Host Bonjour

We're glad you found us! This board is what it is thanks to the contributions of the amazing community members which as you've probably noticed, include some folks who are native to many of the countries in the region. Other members have visited many times and have vast experience to share, which they always do generously with our community. We love to see questions when members are in the planning stages of a journey as this is often a very fun and entertaining way to kickstart the trip. You may even make some friends! Enjoy browsing and posting. 🙂

Second this. Go get lost among the canals further away from the Grand Canal especially. It's especially tranquil and beautiful, plus you see a bit of "everyday" Venice. I also took the vaporetto from San Marco to the area of the train station...I think I was just tired from walking all day, it was hot. The vaporetto got really crowded so it didn't quite go as I'd hoped as a scenic lovely boat ride but, I'm still glad I did it. I didn't want to be in a gondola but I had to be on the water! To me, it wasn't expensive, relative to certain other prices or cities but everyone's considerations re: costs are valid. I was generally always a shoestring traveler and it was doable for me (vaporetto) but I guess everyone picks and chooses their priorities, right? What's 100% is that every Venice experience is wonderful. 🙂

Same for me. Stayed in the 1st twice, the 5th, 12th, 10th for one night in a tiny flat (missed a flight due to torrential rain + partial transit strike: I still nearly made the flight) and the 7th. It almost doesn't matter as long as you....⬇️ So long as you are within a quick walk to a metro station, and most places are in Paris, you'll see that the station stops aren't far apart, it won't be too difficult to find one in any arrondissment. To save time and reduce transfers (which aren't difficult and again, don't take much time as Paris isn't as big and wide as it looks) consider a hotel within the inner ring: that is, a hotel within an arrondissment that circles the river: these being the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and you could basically add most of the 8, 9 and even some partws of the 10-11 arrondissments, depending upon the location. An easy way to help sort through the options is to search by stars. In France, hotels receive stars not by opinions, but by amenities available in the hotel and to an extent, quality, though not necessarily the way we're accustomed to rating things in the US. Prices vary according to season but a three star can be quite nice and have all the amenities you'd be accustomed to in a proper hotel. Even some two stars can be really lovely but only have two stars because maybe it doesn't have an elevator. At four stars you're approaching luxury, at five stars you shouldn't be wanting for anything (Four Seasons aka George V, Plaza Athénèe, the Crillon etc). A favorite area of mine, maybe nostalgic from my first visit to Paris (and a subsequent return) I like the area. Convenient to the metro, the Louvre, Marais not far, in fact a lot is walkable. I stayed on the rue des Capucines, which was quiet except for a pub some nights but who cares. Decide what's important to you in a hotel, your budget and study the metro map. Then check out a few places that hit the mark. There will be enough to choose from. Eager to return but don't know if I'll be in the city since I'll likely visit a friend as I did on other visits to France. Keep us posted and let us know if you have more questions.

Another vote for the Pantheon, it's breathtaking in so many ways. Felt the same way going through the Forum, which was astounding and while I was walking through, I had no guide to what I was seeing but the significance was not lost on me. I read about it as soon as I got inside! There are audio guides you can use on your phone for the Forum (and Palatine Hills) and @cruisemom may have insight as to whether or if they are worth using. I am a clutz of the highest order and so just walking and looking is about as much as I can do at the same time but again, the Forum is just so so so amazing. It's also quite something to simply see the Colosseum from the outside: there it is, right in front of you, this thing you've seen a thousand times in photos and movies. Pretty great combo day, really 😉

A community member used to have in their signature, might have been on our Independent Traveler message boards not CC, "if you've seen everything, you've seen nothing" which at first I thought, that's kind of negative, but I hadn't done as much traveling to far away places the first time I saw it and I wasn't yet a host. Years and miles and oceans later, I understand what the point of the quote was, having sometimes worried too much if I was seeing enough or moving fast enough or planning my day in the right way. Some places I've been back to and have been able to soak up the experience, dally in the atmosphere and just do whatever. As a result, I've had experiences I'd never have imagined might happen, things you CAN'T plan because their spontaneous or a result of having time to meet local people. Shorex are typically brief but in that time there is still an opportunity to maximize enjoyment of the experience, which will bring incredible memories to mind in an instant as opposed to the rush/hustle trying to see everything. I would consider thinking about what or if visiting a particular place would have the most significance/meaning to you: which is most comparable to what you like to do? Are you really into history/museums? Or do you really enjoy the outdoors, scenic views, markets/shops? (Keep in mind you can buy Italian ceramics and wares in other places) I've sat in traffic for a good part of my life so avoiding it at all costs (there's the unavoidable whatever happens that can't be avoided) on holiday is always my choice. But that's just me. Maybe the traffic wouldn't be so bad for others? If you want a lovely seaside day (after you find out which town) go for it. It's an Italian seaside. 🇮🇹 🍋 🍝 Can you do a seaside excursion in another port? Anyway, it's Italy. It's heaven. 🙂 Have fun with the rest of the plans. The Italians take a long lunch every day...I always think it's something everyone could benefit from.

I got Geox in Verona and loved them, they turned out to be a worthwhile investment that carried memories. The shoes were super comfortable (tiny bit of break in period required) and lasted SO long, high praise from someone who is hard on shoes. They have lots of stylish choices (nope don't work for a shoe company. 😂) Might be a good idea, if you or your husband is carrying a tote or daypack, to pop your wedges in there and swap once you get to just about to the restaurant. I've walked on just about everything here in my hometown, and while there aren't a lot of cobblestones, (older areas have them) an uneven surface + height ≠ balance...don't get far. Most of the stones are uneven, and then they don't sit level on the ground even if they've been picked up and reset. I could gazelle over manhole covers, drains, subway grates, blah blah, but it never worked with any kind of heel on cobblestones...and...it's most uncomfortable because of their density/hardness. Not sure of the type of rock, but it's a bit like marble..which is hard and slippery, this is hard and wobbly. I think what everyone here is hoping to spare you is needless discomfort and or, worse, hurting your ankle while on holiday. It's not an age or mobility thing, this is a challenge no matter the age. Comfy feels good and it does often look good. Also, slidergirl is correct, it's quite normal these days to be less formal in what were once typically fully formal situations. I did high tea at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong a while ago with a neat casual outfit, it was hot and humid. In Italy, casual neat dress would include linen or linen cotton blend shirt, trousers, a skirt or dress....quite simple in the south. And comfortable. Maybe a bit more color in the north or just add a primary color. Can't lose. The ship is different of course. Go for it! If you go back, you will pack different for the land portion without a doubt. Try to pack now like it's your second visit, you will be comfortable and enjoy every minute, speramente (hopefully)! Really excited your journey is getting close. I remember when you were considering itineraries so it's exciting!!

Can't overstate the value of a lightweight waterproof layer that can be easily rolled (or packed into it's own zip case) and popped into day bag/knapsack. For places known to have weather (or quirky weather) it will come in handy more often than not. Add a foldable bucket had if the rain layer doesn't have a hood.

Twice to the Biennale, ok that's soooo exciting (and as insiders!) cool! Equally exciting: a visit to Puglia, so, what a combination. 🎇 This is what struck me as I'm viewing the selection of images you shared. I'm not sure what I expected but the exhibits were so wonderfully varied in their style, scale, processes and types...but I guess that's why Venice is THE Biennale capital B. Isn't really a better setting for captivating art than a stunning city, is there? 😍 What type of art does he make? It looks like you're drawn to sculpture and large scale installations, so if I had to guess...but I also do see you included some amazing glass work. My goodness the piece by the campanile, now having seen how it's created I can't imagine. And the bookcase? I will inflict a little punishment on myself I didn't make enough time to take the boat to Murano. (It could still happen if I can ever renew my Irish passport 🤣) I can't imagine leaving without some sort of major piece of Murano and a lighting fixture would probably be the most practical because it gets used. A vase or other item would be set aside but this...it's kind of like the ones in the Bellagio...maybe it was just me but when I walked into that place I saw two things: flowers and the lighting but lights first up above, Murano...then beautiful flowers. Thanks again for sharing additional images, absolutely loved seeing them. 🎨🇮🇹

Did you go to Venice just for the Biennale? Or fly in early before sailing? What an experience it must have been!! I've seen some incredible exhibits on Instagram (www.instagram.com/jr) including a custom designed Venice Simplon rail car by the artist JR. I suppose there were some old cars that were able to be refurbished. Pretty cool but then as your images show, so many interesting things on view every time there's a show. Must be some amazing glass work. I just finished watching the Blown Away series and there was a Murano expert there to judge and several makers used advanced venetian techniques. Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing. Oh and happy today is the first day of Venice day trip fee, to be "gently" enforced I read, and cost more to implement than it will collect, in classic Italian bureaucratic style. Still....have to preserve Venice. 🙂

What about a prepaid Visa or Mastercard? It's the kind you can buy at Target or Walmart with cash and then works the same as a credit card for purchasing goods and services. You just would need to be sure that there is an adequate amount of money available on the card to cover the cost you plan to spend with the card, but then you would likely have this planned in your budget. The cards are also usually available in places like CVS, Walgreens, and supermarkets. There's usually a small fee to "activate" the card when you buy it. Check to see if or what the international transaction fees might be. You can do a comparison for prepaid card fees (mostly this would be with foreign currency transactions) with a google search. I think this would be a better solution than the debit card (which is usually a VISA) though many states have enacted rules that limit rental car companies from placing excessive holds on debit cards for rental cars. Good luck!

Given the high rate of VAT and or any associated costs associated with alcohol, I could see where NCL might not want to see these costs gobble up the profitability they earn on beverages. Sister lines Oceania and Seven Seas can probably absorb into their bottom lines a bit more comfortably with different fare schedules, but NCL might take this step in port to preserve better rates for passengers. Beverages tend to be highly profitable, but why give away any of that profit when they can offer better value/savings etc to passengers? Plus, it's not merely the amount of the tax, but also the related costs for complying with the taxes will also eat into the bottom line, and each line (including sister lines) will be responsible for its profitability so strategic planning decisions like this make sense from a profit/loss standpoint, however unpopular it might be. If they served, they'd still have to pay the VAT to whichever country because they wouldn't get a waiver for collecting/paying to locality. It's a theory, but since almost everything comes down to money, that's where I'd bet a euro. 🤑

Thanks so much for sharing your passport loss and recovery story. Not only is it a helpful account of the steps to take after the theft of a passport, each step was well described from start to finish. Most helpful of all was that by acknowledging that yes, this is unpleasant, you were then able to move on to problem solving. Part of being able to take the necessary steps comes from being prepared before we arrive (pre-travel stage): read about what, where, how to do stuff when things do go wrong. Trip insurance can help with unexpected costs or losses, but that's gotten even more complicated in recent years, especially post–pandemic, policies/terms have changed. Cruise Critic brings in Trip Insurance experts from time to time to help untangle some of the complexity through Q&As on our forum. So so happy that this had the best possible outcome, but it was largely down to your exceptional efforts! And again, it's not easy to trouble shoot in a country/language that's not your own, I've done it, many of us have, to varying degrees of success for any given reason (especially these days when ID is so critical). Please accept our thanks for sharing your account and update, along with a fancy Cruise Critic badge for your member profile! 🎉

Which browser do you use? Google will almost always ask if you wish for a page to be translate and/or automatically translate if you check yes when the pop up appears. The browser will auto-translate any page you visit when it detects a language that isn't English. The others (Safari, Firefox, Bing) probably do it but I rarely use them–it might require changing a setting to trigger the translation so I'm not sure. Like many others on this board, I can manage with Italian, but it doesn't go so well in every language so Google translate works wonders! Don't count on it for literary accuracy (yet) but it's generally adequate for travel info.

Love that you included the Italian translations! Appreciate the post and I think there are two restaurants on this list that are faves of our friends on here, è vero? Don't recall seeing Arcangelo or Grappolo mentioned but I'm sure it's come up at some point. Gosh now I'm hungry/ho fame! Hope everyone's year has gotten off to a great start 🙂

Hi Korimako! We have an entire board dedicated to technology questions re: cruising (and photography/video) but of course you're always welcome to post in any topic. Just sharing here to help you get targeted info. 🙂 SIM/eSIM Topic on Digital Tech board and there are other topics concerning cell phones, wifi, on board tech use and much more. Hope this helps! Colleen

Yes, so sorry I missed that. How are you uploading the image? Can you copy/past the image into the post? Tap on the three dots in the upper right hand section of the image, click copy on the image you would like to post, then open your browser and navigate to the topic, place the cursor into a new post where you'd like to drop the image and click paste. Since the image is already in jpg format, there shouldn't be an issue and it should work similar to drag and drop. At the moment I can't login with my phone to test anything 😂 but as soon as I'm able I'll try it out too. So if anyone sees a wonky post from me, that's why....

So we have the holiday mingle board open and there's a *chef's kiss* delicious cookie topic (biscuit) recipe exchange underway, so thoughts came to mind of incredible biscuits and desserts/puddings that are traditional this time of year, or maybe all year and extra lovely over the holidays. If anything springs to mind that is a fave, whether it's a national/regional favorite or something you discovered on a cruise or another journey and please consider sharing it with the community in the spirit of the season (or the spirit of your favorite food network show?). There's an adorable gingerbread badge on offer for anyone who contributes. You can almost taste the little hands...ok that's probably weird. 🍪😂 Hope everyone is well and if traveling over the next few weeks, go safely. Colleen

So we have the holiday mingle board open and there's a *chef's kiss* delicious cookie topic (biscuit) recipe exchange underway, so thoughts came to mind of incredible biscuits and puddings that are traditional this time of year, or maybe all year and extra lovely over the holidays. If anything springs to mind that is a fave, whether it's a national favorite or something you discovered on a cruise or another journey and please consider sharing it with the community in the spirit of the season (or the spirit of your favorite food network show?). There's an adorable gingerbread badge on offer for anyone who contributes. You can almost taste the little hands...ok that's probably weird. 🍪😂 Hope everyone is well and if traveling over the next few weeks, go safely. Colleen

So we have the holiday mingle board open and there's a *chef's kiss* delicious cookie topic (biscuit) recipe exchange underway, so thoughts came to mind of incredible biscuits and puddings that are traditional this time of year, or maybe all year and extra lovely over the holidays. If anything springs to mind that is a fave, whether it's British or something you discovered on a cruise or another journey and please consider sharing it with the community in the spirit of the season (or the spirit of the Great British Bake Off?). There's an adorable gingerbread badge on offer for anyone who contributes. You can almost taste the little hands...ok that's probably weird. 🍪😂 Hope everyone is well and if traveling over the next few weeks, go safely. Colleen

Ciao tutti! So we have the holiday mingle board open and there's the beginnings of a *chef's kiss* cookie topic so you know I got to thinking about everyone here. Maybe there's not always a consistent stream of conversations about dolci, there's the gelato chat and the tiramisu chat, so there has to be some holiday cookie chat. That leads me to believe there may be fans of rainbow cookies, pizzelles, pignoli cookies (ok not for everyone), cannoli (not a cookie but not open for debate in this topic 😂 ), the honey balls aka struffoli, (also not a cookie, but you tell that to a Sicilian!). If you have any Italian, American, Polish (don't know how to spell it but they have a classic), Filipino, Dominican, Greek, any type of holiday/seasonal recipe, or restaurant fave/memory, you'd like to share, please do! The festively shaded link ⬆️ to the topic is available in the first line of this post. There's an adorable gingerbread badge on offer for anyone who contributes. You can almost taste the little hands...ok that's probably weird. 🍪😂 Hope everyone is well, warm (or cool in the southern hemisphere) and if traveling over the next few weeks, go safely. 🎇✨ Colleen

You need to convert the HEIC files (standard in iPhone) into jpg files in order for them to upload here. To automatically CONVERT existing HEIC images to JPG when transferring/posting images from your iPhone: Launch the Settings app Tap Photos Tap Automatic. This setting is found at the very bottom of the screen under Transfer to Mac or PC This setting is extremely useful as it now means that any time you transfer photos from iPhone to Mac or PC they will automatically send in JPEG rather than HEIC. To automatically FORMAT your photos in JPG (instead of HEIC) as you take them: Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad Tap Camera. You might have to scroll a bit to find this option Tap Formats Tap Most Compatible. If you want to switch back to HEIC, follow these same steps but tap High Efficiency. JPG is the standard file transfer for images and unless you have a particular requirement to keep images in HEIC format, it will be fine to keep the jpg setting on your iPhone. You may always change it back if you wish and use the selective jpg transfer option noted above. Good luck. We hope this helps 🙂

The Cruise Critic Holiday Jingle & Mingle Board is open once again, and there's a cookie (oops, biscuit!) recipe thread that's off to a decent start. There are also surprise badges available for members (you'll see it on your CC avi) who stop by and say hello, share a virtual toddy with your fellow cruisers. Sorry for shouting in the topic title but wanted to grab the attention of folks who aren't here as often as our ride or die members, who we love and appreciate more than we can express for all the knowledge and wisdom so generously shared with the community! Popular/frequently asked questions include: Getting to/from port to London by car/train/bus (link to pinned topic at top of board) Finding an hotel in London (link to pinned top at top of board) Ho-Ho buses in London (great post by JB on using a Ho-Ho in London) We encourage reading through pinned topics if your question falls into the popular category. The topics are live and updated daily by travelers and by folks living in/around London and the U.K. How lucky are we? You may still have questions, but you'll be able to ask questions that are more specific to your needs, saving time and all the back and forth. Grab the info that's already on offer and then post your specific question to our experienced (and insider) community members. Some members report that the search topic is challenging to use while looking for frequently posted content; here is a link to some info on that subject. A few fixes have been made to the latest update over the summer. Finally, we would say to folks waery of the usual questions, we understand and we appreciate your kindness and patience with members of the community reaching out for information. Any member is may bypass any question at any time and chime in where they feel they may be most helpful and contribute generously, and again, we are truly grateful. Thanks for taking the time to read and to everyone for contributing to Cruise Critic in 2023. It's been such a wonderful year, seeing everyone get back out on the sea again, rescheduling plans that were postponed or cancelled, things feeling kind of normal-ish again. Stay safe and warm 🙂

I had dinner at an upscale restaurant in Mexico once where the menus for women did not even have the prices listed (they did for men), women were given roses when they arrived, and when the time came for the check, a lavish basket was brought to the woman who was then instructed to hand it over to the man she was dining with. It was the check. Now, taking into account this doesn't account for LGBTQ+ couples or less modern views of women's ability to earn and certainly manage money, at times old world views still may appear on occasion. Italy is probably still a bit more old fashioned in some ways than some other European countries, but they're not entirely backwards either. I think the bartender probably meant no offense and was probably thinking old world ways...in Italy of all places, this would be the default presumption. You still can't go into most churches without proper cover etc etc. so things are still how they are; not for everyone, but for some people. It's always ok to send feedback to a hotel, in a constructive, polite manner. Perhaps it would help them for future guests...maybe they could put better hinges on the furniture, silicone stoppers or whatever so nothing slams shut, just make some slight improvements with hardware so the furniture isn't slammed and maybe that's a fix for less noise? They don't know if they don't know. Changing cultural views via different languages? Either spend a lot of time there and make friends or chalk it up to the experiences of traveling, or even at home. Some folks just see things differently. 🤷‍♀️ ☺️

They do, it costs about €10 less than the passport book.

This would be the critical thing: plainclothes police wouldn't be making random pedestrian stops and doing document checks. Undercovers generally do targeted operations when they're out in a designated, probably ordinary place, for a very specific purpose, which is probably not to pick out immigration violations in touristy locations. It's always good to be aware, but other than your hotel or airport, maybe a MAJOR train station window, no one should be asking for your passport in public, unless of course, you're arrested? 😂 But even then probably no documents needed until the station? 🤷‍♀️ Even the police know what's up. No need to take documents out in public!! 🙂