I received a lot of help from this forum so thought I would give a
little back. Take it for what it is worth, they are things I didn't
know before going.
My wife and I spent time in France (Nice area) and Italy (see Re.
Both places were awesome. Americans are totally safe in Europe, it
helps to know some of the language, but the only bad experience I had
was in Zurich and that wasn't too bad. After 12 hours of travel I
placed my passport on the counter in front of the customs official and
he says in a very Col. Klink style, "so you're not going to speak to
me."
Venice should be experienced by everyone at carnival time and when you
are there you think it is. But the crowd is orderly and sober. The
streets are littered with confetti, but they are supposed to be.
Street performers are everywhere and the costumes are amazing. Never
got checked for a ticket on the vaporetto (waterbus) so I am certain
that tourists are the only suckers who buy tickets. The fine for being
caught is $23Euro. Waiters say 'prego' when it is time to order food,
and 'il conto par favore?' will get your bill to your table so you can
pay. 'Permisso' allows you to step by someone politely while
'ATTENZIONE' means you are about to get your tourist arse run over.
You may buy a pass for several museums at a time, but they may be
closed on different days, eg. Burano lace museum is closed on Tuesday
and the Murano glass museum is closed on Wednesday, didn't see either
so you can guess which days we were where and the kind lady who sold
us our ticket didn't offer to inform us. The www.venicecard.com is
probably a good idea if you will be there for at least 3 days, but you
can only buy it online, so by the time you find out about it, it is
too late.
Italian trains are easy to access, but not always clean, not always on
time, and it is a great idea to have a reservation for long rides if
it is available. This is just IMHO and those of several train
conversations so don't get angry, Milan looks aweful from the train
and didn't sound like staying there was much better.
The french riviera is cleaner than the italian counterpart but very
few can speak English. They will go out of their way to help though
and were always polite. Basic french is easy to learn and people will
always greet you, 'bonsoir' starts after 2PM and 'bonjour' prior.
Please is always a good idea.
Cinque Terre is very relaxing if you like to hike and the coastal
scenes are awesome. Monterosso has plenty of good places to stay and
is a major train stop, while the train may not stop at any of the
other towns on its way to La Spezia. In La Spezia hotel rooms are
somewhat pricey near the train station, but the manager at the hotel
we stayed in dropped the price $20/night when I made the off hand
comment it was a little much for us. Europeans can always tell you are
English speaking before you even open your mouth, it is some kind of
radar I presume, however we could not tell others until they opened
their mouth. That's about all I have for you so, 'buon viaggio'.
JR Out

On 14 Mar 2003 03:36:09 -0800, [email protected] (JR) wrote:
Never
    >got checked for a ticket on the vaporetto (waterbus) so I am certain
    >that tourists are the only suckers who buy tickets. The fine for being
    >caught is $23Euro.

I was checked 3 times on the week before the end of carnavale. I
think most of the local people do have a paid pass, as I saw no local
(or anyone else for that matter) that could not produce a valid
ticket.

JR wrote:
    >
    > I received a lot of help from this forum so thought I would give a
    > little back. Take it for what it is worth, they are things I didn't
    > know before going.

    > Venice should be experienced by everyone at carnival time and when you
    > are there you think it is. But the crowd is orderly and sober. The
    > streets are littered with confetti, but they are supposed to be.

Just a little curious fact. In Italy, "confetti" are little net bags
with candy (usually candied almonds) in them, which are often tossed
about at Carnival, but which usually don't litter the streets because
people grab them before they hit the ground. The little bits of paper
known as confetti in English are called "coriandoli" in Italian. I don't
know why the names got confused in English.

    > ... Never
    > got checked for a ticket on the vaporetto (waterbus) so I am certain
    > that tourists are the only suckers who buy tickets.

Most public transport in Europe is "spot checked", with heavy fines for
not having a ticket. There are always some "natives" who ride without
tickets, but they are mostly the same kind of people who jump turnstiles
in the US. Natives usually have passes, either weekly or monthly, which
causes many tourists to think that they don't buy tickets. It would be
the height of arrogance for a tourist to ride without paying, because in
addition to buying passes, the natives of these cities support the cost
of public transport with their taxes. If I remember correctly, in Venice
this gives them the right to buy passes at a fairly low cost.

'Permisso' allows you to step by someone politely while

That's "permesso".

    > Italian trains are easy to access, but not always clean, not always on
    > time, and it is a great idea to have a reservation for long rides if
    > it is available. This is just IMHO and those of several train
    > conversations so don't get angry.

I guess you haven't ridden Amtrak very much. If you had, your
expectations would be much lower. I find that Italian trains have a much
better on-time record than Amtrak, and in general are cleaner.

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. Come again!

Barbara

In [email protected], JR wrote:

    > Never
    > got checked for a ticket on the vaporetto (waterbus) so I am
certain
    > that tourists are the only suckers who buy tickets. The fine
for being
    > caught is $23Euro.


Tickets are spot checked, not checked all the time. I've had mine
checked several times, and had it not checked even more times.
The fine for being caught may be only 23 Euro the first time, but
I believe it goes up for repeat offenders.

I've seen many local people checked, and never seen one who
couldn't produce a ticket or a pass. Your view of what you call
"suckers" is not correct.


    > Waiters say 'prego' when it is time to order food,
    > and 'il conto par favore?'


That's "...per favore."


    > will get your bill to your table so you can
    > pay. 'Permisso' allows you to step by someone politely while


and "permesso."

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

I was just trying to add something to the group not get an anal prob from a
Nazi dike, Holy freaking crap

Again with the anal probe. I am sorry I took the time to help support this
group in some small way with my experience in Europe.
arrivederci asswipe
did i spell that right?

On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 12:39:23 -0600, in rec.travel.europe, "Joel R. Cooper, D.C."
arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... Again with the anal probe. I am sorry I took the time to help support this
... group in some small way with my experience in Europe.
... arrivederci asswipe
... did i spell that right?

Si.

le Fri, 14 Mar 2003 12:39:23 -0600, dans l'article , Joel R. Cooper, D.C. a dit ...

    > Again with the anal probe. I am sorry I took the time to help support this
    > group in some small way with my experience in Europe.
    > arrivederci asswipe
    > did i spell that right?

No, it's 'arsewipe'. An 'ass' is a donkey. Unless that's what you
meant...

--
Desmond Coughlan
desmond @ zeouane.org
http: // www . zeouane . org

Desmond Coughlan wrote:
    > le Fri, 14 Mar 2003 12:39:23 -0600, dans l'article , Joel R. Cooper, D.C. a dit ...
    >
    >
    >>Again with the anal probe. I am sorry I took the time to help support this
    >>group in some small way with my experience in Europe.
    >>arrivederci asswipe
    >>did i spell that right?
    >
    >
    > No, it's 'arsewipe'. An 'ass' is a donkey. Unless that's what you
    > meant...
    >

Here's another example of the difference between British and American
English. In American English "arse" is not a standard word; we use
"ass". The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a "variant of
ass" and "chiefly British slang". To me, for an American to use the
word "arse" would seem affected, as if they were trying to be something
they're not, i.e., English rather than American.