God, Happiness and Life

These hotels are centrally located, rooms are air-conditioned and rates include breakfast. Grand Hotel Baglioni, Via dell'Indipendenza 8, 800-745-8883, www.baglionihotels.com /bologna-hotel. This Leading Hotel of the World has 122 rooms, Venetian glass chandeliers, silk brocaded walls and linen sheets, plus a stretch of Roman foundation and 16th century Carracci frescoes on the dining room ceiling; doubles from about $325. Corona d'Oro, Via Oberdan 12, 011-39-051-745-7611, coronaoro.hotelsbologna.it. A 35-room charmer in a refurbished historic building; doubles from about $300. Art Hotel Commercianti, Via dei Pignattari 11, 011-39-051-745-7511, www.art-hotel-commercianti.it . A 34-room, stylishly furnished boutique hotel; doubles from about $285. Trattoria Battibecco, via Battibecco 4, 051-223-298, www.battibecco.com . Despite it name, this is an elegant, stylish Michelin-starred restaurant specializing in superb seafood. Osteria de' Poeti, via De' Poeti 1, 0

A nice place that needs to be visited by my children if they could, someday I hope. "Tolentino is a relatively nondescript small town which it would be easy to skip in a tour of central It aly. This being Italy, of course, the place is of the hoariest antiquity, a stronghold of the Piceni, a tribe that gave the Romans a good deal of trouble before they were finally conquered, and there are vestiges of both peoples in the town's museum. This being Italy, you will also see several medieval churches, of which the oldest, despite its cold neoclassical façade, is S. Catervo, the cathedral, which dates back to the 4c and preserves the actual 4c marble sarcophagus of St. Catervus: and recent excavations have brought to light some of the saint's original Roman mausoleum. A rather striking 13c towered bridge, tall and narrow, forms the entrance to the city from the S: somewhat predictably monikered the Ponte del Diavolo, or Devil's Bridge. But such riches are common thruout th