I sure wish I could have his job...
Mermaid, tell us more about Provence
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Is he like The Accidential Tourist?katie blue said:
All this time I thought this thread was about the restaurant Provence on 98.
Shows how much I travel.
Hey BC. Where do you live in Arkansas? We used to vacation in Bella Vista and Eureka Springs, when we lived in kansas.Beach Crazy said:
Mermaid said:Tootsie, you've hit the nail on the head. He HAS caused a lot of people to venture farther than the good ole USA. Now he's just sitting on his laurels, churning out the same tired travel info, and collecting the revenues.But he's still a great entertainer on the lecture circuit. ;-)
on both trips to Italia, we found that most of his (Rick Steve) suggestions for food, hotel, site seeing, were very good. but some reall sucked. we stayed with this old witch woman in Sicily - we were the only people staying in her dilapidated rooms that were attached to her house on her property. we thought we were going to wake up dead, but we didn't. we stayed with her throughout and got to know her and took her to town with us for one of the saint festivals with the parade and all. she hardly spoke any english at all, and we're not very good with Italian, but somehow she told us all about the town and life and her son, etc. it was all part of the adventure. but I would not stay there again. I can still imagine the musty/sour smell of her pensione...
I could go on and on about Sicilia...
Tootsie said:
Here you go, Tootsie. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues05/feb05/sicily.html
Two Italian towns in Tuscany that are a bit off the beaten path but wonderful are Barga (my father was born in that area and we still have an aunt and first cousins and other relatives there) and Castlenuovo Garfagnana(we have friends in that town). Both are medieval hill towns. Barga has the prettiest village look because it is surrounded by one of those ancient walls. Castelnuovo has the nicest big town center that's always full of people. And both have fantastic food. And it's known for great hiking and natural beauty. Both are in the Alpinini mountains.
Barga is funny because it does get a bit of tourism (mostly Scots) and it has an annual contest for the best bathroom in a restaurant. The town started this contest because one tourism book once said that Barga had the most disgusting bathrooms (it's true that they used to be horrendous) so the town started a contest so restaurants would upgrade their bathrooms. Barga also has opera, jazz, and other events -- mostly throughout the summer. We're going there for two weeks this summer to see family (we have relatives who are getting quite old and this may be the last time we see them). And we want to keep the kids connected to their Italian roots.
Barga is funny because it does get a bit of tourism (mostly Scots) and it has an annual contest for the best bathroom in a restaurant. The town started this contest because one tourism book once said that Barga had the most disgusting bathrooms (it's true that they used to be horrendous) so the town started a contest so restaurants would upgrade their bathrooms. Barga also has opera, jazz, and other events -- mostly throughout the summer. We're going there for two weeks this summer to see family (we have relatives who are getting quite old and this may be the last time we see them). And we want to keep the kids connected to their Italian roots.
Cil
Beach Fanatic
Heh
My husband loves The Man In The Blue Shirt. I am less enamoured.
Steves has turned many European destinations into human petting zoos.
We were in the Cinque Terre long before it became a backpackers mecca and I am sure it is as overun as Prague now is.
But it's not really Steves' fault that he is so folksy and engaging.
The husband loves his average guy approach and we've seen his lecture and it is indeed funn. The thing to remember is that much of Steves' info is strictly opinion:for example, he says it's not worth it to bother going north of Inverness in Scotland.
Wrong!
I prefer to find my way with other sources, we've traveled a lot and don't *need* to be Steves acolytes. We are looking into Eastern Europe for this summer, and I can tell that the spouse will want to read all of Steves' pre-digested travel info before we go. ::sigh::
For more budget travel info:
Eurotrip
A very established backpacking site; you don't have to be a college kid to benefit from this travel site.
For cheap airfare advice and/or news, this is THE place to go, check out Don's Cheap Flights forum. I can't tell you how many times I scored cheap airfare because of this place.
Also, a new startup site run by backpackers:
Eurotrek
Finally, this site can be very helpful; you don't have to be a backpacker to benefit:
VirtualTourist
My husband loves The Man In The Blue Shirt. I am less enamoured.
Steves has turned many European destinations into human petting zoos.
We were in the Cinque Terre long before it became a backpackers mecca and I am sure it is as overun as Prague now is.
But it's not really Steves' fault that he is so folksy and engaging.
The husband loves his average guy approach and we've seen his lecture and it is indeed funn. The thing to remember is that much of Steves' info is strictly opinion:for example, he says it's not worth it to bother going north of Inverness in Scotland.
Wrong!
I prefer to find my way with other sources, we've traveled a lot and don't *need* to be Steves acolytes. We are looking into Eastern Europe for this summer, and I can tell that the spouse will want to read all of Steves' pre-digested travel info before we go. ::sigh::
For more budget travel info:
Eurotrip
A very established backpacking site; you don't have to be a college kid to benefit from this travel site.
For cheap airfare advice and/or news, this is THE place to go, check out Don's Cheap Flights forum. I can't tell you how many times I scored cheap airfare because of this place.
Also, a new startup site run by backpackers:
Eurotrek
Finally, this site can be very helpful; you don't have to be a backpacker to benefit:
VirtualTourist
Cil
Beach Fanatic
This is another travel site that is a bit more fancypants. But they are very civilized and have a nice Italy section.
Slow Travel
Slow Travel
