Saladman posted:Munich will be busy but the vast majority of the shitshow will be in the metros and right around Marienplatz. Honestly the atmosphere is just like "what if a bar, but absolutely massive", the atmosphere is not as chaotic as a football match or whatever. Super famous international tourist sites like Nymphenburg and Neuschwanstein are probably particularly busy, but if you're just walking around the city it's not like you're walking around Disneyland, except right around Marienplatz. But it's also been about 10 years since I last went, so maybe crowds are bigger now. Awesome, will totally look into Sidecar. Hedgehog Pie posted:For Copenhagen, if you like to combine your craft beer with meat eating, I've heard good things about Warpigs. I didn't get to go when I was there last month but it was recommended glowingly to me when I was asking for recommendations. https://warpigs.dk/ A brief glance at Youtube seems to list this as a favorite, so I'll be checking this out. I'm not a BBQ snob, so the food will be fine to me haha Fruits of the sea posted:The meatpacking district is great in general for eating out. I like Warpigs' beer selection but for food it's hard to pass up Magasasa which is on the other side of the parking lot. Best dim sum in Denmark (which isn't saying much but its also p good by Toronto standards Awesome, thank you! Fruits of the sea posted:Since we're talking craft beer in Copenhagen, I'd also recommend Søernes Ølbar. They do an awesome job curating good beer, and it's a nice spot to chilll when the sun's out. It isn't a Mikkeller joint, so you'll get to see a bunch of stuff from Denmark's smaller breweries. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189541-d4942859-Reviews-Soernes_Olbar-Copenhagen_Zealand.html The negative reviews are all people outraged that there isn't table service Love it, will add it to the list. Thanks for the tips, folks!
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Nov 25, 2022 17:56
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Fruits of the sea posted:The meatpacking district is great in general for eating out. I like Warpigs' beer selection but for food it's hard to pass up Magasasa which is on the other side of the parking lot. Best dim sum in Denmark (which isn't saying much but its also p good by Toronto standards There's the Amsterdam City Card but I've never bought one. Depending on where you're staying, it's fairly possible everywhere will be walkable (as someone else pointed out). I've used the trams a bunch and got a 24/48/etc ticket when it's been obvious I'd be using it, so you just need to consider what you'll realistically end up doing before committing to any sort of card.
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Nov 26, 2022 21:23
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Hey, I have a (for various reasons, very short notice) 7ish week block of free time coming up over dec/jan/feb that I'm using to go galivanting around Europe. Mid-30's, travelling by myself, relatively price insensitive but not looking to spend $$$$ for no reason, but pretty flexible so if I can save a bunch by changing what order I visit places in, I'll do that. Main thing I'm trying to sort out right now is the xmas through NY part of the trip. I want to make sure I'm somewhere where the city doesn't shut down fully and I can still go out, explore, meet people, and do something for NYE. I assume any major metropolis will be fine, but I'm also thinking of getting in a week or 2 of skiing during the trip, so I'm wondering if there are any recommendations for ski resorts that - will just be 'expensive' instead of 'insanely expensive' over the xmas/nye period - has pretty good apres ski (ideally more towards the 'friendly pub' side of things rather than megaclubs) - isn't going to be populated entirely by people a decade younger than me. I'm also a pretty mediocre skier so I just need somewhere with soft snow and interesting easy and intermediate trails, anything more is going to be wasted on me. Also, I'm looking to do a few day cycling tour in southern italy, something pretty relaxed where I can just ride a relatively flat 50-80ks and then stop for awesome food. Any recommendations here? Best I could see from google was the weather is fine for it but no tour groups actually run over winter.
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Nov 27, 2022 03:28
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A Banana posted:Main thing I'm trying to sort out right now is the xmas through NY part of the trip. I want to make sure I'm somewhere where the city doesn't shut down fully and I can still go out, explore, meet people, and do something for NYE. I assume any major metropolis will be fine, but I'm also thinking of getting in a week or 2 of skiing during the trip, so I'm wondering if there are any recommendations for ski resorts that I guess that you're probably early 30s to early 40s like everyone else on SA, so you'll be in good company at any ski resort age-wise – they're generally too expensive for people in their early 20s to do as group holidays unless someone in their family owns a chalet in that spot. As far as actually mixing though -- Europeans really don't mix with random groups of people like Americans do, so you'll either have to be a 10/10 extrovert AND have no fucks to give about people blowing you off several times in order to eventually randomly join a group of people doing an apres-ski who actually welcome you. If you are, then if you try a few times you'll eventually find a receptive group of people, but Europeans are much much much less welcoming of strangers coming up to talk to them than are Americans and the idea of "friendly pub where you can talk to strangers" is not really a common thing, and then if you only speak English that will of course limit options. It's not impossible, you just have to be exceptionally outgoing due to the cultural differences. Anyway, the actual idea sounds nice. If you only speak English I would strongly recommend looking at the resorts that are particularly popular with Brits (who are also much friendlier with strangers than continental Europeans, regardless of what languages you speak). Regardless you'll want to pick a famous resort, because any resort that is not on "Top 25 ski resorts in Europe" is only going to have locals and families visiting, which means 'hard' will become 'nearly impossible' in terms of meeting up with strangers at a bar or apres ski. Chamonix would be a good one but it tends to be more party central and younger (late 20s to early 30s), but certainly it's super easy to meet up with random people in a bar there, American style. Verbier, Ischgl, Cortina, and maybe Courchevel would be okay too, but not sure how meeting up would be. Yeah maybe Chamonix? If you're at least moderately outgoing you'll be able to be social there - I'm probably like a 6/10 on extrovert/introvert scale and I always found random people to hang out with there - and it's essentially an English-speaking city, to the extent that sometimes waiters and bartenders don't even speak French. For biking: no clue. Your trip sounds great though, as long as you can get as far south into the Mediterranean as possible. It might also be worth considering Morocco.
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Nov 27, 2022 11:19
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A Banana posted:Main thing I'm trying to sort out right now is the xmas through NY part of the trip. I want to make sure I'm somewhere where the city doesn't shut down fully and I can still go out, explore, meet people, and do something for NYE.
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Nov 27, 2022 15:52
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Bollock Monkey posted:I always hit up the Tropenmuseum, an ethnographic museum that always has good special exhibitions alongside the main collection. Trip report: Kartika was a bust- even though the website is active (and says no reservations), the restaurant is permanently closed. We found an excellent bar: Foeder’s. Has about 40 craft beers on tap including some crazy cask brews. The bartenders are also really chill. Tropenmuseum was a good suggestion! Our best discovery was the Microbe museum besides the zoo. Extremely nerdy but cool exhibits. Got to watch a tardigrade flop around through a microscope (and a bunch of other tiny creatures, the place was packed with lab microscopes we got to use).
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Dec 8, 2022 16:47
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I never went to Kartika but Amsterdam is full of good Indonesian restaurants. I like Kantjil and Sampurna in the center.
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Dec 9, 2022 00:17
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Rijsttafel is great, but like tapas I always feel it's better to have someone to share it with. Last time I was in Amsterdam (in September) I was alone, so I opted against it. Bad idea maybe? I remember really liking Desa in De Pijp but I think they have a two-person minimum.
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Dec 9, 2022 10:46
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True, most places have a two-person minimum. It's anyway also worth it to just order a dish from the menu or grab something to go from a toko. The Netherlands is probably the best place to try Indonesian food outside Indonesia due to the colonial history.
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Dec 9, 2022 17:31
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Fruits of the sea posted:Trip report: Oh man, that is such a shame about Kartika! I've never made it to Micropia but it sounds like fun. Super glad you enjoyed Tropenmuseum, that makes me happy. Glad you got to find delicious beers (not hard, to be fair.) I like Arendsnest and Gollem's a lot.
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Dec 9, 2022 21:51
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Italian Alpine Lakes: What Do You Got? I'm going in summer. Interests include boat, food, hike, wine, rent convertible, apertivo, eat hot pasta, and lie around my bright idea was to go to garda instead of como because... same kind of fun but fewer billionaires and movie stars
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Dec 13, 2022 18:48
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Greg12 posted:Italian Alpine Lakes: What Do You Got? I would personally highly recommend either Lake Garda for the northern 2/3rds (Garda/Salo onwards north - either east or west side) or Lake Como's northern half (Menaggio or Varenna and up). The scenery is way, way better in the northern parts of all of the lakes, and the scenery flat-out sucks (in comparison) in the southern end of Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. It's good you're getting a rental car, because you will 100% need a rental car for anywhere except the east side of Lake Como and Lake Lugano. Public transport is a tragedy in Italy outside of major city connections and forget about buses unless you hate your life and hate your travelling partner(s). The overwhelmingly 100% exclusively touristified cities are Bellagio (center of Lake Como), Sirmione (center of Lake Garda), and Varenna (east center of Lake Como). Nothing on Lake Maggiore or Lago di Lugano is overwhelmingly 100% touristified, although obviously you're not exploring virgin territory anywhere. Some other cities are like 90% touristified, like Como and Limone Sul Garda, but a lot of other towns are decent mixtures of real people living there plus tons of - but not overwhelming numbers of - tourists, like Salo, Riva, Mandello, Verbania, Lugano, or Locarno. I've spent many weeks all over all of the lakes in all seasons except Lake Iseo that I've only been to once for a day, and have stayed in I think 4 different cities on every part of the other 4 lakes (Como, Lugano, Garda, Maggiore) and got married on Lake Como and got all our friends and family to come out there for it, so if you have any specific questions let me know. We did a ton of research before our wedding since we had like 60 people out there, which was obviously pretty hard work having to eat so many gelatos up and down the entire lake. Consequently I think I have stopped in and spent time in literally every single town on the entire length of Lake Como, and nearly every one in Garda. The food is good basically everywhere, except maybe the shoreline restaurants in the 100% touristified cities. I could recommend some restaurants but to be honest they're also basically all the same, I'd just go for whichever one has the best views and is closest to you. Been to dozens of restaurants on the lakes, none of which stood out as either amazingly good or particularly bad in terms of the food. If you are gluten free and vegan you will starve to death just fyi. IMO look for hotels / BnBs / AirBnBs that match your budget and your interests in the upper half of Lake Garda or Lake Como, then start planning out other stuff. The lakes are far enough apart and the roads very slow, so you can't really visit any as a daytrip from the other without wasting a ton of time, except for Lake Lugano and Lake Como. In any case I would not recommend trying to unless you're spending more than 7 nights there. You can easily spend a week at each lake (except Iseo) without doing everything. That whole region is hands down my favorite place in the world, not even a close contest. E: Really don't try to hit multiple lakes unless you're there for more than a week. Please don't try to hit all of them. They're all pretty similar and time spent travelling between the four of them would be way better spent travelling around one of them, or as an absolute maximum one per every 3 nights of stay. But from what you've described as what you want to do, way better to home base in one lodging for your entire stay. For hikes, download the AllTrails app or use the website, and look for what's close to you and what's in your athletic ability. Again like restaurants, a billion options and they're all good and all basically equivalent. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Dec 13, 2022 |
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Dec 13, 2022 23:14
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I agree with the Saladman. I lived in Trento (30 miles north of Garda) and Bolzano for five years. I didn't make it to Como or Lugano at all but spent some time along Garda. My work colleague that recruited me to work with her has/had a place in Peschiera del Garda at the south end of the lake. It wasn't worth it, even with the free accommodation. There is some great rock climbing as well, did a bit on the east of the lake. Seems like a waste, because you're spending most of the day looking at a rock wall instead of a beautiful lake and the Italian Alps. There are also smaller lakes north of Garda in Trentino and Alto Adige that are worth going to as well. But as a tourist, I'd stick to Como/Lugano/Garda.
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Dec 14, 2022 01:11
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Not really much of a recommendation but I went to a conference in Lugano (Switzerland) a number of years back and even the touristy areas were charming. We actually stayed in an amazing Airbnb in Morcote, and wandered down the hill to get dinner at nice places on the lake, it was lovely - we were away from the hustle and bustle too. Transport was atrocious though, we had to get taxis everywhere - ended up using the same guy each day for the trip to the conference centre. It was very expensive (but my company paid). Lake Garda is high on my list for a trip with the family.
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Dec 14, 2022 08:47
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WaryWarren posted:I agree with the Saladman. I lived in Trento (30 miles north of Garda) and Bolzano for five years. I didn't make it to Como or Lugano at all but spent some time along Garda. My work colleague that recruited me to work with her has/had a place in Peschiera del Garda at the south end of the lake. It wasn't worth it, even with the free accommodation. There is some great rock climbing as well, did a bit on the east of the lake. Seems like a waste, because you're spending most of the day looking at a rock wall instead of a beautiful lake and the Italian Alps. IMO going to one lake and then Trento would make for a pretty sick holiday. Incredible region.
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Dec 14, 2022 09:57
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Lady Gaza posted:Not really much of a recommendation but I went to a conference in Lugano (Switzerland) a number of years back and even the touristy areas were charming. We actually stayed in an amazing Airbnb in Morcote, and wandered down the hill to get dinner at nice places on the lake, it was lovely - we were away from the hustle and bustle too. Transport was atrocious though, we had to get taxis everywhere - ended up using the same guy each day for the trip to the conference centre. It was very expensive (but my company paid). Yeah and Morcote is actually particularly well connected by public transport for a small lake village in that area – if it were in Italy it'd be even worse. At least Morcote actually does have buses and, in summer, a ferry. We hiked from Paradiso up and over San Salvatore to Morcote and to go to the gardens there and I remember we had to wait like an hour and a half to get the next ferry back to Lugano, which took another hour or something. Lovely trip though.
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Dec 14, 2022 13:59
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Thanks! This fits with the plan of spending one week in one place. It's great advice about towns. It sounds like Salo or Riva del Garda are the ones because we are city people, despite wanting to get away to a mountain lake. Are Maderno and Malcesine worth a look to stay at? Thanks for telling me to get a car, too. I might have just compared the 3-hr train+bus from Milan Centrale to Riva to the 3-hr drive and settled on the the train. I do enjoy meandering public transit journeys, though. Is the problem with Italian buses in the area that they are infrequent, or that they are unreliable? And yeah... look at Trento and the rest of Austrian Italy right there! Awesome. The second leg of this trip is somewhere in the real hillbilly country of CH. (That real depraved "vote with a sword," "decorate a cow," "rolling a coin in a cup is a musical instrument" poo poo.) Awesome stuff in this thread.
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Dec 14, 2022 15:59
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Trento is awesome and has a restaurant with a Michelin star. My only regret was not staying longer then skiing somewhere nearby. there's a hike in the mountains nearby and you should do an image search of the views it's astounding kiimo fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Dec 14, 2022 |
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Dec 14, 2022 16:45
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Greg12 posted:Thanks! This fits with the plan of spending one week in one place. It's great advice about towns. It sounds like Salo or Riva del Garda are the ones because we are city people, despite wanting to get away to a mountain lake. Are Maderno and Malcesine worth a look to stay at? Yeah getting from Milan to e.g. Riva by train and bus is going to be possible, but the issue is getting from Riva to anywhere else, even nearby places like Limone, which is the next medium-sized town on the way SW from Riva. Buses from Riva to Limone – a 15 minute drive – run approximately every one to three hours depending on time of day. They also won't even run on schedule, so you'd have to get to the stop at least 20 minutes before the scheduled time, and it might show up 30 minutes late. My wife doesn't have a driver's license and has travelled around Italy quite a bit at the mercy of public transport, it's possible but it cuts down a LOT of options. For instance, the bigger problem is that the buses don't run very late. It's 6pm in Riva right now, and the next bus from Limone to Riva is at 8:37pm. Worse, that's the last public transport for the entire day. So you would not be able to eat dinner outside of the city you stay in. Regional trains like on the east side of Lake Como are OK, but even there they don't run all that often and they don't run on schedule very well, although not nearly as bad as buses and they never depart early, ever (unlike buses; wtf bus drivers who depart early). The major intercity trains like Milan to Verona are amazing, affordable, and always run on schedule. So I guess you could train to Brescia and rent a car there. If you're flying in and out of Milan I'd just pick it up at Malpensa though. Malcesine is nice. My previous-previous boss had an apartment there and spent all of his vacation there, and I went by once years later – but really all of the villages are carbon copies, with a square, some Italian restaurants on the lakeside, a gelateria, and a shop selling olivewood stuff, limoncello, and handtowels. I would look more for a hotel/BnB that you like and not worry so much about what specific town it's in, with maybe some consideration for whether it's a tiny town with only a single restaurant, or a bigger town with a few restaurants and a ferry stop. The ferry can be fun to do for a day even if you have a car, and you can take your car on it too for some routes. Depending on what type of person you are you definitely could just spend 7 days in Riva, but keep in mind that would be (a) no access to hiking except what whatever can be started and finished in the city itself, and (b) never eating out for dinner anywhere except in Riva. I get too antsy to spend more than a couple full days in a tiny village, and I also like hitting interesting tourist sites (e.g. Gabriele D'Annunzio's crazy house outside Salo), but if you want to eat gelato, pizza, and tan and don't care about some fancy garden or some Medici house or some Roman ruin, then it doesn't really matter since all the villages are identical in terms of modern amenities, and they only vary slightly based on size. If you're going up towards Appenzell / Schwyz afterwards, then the drive up north Trento -> Bolzano -> Val Mustair -> Davos -> whichever place afterwards is an amazing roadtrip. Start early so you can stop a lot. That was the very last thing we did during pre-COVID times, and we escaped out of Merano like one day before Northern Italy completely shut down. We stayed in Bardolino that trip, which was OK but if I had to do it again I'd stay at least a little bit further north, to really get the better scenery. I've stayed in Riva and Salo and really liked both -- both are medium-sized and have real people living there year-round. Limone is, for me, too much of a tourist trap.
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Dec 14, 2022 18:21
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Lol buses in Italy outside of urban areas can be a bit sketchy. Earlier this year I went to a small wine town west of Turin and getting there was easy: train then change to a bus that stops immediately outside the train station. It goes in the next village over but nbd, like 10 minute walk. Except that going back... not so easy! That bus route apparently doesn't stop in that same village going in the opposite direction, and google only knew of one scheduled bus returning from the town that day. I went to check it out and the supposed bus stop wasn't marked in any way, and nearby shop owners didn't know of any bus and told me I'd need to get a taxi for $$$ of course. Shockingly, the bus did actually arrive but I had to cut my time in the area at least in half.
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Dec 14, 2022 19:33
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I think this whole thread is a fan of the Trento region, we have covered it extensively before. I went from Verona to Riva by bus and cannot recommend it. The buses are infrequent and unreliable and arrive at completely random times, and you will find at least 3 different versions of the schedule, none of which are actually correct. The schedules themselves are complicated as well, with buses that only run on uneven-numbered Wednesdays when there is a full moon, but holidays excepted. It took me hours, and you can't make stops in between except in the random places where you have to transfer. One thing about Riva is that it's not the best place if you are a fan of the sun. Riva has tall mountains directly to the west so the sun disappears behind those relatively early in the afternoon. Also, if you wanted to swim, the water in the north end of the lake is icy cold since it comes directly from the mountain, while simultaneously in the south it's a nice summer Mediterranean temperature. Trains in Italy are fine when they are not striking (which is about half the time), as well as certain super popular bus routes in touristic areas or student areas that run every 15-30 minutes. But to regular small towns, better to avoid relying on it. Entropist fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Dec 14, 2022 |
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Dec 14, 2022 19:44
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Entropist posted:One thing about Riva is that it's not the best place if you are a fan of the sun. Riva has tall mountains directly to the west so the sun disappears behind those relatively early in the afternoon. Also, if you wanted to swim, the water in the north end of the lake is icy cold since it comes directly from the mountain, while simultaneously in the south it's a nice summer Mediterranean temperature. Yeah, that's a really good point I hadn't thought about. East side of the lake is definitely better to stay on if you like sun and warmth and you're not with a car and/or don't expect to be out with the car every evening, as you'll get hours more sunlight. I just checked exactly how much and it's a lot: on June 16, sunset in Riva is 5:15pm, vs. 6:15pm in Limone, and 8:15pm in Malescine. ( https://shademap.app/@45.8892,10.84307,13.93183z,1655655331979t,0b,45p,0m,qcml2YSBkZWwgZ2FyZGE=!45.8892!10.84307 ). Conversely sunrise in Malescine is 7:45am, vs. 6:15am in Limone. Further south it doesn't make much nearly as much of a difference, e.g. Salo (west side) has sun from 6:00am until 8:00pm, whereas Garda (east side) has sunrise at 6:00am and sunset also 8:00pm; slightly further south in Bardolino (I also have stayed there, liked it), sunset at 8:50pm. The actual astronomical sunrise is 5:40am and sunset 9:02pm, for the same arbitrary June day that I'm talking about. So regardless you will still get quite a lot of sun even in Riva, but yeah it's definitely going behind the mountain pretty early. Lake Garda is also famous for the huge amount of extremely predictable wind it gets, so it's a major sailing destination. If you like climbing, then Arco -- just a couple km north of Riva -- is a worldwide mecca for sport climbing, lots of fixed routes, single and multipitch. How swimmable the lake is also depends on when exactly in June you're there and what you're used to; I just checked and in 2022 it was a full 7°C warmer in Sirmione in June 30 (26°) than on June 1 (19°). It looks like Riva is consistently about 1.5°C colder water than in Sirmione. ( https://seatemperature.info/sirmione-water-temperature.html vs https://seatemperature.info/riva-del-garda-water-temperature.html ) Saladman fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Dec 14, 2022 |
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Dec 14, 2022 21:03
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Saladman posted:I would personally highly recommend either Lake Garda for the northern 2/3rds (Garda/Salo onwards north - either east or west side) or Lake Como's northern half (Menaggio or Varenna and up). The scenery is way, way better in the northern parts of all of the lakes, and the scenery flat-out sucks (in comparison) in the southern end of Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. It's good you're getting a rental car, because you will 100% need a rental car for anywhere except the east side of Lake Como and Lake Lugano. Public transport is a tragedy in Italy outside of major city connections and forget about buses unless you hate your life and hate your travelling partner(s). I'll put my vote in for Menaggio. We stayed there for a few days after getting engaged and it was fantastic. On Como, but not so insanely touristy as Bellagio. We stayed there for a few days and did a day trip to Lugano since we also had a car. A+, probably one of my absolute favorite places in the world. Some gorgeous hiking. Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Dec 15, 2022 |
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Dec 15, 2022 00:26
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What's cool about/in Trento and South Tyrol? Separate question, same post: What cities or town in the Po Valley are cool/fun/delicious to visit? How long is it worth staying there? Greg12 fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Dec 16, 2022 |
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Dec 16, 2022 14:48
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I was only in Trento for a day as opposed to the guy who freakin lived there but I'm going to answer just because I like talking about the things I found cool in that area -The view, it's on the steps of the Alps and not far from the Dolomites -The food, it's astounding -The medieval walls surrounding the city that still stand -The city center that has that town square feel about it -The Brenner Pass and the other nearby passes through the Alps into Austria which are jaw-dropping any time of year. Either by train or car. The highways they built there are a marvel. I took the train from Trento to Innsbruck and it was every bit the experience I hoped for. I didn't go to Bolzano but I wish I did that looks incredible too. FYI I am biased because both sides of my family came from this area, culturally Italian and genetically German although that's a bit tricky because it's not like either country has existed for that long. Tyrol is kind of it's own thing?
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Dec 16, 2022 17:05
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Greg12 posted:What's cool about/in Trento and South Tyrol? The whole area is just very nice and Alpine -- although largely indistinguishable from similar mountain valleys in Switzerland and Austria once you get to and especially past Merano (where it becomes overwhelmingly a German-speaking area) it's still exceptionally cute. The flooded village church at Reschensee is neat and worth a quick stop if you happen to be driving by. There are some neat castles along the way, e.g. Nauders, but plenty of others on that route which I can't remember offhand exactly where they are. Trento's castle is also pretty distinct and neat. The Po Valley is kind of second-tier to third-tier in terms of tourism sites. Not much natural beauty and the towns are only mostly OK by Italian standards - which makes them pretty stunning by most other countries' standards, admittedly. The cities on the very far edges of the Po Valley in the foothills of the Apennines and Alps like Bologna and Bergamo are more interesting than those in the center of the valley. I found Mantua to be fairly nice but not worth a detour. Verona is neat and much closer to Garda, albeit much more touristy and also kind of stretches the definition of being in the Po valley. If you had a lot of time, like a month just in Northern Italy, it'd be worth hitting up, but I wouldn't prioritize it. I haven't been to all the cities in the Po central valley though, just a handful like Novara, Mantua, and Cremona, and always just as a half-day in passing, and every time I'm like "well that was okay". The scenery in the central Po valley is about as interesting as Kansas. Mantua is kind of striking since they made a huge artificial lake out of the river there, to completely protect one side of the town. None of the other places I've been in the central Po have anything I can distinctly remember at all, even though I've been through several times within the past decade. Also it's the "Po valley" but realistically it's more like "the Po extremely flat and very wide plane". You'd need a spaceship to tell that it was a valley, even from 30k feet from the plane it is too wide and too flat to really see it as a valley. If you really want to check out what second/third-tier Italian cities are like, then I guess check out one of them. Mantua is close to Garda, so maybe go there for a day trip?
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Dec 17, 2022 16:27
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Thanks for the take! Honestly, I was interested in it just because it's where famous hams and cheeses are from.
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Dec 17, 2022 19:58
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Chiming in to agree with Saladman’s take above on the Po Valley - it’s interesting, but there’s better ways to spend limited time in Italy. Agree that Verona is probably the best of the bunch, though it’s firmly in the “shot glasses and fridge magnets” territory. The Roman amphitheatre here is stunning (almost the size of the colosseum), and there’s other Roman and Renaissance stuff to check out too if you’re keen on that kind of thing. Of course, most people visit the city as it’s the setting for Romeo & Juliet, which, yeah. It’s fiction and Shakespeare never went to Italy so I have no idea why you’d pay and queue up to take a photo on some random person’s balcony.
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Dec 17, 2022 23:57
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Of the places mentioned I've only been to Verona and Mantua, and I enjoyed both. Verona is going to be the more impressive of the two - the huge amphitheatre, the Adige river and the large mazelike old town with the hills with fortifications on the other side are simply impressive. Mantua has some cool features too like the Palazzo del Te but the city feels clearly like a smaller and historically less important place. But in Mantua I rented a bike (there was a good shop for that unlike in most places anywhere in Italy) and went around the aforementioned lake and river and that was quite a nice experience too. The (national?) park to the west of the city is huge and was interesting to me to explore, though being from the Netherlands I have more appreciation for flat swampy landscapes than most.
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Dec 19, 2022 04:17
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I don't know if this question only pertains the trento part of the Po valley, but I really like Pavia. It has a large student population which gives it a young and vibrant feel combined with century old buildings and a covered bridge over the Po.
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Dec 19, 2022 12:02
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Personally I preferred Bologna to Verona - Verona was very much tourism central, whereas the university in Bologna counteracted that a bit and it felt like it had more of it's own thing going on.
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Dec 19, 2022 12:07
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Where to go for NYE in Madrid, married couple late 30s looking to drink, maybe some dancing
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Dec 25, 2022 23:18
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Sicily looked amazing in White Lotus Season 2, but that was at the Four Seasons. How is it for normal tourism?
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Dec 25, 2022 23:45
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smackfu posted:Sicily looked amazing in White Lotus Season 2, but that was at the Four Seasons. How is it for normal tourism? White lotus was mostly in taormina, which is a really fancy resort town. Palermo and Catania are a little grittier but still fun. Not a ton of English spoken. Mostly Italians used to go on vacation there in July and August. They might be in for a surprise this year. ...i planned my trip before white lotus came out thank God.
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Dec 26, 2022 00:03
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I was in Taormina a few months ago. It's also nice if you are not fancy. I stayed in a cheap hostel by the beach meaning I had to climb a sketchy path up the hill if I wanted to go into town, but by the sea there were some good places to eat and such too. The train station was also down there, so it was much easier for me to get out to other places than if I was staying in the center, and it was well connected. You can do some nice walking in the area, it's a good base to visit Etna, and of course there are beaches, though the ones next to Taormina aren't especially nice. There is also quite a bit of interesting history especially related to the Greek colonization of Sicily, and an amphitheatre. You can also consider staying in Giardini-Naxos, which is basically connected to Taormina along the beach. It is less fancy but it was also the first Greek settlement in Sicily. There is no proper train station, but buses along the coast towards Taormina are pretty frequent. Sicily gets really hot in summer, so I would avoid it in those months, though by the coast it can be surviveable. The people at the hostel indeed didn't really speak English, but there are others where they do. I never heard of White Lotus, apparently this season came out after I was there so I guess I haven't seen the effects on it yet. It was a pretty chill place at the end of Sept / early Oct this year, with beach weather still.
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Dec 26, 2022 02:18
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Air Portugal is... Probably not an airline I would trust twice to get me safely across the Atlantic. Lessons were learned today
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Dec 26, 2022 04:33
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TAP Portugal just got me "stuck" for 3 more days on a the beach in the Gambia because of a strike, so they're pretty cool in my bookEntropist posted:I was in Taormina a few months ago. It's also nice if you are not fancy. I stayed in a cheap hostel by the beach meaning I had to climb a sketchy path up the hill if I wanted to go into town, but by the sea there were some good places to eat and such too. The train station was also down there, so it was much easier for me to get out to other places than if I was staying in the center, and it was well connected. You can do some nice walking in the area, it's a good base to visit Etna, and of course there are beaches, though the ones next to Taormina aren't especially nice. There is also quite a bit of interesting history especially related to the Greek colonization of Sicily, and an amphitheatre. It's a nice little town but it probably doesn't make much sense staying for more than a day or two unless you make it the base for traveling the area. English isn't always an option but I found I could get by with very basic phrase-book Italian knowledge in the worst case. mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Dec 26, 2022 |
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Dec 26, 2022 10:23
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Hadlock posted:Air Portugal is... Probably not an airline I would trust twice to get me safely across the Atlantic. Lessons were learned today I just flew them to Miami last week from Lisbon. It was okay, albeit like a 2010-era LCC with carryon only, a single* terrible meal for a 9 hour flight, and someone weighing bags and hassling people at the gate during boarding. So pretty bad for a national carrier like Swiss or Air France or Iberia, ok if compared to like, Norwegian Air Shuttle. *they had a "breakfast" before landing but (a) the flight left at 11am and arrived at like 3pm, and (b) it was a tiny muffin that was fine, plus some absolutely disgusting salad made out of cod. Traditional Portuguese food is the absolute rock bottom worst of any national cuisine, incredibly salty salted cod in everything. At least the Icelanders don’t put hakarl in their breakfast cereal. For Sicily I was there for five days in April just before Easter. It was pretty dead everywhere touristy, like Segesta maybe had 20 people at the entire site, and Erice had like 10 people in the entire village and a single restaurant open. My wife went to east side of the island after and wasn’t a huge fan of Taormina but she absolutely loved the Aeolian islands. You can base on one and daytrips to the others… if weather is good and if Volcano is not erupting. Stromboli is pretty far and you’d want the summer ferry schedule, but it’s possible even with the winter ferry schedule. Depends when you plan on going to that area. Saladman fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Dec 26, 2022 |
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Dec 26, 2022 14:34
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I was in Catania for a few days several years ago with a day trip to Taormina, it was all lovely but I was staying with a local friend who was also my guide so that changes the whole dynamic of an average trip really.
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Dec 26, 2022 15:30
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TAP/Air Portugal, red eye NYC to libson, scheduled to take off at 10pm eastern, started boarding at... 9:45, were wheels up about 11:15 with the cabin dim, most everyone asleep by 11:45 12:30 rolls around, cabin lights come full on, drink and dinner service which lasts... 2 hours. Finally they turn off the lights at 2:30am eastern time. On the plus side their a321 neo have incredible recline angles, first time I've ever been able to sleep comfortably in economy
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Dec 26, 2022 17:00
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