Italy is famous for its beautiful cars. Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini are known to everyone – even me who knows nothing about cars. But even I can appreciate the beautiful lines of a Lamborghini.

Notice I left Fiat off the list – that is because most of us want to get where we are going without making a stop at every car repair shop on the way.

Drive on one of the Autostrada anywhere in Italy and you will soon have a car riding your bumper. Pull over and you will see the driver gesticulating wildly. I prefer to think they are telling me how happy they are to see such a beautiful woman driving along on such a beautiful day.

I was reading “Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places” on Italy by David Hoffman and found a few fun facts about Italians and their cars. Did you know........

Think of Italy and you think of  food. Pasta, pizza, wine, chocolate, cheese, prosciutto….the list goes on and on. Is there another country in the world that has such a wonderful and varied list of food associated with it?

Visit Italy and you will want to plan your days around eating. But where to go? Not only are there dozens of options of what to eat but there are a lot of options of where to eat.

Autogrill: Autogrills are located on big Interstates and can be small or big enough that you could do a week’s worth of grocery shopping there. More than once, I have picked up food at an Autogrill for a picnic.
Bar/Caffé: These are an Italian institution and Italians would not be able to survive without them. This is where Italians begin their mornings and where they stop throughout the day for an espresso, glass of wine or small snack. It is the perfect place to sit and relax, read the paper and watch people.
Enoteca: Enoteca’s are Italy’s version of an American wine bar. You can buy wine by the glass along with a salad a tray of cheese and meat. You can also buy a bottle of wine to take with you and usually an opener if you do not have one.
Gelateria: Everyone needs to stop at least one gelateria on their visit to Italy. Gelato is creamy and delicious and comes in all kinds of flavors both usual and unusual.

Italian Power Company Enel said Friday, August 13, 2009 that it had started up a ground-breaking hydrogen-powered electricity plant that produces no greenhouse gases.

Enel said the 12 megawatt plant, at Fusina in Venice's industrial zone of Porto Marghera, was the first of its kind in the world to operate on such a scale.

Powered by hydrogen by-products from local petrochemical industries such as the Eni group's Polimeri Europa factory, it can meet the needs of 20,000 families, while saving emissions equivalent to more than 17,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to Enel.

The power station forms part of a project dubbed Hydrogen Park, which is backed by the Venice region and Italy's environment minister to the tune of four million euros (5.6 million dollars).

Finally, an affordable hotel in Venice, Italy. Hundreds of lucky travelers looking for a hotel in Venice found a great deal when they happened on a special Internet offer. A mistake on the Crowne Plaza Quarto D’Altino website offered a romantic four-star weekend rate of 1 cent. Well, actually it was €0.01, but who is going to argue over the difference. The Crowne Plaza is standing by the rate even though it was an obvious error.

The Crowne Plaza Quarto D’Altino Hotel’s normal rate is $92 to $170 a night. The offer was taken down quickly, but not before 230 people booked an average of 6 nights at the 1 cent rate. The error has cost the hotel around €90,000 ($130,000). Crowne Plaza hotels are part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest hotel chain.

The hotel is located 20km (12.5 miles) from the center of Venice so visitors are still going to have to find their way into the city.

Chocolate Valley? Wow, how had I missed this on my trips to Italy? I was looking at books on Italy the other day and ran across a place called Chocolate Valley located 40 miles west of Florence, not far from Pisa. The area is so named because it is home to a large number of high end chocolatiers.

Armedei, Paul de Bondt, Roberto Catinari and Luca Mannori are all located in the area. A chocolate bar made by Amedei has been selected the best chocolate in the world by the Committee of Experts of the London Academy of Chocolate three years in a row. You have to wonder how you get appointed to that committee. Many of the chocolatiers in Chocolate Valley offer cooking classes, factory tours and chocolate tastings. Some require you to book in advance but others are open during regular Italian business hours.

Turin, Italy is the city that made chocolate what it is today. In the mid-1600’s chocolate was only available as a beverage and was so expensive only the very rich could afford it. At the end of the 18th century a Frenchman named Doret living in Turin invented a chocolate machine that ground cacao seeds into a paste from which chocolate was made. Turin now produces more chocolate annually than France and Germany combined.