Misc Notes On Globus Italian Travel

Our European brethren do not place the value on air conditioning that we do. However, the hotels in which you will stay all have "air conditioning." It is my personal preference upon getting to a hotel in America, to drop the AC down to about 45 and let it run.

This is not an option in the hotels you'll be staying in. The A/C worked well in only one hotel we visited - Settentrionale Esplanade in Montecatini, a very pleasant family-run establishment. The others made only half-hearted attempts to cool the room down. In a couple of cases, the AC broke entirely and we ended up changing rooms. The A/C in THAT room also stopped working.

I should also note that the controls for the AC are a bit confusing. You might think, when looking at the controls that the temperature setting should be set to the snowflake for cool air. (It's that way in plenty of our cars...) However, the setting actually refers to the weather OUTSIDE, so you have to switch it to the "sun" icon to get cool air.

When you arrive in Italy you probably will be leaving your plane and walking onto the tarmac rather than down a familiar skyway tunnel.

From there you'll get onto a very crowded, standing room only bus. After being driven to the terminal where you'll get your bags and then head to Italian immigration. Don't worry about knowing where to go, simply follow the crowd. Everyone is going to the same place. When you reach immigration, be sure to get in the correct line with the rest of the NON-European Union visitors. To say that the inspection given to your passport by the Italian officials is brief, is to overstate the case. I barely had to stop moving as I passed in front of the window. No questions, no comments. The official didn't even make eye contact. She simply stamped the passport and immediately reached for the next person's in line.

From there you head to the exits. You'll then find a hoard of Globus employees standing around, waiting to help you. They will be able to direct you to the correct method of transportation to get you to your initial hotel.

The breakfasts that you'll be eating are sort of familiar. Well, the croissants are familiar anyway. In addition to the croissants you'll find cold cuts of ham and salami, cheese, cereals - including a very odd tasting "cocoa krispies" like thing, various breads and jellies, and "eggs."

I put the word "eggs" in quotation marks because the things served are in fact "eggs" but they are prepared in some unfathomable way. The eggs are often cooked to a very wet consistency. That is, they are served as though 20% of the eggs did not cook fully. In other places the eggs were cooked until they were actually tough. I usually passed on the eggs. The bacon was also usually left in the chafing dishes as it was cooked so that it remained very soft. Sue me, I like crispy bacon.

If you like strong coffee, you'll be in heaven. Italian coffee is served much stronger than it is generally served here. Since I make my coffee strong anyway, it was all normal to me. However, many of my fellow travelers did not like it. But, by the end of the tour, they were all drinking it. I'll also note that the Italians serve their coffee's cream hot, not cold.

For those of you wondering about your tour bus, you can relax. All Globus busses are less than 5 years old. The seats are roomy, and each seat has its own A/C vent. In addition, the buses are very clean. Most tours, as I was made to understand, make everyone rotate seats each day, so don't worry about what seat you're sitting in at first. Though... Had I it to do all over again, I would have chosen my first seats on the driver's side, closer to the rear of the bus. This will put you closer to the front for longer. (Unless they rotate counterclockwise - all life is a gamble..) However, all of the seats are pretty equally comfortable.

They are a bit picky about eating on the bus, though having water is no problem. Most people also smuggled various bits of food on board as well. However, they will probably draw the line at ice cream, full lunches, and the like.

Storage space is limited on the bus, so they are also a little picky about carry-on bags being too large. If it has wheels, they are going to make you carry it in the luggage compartment during your tour.

Globus says that there is an emergency bathroom on the bus if it is needed. There is. However unless you are a gymnast and the size of a 10 year old school girl, you will be sharing your emergency with the entire bus. The "emergency facility" is a small compartment at the rear door of the bus. So, you'll want to make every effort to "prevent" any emergencies.

In general, your carry-on bags will be safe on the bus. The drivers seem to take their jobs pretty seriously and usually stay well within sight of the vehicle.

I'm not talking about the bus drivers here, I'm talking about the drivers of the cars and scooters on the Italian roads. As our tour director said, "In Italy we don't have many accidents, we have many miracles." The fact that streets of Italy are not constantly wet with new blood is a miracle. Watching the constant near-death experiences on the road is almost as much fun as seeing the beautiful landscapes.

There do not appear to be any traffic laws in Italy that govern behavior on the roads. People pass on the left or right, on single or double lanes, whether or not there is oncoming traffic. Red lights do not mean "stop" in Italy, they are "suggestions."

The only way to cross the street in Italy, according to one of our local tour guides, is simply to cross without making eye contact with the drivers. She said, "If you want to cross the street in Rome, do as the Romans do.." This woman walked out into traffic with her little sunflower flag, completely oblivious to the oncoming vehicles. They actually stopped. She insisted that if you make eye contact with the drivers, they will not stop but rather intimidate you into stopping. This tactic seemed more effective if a whole group walked together. It worked for me and the Mrs. a number of times. However, I cannot recommend that anyone follow her advice or my example.

Our tour director said it plainly, "If you've come to Italy for the food, you're going to be disappointed." Let me personally assure you, he's right. The included hotel dinners are filling and certainly edible, however, that is all they are. When you paid for your Globus trip, you bought CERTAIN meals in advance. That is, the hotels have contracted to serve you chicken or fish and some assorted side dishes. It does not matter what else the hotel restaurant serves, because you aren't given a choice.

This is also the case on the optional excursions that include a meal. Your food choices have already been made for you. With two exceptions addressed at length in the excursions page the food was at best, mediocre.

Don't let this discourage you. Italy is crammed full of fantastic restaurants waiting to be explored. In Rome for example, you have but to go to the Jewish quarter and stop in anywhere. Just about anything there will be better than the hotel food. A cursory search of the web found this: http://www.cnn.com/FOOD/restaurants/weissmann/world/rome.html. It's a bit dated since they're still using lire instead of Euros, but having been there, the advice looks pretty sound.

The downside is that you've already paid for the meals at the hotels so you are sort of paying double for food. But... How often do you get to Italy?

During your city tours, lunch is on your own and that is a great time to check out the menus that are posted in front of every restaurant. IF you want to keep it cheap, you will have no trouble finding lunch specials that get you a whole pizza, an antipasto, and a drink, for around 10 Euro. The pizzas are not like anything you get in the U.S. They are much thinner, and do not have toppings stacked to the sky. You can get pretty much what you like, but in general it is simply tomato sauce, olive oil, and mozzarella cheese.

When you are on the bus traveling to your tour cities, you'll be eating at fast food places called, "Autogrilles." Essentially they are the McDonald's of Italy. Inside you will usually have a choice of a cafeteria style eatery, or a prepared sandwich shop. Not good food, but it is filling and fast. You usually have about 45 minutes to eat.

You won't be spending a lot of time on your trip in your hotel room other than to sleep, so don't worry a great deal about them. They are small, often times a little hotter than many would like, but I found them comfortable enough. With the exception of the Plaza Hotel in Venice (It should be called the Dungeon) all of the hotels were pretty nice places.

Nice that is until you get to the bathrooms. My best guess is that our Italian brethren used a blind, drunk, 4th grader to design their bathrooms. They seem intentionally designed so that water goes everywhere. Some have half doors on the tub that will not stay closed, some have curtains but the tub does not meet the wall. The result is that your floor is almost always soaked after a shower. This was uniform in all hotels.

All of the hotel bathrooms also positioned the toilet so that mounting it was often and acrobatic challenge. For us guys, that poses only the occasional annoyance. However the women folks will have less than a great time of it. In one hotel the toilet was actually positioned so that it the open end was UNDER the sink. All bathrooms also include a bidet. Since it is generally alien to American bathrooms, you'll probably just look at it dubiously. (While you're standing in a puddle of shower water..)

When you ask for a glass of water in Italy, that's exactly what you'll get. A glass with water in it. You will NOT get ice. This goes for soft drinks as well. To get ice you are going to have to ask for it and in many cases, pay for it. A couple of the bartenders at our hotels racked up some pretty nice tips for providing bowls of ice.

Don't bother looking, you will NOT find ice machines in your hotels.

Let's face it, you're in a foreign country whose national language is not English. However, it is widely spoken. Many of the people who you will have to interact with will speak enough English to get through whatever business is at hand.

However, the people who had some basic knowledge of the language seemed a little better off and a bit more comfortable. I spent several weeks learning basic Italian and believe me, it paid off when our flights were canceled, and we had to make our own way across Italy to catch up to our tour. (That's another story I'll post soon)

Before leaving for Italy I tried several language tape courses and I founded most of them utterly useless. The exception was the Pimsleur tapes.

The Pimsleur tapes approach teaching the language in a much more effective way than simply trying to learn "common phrases." This set of tapes actually TEACHES basic Italian conversation the way you learn English as a child, through context and repetition.

The lessons are 1/2 hour long and you do ONE per day for 16 days.

If the basics aren't enough for you, they also offer a substantially more intensive course with their Pimsleur - Italian I.

At this writing the Euro is around $1.21. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT GET EUROS HERE. You will pay much more than $1.21 per Euro if you do. You get your best exchange rate by using ATMs when you are there. ATMs, are all over the place in Italy, just like here. There is no reason to buy a $1000 bucks in traveler's checks, take them to Italy, and convert them there for $1.39 per Euro. Use the ATMs to get the money you'll need for the day and use your debit or credit card instead of cash for larger purchases. Oh - the Mrs. suggests that you call your bank and Credit Card company to let them know you will be using your cards abroad so they do not deny access to the card. Calling from the US is easier than from Europe! You should also keep in mind that your withdrawal limit applies in Europe the same as it applies here. If your bank only allows a $300.00 withdrawal per day, then that's all you'll get in Europe per day.

An important part of a trip to a monumentally historically rich country like Italy is research. You could literally walk within a few feet of an off-the-beaten-path treasure and never know it was there. The "Eyewitness Travel Guides" offer excruciatingly detailed information about the specific areas that you will visit.

They offer maps of museaums, churches, and other buildings, as well as exceptionally informative commentary on thousands of points of interest across Italy.

If you're looking to visit some of the sites in Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" these books will be invaluable. At least a third of our tour was looking for sites mentioned in the book. If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it.