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Travel to Italy.

SistaWeotch — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:33:57 GMT

Hello!

Howdy. I will be traveling to Italy for a week or 2 in late June, early July of 2008. I just got "Europe on a Shoestring" from the library and have put a few phrase books and language CDs on hold, as well. I recently signed up for couchsurfing.com, too, in keeping with the whole "shoestring" theme. (It was an unplanned trip until just now, so I will not have much time to save up money.)

I'll be starting in Naples and hope to see Pompeii, Rome, Florence, and if feasible, Venice. I would love to pop down to Sicily and see Mt. Etna, but that may have to wait for a later time. So... other than the shoestring book, any recommendations on seeing Italy on the super-cheap? Things that are a must-see, or worth spending a little extra on? A friend told me it's worth it to get a guided tour of Pompeii, for ex., so I know what I'm looking at!

I'm also looking for recommendations on shoes and bags. I'll be spending a lot of time on my tragically soft feet, lol. Hoping to: 1) not look too much like a tourist, 2) have sturdy, comfy shoes, and 3) not spend very much. I was looking at www.crocs.com and found a few things. Even if that would peg me as a tourist, I might go with it, anyway, if they are as comfy as everyone says, because they are very affordable.

The same friend who suggested paying for a guided tour of Pompeii also strongly cautioned me about pickpockets in Rome and other areas. I'm looking for some (again, affordable!) bag recommendations. I was considering a variation of Healthy Back bags ( http://www.healthyback.com/store/traveling/healthybackbagnylon.htm ), but didn't know if they were secure enough. Assume that I won't be using the outside pockets at all.

Any info you care to share would be great!

Thanks so much!

Cheers,
SistaWeotch :)

posted in Travel Europa - 8 replies

Croatia... can anyone help?

Shai — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:23:18 GMT

Hello, my girlfrind and I are planning a summer trip to Croatia... We live in Spain and actually want to escape the main-stream tourism (exagerated prices for rich west europeans... that's spain's case)

We are open to your recomendations. We'd like to camp around as much as possible, spend as little as possible and go to hiden and non-(specially)-habilitated-tourist-areas, meet like-minded people, learn about the culture,... all in a period of ONE or TWO months.

We want to visit islands or simply one island (not touristic again) and enjoy our days on the beach... we love to swim naked, feel free to be nude, we are very open and simply don't want the tipical tourist spots... BUT ALL YOU FIND ON THE interNET IS RELATED TO TOURISTIC AREAS, wich is the island(s) or area you'd recomend some youngsters like us?

Any help, recomendation,... is very welcome!!!

Thank you, big kiss

Shai and Maria

posted in Travel Europa - 0 replies

priceline.com

Craigyb — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 07:56:24 GMT

Has anyone ever used the “name your price” feature on priceline.com?
I’d like to learn of as many pro’s and con’s as possible.
Please get back to me soon I’d like to book something this week.
Thanks,
Craig

posted in Travel Europa - 0 replies

Not Too Costly Hotel in Barcelona

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:46:19 GMT

hi! i just wanna share this article on a hotel in Barcelona, Spain. You might find it interesting.

If you are looking for the best city to go to in Spain, Barcelona is the perfect place to spend your vacation, since it is quite notable for its stability, cultural activities, and prosperity. Of course, when you indeed decided to visit Barcelona Spain, you need to find a suitable yet not so costly hotel for your stay. CONTINUE READING HERE http://www.exploring-spain.com/2006/07/10/not-too-costly-hotel-in-barcelona/

posted in Travel Europa - 0 replies

Looking for travel companion Antwerp-London Jun 6-16

battlegirl — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 22:02:46 GMT

Hello fellow travelers,

I have been traveling through Europe for the past 2 months, solo, but I am tired of doing the touristy things alone. I am looking for a travel companion for the following tentative itinerary:

start tue, june 6 early afternoon in antwerp (I'm coming from the netherlands), stay a night or two. sights of interest: royal museum of fine arts, mayer van den bergh museum, rubens huis.
thu, june 8-10 (or 11) in brussels, for grand-place, brewer's museum, museum of cocoa and chocolate, and, of course, the mannekin pis statue :) Also the Musee Royaux dex Beaux-Arts, and the center for comic strip arts.
mon june 12 from brussels, one day trip to Leuven, to have some Laffe beer, and check out the pretty city
tue june 13 head early to bruges, but stop by during the day in ghent to see the cathedral and the city.
Stay the night in Bruges, and spend the next day checking out the sights. Not sure which, but I'm told it's a must-see town. One thing I know is there is De Halve Maan, a beer museum and brewery.
From there, find a train-ferry-train combination to london. Stay somewhere centric and visit all the major sights. Return trip is on fri, june 16. I'm going back to friends either in the netherlands or france to rest a bit before heading south towards italy.

As you can tell, I love museums, and I love beer :) I am on a pretty tight budget, so it's hostels and cheap transportation all the way. I'll gladly spend money on museum entrances, though, and can live on sandwhiches, even though I like good food. Can't say I'm an energetic and high-spirited companion, I'm more on the shy side. I'll happily try bars and/or clubs, I love to dance and drink, but this trip I'd rather see the sights during the day than drink and party. I'm not much of an early-morning person... but I'll make an effort 'cause most of the cool places close early! Plus it's hard to sleep late when you're in a hostel.

The ideal companion would be another girl who is in a similar situation as I am, traveling solo and with no fixed itinerary, just a desire to travel. I am *definitely* not looking for a hook up, so I'll be wary of single guys. Really, if you are looking for personals ads, go to another site. Don't bother replying to this. I'm also older than I look, I'm close to 30 yrs old, so I'm more keen on the cultural stuff than the late-night partying. I do enjoy my beers, though :) An older person would be cool. Younger people might want to look for others of their own age, unless they're geeky enough to be into museums over partying.

I have been keeping a detailed blog of my travels on blogspot: http://battlegirlEU.blogspot.com . You can check that out to know more about me and the places I've visited. If you have something similar, please share it.

My trusty guide for all sight-seeing has been the "Let's go Western Europe on a Budget." It has proven very accurate and useful on all data, from best places to see to transportation. Since it covers so many countries, it is often light on details about smaller cities, but if I stay in a town or country long enough, I buy a specific guide for the place.

If you think you fit the bill, reply to this or send an email to webgirl at the domain name battlegirl dot net. If you're not geeky enough to get that, just reply to this post, I'll keep an eye out for replies. ;)

posted in Travel Europa - 0 replies

Fun stories

trinsic — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 06:05:52 GMT

Does anyone have a fun stories to share ?

posted in Travel Europa - 2 replies

where should I go?

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 04:05:25 GMT

I was wondering if any of you have cheap suggestions or "in's" for euro-travel. I have a flight booked for the 14th to heathrow, will be there 2 nights, and then my only priority is to be in germanyby the 25th, or holland a few days before. atleast 9 whole days to do anything, go anywhere... what to do what to do...

posted in Travel Europa - 4 replies

Planning trip to Europe

trinsic — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 05:05:44 GMT

Im planning trip to Europe in 2007,whos with me :)
What do you guys think of Malta? It’s a small island near Sicily. God there is so much history there.. Check out the link below
I want to hit the islands this time Greece, Malta, ect, have any of you ever been to any of the islands of Italy’s coastline?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/malta/index.htm

This reminds me, If I am going to even be close to being able to afford a trip to Europe I am going to need to really work hard at getting my business off the ground. I realized my inspiration to excel is the opportunity to travel around the world.

posted in Travel Europa - 6 replies

My trip to Sicily, Part 1

trinsic — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 03:09:45 GMT

I wanted to get us going on talking about europa, I was hoping we could write little stories about some of our experinces in other countries, If you have somtime you would like to share please do, im very intersted in hearing about traveling.

The first real stop I made was in Sicily; my ancestors were born there, in a little town next to Enna called, Villa Rosa. I travel with my mom for that part of the journey, actually it was her Idea, and I just wanted to visit the UK area. She wanted me to go but I told her Id rather spend more time in the UK, but because she was going, so reluctantly I agreed.

It was the most interesting place I have ever been. The town was very small and traditional and we had a hard time finding it. We took a bus from Palermo to Enna not know how we were going to get to Villa Rosa. Enna was this town on top of the highest point in Sicily I think. You could see the country side all around you for miles, it was absolutely beautiful! Mount Etna was right their in the horizon like a smoking gun. When we got to Enna we found a girl from Villa Rosa that attends school in Enna, she was taking the bus back home so we rode with here. On the way there she told us in Italian, (we didn’t know much Italian at the time) that there were only two small hotels in the whole town. So when we got there we lugged my mom’s stuff (not mine, I had a backpack, and she had like two suit cases, UGH!) over to the first hotel in town.

It was a hot day and I had to go in and speak to the innkeeper, by myself. Women were not allowed to be seen outside during the day so my mom was concerned about how it would look if she were with me when I rented the rooms.

I walked in and the innkeeper was this heavy set Sicilian with very little teeth, and a loud voice. I bellowed something in Italian but I could understand. I explained to him in broken Italian (Never go to Sicilian with out have a good understanding of Italian, even if they understand English they will want you to speak in there language.) that I wanted to rent a room for me and my mom. He brought us to the room but it was on the third floor. Since my mom is in her 50ies I tried to ask the keeper if we could have a room on the first floor, I tried a few times in Italian but he couldn’t understand me so I had to play like an old women trying to carry luggage up and down the steps and finally he got it.

I got the room and checked in, meanwhile I go back outside and my mom was taken in by a group of hairdressers right next to where she was waiting, so I walked into the establishment and it was a group of beautiful Italian women there were laughing and chatting with my mom like they had knew each other for years. It was a really treat to watch my mom talk to them in Italian.

Anyway we met the mother of one of the girls and she offered to take us around town the next day, my mom wanted to look up our family history so it was a great opportunity for her, the women was very helpful and full of energy for a lady in her 70ies.

Anyway I will right more later on this it was so much fun; I never wanted to leave Europe. I also traveled myself to, napes, room, Venice, Prague and the UK.

posted in Travel Europa - 1 reply

Exotica Places

trinsic — Sat, 08 May 2004 06:16:25 GMT

Does anyone have any off the path places they have been were tourism is low and the possibility for adventure and romance is high?

posted in Travel Europa - 0 replies