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So my wife and I are gonna be in Rome the last weekend of January. We've already booked the early morning Vatican entry and breakfast, and are thinking of doing a walking tour of the forum and centro storico another morning. Posting with three more specific questions: 1) restaurant/meal recommendations. We have dinners booked at Roscioli and Dogma, but are willing to change either/both. Thing is, my wife can't eat too much gluten (she's not strictly celiac, so it's not a risk, it just bothers her stomach) so we need places with not-pasta on the menu. If we should change either dinner spot say so, and also open to suggestions on lunches and aperitivo spots; 2) calmer ways to kill afternoons. Both the walking tour and Vatican museums will be morning plans, so totally happy to take recommendations on what to do between those and dinner; 3) a good wine shop. We live in Switzerland, and wine is much more expensive here. I'd love to be able to bring home two or three good bottles of (likely Piemontese) red, and am willing to spend to do so, but need to be told where. Also note that I have some, but not much, Italian, if that matters - for basic transactions I can muddle through. And we're staying in Monti.
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Dec 31, 2022 20:03
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Dance Officer posted:There's uhh... more to Italian cooking than just pasta. You are aware of that, right? As for Roscioli and Dogma, you can find their menu online. I'm very aware, yes - my family are from near Turin. It just means that I need to look beyond places that serve carbonara, alla gricia, and cacio e pepe, and I don't know where to start with that in Rome. And there's only so much you can glean doing research online - I know Roscioli and Dogma are "safe," I don't know if they're the best restaurants. kiimo posted:I'm going to keep recommending Sorpasso by the Vatican until someone goes Thanks!
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Dec 31, 2022 21:48
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Two: Mercat San Anton is a higher end market/food hall, really good stuff, and will let everyone get their own thing if tastes vary and/or people want to explore. My favorite stand is the croqueta bar, they have little tiny fryer baskets and just plunk two croquetas down in front of you still in the basket. Botin. I know it's touristy and hackneyed, but I had a lot of fun there, the vibe is quite unlike anywhere I ever went in BCN, and the suckling pig is absolutely worth trying.
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Jun 3, 2023 09:37
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Shaocaholica posted:I have a friend in Switzerland that I need to send some items to. I want to also include some American novelty candy/snacks. What should I pack? I’m also in Los Angeles so I have access to Mexican items as well as Korean and Japanese, etc. looking for things that would otherwise not be available in Switzerland. With globalization not sure what’s imported in 2023. I was told not to send Oreos since that’s already available there. Where does your friend live? I'm in Geneva and there's at least one grocery store with a section for American expats, including the candy and such that isn't universal (there are snickers everywhere, this is like twizzlers and almond joy level stuff). I have to imagine all the big cities have similar, so unless your friend is in a small town, there's not gonna be that much that's not available. The trick is more things that are available but only in poor imitations. E.g. I grew up in Texas, and while there are chips and salsa and taco shells and the like here in Swiss grocery stores, they are uniformly awful. The same thing is true of Asian ingredients. Are you looking to be useful to your friend or to surprise them? If the former, just ask. If the latter, yeah lean into stuff from LA. We don't have much Mexican candy around, definitely.
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Aug 8, 2023 08:03
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Oh yeah, he's just on the other side of the lake from Zurich, so if it's just a nice gesture throw in some of the less common m&ms (lol if it's the pretzel ones to a man living in a Germanic area) and like some funky Mexican chili powder candy and you've already gone above and beyond.
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Aug 9, 2023 07:32
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Hedgehog Pie posted:I'm thinking of taking a short Eurostar trip to somewhere I've not been before in the hopefully not-too-distant future. I have some vague ideas, but I was wondering if anyone had anything to share in particular about Lille, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Koln, Rotterdam or Utrecht. I like bars and casual places to eat, a bit of light walking/city-gazing/people-watching, museums/art galleries, parks, and I'm also partial to playing a few video games somewhere if the weather's crap. I'm also not averse to a little smoke in NL. Lille is really kind of great for a weekend trip. The central square is beautiful, and there’s a whole bunch of little walkable shopping streets near it and around the university. Lens is an easy trip by regional train for the Louvre-Lens, and to get a fairer view of the post industrial hellscape that is most of French Flanders (don’t stay in Lens beyond the museum). Also, they’re influenced enough by Belgium nearby that you can get frites and waffles and beer, but they are still French so you’re not eating the rest of Belgian food.
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Aug 19, 2023 08:15
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mobby_6kl posted:Does anyone know what's the parking situation like in Veneto cities? I'll be flying to Venice next week and after a few nights there I'm considering either renting a car or using trains to get around, probably Padova, Verona and lake Garda area. Depends entirely on what you’re doing. If you’re in the cities you not only won’t need a car, you won’t want, and trains will take you from city center to city center. For trips out, time in the countryside, smaller towns around Garda that aren’t on the tourist trail, you may want a car.
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Aug 22, 2023 17:39
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Honj Steak posted:The reason why some banks seem poo poo and expensive and others are good and cheap is usually down to the question whether the bank maintains walk-in locations. For the terminally online population it is probably useless to be able to talk to a service person face-to-face, so for them a cheap internet-only bank is the obvious choice. There are somewhat decent banks in Switzerland, but there are only two banks in Switzerland willing to deal with the bullshit of baking for US citizens (private banks for the wealthy aside), and both of them hate you, specifically, and clients in general.
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Sep 3, 2023 15:00
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If you’re up for the flight, Madrid might be the right call. Tons of art, lots of parks and neighbourhoods to walk around, more than enough stuff to keep you busy for a week, and history everywhere. Also ridiculous food scene these days. Will also be a nice contrast as a very different vibe to Paris.
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Nov 24, 2023 08:50
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Larry Cum Free posted:Thanks for all the suggestions. After much soul searching, the second city is going to be Madrid. Who’s Atletí playing that weekend, too?
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Nov 28, 2023 07:19
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Anyone have general advice for Athens? Will likely be doing a long weekend there early next year, as the last time I was in town was before the new Parthenon Museum opened. We’re gonna do a lot of the old poo poo, so less looking for museum recs and more restaurants, bars, hotels/neighbourhoods to stay in or avoid, if anyone has recommendations?
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Dec 16, 2023 21:46
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Carbon dioxide posted:(I think you can actually buy one in the Amsterdam - Paris train restaurant car btw) The parenthetical is theoretically true, however, they don’t tend to stock that many so you’re not guaranteed to be able to buy one. So, tying in to your second point, there are often horrendous metro lines at Gare de Nord or Gare de Lyon since most folks on the trains didn’t get one. But indeed, give yourself a nice chunk of time to cross Paris. Or just book a morning train and then an afternoon train and have a lovely lunch on the way.
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Jan 5, 2024 22:18
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Badger of Basra posted:Can you pay by tapping with your phone on the Paris Metro? I've gotten used to that in Chicago and NYC. Nope. Best they have is an app in which you can purchase tickets and use that. App is called Bonjour RATP, and it can do individual tickets or various forms of passes and stored value, which are all called Navigo something or other and you’ll forgive me for not remembering which sub-thing is which.
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Jan 6, 2024 09:55
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Sounds like a headache, but I’m not surprised at the Swiss just throwing up their hands and telling the rest of Europe “come back to us when you’ve figured this mess out,” it’s kind of their standard play. Also, two pieces of advice: 1) make sure that the trains in to and out of Lyon are from the same station - Part Dieu is the big station in town, and the high speed trains most often serve it, but there are still a few services out of Perrache, which would require a metro trip to get to. If you do have a long connection at Part Dieu, you’re right by the big food hall, which Lyon has named after Paul Boucuse. 2) SNCF sells a discount card called a “Carte Advantage,” which is only like 50€ for a year, and often offers deep enough discounts that you’ll more than make that back even if you’re only buying one or two long-distance tickets.
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Jan 7, 2024 15:23
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Awesome, thanks all! Looks like we’re staying at a small hotel in Exarcheia, but will keep my wits about me still.
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Jan 17, 2024 07:54
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Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! Can really only offer advice on Turin, I have family there. If you’re into antiquities the Egyptian museum there is incredible, it’s the largest in the world outside of Cairo. The national museum of cinema in the Mole is also great, but when I was in town last year it was being renovated and so a lot was closed off - definitely go if they’ve finished that. The new Lavazza museum is also pretty cool - covers the history of espresso, industrial design, even has the espresso machine from the space station there. And the Pinacoteca Agnelli has a small but really good collection of late 19th/early 20th century pieces, and in an incredible facility on top of the old Fiat factory, where they’ve turned the rooftop test track into a sculpture garden. I’d skip the Royal Palace in town, but if you really want to see a grand old palace go to the Hunting Lodge at Stupingi. Also, compared to Milan or Florence, none of the churches are worth much time (though if you actually want to see the replica Shroud that’s on display that’s in the Duomo). There’s a great old Roman gate and tower a few blocks from downtown that’s worth walking by, as well. Food and drinks wise go to the original Eataly in Lingotto (near the Pinacoteca in fact) to wander around and have at least one meal there. Also seek out gianduja, which is a chocolate and hazelnut confection that Nutella is a pale imitation of. And have a bicerin, which is a coffee drink that’s a mocha with the hazelnut chocolate. Will you have a car, or are you doing this by train? If you have a car, between Turin and Genoa you can stop off in Alba or Barolo and do all the food and wine stuff they offer too.
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Feb 8, 2024 08:38
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Honestly, if you’re looking for restaurants in Italy, and don’t have recs or a list and so it’s a shot in the dark, go to Italian tripadvisor or Italian google reviews and see what restaurants are well ranked only among reviews in that language.
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Feb 9, 2024 08:19
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mobby_6kl posted:I'm in Madrid until Wednesday, weather sucks but what can you do. Any pro-tips for the city or close surroundings? I'm not renting a car. Are you a food person? If yes, Mercado San Anton is great. There’s a croquetas bar in the corner downstairs that literally takes them out of the fryer in the little wire basket and serves them like that. If you’re into wine, like really into wine, there’s a restaurant in town called Horcher with an absolutely ridiculous wine list of old Spanish bottles - the oldest one currently on the list on the website is a ‘47, but I don’t know if that’s up to date. The Prado might be the best of the Grand Art Museums to actually visit. It’s way smaller and less crowded than the Louvre or Vatican, and you’re there in the off season. If you really don’t like it, it’s a three hour train to Barcelona. Dont day trip it, stay the night, but it’s a completely different vibe of a city to Madrid.
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Feb 16, 2024 19:20
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Incoherence posted:Going to be in Rome in late May. For both the Colosseum/Forum and the Vatican, it looks like you can either book a timed-entry ticket or find a tour that comes with entrance. Are the tours worthwhile? Any specific recommendations? And if I want to backtrack after the tour ends and read every description of every item in the entire goddamn Vatican Museum, can I do that? For the Vatican Museum we did the goddamn way too early tour which includes breakfast, and it was so very worth it because it got you in to the Sistine Chapel before they let general admission folks in. Being alone in the Rafael Rooms and then one of two groups in the Chapel was absolutely worth it for us. And yes, you can then stay in the museum after. The one caveat is that this is provided by the Museum itself, so you don’t get a choice of guides and their itinerary is more or less set. For the Forum/Coliseum, having a tour guide will help you get in faster, but the value add will be how much historical information you want provided (since there are some but not many informational signs in the Coliseum and even fewer on the Forum/Domus Aurea) versus if you just want to be there. There’s a cottage industry of History/Archeology grad students moonlighting as tour guides if you really want a deep dive, that’s always fun.
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Apr 2, 2024 07:05
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Hedgehog Pie posted:I actually have a very nice picture of my brother and his fiancee at Trevi from not long before covid. It's possible they were just really lucky, I can't remember what time of year they went. My wife and I walked by after dinner last year, so maybe 10:30-11pm, and it was quiet enough that we were able to get a photo directly in front of it with nobody else in the shot.
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Apr 3, 2024 06:56
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Grillfiend posted:Bit of a weird question, I'm European but I've never flown to/through Madrid. I'm looking at flights to NYC in November and one of the options has an 18hr layover in Madrid (arriving there in the evening and flying out again in the afternoon). I don't know the airport and the local public transport, how feasible would it be to get there, get to a hotel to sleep and then spend the morning in Madrid before getting back to the airport to fly out? And what would be some must-sees that can be done in the morning? Yeah, the airport can be a bit disorganised but it’s directly on the metro so easy to get to. Just stay on that line. And honestly, depending on when your flight out is, you can probably do the Prado or Reina Sofia in the morning - both open at 10am and both are quite small for their quality, so go get churros and chocolate, do the one of your choice 10-noon, get a ham sandwich for lunch (it’s Spain, get the ham) and get back on the metro to the airport.
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Apr 4, 2024 07:00
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Hell, it’s 2h by high speed train, so a long day trip, but you could even make Milan work if you want that as a change of pace.
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Apr 5, 2024 07:29
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There’s also the Via Alpina, which is a largely east-west route within Switzerland. Most of the overnights are mountain resorts or ski stations, so while it won’t be cheap, it also won’t be CAS huts. Hell, one of the overnights is Gstaad and the western end is in Montreux.
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Apr 7, 2024 13:29
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Saladman posted:$14,000 for a couple so it’s not cheap if guided. lmao. You could organize it yourself for like a quarter of that price and still stay in the mountain hotels. Depends if you’re rich enough that saving $11,000 is not worth it instead of spending five or six hours doing your own logistics. It looks like that’s not just guided, it’s full service, so you’re paying for them to transfer your bags from hotel to hotel, have meals sorted, etc.
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Apr 7, 2024 17:17
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Akratic Method posted:In the course of rescheduling flights back from Central Asia, I’ve ended up with a two-day stopover in Rome so I’d love to see if I can get on this tour. I’ll be jet-lagged out of time anyway so the time isn’t even a problem. I found one on the official Vatican Museums website, but their mobile website sucks, so here’s a link to a tour-guide one with the same itinerary: https://thevaticanmuseums.com/vatican-tours/vip-early-entrance-vatican-guided-tour/
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Apr 10, 2024 16:44
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Nur_Neerg posted:So I'm booking a trip for my fam around Italy & Greece stopping off in Portugal to see my pops at the end. Is there anything I need to do in the Athens airport on the way to Lisbon other than just get to the next plane? Not sure if we have to clear customs or do anything specific, want to make sure 1:10 layover is long enough. Assuming you’re departing from Athens, not connecting, no there won’t be customs or anything. Just standard airport security checks. And p.s. there’s a very good loukumades stand in the airport. I liked the pistachio ones but can’t go wrong with anything with dark chocolate either.
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Apr 14, 2024 08:46
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Nur_Neerg posted:Flying through Athens from Mykonos to Lisbon. Does that change the math at all? Definitely gonna have to make time for pistachio sweets It shouldn’t, as it’s Schengen > Schengen, but I’ve never connected through Athens so don’t quote me on that. Doom Rooster posted:Like everyone else, my wife and I are doing Italy this fall. Rome -> Florence -> X. That X is ideally a town up north with good stuff to do, but mainly as an access point for a big full day hike in the Alps/Dolomites. What they’ve ^^^ said. There’s also Aosta, if you want to be more in the mountains themselves, or crossing the border into Ticino and staying in Lugano or Bellinzona. If you want to be safer with the timeframe I’d aim September. The last two winters have been too warm and there hasn’t been much snow “low” in the Alps but I would still not be surprised if trails/access are closed by mid-October. Jean-Paul Shartre fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Apr 17, 2024 |
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Apr 17, 2024 06:55
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