Jaunted

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Trapped Onboard a Cruise Liner

Late Friday night, The Costa Cruises ship Costa Concordia sailed from the Italian port of Civitavecchia near Rome, beginning what would be a nice Mediterrnean cruise. Shortly thereafter, it went off course and struck a reef, eventually listing and coming to rest off the island of Giglio.

The weekend brought new stories, new shocks and new questions of what exactly happened that night, and how it could even happen. Even the death tool is fluctuating. So until some concrete facts emerge, we're returning to a story we know to be the firsthand account from a friend who survived a cruise ship accident (though it didn't end up sinking).

Kathy, who was kind enough to share her story with us, was stuck onboard a crippled cruise ship for three days, albeit a couple decades ago.

Here's her story:

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Rome Travel / Italy Travel / Tourists / Europe Travel / → All Tags

Are Bits and Pieces of Rome's Colosseum Starting to Crumble?

If you’ve been thinking about visiting Rome in 2012 you might just want to confirm things sooner than later—especially if you want to visit the Colosseum during your trip.

It’s not like the ancient Colosseum is being relocated or demolished, but there is a little bit of a concern that the thing is starting to crumble. Obviously it has seen its share of history, and 2,000+ years of wear and tear is starting to show its effect.

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Rome Travel / Italy Travel / Green Travel / → All Tags

Keep the Gum in Your Mouth to Keep Rome Clean

We knew that the City of Lights didn’t enjoy chewing gum, and now it sounds like the Eternal City feels the same way. Rome would love it if you’d dispose of your gum properly, but if you just need to toss it on the sidewalk—c’mon people—they’re planning a new initiative to clean it up.

Recently the cleanup started in and around Largo Argentina—that’s one of the spots with plenty of historic ruins (and feral cats)—as crews and volunteers hit the pavement prepared to scrape and scrub the sidewalks. According to some city officials responsible for garbage collection each gum removal costs like one euro—um, really—so it sounds like a pretty expensive undertaking.

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Dessert Travel / Ice Cream / Food Travel / Gelato / Rome Travel / Italy Travel / → All Tags

It May Look Modest, But This Could Be the Best Gelato in Rome

When we’re in Rome, we like to do what the Romans do and eat a lot of gelato. In fact, one of the great things about Italy is the art the culture that eating ice cream isn’t just a tourist thing.

One place we’d heard a lot about, but never visited, was Il Gelato di San Crispino, tucked away on a back street behind the Trevi Fountain. When we say tucked away, we mean tucked away; there’s only a tiny sign announcing its presence.

But it’d probably be overrun if it was any more exposed. Because the gelato of San Crispino is superlative. Only fresh ingredients are used—no preservatives, nothing frozen, only seasonal things—and boy does it show.

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Italy Travel / Tuscany Travel / Spa Travel / Movie Set Travel / Movie Travel / → All Tags

Checking Out the Womb Room at Fellini's Favorite Tuscan Spa

Pizza. Fine wine. Fellini. Some of the finest things to have come out of Italy. But while you can eat and drink till you pop in homage to the glorious foodstuffs, things are a little thin on the ground if you want to do a Fellini pilgrimage. There’s the Trevi fountain, of course, to recreate La Dolce Vita, but that’s touristy; and his hometown of Rimini doesn’t really have a huge amount to offer other than beaches.

But if you travel to the south of Tuscany – to the glorious Val d’Orcia, with its rolling clay hills and snaking cypress trees – you’ll find Chianciano Terme, the spa town where Fellini used to come to take the waters, and where he set 8½.

First things first: Italian spas are not generally like UK or American spas. Go to a spa town and you’ll be confronted with foul-tasting water to swill for the good of your liver, vapor to inhale and doctors to consult. Even for the most “spa”-like treatments – mud wraps – you’re stripped naked, slapped in mud, wrapped in a blanket and then ordered into a bath of thermal water. Therapeutic it may be; classically relaxing it aint.

Chianciano used to be like this back in Fellini’s day – in fact, it was like that the first time we visited; but then about six years ago, they decided to modernize the spa, knocking out a vast block of toilets (a side effect of the water) and installing a mega-spa. There are treatment rooms on top, but what you really go for is the spa: the Terme Sensoriali, with 20 different stages of spa-dom, based around the elements.

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Italy Travel / Train Travel / Tuscany Travel / Transport / → All Tags

Riding the InterCity Rails in Italy is Molto Semplice

It;s hard when you're based in America to remember just how easy (and lovely) it is to travel by train in Europe. It's quick, it's simple, it's well priced and, in Italy, where we were last week, you have lots of options to choose from.

Normally in Italy, we try to catch the Eurostar trains, which are superquick and awesomely serviced. For our route last weekend - Bologna to Chiusi-Chianciano Terme, the closest station to the magical Val d'Orcia, aka textbook Tuscany - the only options were Intercity or local trains. We chose the Intercity and scored an incredible deal on the journey: EUR31 for two people in first class for the 2hr45min journey, thanks to a buy-one-get-one-free deal on Saturday train travel.

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EasyJet Buzzes Above Active Volcanoes to Test Anti-Ash Technology

Has it already been nearly two years since the massive, international air travel mess that was the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano? We suppose it's awesome that the world hasn't ended in the meantime, but now when the holiday travel season rolls around, we get a little anxious. Any weird Earth-spewing activity can throw a wrench into the whole delicate system, but not if EasyJet has anything to say about it.

In June 2010, the European low-cost carrier announced that they'd had enough of this volcano nonsense and would take it into their own hands (and US government laboratories) to develop a system to detect ash in the air in the plane's flightpath. It's called AVOID—airborne volcanic object imaging detector—and that's exactly the idea, to avoid ash so it doesn't gum up the engine and crash or cause malfunctions in planes.

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Travel Snapshot / Christmas Travel / Bologna Travel / Italy Travel / Holiday Travel / → All Tags

Bologna Flips the Switch to Light Its Own Twin Towers for the Holidays

You know how Christmas decorations can somehow seem a little tacky? (Yes, Oxford Street and Regent Street in London, looking at you.) Well, over in Italy, everything's done a little more classily.

In Bologna this weekend, the first thing we noticed was just how touchingly lovely the Christmas decorations are. A massive Christmas tree in the main Piazza Maggiore, by the statue of Neptune. Classy white lights dripping down the main shopping street, Via Indipendenza, and little icicle-like streams in the smaller streets.

And then there was the Garisenda tower—one of Bologna's twin towers—which was all lit up from top to bottom, looking all glitzy yet restrained. Perfectly done, Bologna, perfectly done.

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Airlines / Airport Food / Meridiana / FLR / LGW / Flight Reviews / Florence Travel / Italy Travel / → All Tags

Not Much Legroom, but a Cheeky Pilot: Flying London to Florence on Meridiana

There’s always an aspect of holding our breath when we try a new airline, especially if it’s a lowcost one. Sometimes, though, needs must, which is why we found ourselves travelling from London-Gatwick to Florence on Meridiana.

We’ve known about Meridiana for a long time, but heard neither positive or negative things about it. Alas with most other airlines flying into Pisa (over an hour away by bus) or Bologna (90 minutes on the train), we bit the bullet.

Luckily, we had a rather nice surprise. Staff were friendly (though be warned, since it’s an Italian airline, they speak in Italian before English). They gave us a drink and cookies, which was not only free, but probably also better than the inedible snacks BA give out.

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Travel Snapshot / FLR / Italy Travel / Florence Travel / Meridiana / → All Tags

Florence Airport Is Somewhat Smaller Than You'd Expect

Cute, right? Airy, pretty area of check in at Florence Airport?

Well yes, it is pretty, and cute, and airy. But what might surprise you is that this is Florence’s airport pretty much in its entirety.

Yup, one of the main tourist hubs of Italy has a teeny tiny gateway if you come by air. Welcome to Florence Peretola (FLR), which is fabulously close to town (about three miles from Santa Maria Novella) but also dinky in the extreme.

This is the entire check in area; downstairs there’s this, a bar, a newsagents and two other shops. Through the gates, there’s another café and a couple of other shops. Then some chairs by the (very few) gates.

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Florence Travel / Fashion Travel / Italy Travel / Coffee Travel / Photo Gallery / Lucky Magazine / Roberto Cavalli / Chocolate Travel / Dessert Travel / → All Tags

Inside Roberto Cavalli's Florentine Fashion Cafe

It was as we were walking through Florence the other day that we noticed something strange. In the middle of the designer shop area, there was a café. What’s more, it was a café bearing the name Roberto Cavalli. So we went in to investigate.

Turns out we’d found Caffe Giocosa, which Cavalli bought 10 years ago. It’s a normal Italian bar, it just happens to be particularly swish with hot waiters (although the clientele weren’t overly modelly) and has lots of animalprint hanging around, from its chair covers to its wrapping paper to its chocolates.

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Fashion Travel / Travel Gear / Travel Snapshot / Florence Travel / Italy Travel / Religious Travel / Travel Etiquette / → All Tags

The Florentine Vending Machine That Will Cover You Up For Church

It may not be much of an issue in winter, but in summer, in Italy, if you’re doing cultural stuff, you need to watch how you dress.

You probably already know that most Italian churches demand that shoulders and knees should be covered when you enter, and you also probably know that most of the major churches will vehemently enforce that.

But what we didn’t know until this week was that there’s an alternative to buying an overpriced shawl from an entrepreneur standing near the door—or, at least, there is in Florence.

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