When in Rome, should we speak Italian?

The Flavian Ampitheatre (Colosseum) in Rome.

Before I took my first European trip, I invested in a phrase book, and I taught myself how to order a coffee and a beer in four languages. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary, although my tortured pronunciation did provide some light relief for the locals.

As a native English speaker, I have a big advantage everywhere I travel: I talk the language much of the world already knows or is keen to learn. But is it simply lazy, or even disrespectful, to try to get by with English when you travel?

Continue reading When in Rome, should we speak Italian?

Why tourists are not always welcome

No sex please, we’re German. The Hofbrauhaus is at the centre of Munich’s festivities.

The tourism industry is a big contributor to the economies of many countries. But that comes at a price.

When you welcome a large number of tourists, you risk spoiling your own natural surroundings and sacrificing some of your cultural heritage.

Continue reading Why tourists are not always welcome

Is it ever OK for a restaurant to charge over the odds?

We all know that any product is worth whatever somebody is prepared to pay for it. But sometimes, especially as a traveller in a strange place, the customer doesn’t have a choice.

Social media and the web are full of stories about people who believe they have been ripped off  when it comes to paying for food and beverages..

Recent examples include a man who was charged €43 (US$50 or nearly A$70) for two coffees and two bottles of water at a cafe in St Mark’s Square, Venice.

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Travel’s golden rule: respect the place and the people

In places across the world, there’s a growing movement to ban or limit tourism.

Barcelona

It took on an extreme manifestation in Barcelona, when local residents spray-painted an anti-tourism slogan on a hop-on-hop-off bus outside FC Barcelona’s Nou Camp Stadium, and slashed its tyres.

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Would banning cruise ships stop Venice from sinking?

Updated: October 30, 2018

A Quora user asked: “Should Venice limit the amount of big cruise ships coming to the city centre?”

Flooding is an ongoing threat to Venice, and as I write this update, three-quarters of the canal city has been inundated. 

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It takes a village …

The northern Italian village of Bormida has hit the headlines because its council is offering €2,000 to anybody who wants to come and live there.

Savona (Brett Debritz)

The idea is to boost the population of the village, where rents can be as low as €50 a month. I, for one, am tempted — particularly given Bormida’s close proximity to the borders with Monaco and France, and to the beautiful port of Savona, where Costa Cruises has a terminal.

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La Spezia in pictures

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The day the Costa Diadema sailed into La Spezia, I was feeling decidedly unwell. I went ashore – via a short bus trip through a commercial port that seemed to be trying to out-ugly Genoa’s equivalent – in an attempt to find a pharmacy.

Instead of a shop selling Immodium, I found a circular cathedral (Cattedrale di Cristo Re) concealed by freight containers, and a fun fair. Then I raced back to the boat to make an appointment with the doctor. The less said about the ensuing 24 hours, the better. Continue reading La Spezia in pictures

Genoa? Hardly at all

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One bad choice can spoil a whole holiday. Had it been my intention to stay in Genoa (Genova) for a few days, then the hotel I chose would have been a disaster.

But I chose the Best Western Airport Hotel purely because, as its name suggests, it’s close to the airport. I knew I’d be exhausted after flying from Abu Dhabi to Munich, and then taking two more flights across the day (with many hours of waiting time in between) to get to the Italian Riviera. Continue reading Genoa? Hardly at all

Home and away

The wild blue yonder
Coming in for landing at Brisbane airport

I often claim to be a “citizen of the world” — which I am. We all are, and if more of us felt that way, then maybe we’d stop being unkind to each other on the basis of nationality, skin colour or religion.

OK, I won’t hold my breath on that. But maybe if we viewed the Earth as our home, we’d look after the planet a lot better than we do.

Continue reading Home and away