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The perils of buying counterfeit designer label goods in Italy (which I’ve written about before) have been brought sharply into focus in an incident in the resort of Jesolo near Venice.

A pensioner from Austria, Ursula Corel, was fined 1000 euros (£825/$1,195) for buying a fake Louis Vuitton handbag from a street vendor.

She was spotted handing over seven euros (£6/$8) by police officers as they scanned crowds with high-powered binoculars from a lifeguard’s watchtower.

Hotel owners, worried that tourists will be put off visiting Jesolo on holiday, have clubbed together to help pay Mrs Corel’s fine.

A spokesman for the Jesolo Hoteliers’ Association said: “We understand what the Mayor is trying to do, but at the same time there should be more communication with tourists explaining the risks they run … there are no signs warning they face fines if they buy from street vendors.”

The Mayor, Francesco Calzavara, said: “If it takes fines of this level to stop this sort of thing taking place then so be it. Tourists coming to Jesolo should think twice about buying fake goods from street vendors.”

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to Italy, take a look at Luxique’s comprehensive selection of luxury hotels in Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and many other cities.

The palm trees that offer welcome shade along the sun-drenched coasts of Italy are being attacked by voracious bugs.

Up and down the country, tens of thousands of trees are being eaten by an army of red palm weevils. Parks, gardens and seafronts have been targeted in some of Italy’s best-known tourist destinations, including the beach resorts of Tuscany, Sardinia and the Adriatic.

Palms are not indigenous to Italy, but were introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries by wealthy collectors and aristocrats keen to give their estates an exotic look.

“It is really a disaster, there are tens of thousands of palms which are dead or dying,” said Valeria Francatti, an entomologist who is researching ways of combating the weevils. “The weevil gets right into the heart of the tree, so by the time the damage becomes apparent on the outside, it’s already too late.”

In Rome, the bug has caused severe damage to the capital’s historic parks, many of them formerly private gardens surrounding sumptuous private villas such as Villa Sciarra and Villa Torlonia.

A scientist in Rome said it was not possible to use chemicals because many palms were planted near beaches or in towns and cities, where insecticides would pose a risk to human health.

Researchers in Sicily have found they can capture the bugs using traps laced with pheromones, but deploying the contraptions is time-consuming and costly.

by Andy Moreton, with Nick Squires in Rome

If you’re planning to visit Italy, take a look at Luxique’s comprehensive selection of luxury hotels in Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and many other cities.

A weekend break in Milan, Italy’s second largest city, is the perfect place to unwind and enjoy some retail therapy at any time of year. Make time to visit the Castello Sforzesco with its fine collection of art, archeology and coins or book tickets to the world-famous Teatro alla Scala, a chance which is not to be missed. Any weekend in Milan would not be complete without a shopping spree. Consider splashing out on a luxury hotel to suit your mood from one of our personal recommendations at Luxique.

The wealth of artwork which is available in the galleries of Milan is almost unfair. The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana has works by Titian, Raphael, Tiepolo, Caravaggio and Giorgone, all in a palazzo which is more than worthy of these exhibits. Built in 1609 to house Cardinal Borromeo’s art collection, it recently had a €21.7 million restoration. More classic and modern art can be seen at the Pinacoteca di Brera with works by Modigliani and Picasso alongside the Rubens and Van Dycks.

This stylish, modern city full of smartly dressed locals is the place to shop for a new wardrobe for the forthcoming season. The 19th century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is packed ful of sophisticated shops, bars and restaurants. Enjoy the zodiac floor mosaics as you browse the designer shops in this covered arcade then head for the Designer Fashion District of Via Montenapoleone, Via Andrea, Via Gesù, Via Borgospesso and Via della Spiga.

There are a host of fine luxury hotels in Milan to choose from. The Gran Hotel et de Milan is one of the best located hotels which will not disappoint. Traditional in style, it is within a stone’s throw of some of the best-known fashion houses and boutiques and close to the Teatro alla Scala, the Duomo and the Palazzo Marino. More contemporary in style with minimalist furnishings, The Gray Hotel is arguably one of the best luxury hotels in Milan. Those who are looking for chic, contemporary style will feel right at home in this designer creation. Visitors to Milan who want to add a little romance to their stay will be delighted with Townhouse 31, a boutique hotel with just 18 rooms, offering an oasis of serenity yet within walking distance of Milan’s bustling shopping district of Montenapoleone. Those who are only impressed by designer names must experience the Bulgari Hotel. Lush gardens surround this former monastery which has been transformed into an ultra-modern luxury hotel with the lavish use of rare and precious materials in its décor. From the opulent spa to the exquisite restaurant, the Bulgari pulls out all the stops to make your weekend break in Milan complete.

by Luxique Luxury Travel

Italy is to embark on a project to open up miles of 14th century waterways that have fallen into disrepair.

The aim is to allow tourists the opportunity to travel by slow boat from Lake Maggiore to Venice via Milan. The restored canal system would eventually link up with the River Po, winding its way to Venice by way of Pavia, Piacenza, Cremona and Ferrara. It will be a chance for visitors to ‘drift past the Italian Renaissance landscape.’

The project, costing a billion euros (£886 million / $1.3 billion), aims to revive what was once a main transport artery, as confirmed by casual references in Shakespeare to Milan as an inland port.

The first part of the route was originally used to transport marble from quarries in Piedmont to build Milan’s Gothic cathedral, which was begun in 1386. The trip, using horse-drawn barges known as cagnone, took two weeks, with each barge carrying up to 50 tonnes of stone.

The canals began falling into disuse in the 1930s, as goods were transported by road and rail instead of water. They became unnavigable either because of neglect or because dams were constructed for irrigation. Electronically-controlled locks will now be built.

Some of Milan’s canals have already been restored for picturesque boat trips, including the oldest one, the Naviglio Grande, now lined with boutiques and cafés.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique can offer a wide selection of luxury and boutique Italian hotels, including some of the finest in Venice and Milan.

Italy’s national railway, Trenitalia, is hoping to tempt people away from flying by the introduction of its high speed Milan to Rome service.

The new Red Arrow or “Frecciarossa”, which can reach a speed of 186 mph, covers the 300 miles between Italy’s political and financial capitals in three-and-a-half hours, shaving an hour off the standard time. There are eighteen services a day.

With the turmoil surrounding the state airline, Alitalia, the air service between Rome and Milan has been uncertain recently and Trenitalia has enjoyed the benefits. It’s now hoping to attract 60 per cent of the 3.7 million passengers who fly the route every year.

However, analysts say it won’t really start taking a significant bite out of air travel until the journey time gets under three hours. That’s expected at the end of 2010 when the track between Florence and Bologna is improved.

by Andy Moreton

Check out Luxique’s luxury hotels in Rome and Milan for the best possible deals.

An Italian airline pilot has given a first-hand account of a near-miss with a UFO while approaching London’s Heathrow Airport in 1991.

Captain Achille Zaghetti’s experience was one of the most vivid of the close encounters reported to the authorities in the UK between 1986 and 1992. They’re contained in 19 files recently made public by the country’s National Archives.

Captain Zaghetti was flying an Alitalia airliner from Milan to Heathrow when he and his co-pilot saw an object streaking across the sky over Kent in south-east England. The 10-foot long object came so close that he shouted to his co-pilot “look out, look out!”

“It was shaped like a cigar and passed very close – about 1,000 feet on the right,” he told Italian newspapers, who tracked him down at his home in Tuscany. “It was military beige in colour.”

Captain Zaghetti asked the control tower if they could see something behind him and they confirmed that there was an object. He said he was glad his co-pilot had seen it too because he didn’t want to be accused of being a fantasist.

The 1,500-page batch of documents from the National Archives contains stories from the plausible to the preposterous.

In August 1989, worried callers in the London area told the Ministry of Defence about “two to three lights, green, red and orange, oscillating and moving left and right and around each other.” They turned out to be lasers from a Tina Turner concert.

by Andy Moreton