Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Sight seeing, visits or trips
We have also found out that there are some trips that can be arranged with the Tourist information. They have different options that give you the chance to taste local food while going sight seeing. These trips can be arrange for up to 7 people. It has fixed prices, so if you go 7 persons you divide the total price on 7. A problem is that the guiding is in Italian, and I don't know if it's possible to get English speaking guides. However, buildings, food, wine, and sceneries still should be interesting.
The tourist information where these trips can be booked (in advance) is situated on one end of a big parking, between the bus station and hovedgaten (Corso).
An other tourist information is situated on the right side when you come out of the Cathedral after passing the square.
Bus transport the wedding day
After the ceremony in the church, you are all welcome to take the bus to Valle di Venere. We advice those staying within walking distance from church to walk to the church in the morning and then take the bus to the receiption. The bus will leave from outside the church when all the photos are taken etc.
For the transport back to town, we have arranged with some friends of Venusia that will work as taxies and can bring people back to town when they want. For that tranportation we will probably arrange with a fixed fee to pay the kind drivers.
Contact information in Italy
We have been thinking that it would be practical for us to be accessible on Italian cell phone numbers, since it's going to be very expensive answering and calling on our Norwegian numbers. I guess it can be usefull in case someone is lost, can't find the hotel etc.
Our phonenumbers are: (I suggest you save it on your cell phone instead of writing it down on a paper you are not going to find when you need it)
Venusia: +39 3477210579
Birger: +39 3348446780
We will also be available on our Norwegian phonenumbers.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Bus to Lanciano
The best way to come to Lanciano from Rome (if you don't have a car) is with bus.
From the airport (Fiumicino or Ciampino) you have to arrive to Tiburtina bus station (across the street from Tiburtina train station).
Once there, you should find the office that sells tikets for a company called "di fonzo" or in general tickets to Abruzzo. The office should be the letter C, but you can just ask or look a bit around. There you can ask a ticket fot the first bus to Lanciano.
I suggest you bring some cash with you, because they do not accept credit cards (weird, I know), and the cost of the ticket one way is 17€.
The bus then should leave from platform 13, however you can ask the sellers.
The bus then normally take a 10 minutes break on the higway. Furthermore sometime you'll have to shift bus on your way to Lanciano (the driver will tell the passengers). The journey hould take about 3hours according to the traffic conditions.
You find busses at this times:
Rome-Lanciano
10.00-13.00 monday to saturday
14.30-17.10 always
14.30-18.15 always (slower because goes into a town on the way)
17.30-21.00 monday to saturday
19.00-21.41 monday to saturday
21.00-23.40 always
From Lanciano, you will have to buy your ticket at Di Fonzo agency, on the main street (corso Trento e Trieste), open in office hours.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
"Abruzzo: a region to discover"
Since you are going to Abruzzo, you might want to take advantage of what this rich region can offer. I have made an incomplete list of places to visit. They are just listed randomly, so you can have fun finding where they are located. I’m sure that by travelling within the region’s hills, mountains, and coast you will find many other beautiful places to enjoy!
Cities
- L’Aquila: Collemaggio, the castle, the “99 cannelle”, Piazza Duomo, San Bernardino, etc. This city has many nice corners…
- Lanciano: Old city with its quarters (Lancianovecchia, Civitanova, Sacca, Borgo); The miracle in San Francesco; the cathedral and the bridge on which is built; the underground passage under the main square; Santa Giovina (former jail) and the old city walls; Santa Maria Maggiore, San Nicola and most of the old churches; The theatre, the towers, the 2 old fountains, etc.
- Ortona: Castle; panoramic walk, etc.
- Vasto: Castle; Palazzo D’Avalos; old town; long sandy beach, etc.
Mountains and small towns:
- Guardiagrele: handcraft (copper, wood, iron)
- Taranta Peligna: grotta del cavallone (a cave with many stalagmites and stalactites)
- Pescocostanzo: picturesque medieval town with handcraft of carpets, jewellery and “tombolo”
- Juvanum and Pallanum: archaeological sites
- Castle of Roccascalegna
- Rocca Calascio: a old castle ruin, with a beautiful mountain view (not far from L’Aquila)
- Roccamorice, Eremo di Santo Spirito a Majella (sanctuary built in the XIII century by Celestino V, a resigning pope).
- Gessopalena: abandoned part of the village, built with stones and with a nice view on Majella
- Fara San Martino: walk in a canyon; in this town the best pasta brands are produced (De Cecco, Del Verde, Cavalier Cocco)
- Santo Stefano di Sessanio: an old town close to L’Aquila. Many of the towns in the valley (where saffron is produced) and the mountains around L’Aquila are worth a visit.
- Scanno, Opi and other towns around the lake: those towns are quite intact and are immerse in the beautiful nature of the park, the traditions are still strongly alive. Close to Scanno is Gole del Sagittario
- Majella Natural Park and other regional parks
In general driving around (or walking) in the west side of the region (mountains) is a good idea to find nice spots and welcoming towns. You might also decide to hike and reach the mountain tops.
Coast and small town:
- San Giovanni in Venere (Fossacesia) an old abbacy with a nice walk and a stunning view on the sea (walking distance from the wedding restaurant)
- San Vito and San Vito Marina
- Trabocchi (the fishing constructions on the sea)
- Eremo d’annunziano; where, one of the most famous Italian poets, Gabriele D’Annunzio, got inspiration for some of his poems.
- Punta d’Erce (o Aderci) between Casalbordino e Vasto, a gorgeous coastline spot
It is a good idea to just drive with the car, on the Abruzzo coastline. Between Ortona and Vasto you can have fun finding small, charming beaches.
Have a nice stay!
Friday, May 25, 2007
We have two lists:
Christiania Glasmagasin www.bryllupslisten.no Guest password: venusbirger
They have stores around Norway.
The other option is to go to Illums Bolighus in Oslo (Vika) where you can quote one of our names.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Holiday
As you can imagine there are many place in Italy that are worth a visit: Rome, Sicily, Naples, Salento, Venice, Florence, etc. just to randomly name some of them.
To come to the wedding you will come to Abruzzo; this region is very interesting and still not too touristic. This means that you can have a real impression of what this land is about. The traditions are very strong and alive. Food is simply great. Mountains are beautiful and the coastline is marvelous and very various from place to place. There are many different small towns that are lovely and nice to visit. Handcraft tradition is vivid and still done in a old fashion way.
I'm sure some of you will anyway come back to Italy, then I think you can consider getting the chance to visit this region when you're there. Tuscany can maybe wait :-)
I'm planning to write a short list (not exhaustive but a starting point) of places in the region that are worth a visit. I'll do it within 2-3 weeks. As for now you can go and visit this website on Abruzzo. Is a young website, so you will find just a little taste of what the region can really offer. I suggest you go to look at the pictures...
Have fun!
Closest natural park (but there are many others)






Tuesday, January 30, 2007
I'm here... and I want to sleep!
Well, a “bad” news first. Abruzzo (and Lanciano) doesn’t give easy access by internet. Many hotels, B&B, camping don’t have a website and often not even an e-mail. The existing web pages are often only in Italian or in a strange English.
The good news is that we have done some research. Of course doesn’t pretend to be exhaustive, but it is hopefully helpful.
Location
There are 2 main choices:
one is to stay in Lanciano (a very nice town, 10 km from the coastline, about 40 km from the mountain);
the other one is to stay by the sea.
In this second case, you have a quite large number of towns to chose from. But if you want stay close, the best is to find a place in this range: Ortona-Torino di Sangro (map, where you can also search on business).
When you look for a place remember that many towns in Abruzzo are divided in two parts: one on the hill and the other one by the coast (marina). For example San Vito Chietino and San Vito Marina are the same town, but the latter is by the sea.
Lanciano
Hotel Excelsior (centre) - 124€
Hotel Anxanum (centre) - 100€ (including breakfast)
Hotel Novecento (close to centre) - double 70-75€
Hotel De Paris (close to centre) - 65€ (60€ if more then 3 days)
Albergo Roma (centre) - double 60€
Albergo Allegria (old centre) - double 50-60€
Albergo Alba (centre) - double 45€ (including breakfast)
Casa San Francesco (old centre)
Other places
Hotel
Hotel Giardino (neighbour small town of Fossacesia)
Hotel Garden (San Vito Marina's coast)
Hotel Levante (Fossacesia Marina's coast)
Hotel Golfo di Venere (between Fossacesia and Fossacesia Marina)
Hotel Sangro (neighbour small town of Mozzagrogna)
Thema (between Lanciano and sea)
Hotel Villa Medici (between Lanciano and sea)
Hotel Valle di Venere (between Fossacesia and Fossacesia Marina)
B&B
Surprise! I discovered that there are many B&B around Lanciano (even with websites!). Many of them I never hared about, and I cannot guarantee the result. Most of them seems nice, old houses in the countryside, about 5-15Km from the sea. To find a solution in this category you can try to search on: http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/
Agriturismo
These places are normally small farms giving the opportunity of eating, sometime sleeping or even working in the fields. Some of those places are very nice, and you can get very good natural food. For Abruzzo search for example on: http://www.agriturismo.abruzzo.it/Z_Sito_ING/Default_ING.htm
Some of them are located in small towns up to the mountain. It can be a good place where to stop if you want to visit some small towns during your staying.
Camping
Among the camping I tried to search those with bungalows. There are many choices, and some of them quite close to the sea (es. San Vito Marina, Casalbordino Marina, Torino di Sangro). You can search on: http://www.camping.it/english/abruzzo/chieti/ or http://www.campeggievillaggi.it/Abruzzo/campeggi-Chieti.html
When a hotel, camping, restaurant, etc. do not have a web site, you can maybe try to search on pagine gialle (same as gule sider) to get some extra information (in the section "brochure") and to see the location (mappa interattiva).
Hospitality
Finally you might have another chance: get to stay at some friends' house. Me and Birger will not be able to be fully responsible for arranging that. But please, use this blog to search (norwegians) and offer (italians) hospitality, if you like/can...
Lykke til!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Getting there
The easiest and most obvious way to get to Lanciano is to land in Rome, and go by car or bus to Lanciano. There are several airlines going directly to the two airports in Rome. The main airport of Rome is Fiumicino. Most of the regular airlines are landing there, including SAS. Other airlines that sometimes have good offers to Roma, Fiumicino are Lufthansa and KLM.
Sterling and Norwegian are landing at Roma, Ciampino. These companies collaborates so you will most likely find the same flights on the two pages. We are usually very satisfied with Sterling. These are lowcost companies, but that doesn’t mean that they are always cheaper than the normal companies. Return tickets for anything less than 1500 NOK are good deals from Oslo. However, if the price is getting close to 2000 NOK, normal airlines might be a better solution. Lufthansa and SAS will often be able to offer you prices around 2000 NOK. A good advice is to search for tickets at http://www.kelkoo.no/
Other destinations than Rome are also possible. Ryanair has started direct flights from Sandefjord to both Milano (Bergamo) and Pisa. These airports are far away from Lanciano, so the transportation to get to Lanciano might surpass what you save on the flight tickets.
The closest airport to Lanciano is Pescara (30 km). Pescara is also a Ryanair destination, but there are no direct flights from Norway. Just from London Stansted and from Frankfurt Hahn. As it looks now, it is not possible to combine any flights from Norway with those flights without having to spend a night on the way down, but it seems possible through Frankfurt for the return.
Bus to Lanciano
The busses to Lanciano go from a bus station called Tiburtina. From Fiumicino you can take a train directly to this station. From Ciampino there are different options, the easiest way is maybe to take a direct bus to Termini Central Station (those connected to the air companies) and then take the tube to Tiburtina bus station. Otherwise you can take a regular bus to Anagnina, then take Metro A to Termini and change to Metro B toward Tiburtina. Outside you will find the busses to Lanciano. The company that goes directly to Lanciano is Di Fonzo, you should buy the ticket at the desk or on-line before you get on the bus.
Train to Lanciano
If you have a lot of time to spend, it is possible. www.trenitalia.it
Car from Norway
For anyone that is not from Northern Norway, it is a long way to drive. However, as I understand it there are some people from Telemark that are not scared of the distance either.
The ceremony will take place in the Cathedral in Venusia's hometown Lanciano. The Cathedral is called Madonna del Ponte.

After the ceremony the reception will be in a restaurant/hotel called Valle di Venere, that is situated outside a neighbour town of Lanciano, called Fossacesia.
The reception meal is a lunch that will start from approximately 2 pm. Our early thoughts concerning the form of the reception is that it will be based on southern Italian traditions, but with adaptations to meet Norwegian traditions. In general that means that the meal will last slightly longer than in a typical Norwegian wedding, but you will not in the same way be forced to sit by your table throughout the meal. There will be music and possibilities for dancing etc. also while the meal is served. In Italy it is not common to have speeches in a wedding ceremony. But this is one of the points where some adaptations to the Norwegian traditions will be made. However, having many and long speeches will create some challenges both due to languages and traditions. The majority of the Italian guests have a limited knowledge of English. We are still in a thinking process concerning how we will deal with these cultural language challenges, and we are open for any suggestions…
How long the party will last depend on how much stamina the guests have.
What to wear
We have decided that all Norwegians should were Bunad…
Well…even though that would have been cool and probably very popular among the Italians, we have to consider what time of the year we are talking about. In Lanciano in August, temperatures from 30°C and up have to be expected.
As in Norway it is expected that you dress up in a wedding. However, the fact that it is a lunch reception in the summer makes you a little bit more free. There are no strict rules concerning dark suit our ties. The focus should be to dress comfortable in the heat. Bare in mind that the restaurant will be air-conditioned.
Transport on the wedding day
For the people that are staying in Italy for a while around the wedding we are recommending that you rent cars. (See later description) So for those it will of course be possible to drive to the ceremony. Saturday the 4th of August is a market day in Lanciano, so finding a parking could be quit challenging. We understand that many guests would prefer not having to drive into the centre of Lanciano with all the challenges that can create. We will therefore try to arrange with transportation going from Valle di Venere and possibly from other places to the church. Likewise we will have transportation arranged from the church to Valle di Venere. Since there are no taxis in Lanciano, we plan to hire some friends of Venusia as "taxi drivers". They should also be available for transport after the party is over.
Valle di Venere
