ItalyTraveller experience.

Go ballooning over Aosta.
From February 11th to 15th, the skies over the town of Aosta will be filled with the colorful hot air balloons participating in the 7th Aosta Balloon Festival (www.mongolfiere.it). On Valentine's day, couples can share the unforgettable experience of floating through the skies of Aosta in hot air balloons, and even enjoy a high altitude champagne toast.

Spend a weekend at Castel Rundegg of Merano and take a ride in a horse drawn carriage.
Merano in wintertime is especially magical, even more so when lying beneath a generous sprinkling of snow. The town's luxurious Hotel Castel Rundegg) is the ideal destination for this coming Valentines' weekend. For the occasion the hotel has created special packages, including treatments for two at the hotel's beauty farm. To make guests' stay even more memorable, the hotel organizes rides in a horse drawn carriage to the highest part of the town, to the gardens of Castel Trauttmansdorff, and the small church dedicated to the great St Valentine himself: the perfect place in which to exchange a promise of eternal love.

Partecipate in "Verona in Love" and touch the statue of Juliet.
2010 marks the 5th edition of the Verona in Love festival, held in the center of the city chosen by Shakespeare as the setting for his legendary "Romeo and Juliet". One of the highlights of the event is the "Dear Juliet" award, with prizes for the most beautiful of the letters sent each year, from all corners of the world, to the romantic heroine. During the weekend, lovers walk hand in hand amongst the market stalls, which are positioned to form a heart shape, in Piazza dei Signori. Here, on Sunday at 17.30hrs, couples are invited to the "Heart of kisses" event, and to exchange a minute-long kiss whilst being photographed from the heights of Torre dei Lamberti. Not to be missed: a visit to Juliet's House, where, legend has it, those who touch the breast of the statue of Juliet in the courtyard will be blessed with good fortune in love.

Compete in the "Couple of the Century" competition at Busseto's Grand Carnival.
On February 14th, during the 129th edition of the Carnival, which is held each year in Verdi's birthplace, Busseto in Parma Province, the "sfida degli innamorati" fancy dress competition will take place. Participating couples will parade through the streets of the town dressed as famous lovers from history or the film world. The winners will be crowned "Couple of the Carnival". If you fancy yourselves as a modern day Antonio and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, or even as Brad and Angelina lookalikes, then this is your moment!

Get lost in the garden of Villa Garzoni at Collodi.
The garden of Villa Garzoni in Collodi (Pistoia), home of the Parco di Pinocchio, is a beautiful combination of renaissance and baroque garden design with stunning water features, tailored box bushes, and statues hidden amidst the green. A path leads from the garden's stunning Neptune's Grotto to a maze, a visit to which, legend has it, is lucky for lovers. Perhaps it is propitious because the maze symbolizes the path to be undertaken together in life or, perhaps, because, in the past, the mazes' hidden corners provided the perfect cover for secret liaisons!

Rev up the romance in Rome with a limousine ride through the city, a smooch on the Milvio bridge, and declaration of eternal love in front of the "Mouth of Truth".
Fixing a padlock to a lamp post on Rome's Milvio Bridge and throwing away the key is a tradition which has recently become a teenage mania following the success of Federico Moccia's novel and the ensuing film, "I desire you, I want you" (Ho voglia di te). Imitating the gesture of the book's main characters, hoards of love-struck Italian adolescents have started attaching padlocks engraved with their initials to the bridge and throwing the keys into the Tiber River, the custodian of their love. The incredible quantity of padlocks now fixed to the bridge's lamp-posts has forced the Council of Rome to add a series of iron pillars, to both better accommodate the locks and protect the original posts.
Only lovers of certain sentiment should dare exchange a promise of fidelity in front of the Mouth of Truth, a monument, which, according to the Ancient Roman legend, rarely spares the insincere from punishment. Those wishing to really surprise their loved one, can do so by hiring a luxurious limousine in which to take a romantic spin around the capital.