Those Dirty Hotels · Feb 4, 08:20 AM by James Martin
TripAdvisor, the travel site that’s gained fame and fortune from using unpaid content from users to create an online travel empire, is in trouble for a list of the UKs dirtiest hotels it published recently. Turns out hotel owners want an EU commission to start looking into limiting anonymous reviews. Hotel owners would like make sure that “reviews are posted by genuine guests and not by rivals or people simply out to cause mischief.”
I’d have to agree. Anonymous reviews are pretty worthless unless there’s a critical mass of them. Sure, eventually you can learn enough to spot a clunker with pretty good accuracy, or at least you think you can.
The difference between (good) professional writing and anonymous drivel is in the details—no matter if the subject is pornography or hotel reviews. A pro can’t say “the room was too small” without defining exactly how many square feet too small is. A porn pro can’t say “it was gargantuan” without a ruler and…well, you get the picture.
It’s odd reading reviews that trumpet the idea that “service was not up to snuff” when we don’t know what snuff is, or what level of “service” the reviewer expects. Is “service” what’s provided by information gleaned from the staff? Or is bad service defined by the fact that nobody carried your 2700 pounds of luggage up to the room with a smile the minute you arrived? The degree of goodness or badness is always related to expectations, and a good reviewer has to be a slave to that fact. An anonymous unpaid reviewer isn’t necessarily a slave to any facts, and there’s the rub.
Besides, cleanliness isn’t the half of it. One of the memorably bad hotels I’ve ever stayed at was one of the cleanest. It cost more per night than I usually spend for a week in a self catering apartment. It had two bathrooms and a little office with a sofa. Every day the maid came in an rearranged my stuff on the desk so I had little chance of finding or making use of it, then turned on each of the 37 lights so that when I came home at midnight, stanco, or “tired as all get out” as we say in America, and pushed my card key into the wall I was greeted with an explosion of light. If I my tired eyes didn’t snap wide open from all that, I was certainly wide awake hours later when I had finally managed to extinguish all but the one light I’d need to turn on at night—what little was left by then of the darkness of it.
I don’t need a gargantuan room. Just a quiet place and a comfy bed without critters, a bathroom that works right and a staff that leaves me and my stuff alone. Now you know.
Here’s how I find hotels. (Hint: good companies limit reviews to folks who’ve stayed in those hotels, it’s not rocket science to program this stuff.)
Here’s the article which inspired this post.
Filed in: Italy Travel Tips General
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I'm Missing the Lunigiana: A Statue Picture · Jan 31, 12:16 PM by James Martin
I’m on my way soon to Palm Springs. It’s a way to escape winter and visit with my mother and brother. It’s not the same as being in Italy.
The statue over to the right is one I recently discovered in the town of Bocca di Magra, the mouth of the Magra river. I’ve heard that Italy’s famous writers met here. It’s a great place to go to eat seafood—or fish for it.
The statue is interesting because its form mimics the stele statues you find in the museum in Pontremoli (which is inside a castle you should visit). The statue is of a woman who seems to have come out of the sea with friends at her feet. The “friends” are like the local critters they cook up and serve to you in the nearby restaurant which overlooks the yacht harbor.
Darn, I miss that.
Filed in: The Lunigiana Italy Travel Tips
Having a Cultural Experience in Italy: Experiential Travel Tips · Jan 28, 04:29 PM by James Martin
When people ask me for travel information, they often append their request with something like, “Don’t send me to any tourist traps. I want to go to a place without tourists where I can have a true cultural experience.” The unwritten part is, “…which you are going to spell out for me and which is going to be easy.”
Here’s the thing: nobody can give you steps to follow to have a cultural experience—or, for that matter, an epiphany.
I like epiphanies. You just can’t force them. They come when you’re ready.
What you can do is open yourself up to experience. For the most part, this means becoming a “cultural relativist”, even if only temporarily and then only if your chosen political party or leaning allows it. Yes, that’s right, the first step is to stop thinking that the culture you come from is the very bestest in the whole wide world and nobody does it better, despite the fact you haven’t experienced any other cultures. Other folks a long way away from your country have solved (or tried to solve) the same social problems. They got different answers. That difference is what makes the world go ‘round. Well, that and a whole lot of good Barolo…
Become childlike. Marvel at things. Have no shame in asking about things you don’t understand. People everywhere like explaining their traditions. Open your mind. Control nothing.
You’re in the garden of Eden. What’s around you is beauty and goodness and light. Marvel at it. Remember you get kicked out if you try to gain control of things. Remember God.
Now you’re ready. I’ve got tips.
Learn a bit of the language. You’ll have a hard time making inroads unless you can at least show folks you’re a decent person. Learn the polite words. Greet people in shops. Thank folks who help you.
Go on a quest. Got a question about why folks do what they do? Find out for yourself. Want local regional foods, the best a restaurant has to offer? Discuss the food with the waiter and take his recommendations; it’s how you get good food in Italy because what’s special isn’t always offered to us hamburger eaters and isn’t always on the menu because they think we won’t like it. Or—go to an open air market and search for something you’ve never eaten before—perhaps agretti, or perhaps a rare cheese from a guy in a truck who likes talking and using his hands to make a point.
Stay where you’re not isolated as a tourist. That usually means you won’t be staying in a hotel. You might try a self-catering vacation home or apartment, but you’ll get more advice in a rural agriturismo, a country house on a working farm, where there’s someone to lead you over the cultural hurdles and send you to the right places to learn what you want to learn. You’ll also eat well and learn how the Italian insistence on good ingredients has created a cuisine that’s the envy of the world, especially in places where the industrial hamburgers are awash in Ammonia or other noxious liquids.
How to find an agriturismo and an owner that suits you? Easy. Go to twitter and search with the term “agriturismo”. You’ll come up with a list of owners that use the social network to tell you what’s happening in their neck of the woods. You can use twitter not only to find a likely agriturismo, but to see if the owner might share your interests or be willing to teach you something about the culture. If your quest is to find out how the taste of extra virgin olive oil you buy in the supermarket is different from that of artisanal production, you’ll be amazed the first time you taste an oil made by people who care. It’s an astonishing difference you’ll tell your friends about until they hate you for it.
I’m out of gas. Maybe my open mind has dried up. I need to remember to cover it in saran wrap when I’m not using it. There’s a hockey game on tv tonight.
Filed in: Experiential Travel Italy Travel Tips
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Places to Stay in Italy · Jan 8, 10:05 AM by James Martin
I’ve been beefing up the main site here with tips on finding places to stay in Italy.
You see, over the years that I’ve been traveling, the kinds of lodging you might expect has changed dramatically. Then along came the internet, which ramped up the rate of change in way we look at our little rented sleep boxes.
In the 70s, we’d just get on a train and ride, secure in the knowledge that there would be a hotel across the street from the train station where there’d be a room into which we’d toss our bags before we went exploring.
All you did was look the place over, walk to the reception desk and inquire about price and availability. It was easy. The beds sagged, the bath could be down the hall, and the reception might well be manned by a toothless witch. We didn’t mind. We were young then.
Today, folks want the perfect lodging—and they can find it on the internet. Trouble is, all this market efficiency means all the “top-rated” places are reserved months and sometimes years in advance. The internet also means that big chain hotels can offer unreasonably low prices at the last minute to fill their huge hotels, a strategy that’s caused many independent hotel owners to be flung onto the mean streets, among them those memorable cheery ones you miss because they were a wealth of local insider information and made fresh, homemade buns for breakfast.
But the situation isn’t all bad. What has also skyrocketed is the availability of houses and apartments you can stay in—often cheaper than hotels, especially for families. You might have to rent them for a week minimum, but heck, tell friends you’re contemplating a week in Tuscany (or Puglia or the Abruzzo or Piedmonte wine country…) and see if they advise you that a week is too much! (If they do, dump them, they’re not your friends.)
In any case, I’ve spilled my guts. See Hotels: Finding a Place to Stay in Italy. Then, if you’re not familiar with renting a vacation home or apartment, read about Italy Self Catering and finally read some very short reviews of the places I’ve stayed over the years and really, really, liked: Recommended Self Catering Apartments and Houses
I highly recommend self catering. It gives you a base for some experiential travel. You can go to the same cafe in the morning, making it your cafe. Live like an Italian without the taxes and ponderous bureaucracy. It’s the best of all worlds, believe me.
Bed and Breakfasts? Coming.
Filed in: Italy Travel Tips Experiential Travel
Hot New Travel Tools · Jan 3, 06:18 PM by James Martin
Hey, it’s the new year, ya know? There’s gotta be some dynamite new tools for travelers you’d think. All this social networking that’s seeking a focus has to gather up some light sometime and start a fire…or something.
Well, here’s a good idea: Expatistan. No, Expatistan is not a dusty country where there are camels; Expatistan is an machine that tells you what it costs in a country you’re thinking of moving to. I suspect it could be used to give travelers some idea of the money they’ll dole out while staying in a foreign city. Anyway, the thing seems to grab your locality from your IP address so you can type in the name of a foreign city and compare costs. I found out, for example, that Rome is 34% more expensive than Sacramento. Now, I don’t live in Sacramento, but heck, I do know what it costs for a hamburger there. So, I know I’ll spend about a third more in Rome. Cool.
This thing can harness all of us tied to our computers. You see, we can make the machine run better by feeding it with the data from our own localities, like transportation costs—or the cost of that burger.
So get with it. Try Expatistan.
Then there’s World Taxi Meter. If the site looks as clean and simple as Expatistan, that’s because there’s been some commingling of talent between the two, as far as I can tell. In any case, the World Taxi meter is meant to tell you what a taxi journey should cost in the city you’re traveling to. Cool, especially for those of you who think every taxi driver in the world is out to grab every last remaining bit of odd currency out of your wallet and then some. There’s even a widget available to put on your website so your visitors can spend all day figuring out the cost of a taxi ride in Gumbutistan (tell the driver to watch out for longhorn camels).
And, same deal, the site will get bigger and more accurate when you report your own findings. Try World Taximeter
Ok, the last thing isn’t a neat machine, database, or a small box filled with showgirls that can kick up a storm on demand, then deflate and go back in the box before you get in trouble with the missus. No, it’s just my personal reflections on Italian hotels. You know—how I find them, when I reserve them, why they don’t have free wifi, and why the stars don’t make sense to you. It’s here: How to Find a Place to Stay in Italy
Have fun planning your vacation.
Filed in: Italy Travel Tips Italy Travel
Two Things You Must See in Italy in 2010 · Jan 1, 06:23 PM by James Martin
Ok, so the new year has been rung in and you’re probably rung out. I know I am. Why my neighbors need to shoot bullets into the air deep into the night the calendar runs out I’ll probably never understand. I hope none of the bullets fell to earth near someone who wasn’t shooting off a gun. America. You got to love us when we’re defending our right to be stupid with handguns.
In any case, for those of you planning vacations for spring or early summer, listen up. There are a couple of things on display you don’t see very often.
First off are the Stone Age Venus Figurines on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Ancona:
All were uncovered in the Marche region but date from different cultures and times, with the oldest figure created some 25,000 years ago and the most recent around the fifth millennium BC.
Well, unless you’ve been staring too long at a picture of me, you won’t be able to gawk at many compelling objects that old.
While you’re looking at these obese, nude female figures, think of how much stone age fecundity depended on being fed well. Think of how successful a small scale society could be if it efficiently created abundance. Fat was different then. There were no pilates, not even on the foreseeable horizon.
The exhibition, which runs until March 30, is called ‘‘Donne o Dee? Le figure femminili preistoriche nelle Marche’‘ (Women Or Goddesses? Prehistoric Female Figures in the Marche). Read more
Here’s information in Italian from the Museum.
Turin Shroud on Display
Did you know that they only put the Shroud of Turn on display every once in a while? In fact, it’s been about 10 years now. If you’re planning a spring vacation, you’re in luck:
In 2010 the Shroud of Turin will be on display in the Turin Cathedral from April 10 to May 23. While there’s no cost to view the Shroud, you must have a reservation. ~ Shroud of Turin Visiting Information
Have a happy 2010.
Filed in: Italy News Italy Travel Tips
Diaphanous Gowns: The Answer to Airline Security · Dec 28, 01:22 AM by James Martin
I recently participated in a lively twitter discussion centered around solutions to the airline security issues currently facing international fliers.
After thinking about the problem for a while, I have distilled the essence of the solution into but two words: Diaphanous Gowns.
(We should work on the word “Diaphanous” because it is a word you seldom hear unless you’re prone to sucking the sap outta those bodice-ripper novels you (used to?) find in supermarket check-out lanes. Diaphanous “is of so fine a texture as to be transparent or characterized by extreme delicacy of form.”)
Wouldn’t it be nice to see travelers in clothing of fine texture? Wouldn’t it really, really, help the underpaid guys with the guns to actually see through clothing? Bag o’ explosives diaper-pinned to your jockeys? Visible! Ha ha! Nice try!
Make diaphanous gowns a requirement for international travel and the benefits pile up like dust in unswept corners.
But the benefits of such gownage goes deeper than airline security. The fact that a diaphanous gown weighs practically nothing would make airplanes lighter, thus more fuel efficient. (Prices for a ticket would plummet of course.) Plus, being infinitely thin, requiring fliers to don diaphanous gowns would cut the need for those ginourmous seats they put in steerage class. They could make airplane seats narrower, thus saving even more weight and allowing even more room for that all-important Duty-Free cart to come rambling through the cabin. Imagine how nice it would be to slide diaphanously into your snugly seat!
Do you see? It’s all good!
And don’t get me started on the benefits of wearing diaphanous gowns when it comes time to join the mile-high club. OK?
Filed in: Italy Travel Tips General
Monsummano: Pictures of a Spa Town in November · Nov 27, 09:12 AM by James Martin
I rather liked Monsummano; especially Monsummano Alto, the medieval high town that looks down on what was once a swampy and likely malarial valley. That’s why Monsummano Terme, the lower town, only dates from the 1700s. The picture to the right was taken on an afternoon of indeterminate weather. Sun, cool air, rain, clouds—it was all mixed up. Then this. Sweet.
The next picture isn’t as distinct. We had to wait until a beam of sun came to rest on the town of Montevetollini, which I know we’ll have to visit some day. The valley was shrouded in fog though, an indistinct fog that couldn’t seem to become esthetically pleasing. Perhaps you could argue that in the summer this would have been a better picture, with those clear blue skies everyone loves to death. I prefer a more brooding sky.
Anyway, I liked Monsummano so much I wrote an article about it: Monsummano Terme Guide. And if you have a chance to eat at the restaurant Da Marino, do go. It’s excellent.
Oh, and click the pictures to see them larger. They like that.
Filed in: Italy Travel Italy Travel Tips