One great city-and-leisure-reading combination is the book When in Rome, you guessed it, while vacationing in the Eternal City. When in Rome is actually primarily a history of the Vatican, written in a charming and entertaining voice. The author, Robert J. Hutchinson, intersperses the history lessons with snippets from his daily life while living in Rome with his family and researching the book. If you think the history of the Catholic church sounds kind of boring, this book will change your mind – especially the chapter about the sex lives of the popes (popes = not so chaste as one might expect).

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Post from: Europe String

Super Bowl

The game is actually broadcast live on free TV in many European countries, minus most of the pre-game shows, and, sadly, without all those fancy commercials. Broadcasts start at around midnight CET; check the local listings for the country you’re in to find out whether it will be on. Here in Germany the Super Bowl will be shown on the channel ARD, and in Austria it’s on ORF 1.

If watching the big game alone in your hotel room in the middle of the night doesn’t sound like your kind of Super Bowl party, you still might be in luck. You can find a bar or restaurant open and showing the game in many major European cities, as long as you know where to look. For some reason there are sometimes issues with using the words “Super Bowl” in advertising, so look out for/search for alternate terms such as “NFL” and “American football” as well. Here are a couple more tips for sniffing out the place to watch the big game:

• Check English-language message boards for expats in the particular city. There are Americans living in all major European cities – if you can track down these ‘locals’, chances are someone can tell you where to see the game. Examples include Toytown Germany and Expats in Italy .
• Ask a concierge. Large hotels with many American guests are likely to have heard this question before, and are likely to help you find an answer even if you’re not staying there.
• Find the closest Marriott Hotel or Hard Rock Cafe. They broadcast the game in many cities, but be warned – the Hard Rock Cafe often adds a pretty steep cover charge for the event.

Some establishments that will be showing the Super Bowl live in Europe this Sunday night:

• Amsterdam, Netherlands: Satellite Sports Cafe
• Paris, France: The Moose Paris
• Geneva, Switzerland: Mr. Pickwick
• Zurich, Switzerland: the Marriott Hotel lobby bar
• London, UK: Hard Rock Cafe (a steep 15 pounds gets you in); The Sports Café
• Frankfurt, Germany: Yours Australian Bar
• Munich, Germany: Champions Bar at the Marriott Hotel ; Hard Rock Cafe (19 euro cover gets you a welcome drink, buffet, and coffee)
• Barcelona, Spain: Hard Rock Cafe (14 euro cover)
• Lisbon, Portugal: Hard Rock Cafe

Do you know of any other locations in Europe that will be broadcasting the Super Bowl live in 2008? Let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

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That’s me and my husband, hamming it up for the camera as we waited for our food at one of your basic tourist trap restaurants in Siena, Italy. Yes, I should have know but we were hungry and traveling with an antsy 2 year old. Plus, my husband just shrugged it all of with, “who cares… we’re on vacation”. Obviously, I have yet to forget.

It is pretty easy to judge tourist trap restaurants. Usually they have superb locations, right across the most famous landmark in the city and they offer ridiculously overpriced meals.

In this case, though, the meals were reasonably priced. BUT, the drinks were in the same price level as the meal. Imagine my surprise when I saw the final bill.

So… dear budget travelers, do not make the same mistake I did.

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Here’s why:

1. Shakespeare’s Juliet did NOT really speak from this balcony.
2. Even if there were 2 feuding families in Verona, no one has really proven the existence of their star-crossed children
3. You do not need a “symbol” to encourage you to write love notes to the person you love. You can actually do it anytime, anywhere.
4. Besides, those notes left outside look a lot like graffiti to me.

Anyway, unless you have a Verona Card, save your money (3Euros for general entry and 7euros for the whole tour) and just peek in from outside to see the famous “fake” balcony.
La casa di Giulietta
Via Cappello, 21
Verona, 37121
Tel: +39 0458035645

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Here’s one suggestion of where you can go, with different options on what you can do:

Take her to Arena di Verona, a Roman amphitheatre where they have opera performances.

If you’re both avid opera fans, I suggest that you buy tickets for unreserved seats on the stone steps. They’re a lot cheaper than the padded chairs below.

If the opera performance will just be part of the background to lend ambiance to your romantic evening, I suggest that you save yourself the cost of the opera ticket and just pick a place nearby where you can sit and listen to the music.

Now… for the romantic seating options where the Arena performance will be within hearing distance… and with your store bought panini and a bottle of wine from a local shop, you can sit:

• on the steps of the neoclassical Palazzo Municipale with an impressive view of the Arena and Piazza Bra
• You can find a seat amongst the cedar treas right in the middle of Piazza Bra

Or, you can head for Brek which is on the restaurant row on the north side of the Piazza. Brek is a self-service restaurant with reasonably priced food. You will spend around 8-10Euros per person here.

To cap off your evening, stroll past Casa di Giullieta to leave a note for each other.

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But before we were whisked away to this island getaway, we stayed for a night at a hotel a few streets away from Palazzo delle Arti Napoli. And as we were aimlessly walking around, we found a great market where you can get designer clothes — last season’s or export overruns — at bargain prices!!!

The market is called Mercatino (some call it Mercato) di Via Imbriani. It’s composed of a handful of stores selling different items. The guy says that they are open everyday, except Sundays from morning until around 2pm.

It’s located at Via Vittorio Imbriani in Naplies. By metro, you can take the L2 and get off at Piazza Amedeo.

If you (ladies!) find yourself in Naples, a quick trip to Via Vittorio will surely be worth it.

Budget airlines which fly to  Naples are: SkyEurope, easyJet, Thomas Cook, alpieagles, TUIfly, Condor, AirBerlin, AerLingus, ClickAir, Thomsonfly, Club Air and BMI.

photo source

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What does this mean? Not much, I suppose. Even without the wonder of the world label, millions of visitors have already been traveling to see Rome. So…

I wonder, though if prices would skyrocket. Not that Rome was ever cheap.

I’ll let you know soon enough.

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You can go to:

• Honky Tonks in Sempione
• Birrificio Lambrate near the Lambrate Station (where else?) has the best, imho, buffet.
• Bar Magenta in Via Carducci

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• Visit Museo Ducati where you can trace 50 years of Ducati (racing and motorcycle production) history. Entrance may be free but I advise you to call them up in advance to double check and schedule the time of your visit. You can call them up at 05 16413111.
• Watch a classical music concert at the Teatro Manzoni or at Teatro Comunale. From January until June and October until December, entrace is free. You’ll find these theatres at Via Monari 1/2 and Largo Respighi 2, respectively.

Not really into those kind of things?

• You can check out the Il Covo Alterantive Club instead where they have Indi-Rock or Folk Rock concerts.

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