Going to Italy

Hey Everyone,

Well my family and I are going to Italy for Christmas. I just thought I'd ask who here is from Italy and where your stationed? We are arriving in Rome, staying there for a couple of days and then heading up to Venice which will be our 'base camp' for the trip. We'll only be in Northern Italy, and some small trips to Germany and Switzerland to see some friends and relatives. So if anyone has any suggestions for activities, places to visit, etc. let's hear 'em.

Ed

I didn't like Venice (it's near to our border) , but Bolognia and Pisa are :shock:

I'm from southern Germany so i don't know much about italy but the Rhine Falls in Switzerland are quite a view. I think it's easy to look up stuff in the internet with search terms as trip, site, switzerland, italy and so on.

All the best for your trip.

Kai

I lived in Genova for a few months (did study abroad there when I was in college) on the Ligurian coast about 2 hours South of Milan (by train). I've been all over Northern Italy and down to Rome.

Personally its hard to give any suggestions to you though unless you tell me some things you're into and perhaps how old you are. I have a degree in architecture and a lot of my travels were for museums and buildings. I will say that I didn't care for Venice at all and Florence was even worse. Milan is fair. Rome, Turin (Torino), and Genoa (Genova) were great. So were some of the smaller places I went to like Verona. For a nice hike you could certainly check out Cinque Terra. If you want to go Skiing/Snowboarding its much cheaper on the Italian side of the alps and hotels are much nicer. We stayed at mostly 2 star hotels when we were travelling and they were all fantastic. Much cheaper and less crowded than your tourist fares. I'm not too sure about travel from Rome on arrival, I flew in and out of Milan. If you're at all into History/Architecture/Archaeology/Gardens or just like pretty things then a short bus-ride from Rome will take you to Villa Deste and Hadrian's Villa. Both were amazing and I wish I spent more time there, I did Villa Deste first and only saw about half of Hadrian's Villa as a result. If you do stay mostly in Venice then the only thing I'd suggest is looking into the museum there by Carlo Scarpa (Querini Stampalia) and if you do travel be sure to find any of his other buildings as well. They're all amazing articulated and I think anyone would appreciate the level of detail that went into them. http://www.querinistampalia.it/

If you have any specific questions or want to post more details as to what you're interested in I'll be happy to do my best to answer ya.

My auntie (father's sister) is married to an Italian, my uncle are venetian, so they know all the real sorts of places to visit. So we'll be seeing the glassmakers, and other sort of unknown aspects of Venice (and other parts of Italy) not just the tourist stuff.

Ryan,

I'm 15. I'm interested in a whole heap of things. My father was a construction worker for my uncle, who owns the company, and my uncle's son is an engineer. So, those three are especially interested in engineering and architecture but the rest of us are as well. We also all enjoy history. So museums, not particularly art, are something we plan on going to.The Deutsches museum is one we especially want to see. Like I said I enjoy many things, history, engineering, culture (social, physical, spiritual), whatever tickles my fancy!

Ed

Thanks to everyone for your help. Off to Italy today. I wish everyone a happy and safe holidays.

I'm a little nervous about taking Alpha Lipolic Acid through customs! Fish Oil easy enough to explain, ALP not so easy!!!

Back in three weeks,

Ed

I didn't had any problrmes at the airport, just don't have it at the personal - passenger baggage...They just asked me if it's a liquid.

Well I'm back everyone, got back on Sunday. Italy was great. I'm writing a blog piece on it and I'll let you know when it's done. Unfortunately I got sick on the last couple of days, luckily end of the trip not the start, and the trip home (left Venice on Saturday the 10th at 6am and got to Melbourne at 10:30 on Sunday evening) didn't help with that at all. So I haven't been training any this week. But hope fully Sunday I'll be right enough to ease back into training.

Ed

P.S it's been nice to return to the WOD's, and it'll be interesting to see how they develop!

Ok, finally the first part of the trip is up (here). Read it if your game, it's a hell of a long post but luckily the Venice posts will be shorter as those experiences were more personal and less touristy stuff. So each post will more than likely be about a single event. If you have any questions, shoot.

An aside, I got the e-mail of a cute Italian girl before I left. And let me tell you it is hard work talking to someone in a language your not very proficient and when you don't have someone who speaks both languages to help or hands/body gestures to help!

Ed

P.S just a warning, it contains a little bit of coarse language