Pompeii Today: Bill Jennings

Daytrips from Rome

I've been Tivoing and burning-to-DVD episodes of Rudy Maxa's Smart Travels.

One of the upcoming episodes focuses on daytrips from Rome. The website has a great collection of all of its tips for Roman Daytrips. The tips cover: Rome, Ostia, Tivoli, Castel Gandolfo (the Pope's summer home, don't you know), Nemi, Viterbo, and a whole lot more.

Rudy Maxa, by the way, has an offical website and, of course, a blog

Listen While You Travel

Gadling (the site for engaged travel) recently had a nice entry recommending Teaching Company Lectures on CD as something to investigate if you're planning a trip.

Basically, the company records world-class university professors in a professional studio, performing lectures on topics of interest to the general public. So you could get History of Ancient Rome, a series of 48 half-hour lectures taught by Garret Fagan, on 24 CDs for only $90. Rip them to MP3, and you could fill your iPod with edifying audio.

One of my colleagues at school highly recommends these, and I certainly see a number that I wouldn't mind buying. If I only had the resources!

Fly To Italy Cheap(er)

Over at the wonderful Dream of Italy weblog, there's a nice long article on How to Fly to Italy Cheap(er) This Year. Lots of good tips!

My bag

I'm a big fan of my bag, which was made by a company called Ultimate. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find information about these bags. Why don't you try Googling "ultimate bags" and sorting through the mess?

At any rate, I bought this at REI last year, and I think the name of the bag was "photojournalist". It's a sturdy thing with plenty of pockets, a space that fits my laptop, two waterbottle holders, and a lot more. It converts from a shoulder bag to a backpack. I love this bag.

As you can see, there's a narrow pocket in the back with one snap closure. It's roomy enough for you to slide a couple of magazines, a guidebook, or a digital camera. That's also where the backpack straps are at.

The front flap has a zippered pocket that can easily carry your airline ticket and/or passport if you want it tucked away. It also has a buckle for keeping the flap closed.

As you can see, there's one main pocket, which has a laptop holder and an interior mesh waterbottle holder. There's also an interior mesh zippered pocket on the flap, but I never use that one.

Toward the bottom, you can see the exterior mesh waterbottle holder, and the separate pocket. I use this lower pocket for pens, my camera, my ipod, and Altoid tins. It has a pen holder and an interior zippered pocket.

Both the main pocket and the lower pocket have two zippers, each with red bungee straps. When I was on the metro, I tied the straps together and never worried about pickpockets.

This last picture is so you can get a sense for the size. It's not as roomy as my big messenger bag or my laptop bag, but it's roomy enough. It's the perfect daypack and carryon for me. I usually carry maps, at least one notebook, a guidebook or two, some pleasure reading, maybe a magazine, as well as my iPod and digital camera.

Euro Converter

I use the XE Currency Converter whenever I need to convert between Euros and Dollars.

The XE site has some other interesting content, including the Travel Expense Calculator, which I may need to use when I write up my budget.

Train and Metro Resources

Just spending some time visiting the English language TrenItalia website.

For example, I found a EuroStar for Florence (Firenze in Italian) leaves Roma at 6:30 and arrives at 8:06. If you just want to spend one full day in the city, there are EuroStars that depart Firenze at 8:53 pm and arrive back in the city at 10:30pm. A full day, but I'm sure you can hit some of the highlights. These one-way tickets cost € 29,44 for second class or € 42,35 for first.

Also, a Eurostar for Napoli leaves Roma at 6:45 and arrives at 8:38 am. There are return trips leaving Napoli at 8:30 and 9:22 pm. These tickets are € 22,21 second class, and € 32,54 first, each way.

Meanwhile, here is the English language official page for the Rome Metro system. The Casa La Salle, which will be my homebase in Roma, is located next to the Cornelia stop on Metro Linea A. The Metro runs from 5:30 am until 11:30 pm (until 12:30 am on Saturdays). 

A single Metro ticket is € 1.  A day ticket is € 4, a week is € 16 and a month is € 30.  I highly recommend the weeklong ticket, because the Metro is the best and cheapest way to get around the city.

Sciopero

What's On In Rome is a frequently-updated English language guide to current cultural activities in Rome.

The site includes write-ups of cultural events that are interesting.

Even more useful is the page of strike information. As any seasoned traveller will tell you, the most important Italian words that you must learn are grazie, per favore and sciopero. Five major transportation strikes that were planned for this week have been postponed because of the pope's funeral. Amazing.

Trip Planning Websites

Travel Independent: Good site for independent travellers (that is, people who aren't going on a prepackaged tour). Worthwhile to look at the information on packing. Last year, I had to pack for six weeks, and I brought WAY TOO MUCH. This time, I'm bringing less.

World Nomads Travel Insurance: Worth considering. In addition to all the regular stuff (medical), they cover stolen and missing luggage, including digital cameras, laptops and iPods. If you choose the World Plus option, you can specify individual items for up to $800 of coverage (not that much, but still...). My understanding is that this is rare for travel insurance.

One Bag: The art and science of travelling light. How to pack everything you need for a long trip into one carryon. The advantage? Just buy a second bag in Italy and fill it with souvenirs!

Rick Steves's Graffiti Wall: Suggestions from the readers of Rick Steves's books. Good stuff here!

Airline Comfort

Two airline travel links:

• DailyCandy Travel: Surviving Coach in Style -- some general tips.


• SeatGuru.com The best site for choosing airplane seating.