Tell Me About Italy!! Weather, Culture, Cities, Age of Consent...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

If anyone lives in Italy or has visited, please tell me what you know. Plus I have some questions:

What is the Weather like?
Good Beaches?
Car friendly?
Or more of a walking/mass transit type place?
Is it easy to drive to all the other European countries? Since all those countries over there are so tiny, it would be like crossing the street over here. :smiley:
But can the borders be crossed freely?
How far of a drive is the UK? Amsterdam?
What kind of DVD systems and TVs do they use? I’m kinda ignorant on this, but aren’t DVD players and discs region specific? Will my xBox, Dvd Players, TVs etc, be ok over there? What about FM radios. Does Italy use the same Freq range for radios? What about CD players and CDs are they different?

What about the electrical plugs? Will I need an adapter to plug in my 'Merican appliances?

Do Italians hate me as much as the rest of the world seems to hate Americans? Especially American Soldiers???

Hows the night life? Especially near Vicenza? What are the younger people into over there? Lots of techno, I’m assuming…

Here’s an odd one: Anyone know of any Marine Mammal rescue centers or Cetacean Hospitals in Italy? I guess an Aquarium would do. . .

How’s the economy in Italy right now? They use Liras right? Will I get more spending power out of my dollar?

That’s it for now. Please share all you know!!!

2
  1. You need an electrical converter.
  2. Italians are notoriously pycho drivers that treat driving as a NASCAR bumper car death match with ittie-bittie cars.
  3. The weather ranges from Alpine to Mediterranean. Think California for the closest match in the U.S.
  4. Small, walkable cities for the most part. Ancient.
  5. Borders are pretty easy to cross.

I think that this is the time for this description of Italy.

3

I don’t live there, but I’ve visited a couple of times, most recently last May and June. Beautiful country. You can find a lot of basic info for travelers here

Depends on when and where you’re going.

No, they use the Euro, and good luck getting any spending power out of your dollar, the way the exchange rates are now.

No clue about cars, since I’ve never tried driving over there, but you can definitely get along by mass transit easily enough.

Yes, you can cross borders freely, but be aware that most of those countries are a lot bigger than they look on the map :slight_smile: The UK would definitely be a long drive, especially since there’s this pesky body of water in between; it’s faster and cheaper to fly.

“The rest of the world” doesn’t hate Americans as individuals. Well, there are a few jerks, but for the most part you’ll meet a lot of people who don’t like the current American government much, but will have nothing against you as a person. (Unless, of course, you give them a reason to dislike you.) In general I found people quite friendly, but then I was a young blonde woman traveling alone, which always gives you a bit of an edge :slight_smile:

4

For a couple years. Leaving in about a month or not at all.

I think I’ll be bringing my own car with me. I bet my Mustang will look huge next to all those tiny EcoEuroCars.

– How expensive is gas?

But there’s a tunnel somewhere, isn’t there? Can’t I drive there if I wanted? I think a road trip across Europe would totally kick serious hard core ass. Especially in a Convertible American Muscle Car.

Yeah I figured. I was just playin. I can pretty much get along with everybody. I know they won’t automatically hate me, but

– Is there an advantage to being an American? Would I be exotic or have a cool accent? I’ll be honest and say that any decent looking Italian guy or British guy or hell, even you Irish hooligans would have women over here wanting to jump all over you before you finished your first sentence. Oh and on a related note

– What do they call people from the US? Isn’t “American” strictly and American thing? (What with those two other Americas and that whole other country hanging out on North [pronounced Real] America.) Does anyone else reall call us Americans? Or are we Yanks or “From the States” or what is it?

– What about a cell phone. How expensive are International Rates. Like if I were to keep my current phone and number so that I’d still be a local call for my US buddies. Not worth it? Anyone take his/her phone on vacation? Business?

Some people have told me that “Nenno” is Italian.
–Does it really look or even sound Italian?? The furthest back I can trace the name is to Prussia. I like to tell everyone the name is Prussian Royalty. HA!!
I also heard there is a town (or is it a village??) in Germany called “Nenno”. That will be the first place I visit if I end up over there!

Shagnasty, thank you for that link. It was hilarious. Scary. . . but hilarious!

Small?? Crap. Well, at least they’re cities.

– They’re urban style, right??? Or more rural? As long as the trees are at a minimum. I think I’ve made it pretty clear on this board how much I HATE trees.
… and snow.

I’m kinda a large crowd/lotsa people type person.
– Are there big party cities in Italy? Places I can find a great club and people my age? Do people my age go to clubs? Or do they like pubs better? Where are the big Universities?

::Hey, don’t hate me for being so ignorant. Love me for wanting to learn.::

Also, sorry for all the "–"s. It was an attempt to allow people to pick out the questions without reading all my ramblings.

5

Well, yes there is, but it won’t do you much good unless your car is a train :slight_smile: There are car ferries from Britain to mainland Europe, though, so your road-trip idea could work.

6

I loved Italy; but if you have allergies, stock up on your meds.

7

Wait… Isn’t there room on the train for peoples’ cars??? I thought the train acted like a ferry too!

Chefguy, thanks for the heads-up. Fortunately I am allergice to nothing. Not even Poison Ivy. I love that.

8

::One desperate bump::

In the past couple days, I’ve heard a couple people talk about the public toilets in Italy. They described a simple hole in the ground. What’s the deal? Surely sanitation and hygiene are not substandard there. Does the culture simply find toilets over-rated and unecessary?

Also, I thought I saw something recently about gasoline in Europe. That leaded gas was still used and unleaded might be hard to find in some places. Is this true. If I go through with my Vicenza - London road trip, will I have trouble finding unleaded gas along the way? Or will it not be a probelm.

9

Yep, it’ll look big - it’ll also be a nightmare to drive on the narrow streets. And petrol is about US$1/litre at the moment.

You certainly could drive to the UK - but maybe the cost of the fuel will put you off :stuck_out_tongue: …Vicenza-London or Amsterdam is about 900 miles. There’s a few motorail services where you can put your car on a train, but they’re unlikely to fit in with what you want (unless you were thinking of the Channel Tunnel, which you would be likely to use). as for getting around Italy itself, it’s far cheaper and more comfortable to use trains. No matter how cool you car is :wink:

Nope :stuck_out_tongue:

You’re Americans. We manage to figure out when it means the country and when it means the continent.

A standard US phone won’t work on European networks. And anyway, it’d be much cheaper to buy a pre-paid one in Italy.

Public toilets are scarce. You’re more commonly going to be using ones in cafes and restaurants - and yes, they often aren’t exactly up to standard.

Utter nonsense. Leaded petrol hardly exists any more.

10

Not unnecessary as much as actually harmful. People from cultures using the hole-in-the-ground version usually recoil in horror at the thought of sharing a toilet seat with strangers. If you mention that you usually don’t use a bidet… well, you’re considered a reprobate.

11

You already got most of the useful informations, so I’ll just add a couple of tips.

Aquarium: I know of a great one in Genoa. Here’s the website. There aer others, but I have no idea. Try google.it.

Fun and partying: you’re right, the young’uns are pretty much into techno and sikmilar stuff. Plenty of places to go close to Vicenza, according to my (a bit outdated) info. Consider visiting the Rimini area for a large sample of nightlife, it’s relatively close, just a little south.

Driving: you can drive from the north tip of the country to the southern tip in about a couple of days, including night rest, going at a leisurely speed (do you wanna survive?) but NOT visiting anywhere. Driving to London should take, according to my estimates, between 4 and 5 days, again not taking into account any stop for visits.

The indigenous life: we are quite friendly, and don’t shun people in general “because they’re american”. Just don’t talk about politics, OK? Come to think of it, someone will certainly ask you what you think of Bush. Change the subject! You know, the political landscape in Italy is so different from the american one that comparisons and discussions tend to resemble a conversation between deaf people (no offense meant, just a metaphor). In short, however, they tend not to like Bush, even if they support the fight against terrorism.

Beaches: of course we have good beaches. Be wary of beaches close to big cities, pollution can be a problem.

Power plugs and adapters: in Italy the use a different voltage and frequency from the US, so any US power supply should be fried. Laptops are usually OK because they often have special power supplies that can cope with it. XBoxes and TVs usually don’t. Bring a Gameboy if you can’t live without gaming.

Internet: broadband tends to bit expensive, so it’s not common to find it in hostels or the more economic hotels. There are Internet cafes around, especially in the bigger cities.

Car friendliness: driving in Italy without careful training is a dangerous thing. Believe me, I taught driving for a living while in Italy, OK? It is often difficult to find parking spots in the city centre, because those pesky Middle Age urban planners didn’t think of us future car users. There’s also a lot of competition for parking spots. Why don’t you travel using public transport? Train is good, relatively reliable (better than England, anyway) and not too expensive (again, better than England).

Toilets: there are a few public toilets around, but mainly in the bigger cities like Rome and Milan. It is usually more common to go in a bar, get something to drink, pay and then ask for the toilet. Don’t just wander in and demand to use the bathroom, it is intended to be for customers only and they can refuse if you’re not.

Quick guide to political discussions in Italy, if you really must: just because one is Liberal, it doesn’t mean they are not conservative. The word “Liberal” has a different meaning. Just because one is a leftist, it doesn’t mean they are Commies. And it certainly doesn’t mean that they want the terrorists to win. This is important, OK? Just because one is a Communist (and believe me, you’ll find a few) it doesn’t mean that they are Russki Soviet lovers that would send you to a Gulag.

12

You must be talking about driving reallllly slowly!

13

Well, consider traffic, crossing through cities, resting an stretching your legs every few hours, eating, finding your way in countries you never visited before, and possibly not rocketing your way at 200 KmH. Or even 130. In Italy it would be suicide outside the motorway.

I want to arrive whole at my destination, and possibly not stressed out because of a two-day Driving Marathon. How are you going to enjoy partying otherwise? :slight_smile:

Okay, five days is a bit too much. How long would you take? :smiley:

14

I’ve been on a twenty-hour coach journey back home from Umbria, before - but to do it leisurely I guess I’d aim for three days - that’s 150 miles each morning and afternoon. (Although noticing your location, I supposed I’d add an extra one to drive through England.) But ‘crossing through cities’?! Which ones can you not drive around?

15

Italy is perhaps my favorite place in all the world. My father lives in Nice France, which is about 20 minutes from the Italian border. I would blab on about it for days, but I think people have covered it pretty well already. I say, move move move!

16

Touche’. I drive defensively, and plan for huge mistakes such as “Oh, crap, I should have turned left for Torre Salsiccia and now I am in Santo Spaghetto and have to find a way to drive back for a zillion kilometers”, out of personal experience in unexplored territories. I also consider crossing small cities for food and accommodation, it can be cheaper than places on the motorways.

I still think that Bear_Nenno should stick to public transport, what do you think? I investigated going to London by train, he can take a train in Milan to Paris and change there to go to London. He could visit a chunk of France on the way in addition to Italy. Or there are always good old RyanAir and EasyJet.

17

Absolutley. The motorway tolls alone would be as much as a Ryanair flight, and so much of France is sooooo boring :wink:

18

Italian food is the best in Europe, the landscape is charming, the people are beautiful, and the art! the architecture! the climate! I spent a month in a garret apartment in Trento, province of Trentino, Sud Tyrrhol.

Unfortunately, that month was during the big heat wave of 2003. I couldn’t figure out where to buy an electric fan, so I sat in a cold bath in the evenings before I went to bed. It takes several months (so the Italians all said) to get a phone hooked up, so I used my cell phone (which is a world phone) at $1 a minute.

I worked at a government research institute, where I had internet access, but the firewall was crazy and prevented me from using any kind of chat program, and from accessing a hefty chunk of websites. There was an internet cafe with two laptops a person could pay to use–I did that several times a week.

Italians are charming when approached, but no one at work bothered to notice I existed–took them three days to find me a place to sit, three more to let me on the internet, and no one ever stopped by to chat or offer to have lunch with me. I was very lonely. Fortunately, the town has a university, and the university has English literature classes, so the bookstores had some novels in English. Unfortunately, the novels were all the kind one reads in English classes, and I the English major had already read all but three, on the shelf in the bookstore down the street. I read those three, while I was in Italy.

There was one laundromat in town, more than a mile from my apartment, and I hope you know that there aren’t any clothes dryers. Rather than drag wet clothes more than a mile through the city center, I boiled my laundry on the stovetop (I did find laundry soap especially for hand washing, in the little supermarket down the street) and hung it to dry–very very carefully so it didn’t wrinkle. I didn’t have an iron.

My apartment’s bathroom did not have a bidet. It also didn’t have a fixed shower, only a hand shower, and no shower curtain or rod for a shower curtain. After washing my hair (which I had to do every day, in the incredible heat), the bathroom floor was always completely flooded. Luckily, I found a mop in the corner of a storage room.

Italy is perpetually under construction, so there was jackhammering outside my apartment all day. Fortunately, this being Italy, it wasn’t for very many hours every day.

The first weekend I was there was followed by a bank holiday, on Monday. I had planned to buy some groceries on Saturday morning, but all the shops were closed then because of the holiday. Everything is of course closed on Sunday. Everything was of course closed on Monday. I ran out of food at home, and had to go into town to scrounge–luckily, one sidewalk cafe was open to cater to the German tourists. I ate there twice, and put bread in my purse to take home (doggie bag? What’s that?)

The bed in my apartment was the kind that has metal springs directly underneath the mattress–a little camp mattress, that sagged about three inches from edges to center. My back got progressively sorer throughout the month. The pillow was about an inch think. I folded up the blankets, that it was too hot to sleep under, and put them under the pillow to bulk it up.

I have posted all this because it’s these little irritating things that really surprised me, and really bothered me. Had I spent the month in a hotel, with a friend, it would have been heaven on earth.

19

I assume you’re getting stationed at Caserma Ederle? I was there for just under 3 years a little over ten years ago.

If you have any specific question about the base or Vicenza, let me know.

20

Well… I almost was. But it looks like I just got pounded in the ass hard by mother Army. (Yes, mother Army wears a strap on. A big thick one that she dips into shattered glass before use)

Afer reading these recent replies, I’m even more upset about this. You guys made Europe sound awesome, and I really wanted to go!!!
But on Feb 2nd, I’ll be flying to fucking Korea!!! This sucks.

… Anyone know anything about Korea :stuck_out_tongue: :mad: