Speaker 1: Your flights and accommodation, a book, Your itinery is sorted.
Speaker 1: You have dreamed about this trip for longer than you
Speaker 1: would admit to most people. So what is worth organizing
Speaker 1: in the final weeks before your trip to Italy. That's
Speaker 1: what we're covering today on this latest episode of the
Speaker 1: Untold Italy podcast.
Speaker 2: Tawatuti and Benvenuti Tuan Told Italy, the travel podcast to
Speaker 2: where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes,
Speaker 2: hills and coastlines of Beli, Italia. Each week, your host,
Speaker 2: Katie Clark takes you on a journey in a search
Speaker 2: of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course
Speaker 2: a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming of Italy
Speaker 2: and planning future adventures there, you've come to the right place.
Speaker 1: Jao Tuti and Ben Venuti, Welcome to episode three hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two of the Untold Italy podcast. I'm Katie,
Speaker 1: the founder of Untold Italy and if you're tuning in,
Speaker 1: there is a fair chance you have a trip to
Speaker 1: Italy on the horizon. We know a lot of our
Speaker 1: listeners travel in September and in October, so we thought
Speaker 1: that we would cover what needs to get done before
Speaker 1: you get on the plane, because sometimes we planned a
Speaker 1: lot of in advance, and we may have left a
Speaker 1: few things to the last minute. A few months out
Speaker 1: from your trip, the big planning is mostly behind you,
Speaker 1: the countdown has started, and somewhere in the back of
Speaker 1: your mind is that short list of small things you
Speaker 1: keep meaning to sort out. After many many trips to Italy,
Speaker 1: my guest Monica and I have got this down to
Speaker 1: what we think is a fine art and so today
Speaker 1: we're here to share these tips with you. Now, before
Speaker 1: we get started, I wanted to share a lovely review
Speaker 1: that we got from one of our recent tour guests
Speaker 1: on our trip to and this is a really beautiful
Speaker 1: trip that's immersing everyone into the region and really meeting
Speaker 1: the locals and having a beautiful time. And so Nola said,
Speaker 1: the Untold Italy Umbria Tour was a truly wonderful experience.
Speaker 1: This was only my second guided tour. I usually preferred
Speaker 1: to arrange things myself, but this trip has completely changed
Speaker 1: my mind. We visited places, met people, and discovered artisans
Speaker 1: I never would have found on my own. With just
Speaker 1: nine guests, the tour felt wonderfully personal and attentive. Our
Speaker 1: guide Sarah was exceptional, endlessly helpful. Nothing was ever too
Speaker 1: much trouble, and she consistently made sure every single person
Speaker 1: was getting the most out of the experience. Umbria itself
Speaker 1: was breathtaking, so many beautiful villages and cities to explore.
Speaker 1: The accommodation and food were equally fantastic. I honestly couldn't
Speaker 1: find a single fault except that it had to end.
Speaker 1: I cannot recommend this tour highly enough. Everything is taken
Speaker 1: care of. All you have to do show up and
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Oh Nola grout simulate. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun to have on tour and
Speaker 1: we are so delighted to be able to share this
Speaker 1: beautiful region with you listeners. If Umbria is calling, we
Speaker 1: do have some spaces available on our trip to parting
Speaker 1: in October where we will immerse ourselves in the region
Speaker 1: and the all important olive harvest. The link is in
Speaker 1: the show notes, or you can reach out to us
Speaker 1: at info at untold Italy Tours dot com for details.
Speaker 1: Okay on with the show andiamo let's count down to Italy.
Speaker 3: Buon Jono Jel Monica.
Speaker 1: Dow Katie Come stae Ava, Beneva Berner two.
Speaker 4: Walter Ben grats. It nice to be here with you again,
Speaker 4: and this time we can also see each other.
Speaker 1: I know we're gonna do this on video for everyone.
Speaker 1: If you're listening on the audio, we will be posting
Speaker 1: this on YouTube as a video as well, so you
Speaker 1: can see lovely Monica in your beautiful house done in
Speaker 1: the coast in Australia and I'm in the city in Melbourne, Australia.
Speaker 1: So well, we are very far away from Italy, but
Speaker 1: we're always thinking about Italy, aren't we, Monica.
Speaker 4: All the time? Yes, how can you know, especially this
Speaker 4: time where here is a bit chilly and I start
Speaker 4: to see all my friends like organizing getting ready to
Speaker 4: go into the beach, like nice weather back in Italy.
Speaker 4: So yeah, of course I'm thinking about Italy.
Speaker 1: I think it's super hot there though this week I
Speaker 1: think it's forty degrees, which is for our American listeners
Speaker 1: is well over one hundred and ten I think, so
Speaker 1: it's really really hot. Sorry, people are going soon, make
Speaker 1: sure you are ready for that type of weather because
Speaker 1: it's not the best for sightseeing. I would say It's
Speaker 1: great for the beach and maybe the mountains, but sightseeing
Speaker 1: maybe not so much.
Speaker 4: Maybe just inside, like if you are going to the city,
Speaker 4: just playing a lot of activity inside, lots of museums,
Speaker 4: air con we need.
Speaker 3: That is fine. Air Con initially can be not what
Speaker 3: we expect.
Speaker 4: Yeah, good museum, some big museum they have, but yes,
Speaker 4: it's through sometimes, Yeah it's missing, isn't it. It's like
Speaker 4: so different from here. Even houses in general. Sometimes you
Speaker 4: book an Airbnb and you assume that there is going
Speaker 4: to be air con, but they just suggest to live
Speaker 4: their windows open or they have some fan.
Speaker 1: Well my favorite one was when we were in Tuscany,
Speaker 1: it and I agreed to rese mo Ones and they
Speaker 1: had the AIRCN wedged like literally sticky tape down on
Speaker 1: twenty five degrees and I said, I know that's heating.
Speaker 1: That's fine, that's not air conditioning.
Speaker 3: Sorry, we just turned it off. It wasn't worth it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is true. Yeah, you feel like we all
Speaker 4: live in twenty twenty six and we assume that everywhere
Speaker 4: the standard is the same. But yeah, it's not like
Speaker 4: every time where you travel somewhere, like they have their
Speaker 4: way to live and Italian have something. I don't know
Speaker 4: if you heard about that, but it's called cold podaria.
Speaker 4: So everyone is very scared about the air con and different,
Speaker 4: like if the air comes in your neck, you can
Speaker 4: get very sick. Yeah, we are very careful as Italians,
Speaker 4: like you don't get sick if it's old.
Speaker 1: Somehow, I know that's when the papa jackets come out,
Speaker 1: when it's as soon as it's October, everyone's got their
Speaker 1: papa jacket. Anyway, some people may not know you, so
Speaker 1: i'd love you to introduce yourself to everyone again and
Speaker 1: let everyone know who.
Speaker 4: You are and what you do.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so.
Speaker 4: My name is Monica and I am from Italy, Pierre
Speaker 4: Monte to be precise, so which is north west next
Speaker 4: to France. As you can hear, English is not my
Speaker 4: first language. I'm Italian and I learn English when I
Speaker 4: was twenty six. I learned English for a long time,
Speaker 4: but then I really learned to speak English when I
Speaker 4: was twenty six and I came to Australia. I noticed
Speaker 4: how the way I was learning the language was probably
Speaker 4: not my way. So as soon as I came here,
Speaker 4: I learned to learn the language in a more practical way,
Speaker 4: and even if I study architecture, so I'm an architect
Speaker 4: in Italy. My profession in my career change when I
Speaker 4: came here because I noticed that there is another way
Speaker 4: to learn a language, and I wanted to share that
Speaker 4: with people that want to learn my language. So I
Speaker 4: start do language languages change, and then I thought, oh,
Speaker 4: this is this is what I want to do. This
Speaker 4: is I want to help people to learn a language
Speaker 4: or to communicate really in a more relaxed way that
Speaker 4: is not really the school sort of way where you
Speaker 4: have a program, you need to follow the program and
Speaker 4: is the same for everyone. And so in in twenty
Speaker 4: and eighteen I opened my school and I yes, I
Speaker 4: teach Italian and with a group of teachers, and we
Speaker 4: specialize in adults and in people that want to learn
Speaker 4: Italian to travel or to reconnect with their route. So
Speaker 4: sometimes we have, especially in Australia, second generation Italian secondary
Speaker 4: generation that they want to start speaking and with one
Speaker 4: on one session, this is what we do. My school
Speaker 4: is called Sumizura Italy. And yeah, we tend to Taylor
Speaker 4: the lesson. In fact, Sumizura in Italian means Taylor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's a very clever lady.
Speaker 1: Monica and her teachers are fantastic, So definitely we'll be
Speaker 1: giving you some more information about how you can get.
Speaker 3: In touch with her.
Speaker 1: But what I wanted to do today is Micha had
Speaker 1: this suggestion actually is like, what do you do when
Speaker 1: you're getting ready to go to Italy? So what are
Speaker 1: the things that you need to do and think about?
Speaker 1: And is it even too late to learn Italian? So
Speaker 1: we're going to go into a little bit of that
Speaker 1: as we go through this episode today because a lot
Speaker 1: of people at this time are getting ready to go
Speaker 1: later this year, so September is the busiest month for
Speaker 1: non European tourists in Italy and especially in the major cities. Actually,
Speaker 1: so today I thought we could chat about all the
Speaker 1: things that you need to do to make sure that
Speaker 1: when you arrive in Italia you're at the top of
Speaker 1: your game and you've got all that pent up excitement.
Speaker 3: Building and you're ready to go. Because I do know
Speaker 3: that a lot of.
Speaker 1: You have been planning these trips for over twelve or
Speaker 1: eighty months. So sometimes once you've booked the tickets and
Speaker 1: you've booked all the main things that you need to do,
Speaker 1: and you've got all your plans in order. Everything goes
Speaker 1: quiet for a little bit, and then two months before your.
Speaker 3: Trip you're like, ah, I'm going to do a lot
Speaker 3: of things.
Speaker 1: So I thought we could go through all of those
Speaker 1: things and work out how you can make sure you
Speaker 1: can have the very best time when you get there,
Speaker 1: and if you're listening and you are not driving or
Speaker 1: walking or whatever, and you're close to a computer. We
Speaker 1: do have a companion article to this episode that has
Speaker 1: lots of links and details if you want some more
Speaker 1: information about what we're talking about today.
Speaker 3: We'll also link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 1: So you can search our website as well for this episode,
Speaker 1: which is episode number three hundred and thirty two, or
Speaker 1: you can search our website Untold Italy dot com for
Speaker 1: the pre departure checklist. Okay, Andiamo, how excited do you
Speaker 1: get when you're going.
Speaker 4: Back to Italy and Monica, Yes, very excited. I try
Speaker 4: to go every year. It's a different excitement, probably because
Speaker 4: when I go back to Italy, I got first to
Speaker 4: visit my family and then we try to put because
Speaker 4: my husband is not Italian, we try and also I
Speaker 4: enjoyed to travel in Italy. We try to put some
Speaker 4: different place to visit every time. But yes, it's so
Speaker 4: exciting and every time it's different. As you said, it
Speaker 4: depends the time of the year you're going, the atmosphere,
Speaker 4: and also all what I have to think about luggage
Speaker 4: and what to get ready, like how to get ready
Speaker 4: really like it depends on by the city or by
Speaker 4: what I'm going to do. Yeah, so it's always new
Speaker 4: and lots of research.
Speaker 1: I think next time Money will be traveling with her
Speaker 1: three boys under the age of five everyone. So that
Speaker 1: is a big job to get a family of five
Speaker 1: from Australia to Italy, which is a twenty four hour flight.
Speaker 1: So I is off to you, Monica, because that is
Speaker 1: a huge job. But I also get excited when I'm
Speaker 1: going to Italy, and sometimes I get lulled into a
Speaker 1: fullse sense of security because I do go so often,
Speaker 1: and I think, well, I know everything, I know what
Speaker 1: to do, I know I've got my routine, I know
Speaker 1: when I get to the airport, I know who's going
Speaker 1: to meet me and all of those things.
Speaker 3: But I think I didn't.
Speaker 1: Instagram real earlier this week about a document that people
Speaker 1: are missing when they go and it's actually a very
Speaker 1: important doctor. So I've learned my lesson that I do
Speaker 1: need to slow down a bit, and the time to
Speaker 1: do that is if you're traveling in the next six months,
Speaker 1: it's good time to take stock of that now. So
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to talk about today. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, travel is not what it used to be.
Speaker 1: When I first started traveling. You could really just wing
Speaker 1: it a lot of the time and just turn up
Speaker 1: and you know, go to the places that you wanted
Speaker 1: to go, to eat at, the restaurants that you wanted
Speaker 1: to eat at, and do all of the things. But
Speaker 1: these days, if you've got something really important that you
Speaker 1: had in mind, please you need to book these things early.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking of things like Colisseum tickets, Vatican Museums, Borgesa.
Speaker 3: Gallery in Rome.
Speaker 1: This is a favorite gallery of mine and it always
Speaker 1: sells out.
Speaker 3: You must have a ticket for that.
Speaker 1: They only allow a few hundred visitors a day, so
Speaker 1: there's very limited tickets for that one. Also the Last
Speaker 1: Supper in Milan. So those type of important sites, if
Speaker 1: you're traveling halfway around the world and you really really.
Speaker 3: Want to see them, you don't want to miss out.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't got onto those things yet and
Speaker 1: you're traveling soon, please do that. Maybe you can talk
Speaker 1: about restaurants money because I know you used to work
Speaker 1: in the restaurant industry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is exactly what I was thinking, because sometimes myself,
Speaker 4: first I save all this restaurant on Instagram where I
Speaker 4: want to go when I can go to Italy. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and then you realize that the day you were thinking
Speaker 4: to go is the closing day or they booked out.
Speaker 4: Especially again, I'm from Pimonte, so if you want to
Speaker 4: go in Pimonte from September to December, I really really
Speaker 4: think that you should look months in advance the restaurant
Speaker 4: where you really want to go. Again, we're quite lucky
Speaker 4: because in Italy there are lots of place where you
Speaker 4: can eat well, but if you really want to specifically
Speaker 4: have that kind of experience like a cooking class or
Speaker 4: a restaurant table, and also maybe where you want to
Speaker 4: sit in the restaurant, because you like sometimes you have
Speaker 4: beautiful restaurants. But then if you think about the booking
Speaker 4: in advance, then you might be able to sit in
Speaker 4: front of the window where you can see the dome
Speaker 4: and all the big cathit and you can have that request,
Speaker 4: which changed so much if you are sitting in the
Speaker 4: same restaurant and like near the kitchen, for instance, So
Speaker 4: the football is the same, but the experience will be different.
Speaker 4: So definitely, yes, if it's something you want to experience, Yeah,
Speaker 4: you need to do it in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: My favorite example is Roscholi's Slumina, which is well, it
Speaker 1: used to be my favorite restaurant in Rome, but I
Speaker 1: can't get in there, like you need to book three
Speaker 1: months in advance, and as Monica said, the experience can
Speaker 1: differ wildly. The first experience I had that was right
Speaker 1: up near the deli counter there. It was so much fun.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of interaction. And then I think
Speaker 1: the last time I was there was down in the cellar,
Speaker 1: which is a different environment. It was actually quite nice,
Speaker 1: but it was a different experience to what I had
Speaker 1: imagined it was going to be because I was just
Speaker 1: so desperate to get the table at that point.
Speaker 4: As as you said, I worked for so long in
Speaker 4: a restaurant. It's a three Starmishlan restaurant. When I was
Speaker 4: studying university, and I remember how many times people were
Speaker 4: calling assuming to be able to find a place, and
Speaker 4: they were like, oh no, but what can you put
Speaker 4: me in a waiting list? But even waiting lists in
Speaker 4: those kinds of restaurants, they sometimes like there is one
Speaker 4: percent possibility that you can get table, and it's such
Speaker 4: a disappointment because you travel so long, like so far away,
Speaker 4: you spend so much money to be there in that place,
Speaker 4: and then you can't experience that. It's very sad, like
Speaker 4: this is why it's so important. I'm sure standing you
Speaker 4: can get a reservation exactly a Sally Richie. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: don't know, like maybe not, because sometimes it's woken.
Speaker 3: I love that about Italy as well.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people are not impressed by celebrities at all, so
Speaker 1: they'll be like not, but why sorry, you go on
Speaker 1: the list like everyone else.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: For instance, this restaurant where I used to work, as
Speaker 4: a beautiful table in the kitchen, so you can actually
Speaker 4: sit in the middle of this chef that are preparing
Speaker 4: the food, and it's so beautiful because you can see
Speaker 4: like smoke coming out of the little thoughts and you
Speaker 4: can see how they get raided. Your plates that are
Speaker 4: twenty chef like that work for a table. So if
Speaker 4: you can sit in the kitchen, that is a crazy
Speaker 4: experience and doesn't cost more than sitting in the restaurant
Speaker 4: and the room. So if you can get that table, like,
Speaker 4: how cool is the experience? You know? So again, yeah,
Speaker 4: good to be ready and to think about that at
Speaker 4: least a couple of months in advance.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break, both brief and back before
Speaker 1: you know it, planning your own easily trip but feeling overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: Our consultings give you personalized guidance based on years of
Speaker 1: insider knowledge and local relationships.
Speaker 3: Learn more in the show notes. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I think everyone wants to know the name of that
Speaker 1: restaurant now, Monica, can you share.
Speaker 3: It with us?
Speaker 4: It's called Yazza Duomo Alba. The chef is Enrico Crippa.
Speaker 1: I want to go there now, that's the type of
Speaker 1: experience that I would love to have.
Speaker 3: I wanted to go there with you.
Speaker 4: Though, yeah we go, we all go together. You need
Speaker 4: to save a bit of money, but I have a
Speaker 4: good discount.
Speaker 3: That's why I want to go with you.
Speaker 4: Joking, It is beautiful, but yeah, a restaurant, it's ladies.
Speaker 4: But also yes, booking and make sure you have accommodation
Speaker 4: because again, one like let's say one event in the
Speaker 4: city can change completely. No, even in my town on
Speaker 4: the week the third week of August, and my town
Speaker 4: is such a small town where you know, we have
Speaker 4: a few tourists, but it's not as busy and crazy
Speaker 4: in my town is called Governe. If you try to
Speaker 4: book in Govane, they're week that they have their saga,
Speaker 4: which is their fester, their party of the town, and
Speaker 4: it's impossible. So again, maybe you want to enjoy something
Speaker 4: ladies and you think, oh, why not, I'm going to
Speaker 4: go in a little village. You see that it's always
Speaker 4: like you always find booking, but then you realize that,
Speaker 4: oh wow, this is the same week that they all
Speaker 4: want to go there. So yeah, that's another thing to
Speaker 4: think about. Yeah, And I think the.
Speaker 1: Other one that people need to get onto. If you're
Speaker 1: traveling by train and you want to go on the
Speaker 1: big intercity routes between say Rome and Florence or Venison,
Speaker 1: it's good to book about two months out. I think
Speaker 1: you can get the best prices and then you can
Speaker 1: also have options. The I like to go business class.
Speaker 1: It's only a few more euros and you get a
Speaker 1: little bit more space, but you'll have more options, and
Speaker 1: just on that. With the trains, I had a few emails, Oh,
Speaker 1: I can't book any trains for September because and in
Speaker 1: early June. And that's because every six months in Italy
Speaker 1: and in Europe they turn over the timetable, so a
Speaker 1: lot of trains weren't able to be booked in June.
Speaker 1: So now when we're recording this, this is the end
Speaker 1: of June, so you should be able to book everything
Speaker 1: that you need to do for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: But yeah, definitely get onto the train.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that you didn't know. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 4: know that. It is true. For instance, last year I
Speaker 4: went with my family and back then we had just
Speaker 4: two kids. And as you said, if you book in advance,
Speaker 4: for instance, you can find family tickets or you can
Speaker 4: also find that pay one go into like and that
Speaker 4: was so convenient for us. We had like our own
Speaker 4: section because actually we decided to travel during the night
Speaker 4: and what's fun with the kids, So we had our
Speaker 4: on cabin and we basically pay like like one ticket
Speaker 4: because the kids were struveling for free and we were too,
Speaker 4: So that was was great, just because we talked about
Speaker 4: that a bit in advance and it was so fun,
Speaker 4: like they even put normal like beautiful leaning. It was
Speaker 4: was very cute.
Speaker 3: Was that from room to tuin.
Speaker 4: We did from Turin to roam. Yeah. When we came
Speaker 4: to Roma and we met there, this is what we
Speaker 4: did during the night. Yeah, the kids love it. It
Speaker 4: was such an experience. You have bang dead and you
Speaker 4: went you were arriving in Rome like around five thirty
Speaker 4: six in the morning. Was just fun.
Speaker 3: Did they sleep?
Speaker 4: They sleep, and I sleep as well. I was so tired,
Speaker 4: I was pregnant.
Speaker 1: And it's probably cheaper than a hotel room too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So we said, okay, we will be tired,
Speaker 4: but we already booked a little accommodation was now and
Speaker 4: airbnb was an apartment and so we said, okay, it
Speaker 4: will be fun. We arrived there and then we went
Speaker 4: for a walk. We actually went to Piazzaa wore now
Speaker 4: at six am, which was already busy, but what's nice. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and then we had a little nap in the afternoon.
Speaker 3: Oh so nice. Okay. Well, and I think around this time.
Speaker 1: People are thinking, oh my goodness. I was always thinking
Speaker 1: that I should learn some Italian before I go. So
Speaker 1: Monica tell us. You are the Italian teacher. Is it
Speaker 1: too late with two months to go to your Italy
Speaker 1: trip to learn a little bit of Italian?
Speaker 4: Never too late. Even if you just have a week
Speaker 4: and you just want to put a bit of effort.
Speaker 4: You can learn just a few things to be nice
Speaker 4: with people. And this is what we do with the travelers. So,
Speaker 4: as I said, we have different kind of Italian learn
Speaker 4: language learner, health students, so who want to be in
Speaker 4: fluence and so they've been studying four years. But then
Speaker 4: there is people that just want to be nice when
Speaker 4: they go there, and I think it's such a good
Speaker 4: way to extend your travel. We have a course that
Speaker 4: is called four week to Italy, so you can learn
Speaker 4: in four weeks just a little things to be nice
Speaker 4: with people, to greet, to order something at the restaurant,
Speaker 4: to also say what you don't eat, because lots of
Speaker 4: people the travel these days. Unfortunately we can be silic,
Speaker 4: or you can have an allergy or you just don't
Speaker 4: want to or you have a kind of diet that
Speaker 4: you want to keep having in Italy. And sometimes it
Speaker 4: is true that you can ask in English, but if
Speaker 4: you really need so for instance, we had a student.
Speaker 4: Her daughter was Siliic, but in a very severe way,
Speaker 4: so she need to make sure that nothing was like it.
Speaker 4: So she was saying that in Italian and in English,
Speaker 4: and she just learned that. So it's a fun way
Speaker 4: to extend your trouble. Again. You will not be fluent
Speaker 4: if you haven't studied Italian before, but you will learn
Speaker 4: just a few things to get by, or even just
Speaker 4: to say gratzia in the correct way. And so people
Speaker 4: that doesn't like look at you like she's speaking Spanish
Speaker 4: not Italian. Don't save me grassies please. So yeah, it's
Speaker 4: definitely achievable and will change your experience. And I do
Speaker 4: it every time when I go to a country that
Speaker 4: is not in English or Italian speaker. I do a
Speaker 4: bit of French before I go into France. I do
Speaker 4: a bit of even a Balinese when I go to Bali.
Speaker 4: It's nice to be nice with people where you go.
Speaker 4: People will appreciate so much and will change your experience
Speaker 4: with them as well, so you can connect better with people.
Speaker 1: I think, especially now when people tend to rely on
Speaker 1: Google Translate and things like that, if they're thinking, oh well,
Speaker 1: I don't need to learn because I can use this
Speaker 1: translation app But there's something so special about having that
Speaker 1: one to one interaction with people, and there's no better
Speaker 1: place to do that than Italy. I think in Italy
Speaker 1: it's a personal relationship, it's a feeling and if you
Speaker 1: make that effort, you were going to get it back
Speaker 1: many times over. A friend of mine just contacted me.
Speaker 1: She's in Italy at the moment. She's in Pulia, and
Speaker 1: you know, like they've had their usual they've had a
Speaker 1: few issues. She fell over and hurt herself and things
Speaker 1: like that, and some issues with their car and her
Speaker 1: husband he actually looks a bit of Italian's not Italian,
Speaker 1: but he looks a little bit, but he can't speak
Speaker 1: any Italian. And so but when she speaks Italian and
Speaker 1: she said, oh you should see the red carpet get
Speaker 1: laid out, I get all these attention. People want to
Speaker 1: help because she's made the effort to try, and she
Speaker 1: speaks a handful of words. Really she doesn't know too much,
Speaker 1: but it's making all the difference to their trip, and
Speaker 1: especially down south where they are at the moment, in
Speaker 1: quite a not a well known part of Pulia. People
Speaker 1: don't speak English very well. So it's really worth having
Speaker 1: a go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a beautiful way to connect. And really I
Speaker 4: said that first experience, but all the students that start
Speaker 4: to learn a bit of Italian before their strip, they
Speaker 4: really think, oh, it's like traveling, you know, I learn
Speaker 4: a bit of that culture. It make me dream that
Speaker 4: I'm going to be there. And you know, you ask
Speaker 4: to your personal teacher, like hair experience, well, she likes.
Speaker 4: So we have teachers around. They come from different places
Speaker 4: in Italy. So for instance, if you ask Marcella that
Speaker 4: she's from Sardinia and you are going to Sardinia, she
Speaker 4: will tell you everything about So it's almost like having
Speaker 4: your friend already in Italy that gives you her suggestion
Speaker 4: on how to approach people. So yeah, it's definitely is
Speaker 4: one of the things that I always do. And even
Speaker 4: if you don't do it with a tutor, just I
Speaker 4: suggest just too. Yes, if you remember the old Lonely
Speaker 4: Planet at the end had few FRASERI just read them
Speaker 4: and try to pronounce them. Well, it's something that you
Speaker 4: can do. Still, it's a bit less fun because when
Speaker 4: you read the sentence you don't know how to pronounce
Speaker 4: them actually, but yeah, we'll help you as well.
Speaker 1: Oh, Monica, are you've forgotten that you're the voice of
Speaker 1: our Italian in our app?
Speaker 4: Hey, I forgot about that exactly, Katie. That is something fun.
Speaker 4: If you go in the language section of Katie app,
Speaker 4: we did together this little tiny section where you can
Speaker 4: listen the main words and so you can listen, you
Speaker 4: can see how they spelled, so if you need to
Speaker 4: write them, you can just copy them. It's so easy.
Speaker 4: It's endy because it's on your phone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you can hear Monica's voice saying that the
Speaker 1: phrases and how to pronounce things correctly.
Speaker 3: So that's all in the untoldly to the app.
Speaker 1: Actually, that was actually one of my favorite parts when
Speaker 1: we were building the app, because I just I love
Speaker 1: hearing Monica's little voice coming out of the phone at me.
Speaker 4: It was fun. Yeah, it was a little fun project
Speaker 4: to do together, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wasn't it. Yeah, So definitely have a go at getting
Speaker 1: some Italian language down into your brain, even if it's
Speaker 1: learning how to order a gelato.
Speaker 3: Definitely, how to say.
Speaker 1: Buonacera, the differences in different types of greetings, because as
Speaker 1: much as everyone likes to say joao jiao bella, it's
Speaker 1: not really the standard way of approaching people is it.
Speaker 4: While you were speaking, I remember a section of our
Speaker 4: four Weeks to Italy course, and that is how to
Speaker 4: order your coffee. So it's not just about the language,
Speaker 4: but it's really to communicate what you want. So it's
Speaker 4: an Italian we always love to English speaker because they
Speaker 4: order to or do it cappuccinos because cappuccino is a
Speaker 4: word that you use in the English language. Now, so
Speaker 4: one cappuccino, two cappuccinos. You put the ax to make
Speaker 4: it plural, when for us cappuccinos doesn't exist. It becomes cappuccini, okay,
Speaker 4: so or cappuccino becomes cappuccini. So just be able to
Speaker 4: order rappuccino for you and your husband or you and
Speaker 4: your girlfriend, and just to order in a nice way
Speaker 4: so people don't don't laugh. That will be that will
Speaker 4: be good. So for rey do a cappuccini that is good,
Speaker 4: or you know, like if you like late in Australia,
Speaker 4: we order a latte, which is a coffee with milk.
Speaker 4: In Italian, if you just order latte, it's just a
Speaker 4: up like a big cup of milk because lata means milk,
Speaker 4: so that is a fun way as well too, just
Speaker 4: to be able to do what you like and how
Speaker 4: you like. So yeah, there are little things that will
Speaker 4: change completely your experience, especially if you travel out of Rome,
Speaker 4: Venice and Florence.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I think when people order latte and the server
Speaker 1: will go, oh, Fredo Ocardo's coral or hot, and you'll
Speaker 1: be like, don't go just a latta.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think everyone has the Latin culture around
Speaker 1: the world, and in Italian it's definitely cafe latte, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Exactly, which again has a like a big quantity of
Speaker 4: milk compared to the coffee. So yeah, when when you
Speaker 4: want to order a latte ish in Italy, I always suggest,
Speaker 4: for instance, to have therapuccino without the chocolate, because it's
Speaker 4: what resemble the most a latte in Australia for instance.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's it is. Part of the language is
Speaker 4: communication and you don't need to learn the war all
Speaker 4: the words, but you need to recognize what is written
Speaker 4: on the on your menu or ask. Yeah, for for instance,
Speaker 4: if you have a problem in the hotel lots of time,
Speaker 4: you know, like you you need your hair dryer doesn't work,
Speaker 4: or you want a change of your howell to go
Speaker 4: to their pool. So it's nice to ask in Italian,
Speaker 4: and I feel if it doesn't make sense, you'll see
Speaker 4: the biggest smile on people. Like even if you make
Speaker 4: a mistake when you're speaking Italian, or if you have
Speaker 4: to lead out what you've written a piece of paper,
Speaker 4: it will change your experience. And I always do that
Speaker 4: everywhere I traveled, me.
Speaker 1: Too, But I think Italians are unique in that they
Speaker 1: do genuinely appreciate the effort.
Speaker 3: Not every culture does.
Speaker 1: Let's just say, like the French an't famous for it,
Speaker 1: but definitely in Italy they definitely appreciate it. And you'll
Speaker 1: see a lot of generosity of spirit heading your way
Speaker 1: when you have a go. So the next bit that
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about is just getting all those
Speaker 1: dotted eyes and cross Tea's about doing all your paperwork
Speaker 1: when you go there, and all of the things that
Speaker 1: make everything go smoothly. Passports you need to have six
Speaker 1: months expiring. Actually three months is the rule, but I
Speaker 1: like to have six months just in case. I think
Speaker 1: there's nothing worse than getting to the airport and being
Speaker 1: told to know you can't board because you don't have
Speaker 1: the right documentation on you. So do you check your
Speaker 1: pass boards are up to date and check when they're expiring,
Speaker 1: because you can get yourself into a little bit of
Speaker 1: a bother. As I mentioned, I did a little mini
Speaker 1: episode on a very important document if you're driving, which
Speaker 1: is the international drivers permit, And Monica, does your husband
Speaker 1: drive when he's in Italy?
Speaker 4: Last time he draw he used the Australian drive license
Speaker 4: for three months and he was able to do that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I don't know if he works the same
Speaker 4: for every country or if that all is different.
Speaker 1: Well, you may not have rented a car, so you
Speaker 1: might not have found out the hard way.
Speaker 4: I know we did that car.
Speaker 1: No, you have that family car. But what you do
Speaker 1: need is your local license plus your international drivers permit,
Speaker 1: so next time he goes, because if you get stopped
Speaker 1: by police or there's an accident, you do need to
Speaker 1: have that if you've got a license from outside of Europe,
Speaker 1: So it's very important. I went into a bit more
Speaker 1: detail earlier in the week about this international drivers permit
Speaker 1: and people turning up to pick up their rental car
Speaker 1: and not being able to get it because they did
Speaker 1: not have the right documentation.
Speaker 4: I'm Italian and I should know this stuff, but because
Speaker 4: I don't work in that kind of field, yeah, I
Speaker 4: didn know about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think we're also into this false sense
Speaker 1: of security.
Speaker 3: Is like if you're.
Speaker 1: Especially if you're a frequent traveler, and you're just like, right, okay,
Speaker 1: go got my passport, got this, got that, booked everything online?
Speaker 3: Whoops, I forgot to check.
Speaker 1: And another one that's really important is depending on when
Speaker 1: you're traveling and how you're going in to Venice is
Speaker 1: that Venice has a tax now for day trip visitors
Speaker 1: that you have to pay in advance.
Speaker 3: But even if you are not going for the day.
Speaker 1: And you're staying on the lagoon, you still need to
Speaker 1: have an exemption. So you need to apply for it now.
Speaker 1: So the hotels will be sending it out. And you
Speaker 1: know how like sometimes in hotels and the way they
Speaker 1: communicate is so funny. Honestly, I love Italy because sometimes
Speaker 1: it's like stepping back in time to the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3: Let's take a quick moment. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: For daily travel tips and behind the scenes content from
Speaker 1: our tours. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Untold Italy Tours.
Speaker 3: But you need to pay attention.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're giving you really important information, like the Venice
Speaker 1: tourist tax, which if you haven't paid for it or
Speaker 1: you haven't applied for the exemption, this.
Speaker 3: Is like three or four hundred euros.
Speaker 1: Which can really content in that holiday budget.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I actually, when I traveled to Rome and Napril
Speaker 4: last year, I notice even like Airbnb now they have
Speaker 4: to charge the tax on top of the airbnbfee and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. You know,
Speaker 4: you assume that things are like here in Australia when
Speaker 4: I book something, I just go and it's done. I
Speaker 4: forgot how thorough they need to be when they check
Speaker 4: your passport. So again you just don't like just go
Speaker 4: in a place and that's it. Not they have to
Speaker 4: check your passport, They have to write all the things
Speaker 4: in their paper, so there is a lot of work.
Speaker 1: One thing please, no one forget is to get insurance.
Speaker 1: Please please make sure you have your travel insurance, especially
Speaker 1: the health one.
Speaker 3: I can't say this enough.
Speaker 1: Basically Easily has an amazing health system and you will
Speaker 1: probably be able to access it if you are traveling
Speaker 1: and something goes wrong. But the real challenge is if
Speaker 1: your vacation is disrupted or you need to be flown
Speaker 1: home for whatever reason. Some of our tour guests have
Speaker 1: had to leave our tours early for family health emergencies
Speaker 1: and other things, and if they don't have insurance, you know,
Speaker 1: basically the cost of flying back, getting an extra ticket,
Speaker 1: canceling the tour, getting additional accommodation and transportation, and if
Speaker 1: you are unfortunate enough to have to be medi backed
Speaker 1: home that can be life changing in a really terrible
Speaker 1: way from a financial perspective. So the cost of the
Speaker 1: insurance is small in comparison to your trip and it's
Speaker 1: a really important thing to do. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: done that yet, go ahead and do that because I
Speaker 1: think that's a very important step that you need to take.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good one. My mum is coming from
Speaker 4: Italy to Australia in July, and again for hair, I
Speaker 4: said the same. The first stuff that was booking the insurance,
Speaker 4: especially how things are going and that we have all
Speaker 4: the tom and even want to make sure that whatever
Speaker 4: you need to do, like you can fly back and
Speaker 4: you're covert because it's it's easy, especially with flights cost
Speaker 4: tool Yeah, blow on out to a budget in a
Speaker 4: very bad way.
Speaker 1: And probably the other thing around that is really work
Speaker 1: out how you're going to use your phone and how
Speaker 1: you're going to communicate with people. So in Italy everyone
Speaker 1: loves using WhatsApp, don't they.
Speaker 3: That's a WhatsApp culture. I reckon. There's a number one.
Speaker 4: Restaurants that is like book on WhatsApp. I was like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: I know it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you can do easily do just send them
Speaker 1: a text on WhatsApp. It's very easy to book the
Speaker 1: restaurants online that way. But if you are concerned about
Speaker 1: using a lot of data or you want to get
Speaker 1: a local SIM, you should do that. I recommend using
Speaker 1: an e SIM. There's a company called Eralo. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of different versions. I personally just use my plan
Speaker 1: from home because they get cheaper and cheaper all the time.
Speaker 1: Now it's like it can be five dollars a day
Speaker 1: or something like that. Some of the operators here in
Speaker 1: Australia offer international roaming plans for a very little and
Speaker 1: I personally find that the most convenient because of you know,
Speaker 1: now with all the security stuff, you need access to
Speaker 1: your actual phone to get the codes and all of that,
Speaker 1: but you can get an e SIM. I wouldn't bother
Speaker 1: doing it when you're there. It's just it's too much hassle. Definitely,
Speaker 1: if you've got a phone that takes two sims.
Speaker 4: Get sim yeah exactly. Yeah, but you don't need the
Speaker 4: second seam as well, like get the right way to
Speaker 4: just do all an electronic one. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 4: something you have to think about. I remember back in
Speaker 4: time when I was I had to grab another phone
Speaker 4: and like use the other phone as a rulter for
Speaker 4: or like in wireless. So it's much easier. But again
Speaker 4: it's something to think about when when you travel so
Speaker 4: much to organize, isn't it like when you put things
Speaker 4: together there, Like it's a lot, it's a lot of information.
Speaker 4: Especially if you are a parent, you have to think
Speaker 4: all the other things. For instance, what I notice again
Speaker 4: is when you travel with kids and you need to
Speaker 4: make sure that all the hotel they have a court,
Speaker 4: or if you need a court, or because not all
Speaker 4: the hotel has a court, or because maybe they have
Speaker 4: three and they already have three family, so make sure
Speaker 4: that this is our restaurants have like a seat for
Speaker 4: your kid. There are if you go a major city.
Speaker 4: I know there are company that even rained, you're a
Speaker 4: prom so if you need a problem with bigger wheels
Speaker 4: or whatever, so there is a's a mom. There is
Speaker 4: lots of things that I had to think that before.
Speaker 4: I didn't have to think, like even finding for mola
Speaker 4: baby food. It's not impossible, but you need to like
Speaker 4: look into me into this information before.
Speaker 1: Going traveling with small children. Like it's to be an
Speaker 1: Olympic sport. I reckon, it's amazing to do.
Speaker 3: I love doing it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, we would go with our two port
Speaker 1: cuts that we hit travel cuts that we had. We
Speaker 1: would put them on the plane because we knew the
Speaker 1: kids would sleep in them and they are very good.
Speaker 3: Okay, now we're getting very close to getting there.
Speaker 1: We need to pack. I mean, look all these people.
Speaker 1: My hat's off to you. If you can travel for
Speaker 1: longer than two weeks with a carry on, amazing. Personally,
Speaker 1: I get bored of my clothes. There is a lady
Speaker 1: on Instagram and she does this method, Sudoku packing method
Speaker 1: where you have like nine items of clothing.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I do like it, but I just look at it
Speaker 1: and I go I get bored, you know, with a
Speaker 1: with all of that, and also not just that, but
Speaker 1: I like to travel with a medium case. Now everyone's different,
Speaker 1: but I don't know how people can get their hair,
Speaker 1: you know, like to be just coming out of the
Speaker 1: shower and dry nicely. But I need my hair tools.
Speaker 1: I need I need things that I that are going
Speaker 1: to take up space, and I like to leave room
Speaker 1: to bring things home. I love shopping in Italy, so
Speaker 1: I don't travel carry on. I always check a bag,
Speaker 1: but I don't usually take a big case. I just
Speaker 1: take a medium one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, a big case is still heavy. It's
Speaker 4: too difficult. Sometimes castses are smaller than our casts, so
Speaker 4: sometimes it's even difficult to put in there in the car.
Speaker 4: And and it's true, as you say, you want to
Speaker 4: buy something in Italy, and everyone had this idea, and
Speaker 4: include sometimes I have this naive idea of like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm going to Italy and buy everything because it's going
Speaker 4: to be cheap. Well, if you don't know where to buy,
Speaker 4: it could be like prices, or you want your nice
Speaker 4: piece of clothes at least you have them. If you
Speaker 4: have beautiful nights and a villa like outside, you want
Speaker 4: your like Florida dress for instance, So something that you
Speaker 4: can you really enjoy, you feel well in it based
Speaker 4: on the weather. So do a bit of research on
Speaker 4: what weather is going to be and then some space
Speaker 4: free in the luggage. But make sure again you do
Speaker 4: a bit of research on where to buy things because
Speaker 4: it can be yeah, difficult to find exactly what you
Speaker 4: have in mind, like handmade things made in Italy, like
Speaker 4: hand like beautiful bags and shoes. So space by the
Speaker 4: same time, your stuff based on the weather and comfortable shoes.
Speaker 4: Remember how these streets in Italy are. We forget about
Speaker 4: cobblestones and high heels. They don't really work well.
Speaker 1: Can you do a bimnica as a proud Italian woman?
Speaker 1: Can you walk on cobblestones and hills?
Speaker 4: I actually used to do. I was much younger, and
Speaker 4: you know, like you want to do bella figura, which
Speaker 4: for an Italian is very important. So when I go
Speaker 4: to a restaurant, I used to park not too far
Speaker 4: and I put my high heels on and I had
Speaker 4: to walk on it. But yeah, my body change and
Speaker 4: I feel like a nice comfortable shoe is at best.
Speaker 3: Yeah me too.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I think my heels days are over.
Speaker 3: I've got such a collection.
Speaker 1: I used to be such a heels person, but yeah,
Speaker 1: really comfortable in sneakers now. Yeah, and flat anyway, you
Speaker 1: can still get very nice ones of those. But to
Speaker 1: your point about shopping, Actually, in our app, we have
Speaker 1: hundreds of listings of artisan shops where we love to
Speaker 1: recommend people to go to for buying food, for buying gifts,
Speaker 1: for buying linen.
Speaker 3: I love buying.
Speaker 1: Linen in Italy and ceramics as well, and a lot
Speaker 1: of these places will ship home. But you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you don't want that precious purchase to leave you. I know,
Speaker 1: I bought this beautiful star ceramic star when I was
Speaker 1: in Urbino last year, and I loved it so much,
Speaker 1: and it was packed and snugly put into my case.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a really important thing to have space
Speaker 1: in new case for all those purchases.
Speaker 4: Explain me if I go on your app and I
Speaker 4: want to find, yeah, like, how is organized to find,
Speaker 4: for instance, shops where I should look because I have
Speaker 4: your app? And again, every city is different, so I
Speaker 4: can say I'm Italian, I will find everything I can't
Speaker 4: because I don't know the city. So how does it work.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you go into the say your region,
Speaker 1: if you go into Pimonte and you can go into
Speaker 1: the shopping section, then there's a whole list of shops
Speaker 1: that we recommend, and they're all ones that we love.
Speaker 1: You know, there's the I think that famous cheese shopping
Speaker 1: bra is in there if you know that one. And
Speaker 1: you know, like there's our favorite chocolate shop in today,
Speaker 1: you know, the Gubino chocolate shop, which is on one
Speaker 1: of our favorites. So things like that. It's like really
Speaker 1: specific to the region. We have clothing boutiques, we have leather,
Speaker 1: we have ceramics. But but yeah, we love collecting this
Speaker 1: information and putting it in the app. So and it
Speaker 1: can also be mapped out on a map, so you
Speaker 1: can zoom in on where it is.
Speaker 4: Do you know where they are? Oh good, that's very handy.
Speaker 3: I think so well.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I do it really for myself
Speaker 1: more than anything else, because I want to remember all
Speaker 1: these places. Like you said, you put everything in Instagram
Speaker 1: and this ends up being one hundred items and then
Speaker 1: you have to sit through them and you don't really
Speaker 1: know why you saved them in the first place.
Speaker 4: Knowing where they are in their map will help because again,
Speaker 4: maybe you stay ira on, but if it's like an
Speaker 4: hour and a half the other side around, you can't go.
Speaker 4: So it's it's good to see what's what's around that
Speaker 4: you'll like it, or where do you'll stay. Yeah, that's
Speaker 4: that's a very good idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: So it's not unpacking that we have like a full
Speaker 1: episodes unpacking and what to where if anyone's interested, Like,
Speaker 1: we go into a lot of detail because everyone's got
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different packing style. And obviously
Speaker 1: there's mon Inca said if you're traveling with kids, and
Speaker 1: my goodness, it's a whole different kettle of fish, really,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 3: It's just packing for three boys. I don't know how
Speaker 3: you do.
Speaker 4: Yet I will eventually, So yeah, I wish me luck.
Speaker 3: I have two words for you.
Speaker 1: Packing cubes, color coordinated. Everything goes in the packing cubes
Speaker 1: and then you just pull them out. That's that's the
Speaker 1: only way that I can see that would work anyway.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's a whole nother ballgame.
Speaker 1: So the last thing that people should do and probably
Speaker 1: do this one to two weeks out. And this is
Speaker 1: something really important Monica probably gets collected by her family
Speaker 1: very excited when she arrives in Italy.
Speaker 3: But I don't.
Speaker 1: I get picked up by a driver. And this is
Speaker 1: the best thing that I do. Is so important to
Speaker 1: me because once, especially if you've traveled for twenty four
Speaker 1: hours from Australia or more sometimes depending on where you've
Speaker 1: stopped over or you know, for coming from the West
Speaker 1: coast of the US or even the East Coast, you're tired,
Speaker 1: you're exhausted. Yes, you can get it taxi. But taxis, yeah,
Speaker 1: they can.
Speaker 3: You know, taxi.
Speaker 1: Drivers the world over, they don't have the best reputation,
Speaker 1: do they.
Speaker 3: I mean, they can be really painful.
Speaker 1: And you don't know exactly what you're going to pay.
Speaker 1: You have to sort out money you have to pay
Speaker 1: with the car. They might turn around and say no,
Speaker 1: we don't take the cards. It happens all the time.
Speaker 1: The other option is depending on where if you're landing
Speaker 1: in Rome or Milan, which is where most people land,
Speaker 1: are definitely trains into the city, but then you have
Speaker 1: to get from the train station to.
Speaker 3: Your accommodation, like is still another step.
Speaker 1: So I like to eliminate steps, and I like to
Speaker 1: get straight to my accommodation, and that's why I book
Speaker 1: a transfer.
Speaker 4: My family come and pick me up. You still, since
Speaker 4: I have the kids, I don't want anyone to pick
Speaker 4: me up first because again I need the car seats. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and they don't have car seats in the car. And also,
Speaker 4: as you said, I'm so tired that I actually don't
Speaker 4: want to speak with anyone. But the hower and a
Speaker 4: half that takes me from Mirano Airport to my village,
Speaker 4: so we have a driver as well, comes and pick
Speaker 4: us up. It's big, it's like a multi van. We
Speaker 4: all fit in there. They have car seats, so I
Speaker 4: don't have to worry about setting up car seat. And
Speaker 4: my mom she has but she can't really put them
Speaker 4: up nicely. So when we are at home we do it.
Speaker 4: The good stuff is like I come out and they
Speaker 4: help me with luggage. And again so I indeed, because
Speaker 4: if you are by yourself or like with your husband,
Speaker 4: but you have kids and you have quite a bit
Speaker 4: of luggage or whatever, it's so good that they just
Speaker 4: they pick you up. You don't have to think about anything,
Speaker 4: so it's worth every single penny. And also they don't speak,
Speaker 4: so I can just close my eyes until I'm at
Speaker 4: my mom and I'm okay, I just want to think
Speaker 4: about that. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1: I think people think transfers really expensive as well, but
Speaker 1: like you might pay maybe ten, fifteen, twenty years more,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it's worth every single scene. I honestly think,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, unless you're really really on a
Speaker 1: budget and you're backpacking and you have a lot of
Speaker 1: spare time, this is literally the smartest thing to do.
Speaker 4: If you ask me, of course you feel backpacking, you
Speaker 4: probably are not even listening this podcast.
Speaker 3: Monica, that's not true. Actually, I've been texting my friend's daughter.
Speaker 3: She's listened to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I convinced her to go actually up to Laguria instead
Speaker 1: of going on a party boat in Croatia and she
Speaker 1: loved it.
Speaker 4: Well, Dunn, Okay, so so backpack us you're here listening
Speaker 4: as Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, we have so many different types of people listening,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what's really great actually, because we
Speaker 1: try and help no matter how you travel, We've got
Speaker 1: a way to help you, and I hopefully everyone's learned
Speaker 1: something today. So what do you think, Monica, Like, let's
Speaker 1: send everyone off on their way, that everyone who's heading
Speaker 1: off soon have a wonderful time. Hopefully you're all organized
Speaker 1: and excited and ready to go, and we wish you
Speaker 1: the very best experience in Italy. Make sure to say
Speaker 1: bon Jianna, have a go, try some words and if
Speaker 1: you want to really get into it and really speak
Speaker 1: like an Italian maybe I don't know, Monica. Just as
Speaker 1: an aside, did you see Jua Lipa's wedding in Sicily?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: I see it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, she looked good.
Speaker 4: Really listener, Yeah, that the dress.
Speaker 1: Was w She speaks some Italian, I think, do U.
Speaker 1: So she's a very talented lady.
Speaker 4: How many celebrities actually do speak Italian? It's so cute.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I see some stuff coming up and then I'm thinking,
Speaker 4: oh wow, there's speak Italian. And again it's so nice
Speaker 4: to hear that. It was beautiful to speak with you.
Speaker 4: And yeah, if anyone once saw travel and they want
Speaker 4: to keep this suggestion, I think they're so precious. It's
Speaker 4: beautiful to travel, but it's beautiful to travel when you
Speaker 4: understand more about the place. So it's good when you
Speaker 4: can explore a little more, whether it's the language or not.
Speaker 4: So if you want to get in contact with me,
Speaker 4: and you want to just explore Italian language a bit.
Speaker 4: Please do I want to offer too extra session on
Speaker 4: our four weeks to Italy for your listener Katie, So
Speaker 4: for anyone in the books the four weeks to Italy
Speaker 4: with and told Italy cod check out, I'm happy to
Speaker 4: add on to extra sessions. So actually not just do
Speaker 4: the course and practice with your tutor, but you actually
Speaker 4: have more time to ask questions about the language and
Speaker 4: be specific on what you need when you are in Italy. Yes,
Speaker 4: and I think as well on your app you can
Speaker 4: also ask a question, isn't it That is like ask, yeah,
Speaker 4: what's on your app that access is.
Speaker 1: Online little ai which accesses all our information?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a hendy So yeah again, ask your question
Speaker 4: sir to me or to Katie and your trip will
Speaker 4: be amazing. I know. And please even in the comment
Speaker 4: just let us know where you're going. I'm courious to
Speaker 4: see where you're listening are going this year or next year.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I love our listeners because they're all doing the most
Speaker 1: amazing things. I just had an email from one lady
Speaker 1: who's going back to Parma and.
Speaker 3: Then she's going up to Alba and she's.
Speaker 1: Going all around Bergamot up in the north, like so
Speaker 1: really unique and different places that I love people going
Speaker 1: exploring Italy.
Speaker 3: And it's what we're here for.
Speaker 1: Really, that's why we that's why we do.
Speaker 3: What we do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, Parma, I just just can as soon as
Speaker 4: you said Parma. Parma is this restaurant where they wee
Speaker 4: put your ice cream in front of you at the
Speaker 4: end of the beautiful meal.
Speaker 1: Oh my, stop it stop it Okay?
Speaker 4: Every year hopefully awfully next year. Bus year it is
Speaker 4: a bit too busy with three kids. But next year
Speaker 4: a will and I definitely will remember to the drive license.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, one bia jo. Everyone, have a wonderful time
Speaker 3: in Italy.
Speaker 4: Katie job.
Speaker 1: And that Italy Travelers is your countdown to your trip.
Speaker 1: Make sure to get the tickets, the trains, insurance and
Speaker 1: documents all organized. Learn a little Italian and get your
Speaker 1: communications and packing in order. And also don't forget to
Speaker 1: order your pickup for your transfer when you arrive. I
Speaker 1: think it's really a nice way to start your holiday.
Speaker 1: The thing that I will carry from this conversation is
Speaker 1: Monica's point that one small word, one jawn opens doores
Speaker 1: that no amount of planning. Can my friend in Pulia
Speaker 1: getting the red carpet treatment for a handful of words
Speaker 1: she barely knew? Says it perfectly. Have I go out
Speaker 1: the language, say bunjoo, audio coffee, the Italian way, enjoy
Speaker 1: Italy through all of your senses. Everything Monica and I
Speaker 1: talked about today, including our companion article to this episode,
Speaker 1: her four Weeks to Italy cause, and the little language
Speaker 1: section the two of us built into the Untold Italy
Speaker 1: app is linked to in the show notes at Untold
Speaker 1: Italy dot com. Forward slash three three two for episode
Speaker 1: number three hundred and thirty two one via Joe. If
Speaker 1: your troop is imminent, have the most wonderful time. Soak
Speaker 1: it all up and make sure to get an idea
Speaker 1: of your next Italian adventure while you are there. Next
Speaker 1: week on the pod, I'll be answering some more of
Speaker 1: your questions, but until then, it's chow for now. The
Speaker 1: Untold Italy podcast is an independent production podcast editing, audio
Speaker 1: production and website development by Mark Hatter, Production assistance and
Speaker 1: content writing by the are they kg Clark, Yes, there
Speaker 1: are two of us. For more information about Untold Italy,
Speaker 1: please visit untold Italy dot com, Poty