Golf in Venice, Italy? Yes, Bravo.

Last month, I spent several days in Venice, Italy. Like most tourists, I strolled the sidewalks lining the canals, sipped wine at a café on San Marco Square, indulged on gelato and watched the passing parade of boats on the Grand Canal.

My biggest discovery in Venice (my third visit) had nothing to do with culinary delights, gondolas or Murano glass. Through a well-informed and connected lady named Tabita Miotto, I found out about the wonderful golf opportunities around Venice and Italy in general.

Miotto is a key principal in Amazing Venice Golf , a marketing coop organization that not only promotes golf in Venice but in other regions of Italy, such as Tuscany, Piedmont, Rome, Apulia, Sicily and Sardinia and the Italian lakes region. If you want to play golf in Italy (which has about 200 golf courses), I highly suggest you consult this site first. They’ll guide you to great golf as well as incorporating other activities such as gastronomic, art and wine tours.

Miotto summarizes the appeal of Italian golf this way: “Sipping a cappuccino in the main piazza, under the Italian sun surrounded by art masterpieces….I have always been used to the Italian sweet life…I was inspired to share these emotions with other people…Italy has excellent courses and I hope you will experience the unique feeling of playing in Italy.”

Designers like Arnold Palmer, Robert Trent Jones and Kyle Phillips (designer of Kingsbarns in St. Andrews) have fashioned courses in Italy.

The Amazing Venice Golf site includes a “Great Deals” section which features package deals and an E-Quote, which allows you to submit your destination, accommodations, golf and other requests resulting in a customized quote.

Back to Venice. The closest golf course to Venice is the Golf Club Venezia, which was built in 1926 and is ranked among the top ten courses in Italy. Thirty minutes away in the picturesque, college town of Padova, there are several options to play, including the Golf Club Montecchia, Golf club Frssanelle and Golf Club Padova.

The Veneto Region, where Venice is located, is diverse topographically and you can enjoy a variety of golf experiences in and around main cities like Venice, Padova, Vicenza, Verona and Treviso as well as layouts in mountain settings in the Dolomite Mountains.

Amazing Venice Golf works with a long list of hotels, resorts and luxury bed and breakfast properties and golf courses. Ms. Miotto arranged for me to stay in the Domus Orsoni, a fabulous luxury boutique bed and breakfast situated next to the Orsoni glass factory, which manufactures glass mosaic with gold leaf. The five rooms and hallways are brimming with works by different Italian artists and the mosaic-tiled bathrooms are phenomenal. Located in the quiet Cannaregio section of Venice, the Domus Orsoni is a great respite after a day of playing golf or traipsing over and around canals.

So, if you’re seeking “la dolce vita” (the sweet life) and an Italian golf experience, go to Amazing Venice Golf and you’ll be sipping cappuccino in sidewalk cafes and playing golf among the olive trees in no time.

Arrividerci.

Summertime Golf Excursions

Spanning the globe to find great golf is a never ending pursuit. In the next couple of months I’m traveling to a diverse group of destinations to play some great courses and write about them.

First up is Venice, Italy. Yes, you read that correctly. Not Venice, Florida.  A group named Amazing Venice Golf, a marketing coop, says there are about a dozen courses in close proximity to the canal-only city.  I’ll play and tour courses like the Golf Club of Venezia and Golf Club Montecchia in nearby Padova. I’ve been to many unique golf destinations in my career—Kenya, The Canary Islands, Morocco and China to name a few—but this one should be very special.

Later this month I’ll go to Panama City, Florida, which has exceptional courses like the Greg Norman designed Shark’s Tooth and Tom Fazio designed Camp Creek Golf Club. What saddens me is the anxiety the NW Florida Gulf Coast tourist area is undergoing about the massive oil spill and what the eventual effect it will have on the beaches. Right now, they’ve discovered a few isolated oil balls, but who knows what the future holds especially in the next few months, which is also hurricane season.

In early August, I’ll venture to Sun Valley Resort in Idaho. Everybody knows the area as a great snow skiing destination, but I’ve been told there’s some pretty good golf up there as well. I’m anxious to play the Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed Trail Creek Course, which is a Golf Digest “Top 75 Resort Course in North America” and the 18-hole Sawtooth Putting Course, a 52,000 square-foot nirvana for the flat stick. There’s also a new 9-hole layout called White Clouds, which I’m told, has stunning views of surrounding mountains. I can’t wait. It’ll be a nice reprieve from the sweltering Florida heat.