What I would do differently… General Travel Tips
If you are going to be in Italy for a few weeks, renting an apartment may be a more affordable solution than staying at a Hotel. Don’t misunderstand me, the Utell Property Hotel Arizona was fine; my room had its own bathroom, closet, desk, TV & refrigerator-the towels were changed daily, the water in the bathroom had good pressure and was hot even in the middle of the night and their continental breakfast was among the best to be had locally – at least that was my impression when I talked to other travelers staying elsewhere; also the staff were friendly, helpful and their English was better than my Italian by far. Hotel Arizona had a computer with Internet access, charged on a sliding scale of time purchased-I bought 5 hours for 10 Euros to check a webmail account daily, and still had some time left. But if I had my own apartment it would have been 20–30% less expensive, even less if I rounded up a roommate to split the cost, and I would have had a kitchen in which to prepare my meals. As it was I ate a lot of cold cuts, bread, and seasonal produce purchased at the Mercado Centrale in Florence – also there were several Supermarkets to pick up soda pop, yogurt etc., but without a stove or microwave oven my options were limited.
I should have learned more of the language. You can certainly get by in Florence speaking English, but I still think I should have made a better effort to pick up the native tongue. As it was I understood a lot of what I heard because of my familiarity with Spanish, but I could not respond for the most part. I did bring a Frommer’s survival Italian guide with me as well as Rick Stevens travel guide for Tuscany 2010. Both were useful. If you can’t find a Frommer’s phrasebook and culture guide – several other companies produce something similar.
For the long flight there and back, bring soft earplugs so you can sleep. If you are sensitive to light, you might also bring an eye-mask to block out the light. Many travelers had those U-shaped pillows to wrap around their neck too. But for me noise was the big issue, so foamy earplugs were my need.
Even though I got both the seasonal and swine flu shot before I left – I came down with the common cold on my last evening there. Another tip is to bring your favorite cold and flu remedy with you. As it was I did not have the time in the morning before my flight to hit the Farmacia and even if I had gone there, what would I have picked up? I don’t know foreign over the counter meds. Given that my flight out of Florence was cancelled and subsequently I was booked on the marathon flight from hell via Delta – I spent the worst day of my illness running through airports & sandwiched between other passengers on long flights without any medicine whatsoever; I was miserable.
Do not go into an Italian restaurant that has no customers. Chances are the food is not great and worse than that you may be overcharged-some of these awful restaurants have hustlers standing outside trying to bully you in. Don’t give in, just move along. Some of the best food I had in Florence was not the most expensive. Vegetarian is not that hard to do in Italy, but halāl is a bit more difficult unless you go to a döner kebab. Once again, learning enough of the lingo to convey that you do not eat meat, to ask if the meal is halāl, or to express other dietary restrictions is beneficial. I am very low maintenance in this department, I’ll eat just about anything, but I did dine with an Islam practitioner on several occasions and I am reporting my observations regarding her efforts to find food she could eat.
My hotel gave me a small map of the city when I checked in. You want one of those and you want to carry it with you. Florence is not a big city so it would be very hard to stay lost for long, but a good map makes walkabout so much easier.
Skip the traveler’s checks – they are too hard to cash. A couple of hundred dollars cash to convert into Euros once you are in Europe, so you can catch a cab to your hotel & grab a bit of food before you crash and burn, and an ATM card are the way to go. Fortunately I had notified my bank of my intent to travel to Italy, had money in my account and brought my ATM card with me. When cashing a check proved difficult I found an ATM in my network and withdrew the maximum amount of Euros, 250 Euros in my case. My rationale is that I would limit the amount of fees I would be charged for accessing my account via a foreign ATM if I took out one big chunk of change rather than several smaller ones. I also notified the credit card companies of my intent to travel abroad and where I would be so that my charges would not be refused because I was roaming far afield. I brought 2 charge cards just in case one didn’t work, but I didn’t need the extra one.
Think about forking over the dough for a daytrip outside Florence: Sienna, Pisa, a wine tour etc. Apparently they are very easy to book and worth the money. Be advised that you will be gone all day so there is no possibility of conducting business on a day you decide to do one of these tours.
In general my attire was appropriate for the weather, which I check into before I packed. Florence in December has temperatures around 50 F (10 C) & it rains periodically. Until the last 2 days, when it became bitterly cold I was fine with my clothing choices: Layers that included a windproof & rainproof shell, a sweater and a long sleeved shirt worked well. I should have brought at least one pair of long johns for those days when the weather dropped to freezing, but I left them at home.
Florence is a walking city with a lot of cobble stone. Stiletto-heeled shoes, whereas stylish are NOT good to wear strolling around Florence. The locals wear fashionable flat boots this time of year. I took a pair of black, well-worn tennis shoes with me; I live in Phoenix and wear sandals year round so I knew I needed a comfy pair of shoes to minimize the blisters that I would get from suddenly cramming my tootsies into a pair of closed-toed shoes for extended periods of hiking. When wanting to be chic, Florentines will check their walking shoes with their coats, and slip into the stilettos at the event.
Note: Edison’s facing on to Piazza Repubblica in Florence has an English language book section on the third floor. They also have a smaller section in French. Most of the books are in Italian of course. Anyway I throw this in here because you will probably be spending some time in the airport, or sitting at the show doing nothing and a book is always a nice way to kill time.
Cell phones in the US are CDMA, Cell Phones in Europe are GSM. That means your cell phone that you use in the US will probably not work in Europe. As for me I have travel before with out being able to call anyone and so I opted out of upgrading and extending my cell phone plan in order to obtain a tri-band or quad-band phone. I also decided I did not need to spend money on a GSM phone with minutes and a calling card for DH in order to make contact, but the other artist from Phoenix traveled with some friends; they did rent phones from Cellular Abroad and they told me the phones worked but the coverage was a bit spotty. When my flight got canceled out of Florence I did find myself wishing a did have a phone, but it all worked out. In my opinion, if you are traveling by yourself and do not have people you need to contact at odd hours at home, then the need for a cell phone is questionable. If you have a tri-band or quad-band phone already, your carrier may unlock your phone’s SIM card so you can swap it out with a local Italian carrier’s SIM card, but you may need to give your cell phone service provide a bit of notice so they can do this for you. Or you can contact Cellular Abroad or some other service and buy or rent cell phones and service.
That is all of the general travel tips I can think of that have not been covered in previous posts.
For things specific to the Florence Biennale, I will submit a post on that subject next.
Do you have any last minute tips for travelers?
Yours in art,
Jake
Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!
PS. I am still looking for Sponsors & Contributing Patrons to help me pay the $7651.31 I charged to attend this event; this amount is the sum all the receipts I can find relating to the trip-about $4,000 is the Biennale artist’s share, then hotel & airfare, plus packaging for my art, taxis, meals in Italy, postage and other incidental expenses. I have raised about $2079 in donations–many thanks to those who have contributed to this event. But I need more assistance and every little bit helps.
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