carlton
- Lygon Street's Italian heart
- Fabulous food
- Museum exhibitions and fringe shows
A taste of Italy in the heart of Melbourne. Carlton's Lygon Street was one of the first strips to cultivate the city's now-prolific café culture and you can still savour some of the best espressos and pizzas going around in the many Italian-owned, family-run cafés.
Pasta pronto
Victorian terrace houses are crammed with restaurants, each with an inevitable friendly host touting the latest pasta specials from doorways. Then there are the many gelati bars where artisan makers serve up gourmet flavours, including traditional Italian favourites and newer, more experimental styles.
Mixed among the eateries are plenty of bookshops, galleries and clothes shops selling the latest fashions by both European and local designers.
Backpackers, students, activists
Backpackers will feel right at home in Carlton, filled as it is with students from Melbourne University and its fringe artistic set. For the off beat – and left of centre – the historic Trades Hall is well worth a visit. With its diverse range of tenants including activist groups, community organisations, theatre companies and performers, it regularly hosts public gatherings of interest, speeches, plays, comedy and esoteric art events.
Home of history
History buffs should take a walk through Carlton Gardens and on into the Melbourne Museum, which houses everything from dinosaur bones and Melbourne Cup hero Phar Lap, to a full set from popular TV soap, Neighbours. It also features touring exhibitions and the spectacular IMAX movie experience. Next door is the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building, home to the Backpacker Expo among other regular exhibitions.
Macabre Melbourne
More macabre but no less interesting is the Melbourne General Cemetery. While there's no Elvis or Jim Morrison here, there are more relevant local residents like outback explorers Burke and Wills, Eureka Stockade activist Peter Lalor and one-time Prime Minister Robert Menzies. And yes, if you really want to be creeped-out, you can do a night tour.
Lygon Street festas
Carlton's biggest party of the year, and one of Australia's largest outdoor street festivals, the Lygon Street Festival, held every October, predictably celebrates everything Italian. And if Ferrari happens to win the Melbourne GP in March, be sure to get down for the second-biggest celebration of all things Italian and red!
www.lygonst.com
http://melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au/
www.tradeshallarts.com.au
www.imax.com.au
www.necropolis.com.au/MGC/MGCindex.htm
