October 9, 2015: What a treat – a concert piano in the Padova, Italy, train station —inviting travelers to “play me for free”! Have no idea who this lovely lady was or where she was going but such nice music echoing through the station. Now here’s a thought: wouldn’t this be a nice treat in airport food courts or boarding areas?
October 8, 2015: Well they organize and play in weekend music concerts in Prato della Valle – one of the largest and most colorful piazzas in all of Europe. And it’s not what I would call typical church music – modern, upbeat and with marvelous vocal (and talented) singers. God Bless!!!
October 6, 2015: I am told a “Mandrake” is a “anthropomorphic” plant—we’d most likely refer to this as a palm tree—well if you visited one of the world’s largest and oldest Botanical Gardens in Mantova you would be in the presence of one of the oldest in the world. This palm-like bushy tree is said to date back to 1585 and is one of the many finds in these gardens—that also include a multi level indoor bio structure that features rain forest and plant settings from just about everywhere in our world. All well worth the visit! -Mantova, Italy
October 5, 2015: What do you get when you mix a couple of Michelin two star chefs together to produce and open Gelato shops – a damn taste sensation! Light, favorable, refreshing, tantalizing – need I say more! Being a professional gelato expert I can truly say this might be the best ever – Pretto Gelato Arte Italiana shops feature dozens of flavor choices—as well as blended treats. Please please please – come to America.
October 3, 2015: It wasn’t a bad taxi ride from my hotel in Padova to the train station, just unusual as to what the driver was doing during the ride. My non-English speaking chauffeur, in no hurry as traffic was heavy, was alternating his attention between reading the newspaper comics and doing a crossword puzzle—really! Italians seem very good at multi-tasking you know?
-From Padova, Italy
September 29, 2015: The best food in Italy is not in the over-rated expensive restaurants, but the small bistro like cafes found street side. This one in Padova—just 30 minutes from Venice—run by four recent graduates from the University here—specialize in just about everything Italian, and at prices that won’t fracture your Euros! Why over pay for the linen napkin and snotty service? When visiting Padova—it’s Cafe Vento’s four locations.
September 28, 2015: From planes (The Dreamliner) to trains—and Italy’s government owned rail system Trentitalia—there is a hard to find competing high speed private rail service called Italo that’s sometimes less expensive but less convenient in pricing options and popular multi day rail passes. Do yourself a favor and use Trentitalia’s online timetables only as a guide—times and number of stops more than often vary from the actual services listed. Best way is just go to the train station and ask. And if you can, use the station’s self-ticketing machines—especially in larger cities—otherwise you queue first to get a number and then a long wait to talk to an agent. The service for the most part is very efficient, coaches are clean, services on shorter trips somewhat limited (pack a snack or meal) from the station and enjoy the scenery. As in most of Italy, English speaking assistance is very limited—but unlike the U.S. of A, rail service is a nice treat. All Aboard!
September 25, 2015: Wow—Neat—Really Cool: The Travel Curmudgeon’s first time on the new 787 Dreamliner (Toronto to Milan) really does reach new highs in travel comfort. Wide aisles, spacious over head compartments large enough for a small luggage trunk, lavatories that you can actually turn around in, individual seat lighting that more than lights up what you’re reading and doesn’t disturb other passengers and the most overly high tech individual seat and inflight entertainment choices and controls ever. In business class, where travelers sit in individual “resident” pods, you have control of just about everything you could desire – from wide screen entertainment and lighting to seat back massage and fully reclining seats that can become full flat beds. Only criticism – mostly from inflight crews—is the plane is so technically advanced that it becomes confusing and burdensome – especially during inflight food and beverage services. And one of the surprise comforts—during flight—extremely quiet! Maybe it’s fun to fly again?
September 21, 2015: Big “shake up” at United last week – the current president, who came from Continental as part of the consolidation package and, by the way, had a terrible reputation with employees and travelers – replaced by a United Airlines Board member with really no airline experience. Maybe a call by UAL stockholders to Richard Branson at Virgin to come save this airline?
September 16, 2015: Over the next few years thousands of off shore oil and gas drilling rigs will reach “mandatory” retirement age and be abandoned and decommissioned — and while they serve as a valuable resource to enhance reef life there’s not much else of value. Well some innovative folks are proposing that these rigs be used as holiday destinations for those adventure seekers looking for the unusual and out of the way destination — just about any where in the world. Ideas include super max prisons, private homes, energy producing windmills, etc. But the best ideas are to use the rigs for fish farms or vacation destination scuba schools. The North Sea, off the coast of Britain, has more than 470,000 tons of offshore facilities — platforms, pipelines and wells. Places like the Arctic and numerous areas in Asia offer unlimited use opportunities. One group, Seaventures, is promoting a hotel and scuba school on a converted oil rig in the western Pacific near Borneo. Wonder how long it will take Rick Steves to publish a guide book on Oil Rig Vacations?
