7 useful tips when travelling to and in Italy

When planning your first time ever trip to Italy, wether it is to one city only, or multiple, these 7 tips might make your stay in Italy more comfortable. 

1. Museums are closed on Mondays. Most museums in Italy are closed on Mondays, which doesn't mean you have absolutely nothing to see or places to visit. 

Monday is a perfect day to take tours, as most tourist left the city on Sunday, or are packing to leave on Monday. City tours with a local guide help you to organise your itinerary for the following days way better than just a map, or a tourist book. Some sites look close in a map, while they might be distant and complicated to get in to. Besides during this pandemia season, some sites might be close, or with limited access, and their web pages might not always be up to date.

Also some shops might be closed. Usually grocery store, small grocery businesses and markets are open on Monday mornings and other shops in the afternoon. In the most touristic areas shops usually are open 7 days a week. And huge department stores and shopping malls are open every day.  The reason for this is that some shops have limited amount of personal, and can't keep the shops open 7 days a week. During the Christmas period thought, and usually the whole month of December, shops, even smaller are open every day. 

2. Start from Northen Italy. I you want to visit different Italian cities, I suggest to start from northern cities, such as Turin, Milan, Verona, Bologna or Genova.  As northern penisula difference from the southern one, with it's style of living architectural and cultural value, this soft landing leads traveller to an easier visit of this country. Cities, such as Turin offers beautiful occation to visit the city itself, and the Alps. From Milan you can take day trip to lakes (photos are about Lake Orta, Lake Maggiore and at Stresa ) Bergamo Alto, and to Pavia, just to mention few. From Verona, you can visit Padova, Mantova and Venice. From Genova with a local train Camogli, Portofino, Santa Magherita Ligure and Cinque Terre National Park. And from Bologna the Adriitic Sea, Ferrara and Firenze, Milano and so on. 

Most traveller have usually just a lay over to Northern cities, without knowing the potential of these beautiful itineraries. 

3. Eating and Drinking. Typical Italian breakfast is espresso coffee. Most people do not eat any breakfast until a bit later, and even then it is Cappuccino and Brioche. If you are, like me, a salty breakfast type, it is useful to check out and make sure your hotel offers a continental breakfast. It is lighter than a full English breakfast and allows you to have some space for Italian delicacy. 

Eating time varies. It is a common use that restaurants close after the major lunch time, to allow their personal some rest before the evening rush. Here follows the same rule as with smaller shops. Restaurant are often little family businesses, and have very little external personal. Luckily in the last ten past years, Italians have opened to the idea that not everyone need some food at the same time, and in the most popular touristic areas, restaurants are open from noon to midnight. 

If you prefer to experiment typical local restaurants, then keep in mind that they might have strickt opening hours. 

Vegans have no problem eating in Italy, and often those suffering from gluten/milk intolerance can use the regular menu, as polenta is made by corn, risotto has no gluten and steak are usually served with potatoes. Plenty of vegetable grilled, steamed and raw are also in most restaurants menu. You can order pizza without cheese, just like your pasta or risotto. To those suffering of Celiac need to find a special restaurant. 

Tipping is not necessary, but is accepted. There is not a certain % of tip locals and travellers are expected to leave. I suggest to make it round. Lets imagine my family meal cost €92, a tip of €8 would round it to 100. Not a lot, but leaves a great impact and makes happy waiters and chefs. I usually tip taxi drivers too. What comes to billing in the restaurant, we have this common use, witch is "The Roman Way". We just simply share the bill. €100 devided to 5 plus €2 for a tip each (everyone has coins in their wallet). But what if someone takes profit and eats a steak, drinks wine and has a huge dessert, while the rest eats only some pizza.  We can't really ask that person to put more, but in most cases is the person self who adds more according her his eating habits.  In some cases we also pay the bill on turn. Today is my turn, next time is someone else turn. This happens when a group of people gather often and socialise in a restaurant. It could thus happen to you that you can't pay the bill at all, if you are visiting Italian friends. Therefore a nice bottle of good quality wine as a gift to those who participate to pay on your behalf is well accepted. Or when they visit you, they might wait the same attitude. 

4. Public Transport works perfectly connecting cities. Wether it is a bus, a train or a plane, there is no worry to get there, and most likely on time. But reserve always that extra, in case of...

A totally different story might turn out if you want to visit destinations a bit further. there might be just one bus getting there and another to get back. Most likely during the school hours. In cases of remote destinations, my suggestion is to rent a car. It gives you the freedom to choose your own itinerary. If you  do not feel comfortable driving, local guides may help you out. Such as driving you and your travel group to visit wineries, cheese farms, and archeological sites, often out of the beaten track. 

5. Travel Budget My usual travel budget is €100 a day, regardless what I purchased in my travel package.  It doesn't include hotel reservation. A local private guide charge proximately €180 for 2/3hours for a certain amount of people. More you are, less you pay p.p. While organised day trips cost €100 p.p. I mix these two. In a city, I prefer a local guide only to my needs, and to be able to have the guide's full attention. And I also participate on group trips. Most museums cost about €12/ €15 and for a light lunch I reserve €10/€20, while for a diner my budget is between €25 and €40. At this point, you may ask, how I manage to visit places with €100 a day. Well, its a bit of a question of organising. As I am planning to go to Naples this year, I calculated following:

- Day of arrival, taxi to my hotel €12 p.p. , a sandwich lunch with €10 max and a local guide €50 p.p. + tips ending with a diner €25 max, including the tip. A bit over €100 ( I have to save some other day!)

- The very next day I have reserved for an organised group tour including lunch €100 p.p. and later in the evening nice diner €35 ( yes, I exceed my budget) 

- Third day some museums, and chilling around, saving those €35 from the day earlier. 

- The fourth day I am going to have a trip on my own, using local transport, to another city and visit a local museum. A light lunch, seeking some local souvenirs and diner once back. 

-The last day, perhaps another site or group visit to a site, I might have missed and a taxi to the airport. 

It is always a great pleasure to get back home and learning that my budget worked out, or exceed just with tiny little bit. 

If you wish to buy souvenirs, then add €25 a day to your budget. 

I must add at this point, that I am an over 50 traveller, and I have totally different needs of those of 20 years old, and those who manage budget travelling with few € a day. 

6. Getting in touch with local people. Italians are really kind and generous. And it is easy to get along with Italians, even if the common language isnt the same. There are some topics that might help out, such as soccer, and food. If you have been travelling quite a while and you are in the last few destinations, showing photos of the places you have visited is another topic, that helps connecting with locals. 

7. The best period to visit Italy is at any time. Just remember that during the hot summer season, between June and August, the midday hours might turn out difficult to digest. The third week of October is usually the last summer week before autumn. The fall is mite, and specially in southern Italy dining out can be done the year around. January and February can be pretty cold and rainy in the northern Italy,  all thought like this year, it has been extremely dry and warm. January and February gives great opportunity for shopping with numerous discounts. 

March opens the spring. Italian cities are filled with new life, with blooming trees. 

There is thus no special season or month, when your trip to Italy should take place. Come when you feel like, and you shall be surprised. 

Welcome to Italy. 

Photos are taken by author. Please request a permission to use them. 

South Africa part 3

Culinary South Africa

Our trip was based on culinary experience and South Africa offers plenty of possibilities to eat the world around. 

We started with Portuguese style restaurant, that actually offered a bit of international cuisine, with a Portuguese accent. They fancied green hot chilli avocado pizza with danish feta that our "tour leader" took. He said it was excellent.

Green hot chilli avocado pizza

Near to our hotel at Gardens district we also found very modest Italian restaurant with wooden pizza oven. And not far from that we had really spicy thai diner. Also Indian restaurant, vietnamese and many other options are available. And the main ingredients are excellent quality. 

One night we decided to have an elegant diner to witch we even dressed up. Between down town and waterfront in an area of old storehouses there is an elegant restaurant where I tasted the most delicate ostrich carpaccio and ostrich filet. 

For some reason "these elegant restaurants" seem to save with inner lights and we needed the flashlight from our smartphones to be able to read the menu. 

springbok carpaccio 

We also learned that in some restaurant desserts are the largest portions of the whole menu. It is highly recommend to think what you order as a main course if you want some sweet afterwards. That one below was a regular size. 

To continue our culinary trip, we also tasted some Belgium style cuisine at the Waterfront and at Camps Bay we had a sunset smoothie one night and another night Italian diner. Again light in the restaurant was optional, while food was excellent also the way it was set in a plate. 

In every restaurant we met only nice people, ready to serve us. 

Salmon salad with avocado

I had the best Vodka-Lime sorbetto ever, and I hope they take it as a regular to their menu adding some ginger in it. Fits to the name of the restaurant too. 

Talking about cocktails; I am not a cocktail lover, but time to time, I like experiment by tasting some. The best Bloody Mary ever is to be found in the area of Cape Town. Two memorable ones: one at Camps Bay at the restaurant we dined and the other one at Sea Point. 

We also had some beautiful oysters at the V. A.  Waterfront and Turkish diner with a lots of mezes at the area where old warehouses are.

No need to take them all

Just about 40 minutes by driving to the winery area there is this typical Dutch look alike village called Stellenbosh to visit. We followed the food steps of our tour leader, to whom the visit in South Africa was already his 5th one. And again our gustative pallbearers were not disappointed. 

monster hamburger

An other winery town near Cape Town we visited was founded in 1685. We could have done a wine tour, wine and culinary tour or just wine tasting. We took the last one. And then enjoyed our lunch in the restaurant. 

A bit further a way, where we stopped on our way back from the region of Eastern Cape, there is this little jewel called Franschhoek. We had diner and breakfast in this Italian style restaurant where they write Bruschetta without "s", because locals don't seem to be able to pronounce it as Italians with the "s". 

They served dishes that were like in a competition of Master Chef:

Driving towards Cape of Good Hope we stopped in a small town where Pinguin colonies are to be admired. Its called Simmons Town. We all ordered mussels with creamy sauce, but unfortunately just one mussel was bad and one of us (not me) got ill. 

The day after me and the Croatian lady headed to the African Restaurant in down town I was suggested to visit, and we enjoyed lovely South African beer and delicious dishes.

Visiting a "friend of a friend" at Betty's Bay, nearly 2 h driving from Cape Town, we had lunch in a small village called Kleinmond (small mouth). Mussels and oysters are to be found everywhere in the cost line. 

Here we ordered oysters to start with that were excellent and some fried fish and calamari with chips. The portions in this restaurant are huge ! I could barely eat those calamaris and some chips. I took the fish in a doggy bag but forgot it to the house of our friends. Calamaris were cleaned with perfection. This is something I learned while working as a student in a Greek Restaurant in Helsinki, that nowadays do not exist anymore. The rule was to take out the whole skin, the marrow bone that looks like a piece of plastic and the chewing gum type inner skin. Many restaurants leave the last skin or buy bags of nearly cleaned ones and it makes eating calamari like chewing a gum. 

I didn't know what to do with all that food we didn't eat, but as a hint to the travellers to South Africa, you may take remaining food with a doggy bag and give it away to the parking assistants, or in some case to the waiters to take back home. Make sure you don't give away something already started, to be educated. 

In Hout Bay that is about 1 h driving from Cape Town and where swimming could be possible when there is not much wind, with the water temperature of nearly 18°C we had again this lovely meal in a restaurant, where dishes were combined as if the chef was a winner of the Master Chef competition. 

avocado scampi salad

On our way to the Garden Route we slept few night over at the Oudtshoorn: A town of universities and restaurants that shut their doors at 9 pm. When we arrived it was nearly 10 pm and all we had left about the choice was a gas station. They had a lots of these english type of pies. We had few bottles of wine from our visit to winery and bought those pies, and some cheese to go with it. 

The evening after, we were more prepared and walked from our hotel to the restaurant that had the most delicious popotie pie ever among other delicious dishes. Popotie is something like Caribbean and African mixture.

In our stay at Knysna, a small pearl in the Indian Ocean at the Eastern Cape we enjoyed oysters, more oysters, some sushi and delicious king prawns, but most of the times "termites" arrived before I could take a picture of any of those dishes. 

One night we were so tired by all that travelling that we just stayed "at home" and enjoyed some wine with some cheese and chocolate, cause we rented such a beautiful house at the Thesen Island  

white chocolate goes with white wine

South Africa has excellent wine and beer to flush down all that good food and has nothing to envy Italy, France, Chile, Australia, Spain or other wine producing countries. 

It was markable fact that wine is not over charged in the restaurant and the price of a good wine in a winery is exactly the same in the liquor store. 

Next time in South Africa I shall go and visit all those wineries and I can swear there are plenty to get drunk at. 

Cheers !

pink panther

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Canadian side of the Niagara Falls

In 2012 I visited Canada for the very first time. I have been to New York in 1993, that wasn't so far away for Niagara. But this time in Canada I wanted to see these Niagara Falls everyone talks so much about. 

We left with the rented car from Montreal early in the morning; me and my friend with our kids and a friend of my daughter. And like anyone not knowing the route to drive I put the navigator on. Luckily we had passports with us, because the navigator used the fastest route sending us to the US border and we were with no visa to entry. So we just turned around and got the third degree from the custom on our way back to Canada. 

 Our route did not include this huge bridge to pass the river, although the view out of it was magnificent  It made me think of Finland, my native country and all those summer houses we have along the lake side. 

Then finally we arrive at the Niagara Falls. 

I thought it would be just falls and thats all, but it turned out a "small town" with over 80.000 inhabitants. This town belongs to Ontario and it's situated along the River Niagara. 

Niagara Falls belong to two states: To the Canada and to the United States of America. 

This area has registered settlements ever since the 18th century; first by Iroquois then by europeans. 

Niagara has also a historical battle when 1759 French and English fought about the "ownership" of the area of Lake Ontario. French won with the help of Iroquois allies. 

This horse shoe form waterfall is to be seen only from the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. 

The average flow of the quantity of the water is 2400 m3 each second. I can't even imagine how much water that might be. 

I wanted to visit the waterfall a bit closer, that is possible by a small boat on witch I had to wear this raincoat in order to not to get totally wet. Not an easy job, since we went underneath of the waterfall.   

This town offers plenty of accommodation, restaurants, casino to get rid of every penny and if that does not help, the amusement park does the rest. As I am curious, I eat everything that there is to be offered, and Canadian food is very similar to the american food. Match with brittish pub food: Fish & Chips 

I also thought that Southern Canadia such as Northern America would have icy cold winters, with a lots of snow, and it apparently happens too in the area of Lake Ontario. But not in the Niagara Falls, where the climate is mite and very friendly to wineries. We visited few and tasted the famous ice wine. Some wineries organise tours, wine tasting in a cellar and give some appetisers too. 

I was truly surprised of the quantity of vineyards this area has and that climate seems to be so mite to give the possibility to grow wine. Many Italian among other europeans has moved here to start life all over and grow wine. 

An other odd thing that I found was that the Marple trees were cut down by Canadian authority in the area in order to let it turn out as vineyards. I understand that wine produce better than marple syrup.

Have you ever visited Niagara Falls? 

Please leave a comment behind and tell me Your Experience of it. 

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