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MagicCube posted:Here is the trail list from the Cinque Terre National Park website: http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/sentieri_parco.asp?id_lingue=2. Unfortunately from a cursory glance at the full map it looks like all the waterside trails are closed except for Monterosso to Vernazza, but there are alternate trails to each town along with the train. Also, looking on the main map I can see Fontona listed, but the trail that connects it to the main trail is closed as well. It's kind of lovely that a lot of the trails are closed, but there are so many landslides. Awesome, thanks. I'm surprised they still have so many trails closed (especially some of the most interesting ones!) but I guess nothing ever gets fixed quickly in Italy*. I'd wanted to go a couple years ago but didn't because I heard the damage was still so bad. *E: I guess they have higher priorities of stuff to rebuild than hiking trails for tourists. Saladman fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jun 28, 2015 |
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Jun 28, 2015 18:46
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Saladman posted:How do you find out where the hiking trails are? Google Maps is terrible for trails, and I don't know any Italian hiking trail websites and can't find them in a quick google attempt. I'm looking at AirBNB now for places, and some towns (like Fontona, just up from Levanto) look like they would convenient for walking IF there are paths ~everywhere, otherwise it looks like a PITA. We're pretty physically fit and spend a lot of time in the mountains hiking (and driving... although the Swiss mountain roads won't have a 10th the traffic of Cinque Terre). I have 2 links that might help you, they are more north Italy / Alpine region oriented though. And ontop of that the second one is German only but has a nice map. http://www.viaclaudia.org/en/travel-the-via-claudia/hiking.html http://www.fernwege.de/i/index.html
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Jun 29, 2015 10:20
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You can also take a look at http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#11/9.87281/44.20233/blue/run to see where people run in that region. It's not really hiking, but you should get an idea what the popular routes are.
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Jun 29, 2015 10:50
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Stop going to Amsterdam and start visiting the north and east of Holland.
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Jun 29, 2015 15:30
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For the people who had problems with connecting to the local mobile company's network after buying a new SIM, especially the Galaxy S5 Android user: You have to get the APN for your local carrier. Settings > More Networks > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names Here, you'll have to input the APN for your new local carrier. You'll have to do a Google search for it. Some companies are better than others for putting this info on their website. For example, here's Three (UK): http://ask3.three.co.uk/srvs/cgi-bin/webisapi.dll/,/?new,kb=mobile,ts=mobile,t=casedoc.tem,case=obj(1376),varset_username=Mobile:mobileUser Motherfuckers at Verizon clearly know this is the issue their customers are having, but they won't help you because, well, they're a lovely telecom and will tell you they don't provide CS for other carriers when clearly you're just a Verizon customer who would like someone to help them use their phone abroad for a week or two. Gotta sell you some horseshit global data package that nobody wants. And US telecoms wonder why the average citizen doesn't trust them when it comes to the net neutrality issue. Your average local carrier salesperson, especially third party sales outside of an airport, has no clue and may not even be able to properly communicate in English with you, so that's a crapshoot. Certainly not their fault. I've never, ever had a problem with my iPhone and local carrier SIMs. I didn't even have to put in the APN, but I don't have a ton of data points for that. I've always had to use the APN for my S5, but again, not a ton of data points. Hope this helps people.
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Jun 29, 2015 19:48
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Italy. Two weeks. Late September. Wife six months pregnant. Train or car? I know train is supposed to be better in Europe, but minimizing the walking might be valuable, plus the ability to go anywhere we want for the two weeks. e: Probably do some combination of Rome, Milan, Venice and Naples, maybe cities that lie in the path of those 4, but that gives you a sense of the geographic separation I need to account for. MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 07:41
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:Italy. Two weeks. Late September. Wife six month's pregnant. Where in Italy are you going? Although to be honest it sounds like you have made up your mind.....although I would say driving in Italy can be, interesting especially if you are going to a big city. Driving in Rome is likely to cause an early birth.
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Jun 30, 2015 07:47
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See edit for cities, but no absolutely haven't made up my mind, just thinking outloud. I'm a blank slate - learn me, learn me so good. If we take the train are we going to get out of the train station and be like, okay how do we get everywhere? Sidebar - we take the train to Venice, how do we get everywhere? (e: importantly, these questions are within the context of being 6 months pregnant, I am familiar with the idea of walking) MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 07:49
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:If we take the train are we going to get out of the train station and be like, okay how do we get everywhere? Sidebar - we take the train to Venice, how do we get everywhere? (e: importantly, these questions are within the context of being 6 months pregnant, I am familiar with the idea of walking) If you take the train, you can take a cab or public transit to your hotel. You can then takes cabs, public transit, or walk to see things. If you drive, you can drive to your hotel. You can then take cabs, public transit, or walk to see things. You can't be driving to things you want to see every day in the cities you've listed because there is little to no parking anywhere near major sites and driving in big Italian cities for any length of time might give your wife an early birth as noted above. Piazza Venezia in Rome was harrowing enough as a pedestrian. Venice is obviously different, but not necessarily more difficult. What it will be though is more expensive. There is a system of water buses that stop at many places and those are expensive enough as it is, but there are also water taxis which will cost more but can take you to a specific location. Other than that it would be a lot of walking and a lot of bridges with stairs. If your wife can't walk to much I don't think Venice would be a very good idea. Also, all the cities you listed are on high-speed rail lines which can get you from place to place more comfortably and in less time. MagicCube fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 08:35
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As everyone else said, with the cities on your itinerary, you're not going to be driving around the cities anyway. There's rare street parking, and the garages are very expensive and not very frequent. I've driven in most of the major cities in Italy (including Naples) and even finding garages can be hard, they're often not super-well labeled. So, you would find one (or get one with your hotel) and then dump the car there until you're ready to go to the next town. Trains will be much faster (like literally twice the speed of driving for your itinerary) and less than half the price (remember to budget parking in at ~€20/day), including both of you together. That said, if money isn't a big issue you can definitely take the car. Driving in Italian cities really isn't that bad if it's just to get to your hotel. Just make sure to avoid arriving in a city during morning and, particularly, afternoon rush hour. The car would be better if you're going to more out-of-the-way places like San Gimignano, Garda, and Paestum and similar. E: You might also consider doing a trip around just northern Italy as a roadtrip with your wife. You can easily spend two weeks in Italy without even getting as far south as Florence. Saladman fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 08:47
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Very, very valuable advice from all of you, it sounds like the consensus is to rent a car - advice on rental agencies for our trip? No sorry, bit of goon in the well for you there. You all make good arguments, train it is. I may have more questions about what to see and how to see it later. Right now I'm just interested in buying the plane tickets and figuring out the vagueries of the trip. Will figure out the rest here soon. Thanks all.
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Jun 30, 2015 08:53
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I went to Rome and Naples with my wife when she was 18 weeks pregnant and we took the train. (6 months though is a big difference) and it was really fine. We booked seats on the train, I did the bag carrying and I just got a taxi at each train station. I really enjoyed the holiday because we took it slower and spent a lot more time sat in cafe's and restaurants than we normally would do. Also we ate a lot more and a lot more often which is always a bonus. There is a direct highspeed train line between Milan, Rome and Naples and it will be a lot quicker than going by car. I would never want to try and drive into Rome or Naples unless you have a lot of experience of driving in Italy or a car you don't give a poo poo about. Venice - easy to get to by train or car. If you stay outside Venice (cheaper) then you have to get the water taxis in or get up really early to find a place in the car park. part of the charm of Venice is seeing it from the water, so I would always recommend taking a water ferry at some point. You have to walk around Venice, it is a no car city. There are steps you will need to go up and down pretty regularly and getting on and off the boats can be interesting if your balance isn't quite what you are used too. Rome/Naples - Get a train and then get a taxi to the hotel. The only hassle with this is dealing with the taxi drivers who will probably try to over charge you. I can't imagine the pain you would go through trying to sight see in these 2 cities with a car.
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Jun 30, 2015 08:54
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:Italy. Two weeks. Late September. Wife six months pregnant. Don't drive in Italian cities.That's not a vacation. If you really want to do a trip by car, just go to some less visited rural places instead. Big Italian cities kind of suck anyway and the countryside is so much more relaxing. If you really want to go to Rome just go by train. By car it's an absolute nightmare.
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Jun 30, 2015 08:56
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A follow up question though, with her being 6 months pregnant would we be better off in Greece or Italy? I realize that's probably a subjective personal question but, whatever, I'm asking.
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Jun 30, 2015 09:13
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Is Spain as bad as Italy for driving? I'm doing a 10-day roadtrip there in August and haven't regularly been behind the wheel of a car for about five years. Also I come from a country where we drive on the left.
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Jun 30, 2015 09:37
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Greece has some major economic problems right now, I would stick to Italy. If something goes wrong the healthcare in Italy is better than in Greece. Driving in Italy isn't terrible as long as you stay away from the cities and to be fair this is true for almost every country. Spain's roads are less crowded than Italy which makes driving easier. Madrid or Barcelona are still a challenge but much safer places to navigate around than Rome or Naples....parking will still be a pain in the arse. I only ever drive into a city and then I leave the car at the hotel. PlantHead fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 11:51
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Shibawanko posted:Stop going to Amsterdam and start visiting the north and east of Holland. Care to elaborate?
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Jun 30, 2015 12:53
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:Very, very valuable advice from all of you, it sounds like the consensus is to rent a car - advice on rental agencies for our trip? My wife and I are also going to Italy for 16 days mid to late September. We will be using trains for almost everything aside from two days driving from Orvieto, San Gimignano, Siena, and drop off in La Spezia. I never once for a split second thought about driving in the main cities. Trains between major cities appear to be super fast and super cheap. http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en Le Frecce are the high speed trains. (Le Frecce isn't super cheap but it's really fast) Kaddish fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 13:22
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Renting a car and driving in Europe sounds like a terrible idea. I would never rent a car unless I was going way out in the country somewhere. Is this your first time traveling internationally? If you don't trust taxis just take an uber. God, finding parking in Rome? In the summer? That sounds like my own personal hell, not a vacation. Your wife is going to end up needing a taxi just to get from wherever you park to where you need to go.
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Jun 30, 2015 15:13
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Hadlock posted:Renting a car and driving in Europe sounds like a terrible idea. I would never rent a car unless I was going way out in the country somewhere. Is this your first time traveling internationally? If you don't trust taxis just take an uber. God, finding parking in Rome? In the summer? That sounds like my own personal hell, not a vacation. Your wife is going to end up needing a taxi just to get from wherever you park to where you need to go. We rented a car in Ireland and drove around the entire island for 2 weeks, that was pretty awesome. Ireland doesn't have the rail of the mainland though.
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Jun 30, 2015 16:17
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The quality of public transport varies wildly. In quite a few countries schedules quickly go to poo poo if you're more than 50km away from a big city. Even in former East Germany you might need to wait hours for a train and in the backcountry of France it's not that unusual to show up at a station at 16:00 and find out that the next train is tomorrow.
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Jun 30, 2015 16:46
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freebooter posted:Is Spain as bad as Italy for driving? I'm doing a 10-day roadtrip there in August and haven't regularly been behind the wheel of a car for about five years. Also I come from a country where we drive on the left. Depends on where. I just rented a car in the Basque region and found it extremely easy. Roads were nice, not much traffic, and was very easy to get around. Saw a ton of stuff I would have never been able to by train/bus. Most difficult (and expensive) part was parking in San Sebastian (20e for a night, could have gotten free if I wanted to walk/wait a while for a bus). In Madrid or any other big city I wouldn't bother at all with how bad traffic is. If you already will have a car I'd think about parking somewhere in the outskirts and using a train or something to get in and not worry about it until you want to move on. The kicker with Spain is the tolls, at least coming from the US. All the new highways have a lot of tolls. If you look it up ahead of time you can avoid most of the pricey ones. Went from San Sebastian to a town called Haro one way and it was nearly 15e for 2 hours of driving. The way back I asked someone and did the same thing with like 1.10e and the road was a lot more interesting. If you are not deadset on road tripping its also very easy and cheap to rent a car, like 10e a day cheap. I don't drive regularly either.
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Jun 30, 2015 18:19
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drat, due to the funkiness of Vatican Necropolis booking our schedule is going to be pretty insane for our first couple of days. We had planned on arriving in Rome and immediately heading to Naples for a trip to Pompeii the next day. The Vatican has booked us for the Necropolis for 3PM that same day. So now we're thinking we want to try to fit Pompeii into the same day we arrive in Italy. So it will look like this: Arrive in Rome around 10:30AM. Head to Rome termini, train to Naples. Drop off luggage (we're just doing backpacks) in Naples termini, train to Pompeii. This will give us a few hours at Pompeii. Train back to Naples termini, taxi to hotel. Next day back to Rome. I think we're going to be very tired.
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Jul 1, 2015 15:32
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hbf posted:Depends on where. I just rented a car in the Basque region and found it extremely easy. Roads were nice, not much traffic, and was very easy to get around. Saw a ton of stuff I would have never been able to by train/bus. Most difficult (and expensive) part was parking in San Sebastian (20e for a night, could have gotten free if I wanted to walk/wait a while for a bus). In Madrid or any other big city I wouldn't bother at all with how bad traffic is. If you already will have a car I'd think about parking somewhere in the outskirts and using a train or something to get in and not worry about it until you want to move on. Out of curiosity, how did you end up liking Haro?
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Jul 1, 2015 20:26
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PT6A posted:Out of curiosity, how did you end up liking Haro? Really liked the whole region. The town itself was pretty typical small spanish town, but there happened to be some sort of festival going on which was fun. I think it had something to do with high school graduation but I'm not sure. Visited a bunch of wineries and at most my gf and I were the only visitors. One of the guides sent us over to his friends farm outside town where they made goat cheese just because we said it would be cool. Drove from Haro to Lagrono and stopped at a couple of interesting little towns along the way. I know Laguardia was one. Totally full of old people wine tourists, but there was a bunch of cool wine caves. If I was to go back to Haro I'd totally spend a night there and just pop around to the different places drinking and buying bottles to ship home.
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Jul 2, 2015 03:10
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Hadlock posted:Renting a car and driving in Europe sounds like a terrible idea. I would never rent a car unless I was going way out in the country somewhere. Is this your first time traveling internationally? If you don't trust taxis just take an uber. God, finding parking in Rome? In the summer? That sounds like my own personal hell, not a vacation. Your wife is going to end up needing a taxi just to get from wherever you park to where you need to go. This seriously depends on where. I wouldn't travel in Iceland, Scotland or Ireland without a car. When I was going to do a trip to Slovenia last year I was going to rent a car, it just makes things easier. If you're going to be driving in major European cities a car is generally a bad idea. But there are tons of places where it's a good one.
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Jul 2, 2015 03:19
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Doctor Malaver posted:Care to elaborate? I just had to give a bunch of advice to a friend of a friend who wants to visit Holland. I listed some nice relaxing places that can be easily reached with public transportation but he said he'd just go to Amsterdam like dumb tourist number ten billion so I was a bit frustrated. You can see everything really worth seeing in Amsterdam in less than 2 days. Also it's very crowded and expensive. The high point of Holland in my opinion are the old little villages in the north and east (and maybe the south, I dunno, I never go there). The north and east is less rigidly planned, more like the English countryside, with nice forests and hills and so on. Tourists only ever go to the western provinces which have far less natural beauty. In the west it's just rectangular fields (with howling winds which make cycling unpleasant), ditches and ugly new farmhouses.
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Jul 2, 2015 06:35
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Kaddish posted:drat, due to the funkiness of Vatican Necropolis booking our schedule is going to be pretty insane for our first couple of days. We had planned on arriving in Rome and immediately heading to Naples for a trip to Pompeii the next day. The Vatican has booked us for the Necropolis for 3PM that same day. So now we're thinking we want to try to fit Pompeii into the same day we arrive in Italy. So it will look like this: This sounds like a terrible idea and you will probably end up hating everything. You will get to Pompeii and pretty much have to turn around and go back to Rome and Pompeii is a days worth of site seeing if you have any interest in Roman/old/architecture stuff. I wouldn't really recommend Pompeii as a day trip from Rome anyway but trying to cram it into half a day is going to be a real rush. You might be better off going to Herculaneum which is smaller and more manageable than Pompeii or maybe even just going to Ostia outside Rome which is also a great place to see. PlantHead fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jul 2, 2015 |
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Jul 2, 2015 07:56
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PlantHead posted:This sounds like a terrible idea and you will probably end up hating everything. Yeah, absolutely just go to Ostia. Pompeii is cool but actually pretty similar to Ostia and it's a poo poo ton closer and cheaper and will make you hate life less. Herculaneum and Oplontis are quite dramatically different from Pompeii/Ostia, but again I don't think I'd recommend doing it with your terrible itinerary. I've just typed up your rough schedule to see how it compares to the average 19 year old backpacker's plans. Land in FCO 10:30, means you'll get to Termini by 11:30, then there's a high speed every ~30 minutes, so you can expect to get into Naples by ~13:15, then you take the metro train to Pompeii, get there by maybe 14:00, and the site closes at 18:00. So you'll have, give or take, 4 hours to go around Pompeii. This is a reasonable amount of time to spend there without feeling too rushed, but then you have to go back in reverse and get to Rome. Also not to mention that the train ticket Rome<->Nap roundtrip is going to run you like €80/each, so together with the ticket to Pompeii and local transit you're going to spend well over €100/ea. I hope you're flying in from somewhere else in Europe because I can't even imagine how miserable this would all be if you added in jetlag. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Jul 2, 2015 |
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Jul 2, 2015 12:25
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Shibawanko posted:The high point of Holland in my opinion are the old little villages in the north and east (and maybe the south, I dunno, I never go there). The north and east is less rigidly planned, more like the English countryside, with nice forests and hills and so on. 
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Jul 2, 2015 12:33
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Zedd posted:But my country doesn't have any hills outside of Limburg. Alright well there are mild inclines then.
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Jul 2, 2015 13:08
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Saladman posted:Yeah, absolutely just go to Ostia. Pompeii is cool but actually pretty similar to Ostia and it's a poo poo ton closer and cheaper and will make you hate life less. Herculaneum and Oplontis are quite dramatically different from Pompeii/Ostia, but again I don't think I'd recommend doing it with your terrible itinerary. No, we actually have a place in Naples for that night. So we can either do Pompeii the afternoon of the first day or early morning the second day. We just have to be at the Vatican by 1500 that second day. The original plan was to head to Naples that first day, eat some pizza and crash out at a reasonable time. Our second day we would do Pompeii/whatever in Naples and head back to Rome in the early evening. Also, Ostia is already on the list. We have 5 days in Rome. Kaddish fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Jul 2, 2015 |
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Jul 2, 2015 13:52
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hbf posted:Really liked the whole region. The town itself was pretty typical small spanish town, but there happened to be some sort of festival going on which was fun. I think it had something to do with high school graduation but I'm not sure. Visited a bunch of wineries and at most my gf and I were the only visitors. One of the guides sent us over to his friends farm outside town where they made goat cheese just because we said it would be cool. Drove from Haro to Lagrono and stopped at a couple of interesting little towns along the way. I know Laguardia was one. Totally full of old people wine tourists, but there was a bunch of cool wine caves. If I was to go back to Haro I'd totally spend a night there and just pop around to the different places drinking and buying bottles to ship home. Sweet! Good to know I didn't steer you wrong in recommending a visit to La Rioja.
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Jul 2, 2015 16:18
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Kaddish posted:No, we actually have a place in Naples for that night. So we can either do Pompeii the afternoon of the first day or early morning the second day. We just have to be at the Vatican by 1500 that second day. That doesn't sound so terrible then. I thought you were doing like a weekend trip flying into Rome, going to Naples, going to Rome, then flying out the next morning. If you end up liking Pompeii but wish that you could see some stuff that isn't just utter ruins, you should check out Oplontis and/or Herculaneum. In Herculaneum, the modern city of Ercolono is so run down you can barely tell which part of the city got hit by a volcano 2000 years ago, and which part of it is modern southern Italy.
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Jul 2, 2015 16:44
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Blinkman987 posted:For the people who had problems with connecting to the local mobile company's network after buying a new SIM, especially the Galaxy S5 Android user: My brother is going to be in France for the next 8-9 months, minimum. Is bringing a phone over there and buying a SIM still the best/easiest way to go for someone not simply going to Europe for a couple days?
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Jul 3, 2015 01:55
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Acrophyte posted:Thanks for posting this. I don't know what the alternative to this would be, but "yes" and he should get a prepaid plan, which anyway is probably all he can get, unless he's a EU citizen. You can buy unlocked phones easily in Europe too, although they're almost always more expensive than the same phone costs, off contract, in the US.
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Jul 3, 2015 08:54
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Saladman posted:I don't know what the alternative to this would be, but "yes" and he should get a prepaid plan, which anyway is probably all he can get, unless he's a EU citizen. You can buy unlocked phones easily in Europe too, although they're almost always more expensive than the same phone costs, off contract, in the US. Nope, we're as American as juvenile-onset diabetes. Thanks! 
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Jul 3, 2015 15:28
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PT6A posted:Sweet! Good to know I didn't steer you wrong in recommending a visit to La Rioja. yeah thanks! I brought back some great wine too. The bottles made it through 4 flights within Europe and back to the US. Then, on my connection back home through Southwest, TSA decided open my bag, took off all of the padding on the bottles and put them back in the bag the dumbest way possible. I had had them in foam bottle mailers and then in the center of the bag surrounded by clothes. One broke of course, totally ruining a bunch of stuff. They didn't even put the foam back on the bottles, just crumbled it up and stuffed it into a corner of the bag. gently caress TSA.
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Jul 3, 2015 18:01
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hbf posted:yeah thanks! I brought back some great wine too. The bottles made it through 4 flights within Europe and back to the US. Then, on my connection back home through Southwest, TSA decided open my bag, took off all of the padding on the bottles and put them back in the bag the dumbest way possible. I had had them in foam bottle mailers and then in the center of the bag surrounded by clothes. One broke of course, totally ruining a bunch of stuff. They didn't even put the foam back on the bottles, just crumbled it up and stuffed it into a corner of the bag. gently caress TSA. Ah, that's harsh. I didn't run that particular risk; I ended up splitting my bottle of Tondonia with the staff at my favourite restaurant in Madrid before I got on an airplane. Also, for anyone who cares (and no one should, because this is some E/N bullshit), I literally lost a friend earlier tonight because he was upset I bought that wine for less than cost. Dude's a crazy person, but it still goes to show what passion great wine can stir, and/or how great that wine is.
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Jul 4, 2015 05:22
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Been in Barcelona for like 17 hours. It is cool and wine is cheap.
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Jul 4, 2015 23:56
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