Quick travel quips from Matteo

So, in light of my fairly negative sounded post prior to this one I wanted to leave on a positive note. I've been thinking a lot about traveling and how much I would love to write for a travel book. Here are some things I've noticed/travel tips for Italy, a few of which can probably be applied to other places too:

1) Italians don't like spicy food. If you do (and Lord knows I do) your best bet is heading for an ethnic place. For me, I've been loving these "Doner/Kebap" joints. They don't serve actual kebabs in the american sense but Gyro-like sandwiches. Delicious. Cheap. Spicy, too. All a Matt could ask for. Yummy roasted meat like veal thrown in some fresh pita bread with tomatoes, onions, hot sauce and sometimes a creamy taziki sauce. They usually set ya back only 3.5 euros and are a great on the go food. To my surprise none of my travel books have even mentioned them! How can you write about a low cost trip and exclude this gem? They are in all the big cities, even most of the smaller ones.

2) When traveling to a town, always, always stop by the tourist info booth. They have free maps and can give good info on the city. Most of the big cities have people that speak at least a little bit of English, too. Otherwise you'll probably end up either a) wondering the city aimlessly, b)trying to use the poorly made map in your travel book, or c) buying a map at some little shop near the train station that will set you back a couple euro. Make sure there is a street index, too.

3) Which travel book is the best? I've had experience with Let's Go and Lonely Planet. Let's Go is written mostly by students I believe, all of which are attending Harvard University, which I found interesting. Lonely Planet is written by an older crowd (i.e.not current students). For Let's Go, besides the standard "eat here, sleep there" suggestions there are occassionaly a quick story of one students experience, like a real short interview with someone who lives on Mt Etna or an expat that lives in Sicily, which are fun to read. Sometimes there are different top 10 lists, too. All in all, compared to Lonely Planets guide book, I think Let's Go lacks a bit. Maybe the information is better organized in a lay-out sense, but Lonely Planet packs more info and talks about some of the smaller towns the others don't. Let's Go does seem to give good suggestions for cheap hotels and hostels. All in all, it is certainly not a bad choice and it is always best to combine a couple of sources when planning trips (books and internet) anyways. One plus for Lonely Planet is that it's spine is double stitched so the book won't fall apart as easily when traveling. In the end, when planning a trip and you can only buy one book, I'd go Lonely Planet.

4) Low cost airlines. All hail the (almost) free flights! Competition is steep and interEurope flights are cheap, as long you book a little in advance. Some companies even have deals where all you pay are the taxes and a baggage fee. I found one flight to London from Milan, taxes included, on December 23rd for something like 45 Euros one way. During other times of the year you can fly to Dublin from Milan one way for something like 30 euros one way. Hopefully I'll get a chance to use this a lot! Faster, and for faraway places, cheaper than the train.

5) Pack light! I did my best to pack light and think I did a pretty good job. Still, I wish I brought less stuff. In reality you don't need much as far as clothing goes. Sure, we fret about having enough clean t-shirts and jeans before we leave but in the end having a smaller bag/luggage to haul around is great. It doesn't matter too much for me because I'm situated in Milan and can make my trips from there but when my program ends and I start actually traveling without a home base it might become a problem. I might even try to mail my luggage home before I leave and just take my normal sized backpack and messenger bag to make things easier.

Well, I guess that's all that comes to mind at the moment. Although most of you probably aren't getting ready for any big trans-oceanic trips I hope this hasn't bored you. All in all traveling just really makes me want to make a career out of it, like writing a travel book!