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Welcome to the Personal Travels Magazine, which is the tool that we have chosen to communicate our passion for travel stories, declined in all its possible variants. All from a point of view that we hope will be interesting and new. Because traveling, before being the core of our work, is our greatest passion. A passion we want to share with our readers.

Over the coming months, our travel magazine will keep you updated on key news affecting the industry. We will try to provide useful advice on the one hand to those who are about to take a trip, alone, with family or in a group. On the other hand we will offer insights and interesting statistics for those who welcome travelers into their properties as guests.

Being based in Italy, we also intend to explore the most important and beautiful Italian cities looking at them in a different light from what is traditionally proposed by the various guides. We’ll focus on some details and provide alternative paths, without forgetting to tell the adventures and the most enjoyable aspects of traveling.

Together, we want to try and tell the most fascinating travel experiences, those that exceed any pattern, and change the course of a lifetime, also inviting readers to contact us to share their unforgettable travel experiences on these pages. Pages that will be useful mainly to get in touch with you readers, travelers and hoteliers and hosts of all kinds, to introduce our company, and to know you better.

We will invest all our expertise and passion in the hope that our publication will represent both the morning-coffee reading, and a useful tool to provide some inspiration to delve into the world of tourism. Our travel magazine is here, don’t forget to share your comments and feedback with us!

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When I left my full-time job at booking-dot-com to start a project of my own, it did feel a bit like being the first person to ever try oyster. I still don’t know if it’s really my thing, but I will never forget that flavor. The idea is to make the world of travel easier and smoother, more democratic even, by bringing together those who travel and those who host travelers for a living.

On this blog we will discuss traveling under different perspectives and points of view. What do people who travel experience and feel during their trips? What do hoteliers or other hosts have to say about it? The aim is to try and define best practices and useful tips to enjoy at best on of the great gifts of humanity, however it involves you.

Before I further introduce the features of the blog, let me tell you more about myself and how I defined my own way of traveling. Being born in Italy in 1976, I’m old enough to remember what it was like when households did not have any form of personal computer. But thanks to my father the first such machine to enter our home was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and that was early in 1983.

Around 10 years later it was time for dad’s first ever-so-bulky mobile phone. In those same years I was already becoming a frequent flier, mainly to visit my mother’s side of the family in the ‘Ole Country, every given summer. Back then the No-Smoking sign would go off while airborne and you could happily light up on your regular Aer Lingus or Alitalia flights.

Of course traveling is always the same, magic experience that expands the lives of millions of people today as it was at the time. Only we had to deal with a totally different way to organize, enjoy, and remember our trips. Let me just hint at what I mean by crucial differences by recalling some aspects of the one trip that forever defined my way of traveling: the InterRail trip of summer 1998 with the girl who was to become my lifetime companion.

Photos:

At the time not every hand-held device had an incorporated 12 megapixel digital lens. There was no such thing as a digital camera, at least not at consumer level. People had compact cameras that required actual film to deliver photos, like Serena’s Pentax camera we had with us.

souvenir shop in Granada

You brought tons of film with you from home, bought from trusted shops where you hoped they wouldn’t give you expired stuff. When you ran out of it, it was time to retort to souvenir shops like this one in Granada, where you could buy your Kodak Gold films and pay for them like they were actually made of the precious metal. During the trip, you shot blindly at your subjects, hoping to have pressed the button at the right moment. The adrenaline kick when you came back home and sent the film to develop hoping to have at least a few good photos in the batch is something still unsurpassed. As is the disappointment of finding out that you had completely burnt the film by accidentally exposing it to light, and would have to do with no visual memories for that particular vacation.

Calling home

As I said, mobile phones weren’t exactly portable back then, nor were they very affordable. Needless to say, we didn’t have one with us while travelling through Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. When you had a chance you called the old folks from a public phone booth and reassure them that all was well, like I was doing from this cabin in Barcelona’s famous Barceloneta.

calling home from a phone box in Barceloneta

Another option was to inform your relatives of the phone number of the place you were staying, but this meant that your mother-in-law would have had to find out how to overcome the language barriers of the case and get the clerk of a dusty old posada to get her daughter on the phone ASAP.  She didn’t really use that word.

Accommodation:

Booking a stay somewhere before you actually got there was almost impossible during youth travels. Business and leisure travelers succeeded by calling days in advance, and providing a credit card number or a bank instalment as a guarantee. But generally the rule was: Reach a destination, find a place to stay.

sleeping out in Faro train station

A trail of youngsters following a hotel owner to an available alternative nearby was a typical sight in many European cities. Sometimes though the task was unsuccessful. You could spend most of the day wandering from one to another place on your list, only to find them fully booked or unavailable.

That’s when you retorted to literally anything, like the night we spent on the hard stone floor outside a godforsaken train station in Portugal with a bunch of German youths.

Friends:

Those guys were the funniest bunch of kraut aficionados I’ve ever met, and together we spent a couple of fantastic days. My memories of the time spent with them include a sick joke on Lady D, and the weirdest ever train journey. Between the stops I had to pick out the thorns of juicy cactuses from the unexperienced hands of those who had obviously never seen what the Italians call Indian figs.

dinner in Portugal (why pizza?)

Needless to say we did not have social media back then. If you wanted to keep in touch you had to commit to becoming pen pals. Provided you never lost the addresses scribbled on random sheets of paper or at the back of your phone book.

I always lost them. That’s why none of these beautiful people are my facebook friends today. I wish they could recognize themselves in the photo and contact me, to share more memories of that fantastic summer traveling around Europe.

The post Before Personal Travels appeared first on personal travels.

Photo by flickr user Don DeBold

Personal Travels has kindly asked me to contribute regularly to its travel blog. I’m very pleased to oblige partly because, as the mother of the founder, I feel I belong to the company and partly because I feel my personal long-term experience may come in useful. Over the weeks I hope to tackle some worthwhile issues connected to organizing group travels and particularly to zoom in on student and religious groups.

Yeah! I know. The title. I grant that sheepdog is a bit odd for a travel blog but it describes exactly how I feel when I’m in charge of my group on our trips here and there for study or recreation.

I quite like the analogy myself. If you’ve ever watched a sheepdog working, you’ll see how seriously he takes his responsibility. He knows when to give the sheep free rein, he knows who the frisky ones are and when they might need a nip at the heels. He knows when he can take a breather and let them go at their own pace and he knows when to hand them back to the shepherd who will reward him with a well-done pat.

I was born in Ireland. My large Irish family – eight siblings – is not the stereotype Irish family, in the sense that we are not all scattered between Britain, Australia and America. I’m the only one who left Ireland and went to settle in Italy. But between family and friends who love to come and holiday in Calabria where I live, I feel I’m just down the road. Of course, going back to The Emerald Isle is always fantastic.

Home is in Calabria in the toe of Italy. I’m a teacher at secondary school level and am also a language trainer for elementary school teachers. I have three children and three wonderful grandchildren. I’m English-Italian bilingual and also try to keep my French and Irish from going too rusty.

By profession I’m an English language teacher and, over the years, I’ve taken numerous groups of Italian students on study holidays, on work experience and on cultural exchanges all over Europe. I’m really excited about being given a platform to share my experiences, offer some guidelines and help simplify the task of travel leaders getting people from A to B and once there of making the most of their stay in a host destination.

Over the weeks we will analyse group travels and related topics from simple things like remembering to take a universal adapter when going to the UK or Ireland or viceversa to complex issues like the challenge of twinning towns and how to find the funding to do so.

On behalf of the Personal travels team I wish you pleasant reading and look forward to your comments on matters that may interest you whether you are a seasoned group leader, an aspiring traveler or just someone fascinated by group travels and everything related to it.

The post The sheepdog, or how to successfully organize group travels appeared first on personal travels.

Photo by flickr user final gather

Our coach tour guide Renata met us at the airport. Just to mention guides. They can make or spoil a holiday. We are quite demanding of our guides as we just soak up information. Renata turned out to be exceptional. We boarded our coach and eventually reached the very elegant and welcoming Grand Hotel Liberty in Riva, on the shores of beautiful Lake Garda.

Lake Garda, Venice and Verona, a fantastic ten day trip. We travelled by air Dublin – Milan/Bergamo. As I wound my way though the stream of travellers heading to the Milan gate I found myself doing what I often do: you smile at the odd fellow traveller and size them up, they’d be ok to spend 10 days with or Oh! God, they look as if they’re heading to jail!

I love to see a photo or a video of some location and be able to say “We were there”. I see the professional photos on travel brochures and websites and I think my own amateurish photos are so much better! It is nice to have personal memories of one’s travels and it’s great to have someone to share them with.

I always appreciate a coach tour guide that leaves you the first day free to relax and explore and find your bearings. We strolled around Riva and visited the markets in the afternoon. Return to the hotel for dinner. We then began to mingle and people were talking about the various tours throughout the week some included in the package, some optional, which you could avail of or forego.

Going back to famous locations and the “We were there” factor, the highlight of the holiday was the full day excursion to Venice and a very informative guided tour of the city – St. Mark’s Square, Doges Palace, Bridge of Sighs. A payment of 17 euro per person collected on the bus to cover Venice, tourist tax and water taxi charge. At extra cost we just had to take the trip on a gondola. How could one not! What lovely holiday photos that little outing provided!.

Venice – Photo by flickr user Roger Davies

Verona was lovely. We enjoyed the usual tourist sights, Juliet’s balcony, the Amphitheatre and, even though we’d been warned, one of our party had her purse stolen which put a damper on things.

Another memorable trip to the awesome Dolomites and a fantastic Italian lunch with lots of wine and limoncello, There was much merriment on the return journey!

Riva was our base and we travelled from there each day returning in time for evening dinner. Like kids finding all the wonders of a fun park, we availed of all the trips, organised by our coach tour guide and optional, each one of them wonderful. Maybe it was the combination of sun, food and wine but we were super energetic and super curious about every aspect of life in northern Italy.

Limone by boat, a charming little town on the other side of the Lake with lots of shops selling beautiful leather goods. Needless to say I was tempted and bought a coat there. A trip up the Alps by cable car and the mist came down around us. What a fascinating experience to hear the bells chiming as the cattle grazed about us.

On day trips the coach tour guide usually advises where to go for the BEST coffee, tea ice-cream etc. which is generally very close to the bus stop. There is always a stampede to such places. We never avail of those suggested stops but wander off and find a nice little place for ourselves with the loveliest cappuccino ever tasted! the tastiest gelato, the fruitiest yoghurt, the most tempting aperitivo. And do we like to tell of our discoveries when we get back on the bus!

After a few days we were on first name terms with most of the group, none of whom were of course those passengers at the airport that I’d decided would be our travel companions. All too soon our ten days were over and it was time to return home with lots of lovely memories, lots of email addresses and phone numbers and fingers itching to leaf through another travel magazine or, maybe this time, to browse through Personal Travels proposals which at this stage could pinpoint my needs and come up with an even better travel option than I myself ever could.

The post Make or spoil a holiday: the importance of a coach tour guide appeared first on personal travels.

Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy

Many films inspired by Milan propose similar scenes, in which an immigrant from the South of the country finds himself pulled into the large and active northern city. These films tell stories of difficult integration, alternating comic or grotesque situations. But Milan is also an expression of a labor culture that has led it to be the symbol of the economic boom at the turn of the last century. Many Italian filmmakers have actually used the city as a film set to tell stories of desire for personal achievement and social redemption, or to shed light on some aspects of mass industrialization.

Let us try to discover the second Italian city by number of inhabitants, keeping in mind the films that have celebrated its various corners and the personality of its inhabitants. From Mario Camerini, that here in 1932 shot his “Men, you rascals …”, the film that brought Milan and the Cathedral for the first time on the big screen and now provides us with the memory of a city that already showed all its activity and vitality. The critic Filippo Sacchi, from the columns of the Corriere della Sera, reviewed it this way: “It’s the first time we see Milan on the screen. Well, who could have imagined that it was so photogenic? “.

Men, you rascals …

If you are planning on visiting Milan, you must obviously start from the Piazza del Duomo, the city’s symbol. The most important monuments are in fact in the historical center, in the streets around the large square that is dominated by the cathedral, one of the largest churches in Europe. From there you can take a journey to discover true symbols of the city, such as the Castello Sforzesco, or the artistic heritage preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera. But to think of Milan also means the Fashion Week or the Salone del Mobile, or to be more actual, EXPO 2015. Milano the gray, is in fact a vital, lively, and economically dynamic city.

Miracle in Milan

And Piazza Duomo is the backdrop to the famous scene of flying brooms of “Miracle in Milan”, Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece of 1951. In the dreamy film the protagonist is an orphaned boy who dreams of a world where “Good morning really wantsto say a good morning.” In the final scene – which seems to have been inspirational for the scene of the flying bicycles in “ET” by Steven Spielberg – the protagonist, along with a group of homeless people, steals the brooms of a group of garbage collectors, and then flies away on top of them towards that world he dreamed of.

Miracle in Milan

And yet, the desire for personal achievement and improvement of one’s condition are the basis of “Rocco and His Brothers”, the 1960 film by Luchino Visconti. On the other side the industrialized man in the grip of neurosis, in some way an archetype of the great workers of Lombardy, is the protagonist of the beautiful “The Working Class Goes to Heaven”, a film by Elio Petri of 1971 with an immense Gian Maria Volonte.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven

To satisfy the most curious, and also provide some inspiration for visiting Milan via a walk off the beaten track, we can remind you that “Nirvana” by Gabriele Salvatores was shot almost entirely in the Portello district of Milan, in the old Alfa Romeo factories, while “Chemical Hunger” – Antonio Bocola and Paolo Vari, 2007 – is set among the youth of the Barona, the suburban South of Milan. Mario Monicelli has also set “Popular novel” (1974), with Ugo Tognazzi, Ornella Muti and Michele Placido, in the tenement of the New Tower of Sesto San Giovanni and in the district of Lambiate.

Popular novel

Milan is then a continuous interweaving of its places and personalities that are modeled inside it. Over the years, we have seen so many aspects of the city and its old and new inhabitants in the movies: from the dream of improving their condition entrusting everything to a difficult and long journey, via the Milan of the factories and the “Milan to drink” in the most frivolous and fanciest meaning of the term. In these films we saw unforgettable comic scenes, as well as many occasions for reflection on the Italian culture and society. Such as the film that received the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 67th Venice Film Festival in Venice in 2010: we’re talking about “Somewhere” by Sofia Coppola. The American director uses Milan, and the Telegatti awards ceremony, to speculate on the emptiness that surrounds environments such as television, where appearance is worth a thousand times more than any substance, and the mouth serves mainly to smile.

Small ideas to have a trip around Milan and immerse yourself in the history and culture of a city, taking inspiration from the eyes of filmmakers who have looked at it in about 80 years of film history. And also to avoid sounding like Antonio from “Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy”, who spoke these words upon arriving in the city: “Now that we are finally in Milan, shall we go see this famous Colosseum?”.

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Photo by Oswaldo Rubio

Call it an irresistible temptation to bring back a hotel souvenir, or blame sudden and uncontrollable bouts of kleptomania, the fact is that the percentage of those who have the habit of taking away a few souvenirs from their hotel room is not to be underestimated, and at least twenty percent of Italians who travel admit to having fallen at least once in these behaviors. With a particular fondness for linen, towels and bathrobes for this nationality.

But we know that the world is beautiful because it is different, so we’re full of nationalities attracted to magazines and books, such as the British, the Germans and the French, but also, as is the case of the Chinese, to the room furniture. One Chinese tourist out of three actually admits to stealing lamps, clocks and works of art in hotel rooms, according to data from a research conducted by Hotels.com, which assigns the award of more respectful and honest tourists to Danish travelers, with only 12% of tourists who admit to having fallen at least once into temptation.

While investigating the reasons of this worldwide craze is far from simple, it can be fun to learn that 35% of travelers globally, admits to not being able to resist from stuffing something forbidden in the suitcase, in some cases actually committing outright theft with great ease.As in the case of the insatiable traveler who at the Parkroyal Hotel of Kuala Lumpur has seen fit, instead of downing the bottles in the mini-bar – maybe filling them with water or tea to ensure that no one would notice – to get rid of the fridge itself, to the general surprise of the attendants of the hotel. Or like those three customers of a Starwood Hotel in the USA who snubbed the packs of mini-soap of their room to instead attempt the grand theft of the piano in the lobby.

Photo by flickr user Tristan Schmurr

Besides the long list of kettles, hairdryers and crockery, international chains report other unusual items among those stolen from their hotels, including a Christmas tree and a model of a Concorde jet.Not to mention the guy who has seen fit to take away the air conditioner from his hotel room, disassembling the unit directly from the wall.

But looking at the phenomenon from hoteliers’ point of view, what are the countermeasures? While the majority of the directors is willing to turn a blind eye to petty theft consumed to take away a souvenir of the stay, such as designer items, on the other hand someone has already thought of running for cover, using technology or listing the potentially more attractive pieces.A very clearly titled menu actually hangs in the rooms of the fanciful Australian chain QT, titled “Desire” and listing the most coveted objects, and their relative price.The 14 items in the list add more than $ 500 to the account of the suite, so you need to think twice before you make any disappear.

Three hotels in New York, Miami and Honolulu are even more aggressive as they rely on technology to tackle the phenomenon.A Miami company, the Linen Technology Tracking, has developed an RFID tag, featuring a chip which can resist to up to 300 washes, allowing to track the location of the hotel linen.This happensa also because, as confirmed by William Serbin, executive vice president of Linen Technology Tracking, “these thefts may be responsible for the missing, every month, of 5 to 20% of the total bedding linen.”

Even the writer must admit that he has fallen into temptation once, during a stay in Alto Adige. My case got heavier with a funny book by an Austrian illustrator, which had kept me company in some of the restive evenings, after the daytime walks. And you, are you ready to confess your worst misdeeds? Share with us in the comments …

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Languages:

“When you travel by such bicycles “- Piero continues with the story “you’re forced to learn something of the local language, as very few people speak English.Even the brain adapts and speeds up the learning process. I carried a paper notebook with me, which I gradually updated at every border, so each time i could translate at least the basic words. And if anyone spoke English I kept him there for three quarters of an hour to learn as much as possible on the language of the place“.

Laos. Relax after the show

Food:

How do you manage with food on a trip like this? – We ask him. He says, “You get used to the food, because flavors change gradually each time you cross boundaries. To refuse the food you are offered is a great offense, according to the hospitality rules of these places, so much that the only problems occurred when we had to find a way to harmonize the choices of a vegan guy from London, who had been part of our group for a while, with the sense of hospitality of a friendly Laotian offering him some of his meet. That was all he had… In those years I have eaten snakes, marmots, and of course dogs and cats – with a preference for the first. I did not dare try monkey brains. I’ve eaten fried insects, a lot of sheep and vegetables of all kinds“.

Fear:

It seems inevitable, at least for many of us, to think about security issues when traveling around the world in such a way. But we had something to learn also in this respect : “There was never fear, because we moved without many valuables, we just paid much attention to our passports, which I actually managed to have stolen. A critical point speaking of safety was Georgia, where at about eight o’clock in the evening there was nothing and no one around, and you were often at risk of being attacked by some drunk. For more than two-thirds of the trip, however, I met incredibly friendly people, often in places where a white man had never been seen before“.

Cyprus, looking at the mountain flag

Going home:

“After all that time traveling I was afraid of not being able to relate with people, once back. I was profoundly changed. Just think that for about a year and a half I had lived with the same bottle of 1 liter and a half for my water.In plastic! Because that was my water bottle and I didn’t ask for anything better.And consider that even today, as it is done in two-thirds of the world, I do not use toilet paper, but only water.Just to give you a couple of examples“.

Examples of a kind of tourism totally different from what we are accustomed to. A “tourism on the contrary“, as defined by the same Piero, who explains the concept, and introduces the next post, where we start getting into the details of this cathartic journey between Europe and Asia: “While the classic tourist comes and takes what the resort offers, going away with his little packet full of souvenirs, the bicycle and the circus meant that we were the first who had to give, always, in every place, reversing what is perhaps the saddest of the rules of modern tourism.

We were storytellers. If we asked, we always asked after our show. And often our audience was able to grasp the poetry at the very core of our journey, while here we are too spoiled to realize how many beautiful things we have around“.

“The people understant poetry”, sang the italian group Mercanti di Liquore, without forgetting to add “provided that there is any.”

The post The cycling storyteller: different languages, food and cultures appeared first on personal travels.

The festival was renamed in 1991 into Sundance Film Festival by the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization sponsored by Robert Redford, who assumed the organizational power and the artistic direction of the event. The festival was also moved from Salt Lake City to the nearby ski resort of Park City and from September to January.

The coincidence with the skiing high season allowed it to to become a major showcase of independent US and international independent cinema.

Don’t miss the chanche to enjoy the 2015 edition, book a room in time.

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photo by Guido Sansoni

A piece of pizza that is very crisp, split in two to make room for fresh cut bologna. It’s cheap and it is very good, especially if accompanied by a well-chilled beer.

Those who visit the historic center must call in to the Antico Forno Roscioli for a gourmet-style pizza and mortazza. Or you can enjoy the thrill of following the three-wheeled pick-up truck Pizza and Mortazza, which moves to a different part of the city every day.

To find out if it is in your area take check out their website or simply follow their movements on twitter.

If it is evening and you have been dragged into the nightlife of San Lorenzo, the neighborhood a short walk from Termini station where the students crawl between pubs and clubs) go straight to the Piazzetta, opposite the market. It’s a pizzeria take-away open until late which also serves cocktails at popular prices.

Eye on the time, however, on weekends pizza and mortazza always comes around midnight…

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