"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
10/07/2015 at 14:38 • Filed to: Italy, Reviews
2
11|
"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
10/07/2015 at 14:38 • Filed to: Italy, Reviews | 2
| 11 |
Specifically, a little bit of Italy.
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Italy can be very quick. The motorway speed limit is 130 kmh and Italians believe that this is a speed that could usefully be adopted everywhere regardless of the posted limit. To go with this, Italians believe that they are the best judge of where to overtake and so continuous white lines and no-overtaking signs are taken as encouragement, not prohibition
Economy
If you can travel with Ryanair offseason you can get to Italy quite cheaply. Downsides, for me anyway, include wasting a day going and a night coming back. Once you’re there (offseason) it remains economical. My first night’s B & B was €30 in a countryside guesthouse with panoramic views over Pescara.
Italy’s in the civilised world so the price really is €30. It’s not €30 plus unknown and unexpected amounts of tax (Americans please copy)
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Italy is generally fairly comfortable. Roads are generally well surfaced until your sat nav comes up with a cunning plan for a shortcut. Accommodation is in my limited experience comfortable as well provided you’re not there in the height of summer because you mightn’t get air conditioning.
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Italy is generally, but with reservations, fairly easy to handle once you get used to their odd ways. Buying food and drink, for example. You have to order and pay first, get a receipt showing what you’ve paid for and then collect it from a second person. Oh, and Italian. Outside the very touristy areas few people talk much English. Older people - those who went to school up to the 1980s or so - are more likely to have learned French at school but they talk that about as well as the younger ones do English. Most people work on the principle that if they talk slowly, loudly and repeatedly you’ll understand.
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Hillside towns like Peschici look attractive to Northern European eyes.
But it’s not really intentional. Hillside towns are so for defensive purposes and the white buildings follow from being made from the local stone. If you want style for its own sake, try Milan.
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Italy comes as standard with all manner of things.
Cute little pickups?
Towns built at least partially into the solid rock? (Matera’s old town, it’s a Unesco World Heritage site now and used to be a place of appalling poverty and social problems)
Cute little Cinquecenti in photogenic surroundings?
Cute little tourist transporters?
It’s all there.
SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 14:50 |
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This just greatly increased my appreciation for all things America.
DrScientist
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 15:05 |
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Italy’s in the civilised world so the price really is €30. It’s not €30 plus unknown and unexpected amounts of tax (Americans please copy)
someone once told me that we should appreciate the transparency of added taxes for this and that. and where this person had grown up, you never knew how much the purveyor was receiving and what the government was taking. with the current US system you know exactly what uncle sam is taking out of your pocket.
that said, im sure it could be executed better, as in... dont advertise your price as $30, but make me pay some unknown fees and taxes after i’ve already stayed there. just give me the whole thing with breakdown up front.
of course there’s also our tipping methodologies here, which are a total disaster. of course i tip healthy, but jesus christ this mechanism just begs for problems and complaints.
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Cé hé sin
> DrScientist
10/07/2015 at 15:41 |
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I could never figure out the American “tax extra” thing. It makes sense if you’re advertising a product nationally and each state adds different layers of tax, but going into a shop and finding that nothing costs what the sticker says drives me spare. And don’t get me started on tipping. It buys you obsequious service, not better service.
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Cé hé sin
> SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
10/07/2015 at 15:43 |
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?
America’s advantages include:
Cheap petrol and..
...
...
Sorry, that’s it in my experience!
Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 16:32 |
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Cheap beer of dubious quality. You can take my guns, but don’t you dare touch my Miller High Life.
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SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 16:41 |
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And freedom.
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SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 16:42 |
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We like to be reminded that it’s the government taking it so we can get pissed if they try to raise it.
AntiSpeed
> DrScientist
10/07/2015 at 16:50 |
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I flew from London to NYC for £34 once. The taxes were a bit more, though.
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AntiSpeed
> Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed
10/07/2015 at 16:52 |
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In Rome there are plenty of places to get 66cl Peroni bottles for €1.50.
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DrScientist
> Cé hé sin
10/07/2015 at 17:07 |
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i can see your point about sales tax. but it is exactly that... each state has its own sales tax rates. some states dont charge sales tax on certain items, like food or clothing, other states dont have sales tax at all.
but this is all intended for the local consumer, not tourists, unfortunately. you’d be hard presses to find someone who doesn’t know their own sales tax rate. then again... we are, for the most part, fairly dumb here.
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DrScientist
> AntiSpeed
10/07/2015 at 17:08 |
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HA!
“carrier imposed surcharge” riiiiiight.