

GET AROUND: The art is spread across the city and Grottaglie doesn’t do public transport. Plenty of people explore the murals on foot, but there’s no doubt that having a car will speed things up and also enable you to do some regional tourism. We rented a Fiat 500 and it was perfect for the region’s winding laneways. (Regional tourism lures include cutsie whitewashed villages, such as Ostuni and Martina Franca nearby, and beautiful coastline villages such as Gallipoli. Also note food is unbelievably good and cheap.) Failing that, a bike is a good compromise. (See here for info train travel in Italy with a bike.) The nearest international airports are Brindisi and Bari.

LOOK AT ART: Studio Cromie makes a handy little map to the town’s street art which you can collect from the gallery on the opening night.  (Bottega Papocchia, Via Caravaggio, Ceramics Quarter, Map link: here.)

Conor Harrington at the Monastery, Grottaglie, Italy (Image by HWL)

The spooky rambling Monastery on the edge of town has inspired some amazing art (watch our Monastery video) but can be tricky to find.

Look for a big red building up on the hill off Via 25 Luglio on your right hand side. It has a sign ‘Instituti Provinciali di Benificenza’ which you can glimpse on this map link: here.)

EAT & DRINK: Note that restaurant hours across Puglia are disconcertingly short – arrive too late and you’ll go hungry (arrive respectively by 1pm/8pm for lunch/dinner). This is particularly unfortunate at lunchtime when all the shops close for the afternoon siesta thus dashing your dreams of a quick bakery run.

Roadtesting Osteria Il Piatto Reale Enoteca (We went back for more!)

Osteria Il Piatto Reale Enoteca: traditional family run joint with friendly service and excellent regional cuisine at reasonable (mid-market) prices. It’s extremely popular for Sunday lunch so book ahead, or be prepared to queue for hours – seated guests will go the full three-courses and then linger over the coffee while your tummy growls. (Via Cavour, 13, Grottaglie. Closed Wednesdays.)

Pizzeria il Forno: Excellent cheap pizza (from €6) in an enormous, rustic barn-like room. It’s very popular with families on a Friday and Saturday night (and why wouldn’t it be?) so arrive early for a quick bite or book in advance. (Via Sicilia, 14/Via Foggia, 12. Tel: 099-5638-927. Closed Tuesdays. May be closed at lunchtime.)

A homely atmosphere at Pizzeria il Forno, unless you are a pig. (Image by HWL)

Caffè-Libreria Nomine Rosae: An atypically minimalist arty book store meets drinkery with pared back wood interior and bright red chairs. This is where to find the cool crowd. (Via Risorgimento, 5-7, Centro Storico.)

Vine Caffe’ Di De Giorgio Maria: a typical low-key joint to grab coffee or drinks in thee historic quarter – in good weather you can enjoy the terrace on the plaza.(Piazza Regina Margherita, 16, next to the Salita Immacolta church. Map ref: here.)

SLEEP: Grottaglie isn’t tourist central, so the level of accommodation is not as exciting as that available in some of the more scenic villages elsewhere (eg: Ostuni, Martina Franca). However, if you don’t have a car – or even if you do – it’s definitely the most convenient option for festival go-ers. On the upside, the pricing is very reasonable  starting from €35/40 for a single room.

Il Bato B&B, Grottaglie

Il Bato B&B: A characterful 18th century house (pictured above) featuring locally made ceramics and materials (we like the looks of the antique floor tiles). It’s situated behind a church in the historic quarter, is very reasonably priced and has free wi-fi. We didn’t stay there, but this could be the pick of the bunch.

Sogni d’Oro: The rooms are plain, but you can bet they’ve been scrubbed to within an inch of their life. The drawcard here seems to be the view and roof-top terrace and a bit of a ceramics theme, given it’s location in the ceramics district.

Maschere Grottagliesi: Situated in a Renaissance building in the historic quarter, it offers three rooms named by different colours. Thanks to the traditional architecture, the bedrooms might be a little on the dark side, but the website does say “the rooms are all furnished with gusto and creativity and respect the ancient structure of the house…making you feel comfortable and cuddled.” We like the sounds of feeling ‘cuddled’ especially when coupled with comic sans.

Gill Hotel: Angelo organises a special rate for FAME festival guests. It’s a serviceable hotel outside of the historic quarter, rooms are spacious and comfortable enough and perfectly clean. It won’t win any awards unless there’s a prize for ‘exhaustive use of the colour coral’, but it’s central and does the job. Avoid the dismal breakfast area – just around the corner you can have coffee, pastries and juice at the friendly and extremely popular neighbourhood cafe Zelig Bar (Via Amendola, 15, 74023 Grottaglie). The exterior is unpromising, but it’s nice inside. Hotel booking: info@gillhotel.it

Surprisingly atmospheric: Grottaglie, Italy

TAKE A HOLIDAY: Grottaglie is surrounded by lovely villages (Ostuni, Martina Franca, UNESCO-heritage listed Alberobello) –which are quite well set up for tourism. If you have a car you could stay somewhere a bit more exciting (like a hobbit-like trulli house or glam masseria) during the festival – or tack on a holiday at the end of it. Follow this link for info about tourist jaunts and alternative accommodation in Puglia.

GET EXCITED!: Check out the video we made about FAME Festival 2010 for Babelgum below.

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Hotel Piazza Bellini: an Art Hotel in Naples

12 Jul

Hotel Piazza Bellini features works by local Naples artist Alessandro Cocchia. (Image by HWL)

The narrative of Naples is of bygone glories and modern-day corruption and opportunities lost. And that’s why it’s so exciting to see an optomistic project like Hotel Piazza Bellini: a new 50-room art hotel  in a historic building converted from private apartments. A few skerricks, such as scraps of floor tiles, hint at the building’s former life (personally we would have liked to have seen a bit more) but this project makes no appologies for looking to the future, rather than the past.

Generalisations are unavoidably fraught, but allow us to generalise and say that – generally – Italians don’t do bohemian well. (Elegant, sleek, dramatic, and over-the-top, yes.) But a fervour for neatness and cleanliness wrapped up with a good dollop of ‘What-will-the-neighbours-think?’ school of conformity gets in the way of laissez-faire patina required for true boho atmos.

Generous & comfortable rooms: hospitality in the spirit of modern Napoli. (Image by HWL)

Hotel Piazza Bellini straddles the two positions with a modern hotel whose generously proportioned rooms sparkle with ‘neat n clean’ while offering a  dollop of home-grown art. Collaborators include  Alessandro Cocchia (who made the paintings in the corridors and some of the rooms) and his design agency,  Zelig, which was charged with creating a graphic language for signage throughout the establishment. Their cartoonish aesthetic gives a light-hearted nudge-nudge, wink-wink in the context of  a rather traditional building endowed with grand facade of columns and what-not.

Simple yet cosy (Image by HWL)

The result is a historic building with an unashamedly modern interior and asks you to look twice – both literally and philosophically – by bringing contemporary art into the ancient and historic context that is Napoli.  Hotel manager Cristina Falco reveals her ambitions for the hotel and the city itself when she says, “We hope that Naples can be reborn through projects such as ours and through the art and creativity of new artists.”

The chilled-out courtyard has 'eyes' by local sculptors, the Scuotto brothers. (Image by HWL)

Prank calls in Napoli (Image by HWL)

What we liked: the playfulness of the art, the atmospheric courtyard that features an installation of ‘eyes’ by the Scuotto brothers and offers comfortable respite from the traffic.

The bright and ample rooms that have lots of storage space – something that is often missing from the contemporary hotel. While the  space is yet  to develop a ‘patina’ that screams ‘Naples’  the freshness of the place is itself,er, ‘refreshing’ and its lack of pretension – and fussiness – makes it one of the best places to stay in Naples.

Neighbourhood perks: the hotel is walking distance to the National Archeological Museum of Naples. Just next door is the cheerfully eccentric La Stanza del Gusto ‘cheese cafe’, which also offers drinks, dinner, snacks and friendly service.

Bookings: contact Hotel Piazza Bellini.

What to do, where to eat: Check out Our Perfect Day in Naples.

La Stanza del Gusto cafe next door offers cheese-induced hullucinations in the form of lamp-shades (Image by HWL)

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FAME Festival Italy

30 Sep

Dolk @ Fame street art festival

While the Puglia area of Italy certainly has its charms, the only reason why you would specifically travel to the industrial city of Grottaglie is the FAME Festival. Run by one-man-band-meets-print-work shop Angelo Milano, the festival showcases – in a very grass-roots, indy kind of way – some of the best street artists working the planet today. ‘FAME’ is a play on words, in English it signifies a most sought after commodity and is synonymous with success; in Italian the same word means ‘hunger’. So this is a festival that is, in its own way, hungry for success, but ideally not in a fleeting, celebrity kind of a way.

Every year the well-connected Angelo in his guise as Studio Crombie manages to lure street art heavy weight such as Blu, Nunca, Lucy McLauchlin, Os Gemeos, Erica Il Cane and Swoon to the streets of Grottaglie, they spent several weeks painting in the city, staying in Angelo’s family flat in the heart of the old city. Grottaglie is where old-school hospitality meets the art jet set!

This is a simple little video we made about the festival for Babelgum.com – hopefully it will give you a sense of the scope of the artwork and some insight into how one person’s pretty crazy dream might, one day, help transform this so-so industrial city into a global hot spot of street art. (There’s another video dedicated to art at the monastery here, certainly one of the most vibey graffiti spots we’ve ever experienced. Blu fans might want to check out a more detailed collaboration with David Ellis here on Vimeo.)  Click here for our Grottaglie travel guide…


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