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:]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-16T08:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/5/6430/00442

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. ]]> kjb 2012-01-05T09:53:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/20/6403/1939

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. ]]> kjb 2011-12-20T09:20:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/19/153715/70

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. ]]> juliab 2011-12-19T16:41:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/12/163926/46

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.]]> juliab 2011-12-12T16:39:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/9/151632/041

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. ]]> juliab 2011-12-09T15:16:32-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/8/15638/9555

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.]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-08T10:49:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/