ladysprite (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladysprite) wrote2012-04-01 09:38 am
ladysprite) wrote2012-04-01 09:38 am
Seeking Advice
So I promised myself someday I would go to Italy. Except that, when I put things in abstract terms like that, I never actually get around to doing them - I come up with excuses to postpone, and not to waste money on frivolities, and reasons it's not practical, until it's too late. So I promised myself last year that in 2012 I would go to Italy, because when I set concrete dates like that, it's harder to back out.
And now, with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran anticipating gainful employment, it looks like this is actually going to be feasible. Which is both awesome and scary.
Here's the deal - I've never traveled outside the country before, with the exception of one (awesome) week in England when I was 22. I've never been somewhere that I don't speak the language, I've never had to navigate foreign cities, and I have precious little idea of what to expect.
So I'm taking this opportunity to pick the brains of my friends - any advice for traveling the world, and Italy in particular? We're looking at going sometime in October, both for our anniversary and because I've been told that's a decent time of year to head there, and I'd like to go to Venice, if only because that's where a huge chunk of my SCA efforts have been focused. Rome would be awesome too, if it's feasible to hit both. A coworker has recommended this tour company, which *seems* pretty cool, but I'm not sure whether that would fall into the category of 'making things incredibly easier' versus 'spending a lot of money to make the experience pre-processed and cheesy.'
Any hints, advice, or experiences in general would be welcome!
And now, with
umbran anticipating gainful employment, it looks like this is actually going to be feasible. Which is both awesome and scary.Here's the deal - I've never traveled outside the country before, with the exception of one (awesome) week in England when I was 22. I've never been somewhere that I don't speak the language, I've never had to navigate foreign cities, and I have precious little idea of what to expect.
So I'm taking this opportunity to pick the brains of my friends - any advice for traveling the world, and Italy in particular? We're looking at going sometime in October, both for our anniversary and because I've been told that's a decent time of year to head there, and I'd like to go to Venice, if only because that's where a huge chunk of my SCA efforts have been focused. Rome would be awesome too, if it's feasible to hit both. A coworker has recommended this tour company, which *seems* pretty cool, but I'm not sure whether that would fall into the category of 'making things incredibly easier' versus 'spending a lot of money to make the experience pre-processed and cheesy.'
Any hints, advice, or experiences in general would be welcome!
no subject
1) YAY TRAVEL. You'll love it. Take as long as you possibly can.
1B) Everywhere you go, people will speak English. Really. Don't worry about language problems. If you're concerned, buy one of those point-picture book things for emergencies - I bought one for my last trip to China/Mongolia (where there _are_ language difficulties in being a traveler) and it stayed in the bottom of my bag. You're used to being flexible (I'm in awe of your relief work) - and that will put you far ahead of mere mortals abroad.
2) I loved Venice and the tinytiny towns separated by OMG gorgeous valleys of olive trees, crops, and grapevines of the Tuscany region. (This pix sums up what I loved about that region - we stopped for 1h, and I could have stayed for 3d, just walking, however, the castle/town was quite touristy and probably deathly expensive; I bought the above at a little hole in the wall outside of the town that catered to locals looking for a snack: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clstal/795359103/ )
Italy pix from that trip/tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clstal/tags/italy/ Venice was my ABSOLUTE FAV place of the whole trip but it is heart-attack-inducingly expensive. Hotels are insanely expensive (unless you want to spend hours/frustration/getting lost/unpleasantness and stay in less central locations, food is expensive, but at least (unlike the rest of Italy, in my experience) amenable to wandering near your hotel and finding good restaurants, likely because your hotel is in a central location frequented by tourists AND locals... which makes all the difference in the world, in my opinion. This lady just got back from Venice - and might have advice on places to stay, if you're interested: http://www.yarnagogo.com/blog/2012/03/in-venice.html
3) I took the Globus tour w/ my mom a few years ago. They were great, 100% professional, accommodating, and the tour guide lady was well-suited for the task. My only complaint was that on the one or two tour-provided meals, the food sucked - the places that can accommodate a tour bus full of people don't cater to locals and therefore can serve sub-par food as long as they can do it quickly. Not the fault of the tour company, this is a problem of feeding the masses. The globus tour was _not_ food-focused, something I regret to this day and would consider a major drawback (and is the reason I'd like to go back) - we passed through so many regions famous for food/wine/whatever and those were never featured or mentioned by the tour. If you do take a tour, book yourself several days ahead of the tour so you can get over the atrocious jet lag and acclimate, so when the tour starts, you aren't miserable when you're supposed to be viewing once-in-a-lifetime artwork/places/etc. The tour place can rec a location or give you the name of the hotel where the tour starts... and you can book there or nearby using hostels.com or one of the other international hotel sites.
...
no subject
More Globus info: they will get you in and out of and transported to all of the major sights of Italy in a dead minimum of time. This is a plus or a minus depending on your POV.
I hate tours and I would not recommend them, that being said, Globus was great and if you like tours AND ARE DETERMINED TO BOOK IN ADVANCE, I would rec them. However, if you prefer to book tours yourself once you arrive, you can save boatloads of cash and have a local tour guide (awesome!). However, it depends on how you travel and how open you are to finding your own way to the train station/bus depot/metro/etc. I don't care for 'sights' or monuments or museums... my idea of travel is dumping my bags somewhere and walking for hours, eating, sitting, drinking (coffee, wine, beer), walking, walking, eating, sitting, reading, etc. Repeat till boredom sets in or you make friends (happens quickly!) and then repeat all of that but with conversation. I'm a cheep bastard and for that, I pay a little extra in the frustration of navigating my map-incompetent self around a city. If I'm going to take a tour, it's going to be a 1d tour to see something specific and hiring local is _much_ preferred. This is also the cheapest way to travel - self-cater your lunch (and enjoy the experience of shopping in different supermarkets - one of my FAV things to do abroad!) and a few breakfasts, pay for coffee, sweet snacks, and dinner, a few breakfasts, and any admissions/transport, and you've seen a ton, interacted with lots of locals, had a great time wandering, and surprised yourself with the pleasant laziness of _vacationing_!
For info from someone who just left Rome and is touring Italy currently, see this lady: http://www.ottsworld.com/ She's excellent, a sweetheart, and I'd take her recommendations any time (also, she takes gorgeous pictures and doesn't hate 'sights' as much as I do).
Oh, and take an olive oil tour... sounds crazy, but my mom took one at a monastery and I think it was one of the highlights for her (I didn't go, but wish I had) - she left having purchased a box of olive oil that arrived at our house a few weeks later and became gifts and one of the most-enjoyed reminders of that trip (I'm not an olive oil geek, but this was the best stuff I've ever tasted). Also, the trains are lovely, easy to navigate and super-safe, if you don't go the tour/tourbus route. (Also - things to bring home: lemonchillo and grappa, both departure-airport-purchasable for tax and easy transport purposes.)
I still dream of the coffee in Italy. Truck stop espresso of the lowest quality is far superior to the most snotty coffee-shop espresso in the US. Eat gelato every day and drink as much coffee as you can stand - both are incomparable, widely available, comparatively cheep, and highly memorable.
YAY!!
no subject
I use a small backpack (REI Flash 18), bury my wallet w/ all but 1 card in the bottom and keep a small ammt of cash +/- 1 atm card in my pocket (local equiv. of the cost of a meal and a few things from a street vendor). My small crappy backpack has a drawstring, which I secure using a carabeaner to a strap to make opening it difficult. The only place I've ever felt pickpocketing was a problem was Ulan Batar, Mongolia -- where it was a HUGE problem (though the only time my bag was messed with was after I'd wandered the enormous western-style grocery store wide-eyed and food-deprived). Experienced travelers got pick-pocketed in UB - it was impressive and inconvenient but never violent, thankfully.
I'm a paranoid hide-passport-in-room person rather than carry-it-with-you, but YMMV. The same for large wads of cash (which you'll have no reason to deal with in Italy - more an issue in Mongolia/rural China/Turkey when ATMs aren't easily and widely available).
For busses/trains/planes: pack a box of larabars/cliffbars/snickers. Convenience packaged food isn't as widely available abroad as it is in the US and being time-shifted and starving is a quick way to make a minorly stressful experience a misery. I'm an aggressively light packer (I'm carrying it all on my back!) and find the weight/space totally worth it.
Plugs - buy a small converter for the plugs (probably to the 2 round prongs) but don't worry about actual _converters_ (ie involving transformers), your laptop/batery chargers/phone chargers will do the trick for you.
Phone abroad - you won't need one. If you'd for some reason (*highly* not recced) want to use your phone abroad, call your carrier before you leave and add international options as needed. However, unless you're a highly adventurous traveler and will be calling hostels while on the road to book rooms, or will be doing complex itinerary ballet between the members of your party, a phone is really *really* not necessary. Email/wifi/skype will be utterly sufficient to keep in touch w/ loved ones, book rooms/tours/research locations/etc.
Drink water. Hydration helps w/ jet lag.
OK, I'm stepping away from the computer now.... :-) I LOVE travel and just got so excited that you're going!