Perche

Florence decided to hose down the steps of churches to prevent people from picnicking on them. Venice is also trying to do the same, preserve its patrimony. Rome is too. They just banned any picnicking near a fountain, and more. http://www.romatoday.it/politica/biv...ordinanza.html

Perche

The Saldi Estivi is about to start, and is something that summer travelers to Italy should know about. It is perhaps the only good thing about going to Italy during the summer. It means summer sale. In the USA a store can have a sale whenever they want, and there are Thanksgiving sales, Memorial Day, after Christmas, and so on. In Italy the government regulates when a shop owner can put their goods on sale. Of course, they always have signs in the window claiming there is a sale, but except during Saldi Estivi, that is just the regular price you are seeing.

The two times of the year when the government allows shop owners to really put merchandise on sale are during "saldi estivi," or summer sale, and "saldi invernali," or winter sale.

In Italy the time when Italians do their serious shopping is often during the official saldi. Stores will offer up to 50% discount, but the average for clothing and shoes is usually about 20% off, and about 15% for accessories. It generally applies to inventory that the store must sell or else it will lose serious value because of the change of the season, or because it will go out of style. The saldi are is essentially a very large clearance sale. Italians are very sensitive to this, but few tourists know that it exists, so you can watch for the signs in the windows.

Generally, the deeper into the saldi estivi, the deeper the discounts get. The only problem is, the remaining inventory decreases over time as everyone buys during the sale, and you will have less to choose from.

There is a fair bit of scamming, in that the store may indicate 40% off, but the price tag doesn't indicate that. During saldi estivi this is considered a serious enough infraction that you are supposed to report it to the police.

http://www.today.it/cronaca/saldi-es...ario-date.html
Excerpt:
SALDI ESTATE 2017 - La domanda č sempre la stessa: "Quando iniziano i saldi estivi?". In tutta Italia i saldi dell'estate 2017 inzieranno ufficialmente il primo luglio e il calendario con le date regione per regione č giŕ disponibile. A differenza degli anni passati, l'avvio dei saldi estivi sarŕ uguale per tutte le regioni. La durata invece č varia: nella maggior parte delle regioni i saldi estivi termineranno il 30 agosto, ma alcune hanno scelto di anticipare o posticipare la chiusura.

"Summer Sale 2017 - The question is always the same, "When does the summer sale start?" Unlike previous years, in all of Italy it will officially start July 1st, but the length varies by region, and the calendar is now available. In most regions it will end on August 30th, but some places are ending it earlier or later."

These are the dates of the sale for each region.

Saldi estate 2017: calendario e date regione per regione
Abruzzo: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Basilicata: dal 1 luglio al 2 settembre 2017
Calabria: dal 1 luglio al 1 settembre 2017
Campania: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Emilia-Romagna: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Friuli-Venezia-Giulia: dal 1 luglio al 30 settembre 2017
Lazio: dal 1 luglio per 6 settimane
Liguria: dal 1 luglio al 15 agosto 2017
Lombardia: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Marche: dal 1 luglio al 1 settembre 2017
Molise: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Piemonte: dal 1 luglio per 8 settimane non consecutive
Puglia: dal 1 luglio al 15 settembre 2017
Sardegna: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Sicilia: dal 1 luglio al 15 settembre 2017
Toscana: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Umbria: dal 1 luglio al 30 agosto 2017
Valle D’Aosta: dal 1 luglio al 30 settembre 2017
Veneto: dal 1 luglio al 31 agosto 2017“

iapetus

This is really good information to have in advance of our trip to Rome in 8 (gah!) days! I'll keep an eye our for this, and I'll tell mrs. iapetus and her mom to do the same. Thanks! ^

Perche

During July I spent about three weeks in Rome. Just a few observations. Yes, the trains are packed, and there is not much air conditioning.
1. Pickpocketing is not a problem unless you set yourself up as a mark. Everyone on the train is only paying attention to their cell phone. Just don't be careless about things. See the photo from last Thursday.

2. Always make a reservation, because if you can get in without one, it's probably not worth eating there. Usually a day or two before is enough, and I wanted to have my last night, a Thursday, at Cesare's, Rome's best every day regular restaurant. It's normally OK to call the day before. Most places close on Monday, but I forgot that Cesare closes on Wednesday, so when I called there was no answer. When I called them on Thursday for a table that same night, there was no way that was going to happen.

3. I never go to Italy during the summer. It's best to avoid it. This time I had to and had to go to the Trionfale Market to pick someone up, which is just outside the (independent country of) the Vatican. You generally can't eat decent food anywhere in the Vatican. Too touristy. I decided to go Pizzarium, Gabriele Bonci's famous place at the Cipro train station, just behind and outside the Vatican. I've been going to Pizzarium for years. It has the best Roman pizza (which is completely distinct and inferior to pizza from Naples.). He has been called the Michelangelo of pizza (?).

I was number 46, the next number up. I waited for about 15 minutes and they were still taking care of number 45. I noticed that number 45 was a tour guide trying to order about 20 peoples' pizza, and trying to give a lecture about the history of pizza margherita. She knew the wait staff at the counter, and spoke decent Italian when she wasn't speaking English with an Australian accent.

4. Finally, she was with her group and I'm next because I'm # 46 and in comes another guide with 20 people yelling, "CIAO!" Pushing her way to the front of the counter. She was another tour guide who had to speak 50% Italian, and 50% in english because she wasn't very fluent. I had to step up and say, "Gia! basta!" In order to get served ahead of her tourist line.

You can get the same Bonci pizza at Roma Terminale train station, although I think the pizza is of better quality at Cipro, out behind the Vatican.

Still, Italy during the summer presents some challenges.

Perche

I learned a new Italian word when in Rome two weeks ago, "Trasteverizazzione." Just follow the red arrow I added into the picture below. I had to spend about 3 weeks in Rome last month, and you have to be careful where you stay during the high season because of the crowds.

My, "go to place" in such times is Rione Monti. Rome has 35 neighborhoods, or districts, called, "quartiere." Only a few places get to call themselves "Rione," instead of quartiere, like Monti does. That basically means that they are very, very old, going back to Roman Empire times.

Amazingly, if I was still younger, I could almost throw a baseball from the doorway of my apartment into the Forum (well, maybe on two throws, and a few bounces). But it is completely isolated, partly because of the way the streets run. It's all local neighborhood shops. You rarely see a tourist. The shopkeepers, restaurants, and hoteliers can all speak enough english if you go there. There are tourists in the hotels. But the neighborhood is still very Roman, and not touristy at all.

Monti does get pretty close to some areas that I wouldn't recommend. It gets close to Roma Termini. I wouldn't stay close to that. It includes Via Nazionale, with some lux hotels. I wouldn't stay there if you want to experience Rome, unless you want to do it on the side of a six lane street with buses, and taxis beeping their horns. It also borders Via Cavour with large hotels, none of which I'd stay in for free.

But within those borders of Via Nazionale and Via Cavour is an almost untouched, normal Roman neighborhood, yet close to everything. It takes 10-15 minutes to walk to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Venezia, the Colosseum, the Forum, or anywhere else you want to go. The Metro is a couple of minutes walk away.

I write this just to put out there the following, about the bulletin below. I got back to my apartment on July 18th and someone had tacked the bulletin on my door. You don't need to read it in Italian, I'll just distill it.

I don't know if Italians just like to strike, demonstrate, or march, but there is a little plaza in Monti that is so lively and fun. The bulletin was announcing a sit-in and demonstration that the residents were peeved that too many cars and people were starting to come in, destroying the life they have, as the tourism keeps expanding, so they asked me to join their demonstration and sit in. That's what was pinned on my door.

The part that I think demands attention is the word, "Trasteverarrazione. (sp). I have posted in other threads in this forum that Trastevere is pretty much ruined. It was the hot spot in the 1990's with its ancient architecture, and cobble stoned streets. Many people have visited there, and have romantic and wonderful memories of that time and place, as do I. Now, Romans use the name as an example for a ruined neighborhood.

"Trasteverazzione," refers to how to ruin a neighborhood by turning it into an AirBnb and tourist attraction. It means, "to turn it into what happened to Trastevere." The people in Monti are marching to prevent Trasteverizazzione from happening to their neighborhood.

Trastevere's architecture and cobblestone streets haven't changed, so it's still pretty if you can get there outside of the tourist crowds. However, Trastevere is the type of place that normal Roman neighborhoods are trying to avoid being transformed into.

It is generally acknowledged that it is almost impossible to find decent food in Trastevere, because it has descended into catering to masses of tourists. Someone, a knowledgable person about Trastevere did recently post in this forum the names of two decent remaining restaurants in Trastevere, and I would definitely trust her recommendations. I'm sorry I cannot find them in my search, but she clearly knows what she is talking about.

I just wanted to put out there that neighborhoods are now trying to resist the Trastevere-ization of their own neighborhoods, to keep them authentic Italian.

Perche

Italy nust unveiled something called Progetto Wifi. It was a lead story in most of the major papers over the last few days. The link is below. It's too long to translate, but I'll say what the gist is. Italy wants to have the whole country covered with free wifi. Something like Singapore, I think. Or like when I lived just outside of Seattle in Bellevue, and the whole town was covered by wifi. That was a lot of years ago.

I guess its the thing if the future. I remember when getting online meant plugging into a telephone jack, and dialing up for a very slow connection. The internet was called "The Information Superhighway" back then. Now whole towns and countries are covered by free Wifi.

Italy wants to join. They announced that they plan to cover the whole country with free Wifi for citizens and visitors alike. It was just rolled out in Milan, parts of Emilia-Romagna, and Rome. If you scroll to the bottom of the link you will see a map where it is currently active.
http://wifi.italia.it/it/

I will say this. All of the newspaper coverage was about how much it stinks, and you can't get connected. I hope it's not going to be like the "free Wifi" on Trenitalia, where there are unsolvable problems.

However, it is a free app download for Apple and Android. They are working on a Windows version. You have to download it from the Italian website, but then you have the option of switching to English.

In response to all of the newspaper stories blistering it, they responded that there will be a major upgrade in November, but that doesn't mean that it's not at least partially working now.

When I moved to Venice in 2010 there were only a few places to get a connection. I certainly didn't have it in my apartment for years. Usually you had to go to an "internet point," hand over your passport, and they would charge you by the minute.

Now, they want to cover the whole country with Wifi. I suspect the South will be waiting for a while. I came back from Italy a week and a half ago so I didn't get to try it, but I downloaded it since I expect I'll be back in a month or so. People should not be put off by some of the personal information they ask.

That's just Italy. In the USA we give people hell checking into the airport, or even getting back in to your own country. In Italy you don't even have to take off your shoes at the airport. However, at a hotel they check your passport, and at most hotels when you leave your room, you have to leave your room key at the front desk. Each country has its own way of doing things.

The questions asked to register to use this new free Wifi service which supposedly will eventually cover all of Italy (which I sincerely doubt will work anytime soon except in Rome and Milan), are typical Italian procedures. I wouldnt worry about it.

KLouis

I just checked the map linked to; what a typical Italian operation! They started at the extreme North gradually moving southwards. Also, the eastern side of the Apennines is not covered, in contrast to the western part. Should I say that you'll soon hear the same voices that one has been hearing for decades talking about presumed "anti South racism"?

PWMTrav

Don't worry, the backhaul will probably still be the ...... DSL service that I had anywhere that I stayed across the country.

alisyed8

Is there anyone who know the Entrepreneur visa consultant for Italy from Abroad?

Perche

I'm not sure I understand the question. When you say from abroad, what country are you referring to? Doesn't this have to do with the UK, not Italy?

Perche

The 400% increase in cruise ship traffic to Venice has obviously been destroying the city, with 99% of the citizens voting to ban them in a recent informal plebiscite.

It seems like the same thing is happening in Palermo now. When cruise ships dock there they have to refill their water tanks. Palermo is so popular to cruise ships that there are times during the day when the city turns off the water to whole neighborhoods so that the water can go to refilling the cruise ships' tanks.

Whole neighborhoods have no access to water while the temperature is in the 30C, 90F. The headline to the article below translates to, "Water for cruise ships, dry faucets in downtown Palermo."
http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca...tro-173746957/

This is terrible. Rome has already turned off many of the 3,000 fountains in the city because of the draught caused by the heat wave they are calling, "Lucifer." The Vatican already turned off all outside water faucets. Rome just announced that for the month of September to conserve water they are going to turn down the water pressure as a result of the Lucifer heat wave. That means that people who live on upper floors of apartment buildings, and probably hotels too, won't get any water at night, except for slight drips from the faucet.

What the sign below says is, "There will be an interruption in water to the city of Palermo. We are informing citizens of Palermo that there will be no water during the following days because we have to give the water to the cruise ships passing through."

alisyed8

I am referring from Pakistan or UAE. What would be the possibilities and guidance to get the Entrepreneur visa? Who can assist to make the Business Plan and its Approval etc.

PWMTrav

This forum skews toward leisure travel. For something like that, start here:

http://italiastartupvisa.mise.gov.it/#homepage

Determine your eligibility and how you wish to apply, and then look for local resources (lawyers, the local Italian consulate, etc) for additional assistance. I don't know that we'll be of much help in this forum.

manstein58

very true account of what has happened to Trastevere. Monti has been noticed but let's hope the baleful eye turns elsewhere

Perche

Interesting video in the article linked below about how not to visit Venice in interesting article called, "Visiting Venice Without Seeing It."

The article doesn't need to be read, it's about the video. The gondolier is narrating about how he took this group from San Marco Square all around Venice, a beautiful city they traveled half way around to see, but never go to see it because they couldn't stop looking at their phones.

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/17_o...b464e457.shtml