Red Mosquito

dimejinky99 wrote:Is wease writing a book? A travel book of a sort if you will

If only we had a forum for it. We have one for fucking Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom, but one for Greece and Zion is superfluous.

daft twat wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:Is wease writing a book? A travel book of a sort if you will

If only we had a forum for it. We have one for fucking Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom, but one for Greece and Zion is superfluous.

Man, I would love to travel to Hyrule

dimejinky99 wrote:Is wease writing a book? A travel book of a sort if you will

Daft had asked me for a document of our vacation travels so I just combined all my posts I made while we were away.

daft twat wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:Is wease writing a book? A travel book of a sort if you will

If only we had a forum for it. We have one for fucking Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom, but one for Greece and Zion is superfluous.

im paranoid enough pal.. but you knew that it seems

wease wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:Is wease writing a book? A travel book of a sort if you will

Daft had asked me for a document of our vacation travels so I just combined all my posts I made while we were away.

wasnt giving out pal. i would love if you wrote a book of any kind.

just sad you didnt come to my town this time and get to meet ye and show you around.
got half that experience with the durds and his love and hes the king of my world. the best of us. youre good but cmon..

It’s the next Europe trip. I promise

wease wrote:It’s the next Europe trip. I promise

Thanks for the Italy and Greece info wease and daft - very handy indeed. We are wheels up in exactly 30 days and I am excited as fuck. Italy for 3 weeks, Greece for 1. All accommodation now booked. Now sorting trains, tours and attractions.

We have 2 rental cars booked, 1 for The Dolomites (pick up at Venice airport and drop off same place 4 days later) and then 1 for Tuscany (pick up Florence airport, drop off Rome airport 4 days later). I am HYPED about these 2 drives. Spent the other night planning out routes in great detail for some legs of both those trips and found some amazing recommends for lunch stops as well. Seriously, we are booked to have a wine tasting and lunch here on Tuesday the 26th September. I can't believe it.

Now, if I can just put my head down and get the ridiculous pile of work before me out of the way before we go...

spike wrote:We're contemplating four or five nights over our birthdays in Port Douglas, QLD later this year. Looks amazing.

This has been revised to Hamilton Island. Looks amazing, but kinda annoyed it’ll be two flights to get there, with a nearly two hour layover in Brisbane. Seems some other equally lovely destinations would be direct flights/easier to get to.

We are going kidless, so not going to complain. Golf carts only on the island, so I suppose I can just get lit in Brisbane airport.

Higgs wrote:Thanks for the Italy and Greece info wease and daft - very handy indeed. We are wheels up in exactly 30 days and I am excited as fuck. Italy for 3 weeks, Greece for 1. All accommodation now booked. Now sorting trains, tours and attractions.

We have 2 rental cars booked, 1 for The Dolomites (pick up at Venice airport and drop off same place 4 days later) and then 1 for Tuscany (pick up Florence airport, drop off Rome airport 4 days later). I am HYPED about these 2 drives. Spent the other night planning out routes in great detail for some legs of both those trips and found some amazing recommends for lunch stops as well. Seriously, we are booked to have a wine tasting and lunch here on Tuesday the 26th September. I can't believe it.

Now, if I can just put my head down and get the ridiculous pile of work before me out of the way before we go...

if i can make a shout, youre going to Tuscany? you have to go to Lucca.. its kind of the heart of the whole place. Old roman town/ fort surrounded by huge walls and those cool narrow beautiful little alleys with the buildings almost leaning out over you, it's almost unreal.
And avoid eating any pizza in Tuscany unless you want pizza ruined for you the rest of your life. it is the best pizza youll ever ever have anywhere.

Higgs wrote:Thanks for the Italy and Greece info wease and daft - very handy indeed. We are wheels up in exactly 30 days and I am excited as fuck. Italy for 3 weeks, Greece for 1. All accommodation now booked. Now sorting trains, tours and attractions.

We have 2 rental cars booked, 1 for The Dolomites (pick up at Venice airport and drop off same place 4 days later) and then 1 for Tuscany (pick up Florence airport, drop off Rome airport 4 days later). I am HYPED about these 2 drives. Spent the other night planning out routes in great detail for some legs of both those trips and found some amazing recommends for lunch stops as well. Seriously, we are booked to have a wine tasting and lunch here on Tuesday the 26th September. I can't believe it.

Now, if I can just put my head down and get the ridiculous pile of work before me out of the way before we go...

Not sure what route you are taking to the mountains from Venice, but if you drive through Pordenone, stop and have lunch. Charming little town that also had a crazy EDM club back in the late 90’s. Had a crazy night there long ago

a travel forum would be a bad idea after all

these destinations are best kept a mystery

a true adventure for the voyager

Higgs,

Get the trenit app for trains in Italy. It’s easy to use and great for booking in advance or day of

speaking of the vatican, the museums and, specifically, the sistine chapel, based on all of my visits there going back to 1995, i can definitely say that it's gotten to the point where it's simply unenjoyable and frankly, a borderline skip if time is an issue. the crowds are just too overwhelming (and this is at all times of year).

in speaking with locals and museum guides, the more recent problems stem from two things: (1) travelers are still pent up from covid and are now visiting europe in bigger throngs than before, and (2) the arrival of cruise ships to ostia and them lifting the limits on them in adjacent ports (ever notice the recent influx of seagulls in rome? well, they followed the travelers from the cruise ships). the vatican's stance is that its works should be open to everyone with no restrictions (which, of course, means more money).

the easy solution for the vatican museums is to have two separate entrances. about 75%-85% of people are interested in one thing and one thing only -- the sistine chapel. so they could set up one entrance just to the chapel (and charge the same or minimally less), and another for the museum (those in the latter category could still access st. peter's from the chapel). this would free up a TON of space in the museum and let those that are interested in it be able to actually navigate places without having to be butts to nuts with every other tourist.

make it happen vatican.

pro tip: book the scavi tour in st. peter's which gets you to the original crypts and foundation, including supposedly st. peter's tomb. this will get you immediately into st. peter's without having to wait for hours in the long security line. you cannot book online or through a tour company, but can only do so by emailing the vatican's excavation office. it's a really cool experience, and very few people know about it (i suggested this to dad, but he's an idiot and failed to take my suggestion).

i'm sorry, okay?

god damn seagulls...ruining it for everybody

as much as I like Italy I'd be fine never going again..

doug rr wrote:as much as I like Italy I'd be fine never going again..

same.

@dime - yep, 4 days in Tuscany with a car. Lucca is planned for a day trip from Florence as the wife wants to see Pisa so will check out both as we go. Noted on the pizza.

@ruddo - not gonna be going through Pordenone unfortunately. Sat and carefully plotted our track along the Proseco Road to then end up in Cortina d'Ampezzo for the night. So we miss it by about 30 miles or so. Next day is driving to Ortisei through Gardena Pass and all the rest. I am seriously looking forward to those 2 days of driving, ngl.

@daft - will defo grab the trevitalia app when we are there. For some reason you can't get it on your phone if you are in Australia or Canada! I have however grabbed the Italo app and already booked our first train trip, Venice to Bologna.

@Chris - already booked The Vatican tour but it's at 730am do hopefully will be a little bit quieter for us at least. It's a once in a lifetime thing so gotta at least check it out, even butts to nuts. I actually really wanted to spend time in the Vatican Gardens more than anything, but can't seem to make that work for us at the moment and unwilling to over-book ourselves on any single day.

@Spike - I can vouch for Port Douglas (and surrounds) being awesome, but never been to Hamilton Island. Kid free is gonna be pretty damn cool whichever way you cut it though.

when we did sicily last year, it was a like a completely different country. few crowds. felt more relaxed.

i think we'd do that again.