Luxury Travel Advisor - December 2007 - (Page 54) COVER STORY ADVISOR INSIGHT: BOB ROMANO’S PERFECT ITALY TRIP While Bob Romano says he and the agency are intent on expanding their clientele’s focus beyond Italy, he remains a strong proponent of selling la dolce vita. “I’ve been to Italy trillions of times but every time I go I’m always excited,” he tells Luxury Travel Advisor. “I don’t know how the Italians do it, they always have the best clothes, the best cars, the best furniture… You read what the trend is, you land and they’ve already got it. They are so ‘right there.’” Luxury Travel Advisor asked Romano to devise his ideal itinerary to Italy for our readers. Here is his fantasy Italy vacation. “Italy is such an incredibly rich and complex destination. I have favorite places, hotels, restaurants, and experiences that I like to repeat over and over while discovering new things with each visit. One of my greatest luxuries is the opportunity to share these things with family and close friends. I thought about what my ideal itinerary would be—at least for this week. If you ask me again next week I might have other ideas! I would start out in Milan with my wife. We would stay in one of our favorite suites at the Hotel Bulgari and spend three or four days shopping for clothes, furniture, housewares and all of the wonderful things that are so available there and more difficult to find in the United States. We would have relaxing dinners with local friends in some of our favorite places, which include Trattoria Montina, Paper Moon and Gold. Next, I would rent a great Italian automobile like a Ferrari or Lamborghini and make my way toward Venice. Perhaps we would HOTEL BULGARI in Milan would overnight in nearby Brescia at the Santellone Spa and Resort and enjoy some of the excellent regional foods and wines of the Franciacorta area. I would leave time for my wife to enjoy their incredible Vitae Spa while I raced around the local roads getting to know the car a little better. Driving the car would probably be so much fun that we would pass Venice and spend a night or two in Udine at the charming Hotel La’ Di Moret. The hills of Collio and the Colli Orientali are not too well known to most Americans, and the scenery is amazing. We would also have to have dinner at Squazzi where we would enjoy their incredible salumi, risottos and rotisserie specialties. We would return the car in Venice and stay in one of the incredible canal view suites in the Il Palazzo section of the Hotel Bauer. We would need at least four nights to have time to visit some of the smaller museums and galleries found on the Accademia and the Giudeca Islands. We can’t visit Venice without enjoying the incredible food and atmosphere at Al Covo, Al Linea del Ombra and Aqua Pazza. Save room for gelato from Nico. Next, I would charter one of the SeaDream Yacht Club ships and invite 100 of our family members and best friends to spend seven nights with us along the Dalmation Coast, disembarking in Civitavecchia for Rome. Rome is my favorite Italian city. I spent a year at Loyola University there, so it feels like my Italian home to me. We would need some time to relax again after looking after our SeaDream guests, so the perfect urban retreat would be the Portrait Suites. We would spend the last few days of this particular trip walking around the fantastic neighborhoods of Rome in the hopes of burning up enough calories for several gelato stops at Giolitti and dinner at Tulio and Da Mario.” be the first stop on Bob Romano’s fantasy Italy itinerary. 54 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | December 2007
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