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Food

Best Italian Restaurants in Melbourne 2023

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Where are the best Italian restaurants in Melbourne? Melbourne has great Italian restaurants, whether fine dining or casual styles. Many Italian restaurants in Melbourne are world class; one of the best things to do in Melbourne is to visit a standout iconic Melbourne Italian restaurant. . Here are our favourites (no particular order). It's an evolving list too.

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Lifestyle

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David Hagger has a penchant for finery, convivial dining, and festive culture. 

For enquiries about The World Loves Melbourne, including us possibly running your social media, please contact us at david[at]theworldlovesmelbourne[dot]com.

Food, Fashion, Things To Do

Best Melbourne Shopping

The best way to shop is often by precinct rather than by product. Melbourne is full of great precincts, where often great shopping is combined with great cafes and dining…

As well as the summary below, check out our latest retail tour in the Melbourne CBD.

Here are some of the best precincts in Melbourne…

The Emporium - CBD

 

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Emporium Melbourne is arguably the hottest place to shop in Australia with a unique shopping experience and the opening of several firsts in terms of retailers. This is premium shopping at its best with super impressive transformation of the Myer Emporium building into a stunning retail offering.

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Lifestyle

Thrill-seeking and Adrenaline Rushes in the Cultured City

Most travellers, and even a few Melbournians, would only picture art galleries, kitsch alley-way bars and stylish cuisine when they think of the Victorian capital.

It’s true that Melbourne’s cultured and refined characteristics are definitely work checking out and give the city a reputation to be proud of, but did you know that Melbourne has its share of adrenaline and adventure too?

From the CBD to the suburbs, there’s something to get the blood flowing for all the adventurous types out there. Read on to find out about some of Melbourne’s more heart-pounding, exhilarating fair!

Hovering in a Helicopter

So we all know that Melbourne has some beautiful architecture and surrounds, and many travellers choose to see these aspects of the city by foot or by car. But, if going around in a tour bus seems a little mundane, why not try a helicopter ride that’ll give you a real eye-in-the-sky perspective of all Melbourne has to offer?

With travel and adventure companies such as Melbourne Joy Flights and RedBalloon offering helicopter packages to cover areas all around Melbourne, you can get that cinematic widescreen view of Melbourne and its suburbs firsthand. And of course, you get to go around at quick speed in a helicopter!

Skydiving Surprises

Victoria has long been known as a state of green pastures and verdant farmland, and the areas just outside of Melbourne are of course no exception.

Interestingly enough, it is in these beautiful rural areas that Melbourne’s blossoming skydiving scene can be found. Ride by plane through the Melbourne skies and plunge from heights of up to 14.000 feet for a fast-paced thrill. It’s quick, but boy will it leave you wanting more.

All activities are safe thanks to the efforts of the well-trained and professional staff working for Melbourne’s skydiving companies, but it would be a good idea to take out travel insurance just to be extra safe.

With dives happening in areas only an hour from Melbourne’s CBD, the city of refinement is sure to let you get your adrenal kicks in as well!

Tank-driving Fun

Of course, what list of adventures and thrills would be complete without a subtle nod to driving in a tank? If getting round in the old sedan or hatchback has never really satisfied you, perhaps its time to upgrade your hardware to something a little more…heavy duty.

Melbourne 4x4 offers those brave enough the opportunity to hop into a WWII era beast of a tank that weighs in at over 50 tonnes, is protected by 140mm of solid steel and uses a V12 engine to cart itself around.

If you’ve ever wanted the experience of assailing tough terrain like a hardened tank driver, you can have your wish by getting out to Werribee, which is only 30 minutes’ drive from Melbourne’s CBD.

For those who want something a little lighter to get from A to B, there are also plenty of tour companies who offer dune buggy, quad bike and dirt bike rentals to interested adventurers in farmland just outside of Melbourne’s centre. So no matter what your vehicular fix is, you’ll get it by coming to the hub of refinement and sheer action that is Melbourne city!

Stay safe

Whether you’re jumping out of a plane or flying around in a helicopter, remember to put your safety first. Don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable with, and make sure to get travel insurance from a company like Southern Cross Travel Insurance. That way, you can experience adrenaline rushes with (relative) peace of mind!

Michael is a chronic adrenaline junkie. He wants to share his knowledge of Melbourne’s fast-paced secrets with all the travellers out there.

Food

Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Delivery - Estimated 5 to 10 days (if product is in stock)

Will usually post within 1 business day of receiving cleared payment.

Postage - Australia Post standard postage anywhere in Australia. (cost as per Australia Post to designated country for overseas orders). Item location is Melbourne.

Returns - 7 day money back (from when buyer receives it), buyer pays return postage.

Refunds by law: In Australia, consumers have a legal right to obtain a refund from a business for goods purchased if the goods are faulty, not fit for purpose or don't match description.

Lifestyle

Legal

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia License.

Privacy Policy
 
Collection of information:
This website collects various types of information whichmay include your name, address, email address, billing and/or credit card information etc., which may be used when you purchase products and/or services and to deliver the services you have requested.
Also photos of cafes, restaurants and lifestyle images which may contain images of people.
Information automatically collected when visiting our website, which may include cookies, third party tracking technologies and server logs.
 
Notice Regarding Online Behavioral Advertising
We allow third party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our Web site.  These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g. click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you.
 These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information.  To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice visit the NAI at http://www.networkadvertising.org.  To opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices.  

This privacy policy sets out how The World Loves Melbourne uses and protects any information that you give while using www.theworldlovesmelbourne.com

Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

The World Loves Melbourne may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 06/20/2020.

What we collect

We may collect the following information:

  • contact information including email address
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What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • We may use the information to improve our products and services.
  • We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

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We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Advertising

Some of our advertisers occasionally serve you cookies as well. We do not have control over cookies placed by advertisers. We may use advertising service vendors to help present advertisements on the website, one of which is http://www.gourmetads.com. These vendors may use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies to serve you advertisements tailored to interests you have shown by browsing on this and other sites you have visited, to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before and to avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. In doing so, these vendors may collect non-personal data such as your browser type, your operating system, Web pages visited, time of visits, content viewed, ads viewed, and other clickstream data. The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by these advertising service vendors is subject to their own privacy policies, not ours, and Service Provider disclaims all liability in connection therewith.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

  • whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
  • if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

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For information about opting out of Gourmet Ads and ad serving partners please visit https://www.gourmetads.com/about/privacy-policy

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us.

 

Lifestyle

Weather in Melbourne

The weather in Melbourne is awesome! Don't believe everything you might hear about the weather in Melbourne! The saying is "four seasons in a day" - and that is particularly true in autumn and spring! It's more that the weather  in Melbourne is "changeable" than shifting between extremes.

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Lifestyle

Blogs I Recommend

Here are some great sites/ blogs I recommend -

The City Lane - Food, Lifestyle and Travel with high quality analysis and photos.

The Melbourne Cheapskate - the definitive site on Melbourne cheap eats, highly professional and engaging.

Sharking 4 Chips and Drinks - Amazing food guides and honest opinion.

The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua - Great photography and food, travel and lifestyle articles.

Gastrology - One of the top food and travel sites in Melbourne.

Lisa Eats World - Food and travel with great photos and captivating coverage.

I'm So Hungreeeeeeeeee - iconic Melbourne food blog.

The World Loves Melbourne - ourselves of course.

 

Here are fashion blogs I recommend-

fashionising

Travel, Inside Story

Melbourne For Children

Melbourne for Children - great places to take children (by experience)...

 

1. SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium

aquariumSEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium, along the banks of the Yarra River, is one of the best loved destinations in Melbourne! It is a world class aquarium!

 Not just for kids, but kids love this place! It’s easy to spend several hours here!

 A striking exhibit is the penguin display – including large King Penguins and the Gentoo Penguins. To see these animals swimming is fantastic. To watch events at feeding time is breathtaking!  Other highlights include displays such as River to Reff, Rockpool, Mangrove and Billabong. Some displays are interactive, and creatively put together!

 The upstairs Deck Café is a pleasant way to enjoy refreshments along the way! The main exhibit is the large oceanarium which features sharks including the Grey Nurse! It is a magnificent exhibit and bound to enthral!

 


 2. Melbourne Museum

A world class Museum that is also a favourite of children! Located in the Carlton Gardens opposite the Royal Exhibition Building!  It’s easy to spend hours here without being bored. I know people who aren’t keen on Museums but love this one! The permanent displays are first class over 8 galleries (including one for children) and there’s new displays regularly. Kids love it in the sand pit! Highlights include a complete skeleton of a blue whale, the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, a living rainforest, and the racehorse Phar Lap! Major international exhibitions are in the Touring Hall! Also next door is the IMAX so you can combine the two visits. The cost of visiting the Museum is reasonable for families.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/


 3. Scienceworks

 scienceworksA favourite place for children in Melbourne! Learning about science and technology! Scienceworks is only 5km from Melbourne in Spotswood! Hands on participation is the order of the day! Live demonstrations, shows, guided tours and special activities! Speak to kids all over Melbourne and they love coming here! It’s fun! It’s educational! It’s clever! It’s interactive! Scienceworks itself is great but there’s always added exhibitions next door. Plus the Planetarium is a big hit! There’s also shows and events in the round outdoor theatre.

Great catering at the venue but personally I love to go to nearby great cafes like Duchess of Spotswood and The Cornershop in Yarraville.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/


 4. Melbourne Zoo

Melbourne Zoo is a world class Zoo and an exciting place to visit! It’s also Australia’s oldest zoo.  It's easy to spend several hours there wandering around the various precincts. Upon arrival grab a map of the zoo then plan your visit. There are regular feeding times and other attractions.

You can appreciate 320 species at the Melbourne Zoo and enjoy several hours of fascination and excitement! A highlight is the Butterfly House – a tropical enclosure full of butterflies that fly all around you and some may settle on you! There has been a move for kids for free on weekends.


 5. St Kilda '

circa the princeSt Kilda is an eclectic place with many attractions! Check out the Esplanade (while taking in the markets on a Sunday). Stroll along the Pier and grab an ice cream.

Take in Acland Street and the fine European cake establishments.  In fact many of Melbourne’s finest restaurants are in St Kilda, with many in Fitzroy and Acland Streets. Enjoy fine dining at great restaurants like Circa The Prince, Donovan's and The Stokehouse. Sit outside and take in the ambience at Cicciolina on Acland St.

 Travel nearby to Chapel St with amazing shopping, op shops and restaurants and cafes. Chapel St is one of the hottest food and fashion precincts in Melbourne. It is also a popular spot for op shoppers! You can shop for about 3 km! Check out great designers here including Allanah Hill and Collette Dinnigan, not to mention Ksubi.

Another attraction is the Prahran Market open Tues - Sunday except Wednesday. Here you can grab a great coffee at Market Lane Coffee.


 6. Werribee Open Zoo

 Another great favourite of children in Melbourne! This zoo is African themed as is located about 32 km out of Melbourne in Werribee. You can take a safari bus tour in the Open Range Zoo. The tour takes about 45 minutes. The safari tour includes hippo, animals of the grassland such as zebra and waterbuck, giraffe, ostrich, and rhinoceros, as well as the camel and the oryx.  Also lions, meerkats and much more! There is also a simulated African Village.

http://www.zoo.org.au/WerribeeOpenRangeZoo


 7. Wombat Bend Park

 wombat bendChildren love this place! About 20 minutes out of Melbourne. Wombat Bend Park is a great park for adults and children alike. It is an enclosed park which is excellent - so the kids can't run off too far!There is a flying fox which is incredibly popular! According to Manningham City Council Wombat Bend is a sanctuary for creative play, decorated with community art that inspires and captures the imagination of people of all ages and all abilities. Children and people young at heart will love exploring Wombat Bend, with sensory play activities, accessible path networks, an ampitheatre and native forest walk.

Wombat Bend’s highlights include a large mosaic titled ‘The Circle of Friends’, running feet tiles and the maze panels.

http://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/play/playgrounds/templestowe_lower_playgrounds/wombat_bend.html?s=0


 8. Eureka Skydeck 88 

Eureka Skydeck 88This place has the wow factor! On a good day this incredible 360 degree view on the 88th floor is incredible! See if you can point out various landmarks around the city! Eureka Skydeck 88 has the best views of Melbourne, by day and by night. During the day you can see all the way out to the Dandenong Ranges. There is also “The Edge”, an experience of being in a glass cube 3 metres out from the building and 300 metres suspended above the ground. 

You can also step out onto “The Terrace” exposing yourself to the elements.  There are 30 viewfinders around the Skydeck floor so you can point out landmarks! See how you go! There a kid friendly heights with the viewfinders to assist kids. It gives kids (and adults of course) a great perspective of Melbourne!

Opening hours are 10am to 10pm, with Christmas Day and New Years Eve close at 5.30pm (last entry at 5pm). 

http://www.eurekaskydeck.com.au/ 


 9. Warrandyte and Warrandyte State Park

 warrandyte riverGreat place to take children and for all to enjoy!  A short drive out of Melbourne out to Warrandyte is worth the trip. Great cafes with playgrounds near the river, is popular with families. Check out the Warrandyte Bakery in Yarra Street and surrounding precinct by the river. Take your lunch to a nearby table or go down to the river and visit the ducks. There's a popular walk along the river here and it can get busy on a Sunday afternoon. Children seem to really enjoy this precinct. The park itself is the closest state park to the Melbourne CBD. It's fun to even stroll around Warrandyte town and visit some unique shops.

http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/warrandyte-state-park


 10. City Circle Tram

 circle tramWhat a service! Free trams running in a circular route in the CBD through many tourist attractions – with trams running in both directions every 12 minutes! Sensational! Great for tourists and locals alike! The beauty is to get on an off when you please as the service runs so regularly. A great part of the service is the tourist  presentation as you travel! On some occasions there will be a guide who dispenses with the recorded service and goes freestyle!

http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/route/view/1112


 11. Collingwood Children's Farm

 Collingwood Children's Farm is on the edge of the city in Collingwood. You can combine the visit with a trip to the sensational Abbotsford Convent. The Collingwood Children's Farm is a large property with several animal enclosures. Children love the ability to get up close with animals with some enclosures allowing children to interact with the animals.

http://www.farm.org.au/