Posts Tagged ‘ Rome ’

Travel, food and lifestyle blogger, Kirsty Marrins, shares her travel highs and lows with Just About Travel readers

Before any city seriously considers an accommodation tax, the fairness of it and the effect on both tourism and locals needs to be assessed.

The average length that a visitor stays in Rome is 2.2 days according to the newly constituted tourism authority for Rome which, they say, is an insult and I am inclined to agree.

If you had a fear of flying would a Navigator Buddy help to soothe you? Just one thought that Adrian has this week as the winner of the Family Friendly Museum award is announced.

Patricia and Dennis Cleveland-Peck visit one of the neighbourhoods of Rome – Trastevere – and find that there is a lot this small part of Rome has to offer.

Tom Hall, editorial director at Lonely Planet – the world’s largest travel guide book publisher – on Italy, Iran and why the Western Isles of Scotland should feature on any travel itinerary

Mirko Lagattolla – co-founder of GLEAT, a new app that allows Londoners with a passion for cooking to set up a pop-up restaurant in their very own home – talks travel

Discover how to make a classic pasta carbonara

Just About Travel reveals what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world this month

Just About Travel tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world

With the assistance – as usual – of the Italian National Tourist Board, we list here the main art exhibitions that will be showing in Italy this year.

New Orleanians like to dress up

The threats to our wallets whilst holidaying or travelling come in many forms including pickpockets and fraudsters. These are mostly small time but government pickpocketing is the largest threat and the one we can do nothing about.

Just About Travel tells you what’s hot in the travel world. This month it’s good news for the capital and, umm, canines..

Like Spain and their Easter celebrations, Italy melds religious traditions and celebrations but with culinary delights as well.

From coffee and chocolate to first class museums and world famous football teams, Turin has it all – and a lot more besides says Kaye Holland

What does America taste like? Ahead of the classic American holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving, award winning American food writer Coleman Andrews celebrates the most exceptional and delicious food products from across the United States with CD-Traveller readers

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world right now

4.5 million holiday searches since Christmas Day

New York is the most searched for holiday destination by Brits looking to get away during the Diamond Jubilee long weekend and the three weeks of summer sports according to travel search site, Kayak

History travel website, Historvius, picks ten of the best destinations for European city breaks bursting with history, perfect for everyone from the casual sightseer to diehard history buffs

I happened to see the Sarah Jessica Parker film, I Don’t Know How She Does It, last night. The film, based on Alison Pearson’s best selling novel, was shot in Boston and had the effect of making me want to book a break in Boston.

Like London buses, when one comes along, it is accompanied by another. So Venice, on Wednesday this week, decided to introduce an accommodation tax just like Florence.

Following Rome’s introduction of an accommodation tax, Florence has decided to do the same. The difference is that Rome gave people a bit of notice. Florence has given just a month. From July 1st all visitors (except children under 10) staying overnight will have to pay €1 per night. But it gets worse. You also pay a euro for each star category of accommodation you stay at so a 5 star hotel will attract €5 per night per person.

This time it is Rome. They have decided to impose an accommodation tax on all guests staying in hotels in the city from the first day of 2011.
How do you get around paying this tax? By either being under two years old or by staying at a youth hostel. And unlike lots of accommodation around the world, it’s not a room tax but a guest tax. Two of you in a room will pay twice as much as one person so there is no easy way to avoid it other than by staying outside Rome.
It will hit the more upmarket hotels the most as it is graded by the star rating of your hotel. If you stay in a 4 or 5 star hotel expect to pay €3 euros per night. Stay in a star rating below that and it will be €2 per night. But, there’s good news

All the guide books, all the travel articles tell you about the historic part of US cities. And, in fairness, to other world cities as well. What of the other parts? Isn’t there history there as well? They can’t all have been built yesterday. And even if they weren’t, isn’t yesterday history?
It’s one of those little things in tourism that is beginning to annoy me. Why is one part of a place designated a historic district and another isn’t?

Cutbacks abound. Governments everywhere are looking to raise money to pay for the important things. Unfortunately it is the government that decides what is important. You and I might think otherwise. The Italian government needs to pay for maintenance and repairs for the Colosseum in Rome. It is prepared to put up some of the money so they have decided the rest will come from the private sector. In return the private sector will have advertising rights. To the Colosseum. To one of most important sites of the Roman era!
Just as we have the Emirates Stadium and the Volvo Ocean Race, the Carling Cup and the Costa Book of the Year are we now going to have something like Guiseppe’s Olive Oil Colosseum?

In order to deal with security in Italy, the government has introduced some rules. The main rule is that mayors of Italian cities can introduce laws to take account of their own needs. If the new laws covered the whole of Italy, the holidaymaker would know where they stood but there are different laws in different cities. What applies in one place needn’t necessarily apply in another.