Traveling Via Vias

Advantages: Lovely beach....the south of France, dahling
Disadvantages: Not much to do without a car

...If you want to bemuse a foreigner, send them to the bit of France from which I've just returned. Not satisfied with the usual 'one name per place' rule, you'll find references to the areas of Vias, Vias Plage and Vias sur Mer (on post cards, in brochures, on the internet) but, confusingly, only 2 different parts of town, the touristy end and the old French bit. ****** Travel We drove Manchester to Liverpool, flew Liverpool to Nimes, taxied to Nimes town centre, caught a train to Agde and then taxied to Vias Plage. Travelling days were long - in excess of 8 hours - but if you live in other parts of the UK, or are happy to pay a little more for your flights you can reduce the trip quite significantly by flying to Montpellier and then grabbing a cab from there. We chose the fun long way round instead, and paid £100 each...

zoe_page 19.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Vias Plage

VIA CONDOTTI BARGAIN HUNTING

Advantages: Exclusive
Disadvantages: Expensive and pretentious

...Bargain hunting on Via Condotti? Surely that's a near impossibility. Why this is one of the most expen...oh, wait a minute, That should read BAR hunting. Much more sensible. The most famous fashion streets in Rome are the three parallel streets that all run into Via del Corso - Via Condotti, Via Borgognona and Via Frattina. And the most famous of these is Via Condotti, named after the channels that carried water to the nearby Agrippa thermal spa baths. But that's all water under the bridge now...as it were. These days, it's more about channelling hard cash into the fashion houses. It all started back in 1905 when Bulgari (who never learned to spell apparently) was first to spot the trend of people who had almost as much money as they had fashion sense but considerably more than common sense. Bulgari can, I suppose, be considered...

proxam 07.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Via Condotti

Venice the city of Sighs!

Advantages: Absolutely breath taking views around every corner.
Disadvantages: Very expensive packed during the day with day trippers.

...take you into Venice. 1. The bus. 2. A taxi which will only take you part of the way and drop you off near the station but then it would be quite a walk to the hotel or by connecting to the local water bus service serving the whole of Venice. 3. A water bus known as Alilaguna which leaves directly from the airport into Venice via four different routes depending where you are staying. 13 Euros each way or 25 Euros return. All routes end or pass St. Marks Square. 4. A water taxi at the princely sum of 95 Euros each way is obtainable next to the Alilaguna water bus pick up point and can take you directly to your hotel if it is on one of the canals. This is the fastest option but certainly not the cheapest. We had opted for number 3 which was fairly reasonable bearing in mind that it took approximately an hour to get from the airport...

garymarsh86 24.09.2009 (26.10.2009) · Read review
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Review of Venice (Italy)

A Little Square in Venice

Advantages: Great location, comfortable, quiet, secure
Disadvantages: Single bedroom a little basic

...Last November I took my third trip to Venice. It hadn?t been my intention to go at all; this holiday was a joint birthday present from me to my parents but they insisted that I go along with them to show them around. Venice is a beautiful and unique city, so how could I refuse? ◄Discovering Hotel Campiello► I discovered the Hotel Campiello on my second trip to Venice a few years ago. We were on a 10 day trip to Italy and had decided to spend most of the time in Rome and Florence, trying to leave 2 or 3 days free to include Venice. We had booked our hotels in Rome and Florence in advance but left the booking of the Venice leg until we were in Rome. We were staying at Hotel Paba in Rome (itself a gem of a place) and told the owner that we were thinking of booking into one of the big luxury hotels in the Venice Lido for 2...

Mitsudan 10.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Campiello, Venice

Get Shopping on Via del Corso.

Advantages: Plenty of variety, not all designer, lots of affordable places, food and cinema.
Disadvantages: You might fall in love with designer clothes in the windows!

.... Via del Corso runs from Piazza Venetia, below the Il Vittoriano monument in the center of Rome, all the way up to Piazza del Popolo in the north of the city. It's one of the biggest streets for shopping in Rome and is frequented by tourists and locals, looking for a variety of goods. There are no sites that would be of interest to a tourist on Via del Corso, but there are so many very nearby such as the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Forum Romanum. So if you're doing a lot of walking around the city, then you're bound to find yourself on this street at some point. It's certainly well worth a visit as it's an interesting street with a good variety of shops and a good atmosphere. We can date the history of this road back to the time of the Roman Empire, when it was known as Via Flaminia and was known to take...

Ottavia 08.09.2008 (29.08.2008) · Read review
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Review of Via del Corso

Near Death In Venice

Advantages: Location, decor and super-efficient concierge
Disadvantages: Pricey for some

...The Londra Palace is one of the oldest hotels in Venice, having first opened its doors in 1860. Perhaps its most famous visitor, at least in terms of what he did there, was the Russian composer Tchaikovsky who actually wrote his Fourth Symphony there. Having just heard a rendition of this work by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Torino it somehow seemed appropriate to stay there. An initial word of caution. If you ever arrive in Venice in the middle of a storm, maybe it is best to avoid a water taxi. Quite apart from the prohibitive fares (a typical two mile or so ride from the railway station to Piazza San Marco will set you back over £40) it can be DANGEROUS! The boat lurches like a bobcat when it moors beside a jetty and as the driver hols you have to jump onto a rather narrow and possibly slippery pier.... one step wrong...

JoePoirot 23.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Londra Palace, Venice

'Peaceful' Venice

Advantages: Sometimes can feel like you have the whole palce to yourself; Sheer beauty
Disadvantages: Having to walk to each place, or take the bus, and face the crowds again

...Venice does seem to be a place that is hit or miss with people. Those who love it cite the romantic location; the vibrancy; the sheer difference of being somewhere different. Those who hate it can't stand the pervading watery smell; the cost of everything; or the simple fact that it's always so very, very busy. I easily fall into the first category, and yet the crowds still annoy me. I like going somewhere to see different things, but I also like to relax, and I wasn't sure this was possible in Venice. Until our last visit earlier this year. So here are my tips for getting the most out of 'peaceful' Venice. Piazza San Marco We'll start with the obvious one, although you might not be thinking it so obvious if you've ever had to battle through the crowds of people and pigeons. But get there early, especially on a Sunday morning...

blackpuddinonnabike 13.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Venice (Italy)

My Venice experience

Advantages: A must-go city to visit in Italy, before it disappear!!!
Disadvantages: No

...My first trip to Venice was via a package holiday. We spent a day there and I am going to share with you my fantastic day. We had an early start. by taking the train from the station behind the hotel to catch a boat to take us on the Grand Canal(Canal Grande) to the St Martin's Square(Piazza San Macro) in the centre of Venice. Got off the boat to take a walk on the waterfront-I could already see the gondolas parked. Venice is a very special city as it consists of many islands and canals-very interesting indeed. Walked passed the Palazzo Ducale, which used to be the office of the Mayor of Venice, took a picture of the Bridge of Sights with replica all over the world. The bridge connects the office of the mayor/governor to the dungeon opposite and it was the bridge that any sentenced prisons would walk pass to see Venice...

medgenie 28.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Venice (Italy)

  Venice In Peril? What About My Wallet?!

Advantages: Beautiful, unique, hasn't disappeared yet
Disadvantages: Daily budget - ouch

...-circumnavigations via the Canal. Sure, you can also pop over to the Lido or Murano, but a ?network? in the accepted sense it isn?t, despite the Underground style maps. We made the slight mistake of lashing out in advance on a 7-day Venice Card costing ?80 each. OK, ?20 was taken up with airport transfers, and we DID use the vaporetto service several times, there?s no way we got another ?60 of use from the tickets, even at ?3.50 per single (there?s no 5-day option). The child discount isn?t exactly generous either. Of course, the ticket is also good for discounts to various museums etc, (and free entry to paying public toilets!), but unfortunately, not the museums we visited. I suppose if you were there for the full 7 days, and intent on ?doing it all?, the Venice card could pay for itself. It?s also very convenient just to be able to get straight onto...

BNibbles 24.02.2005 (26.02.2005) · Read review
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Review of Venice (Italy)

Sensory overload in Venice

Advantages: Great food writing, delicious recipes, interesting factual stuff
Disadvantages: Not enough recipes; overly flowery descriptions; unappealing characters

...to a romance, and romance there is - in bucketfuls. This is a love affair not only between two people but between one woman and a city: Venice, arguably the most romantic city in the world. The book is an account of how chef and freelance food writer, Minnesota-based Marlena de Blasi meets a mysterious Italian who, it seems, knows that she is "the One". He follows her to the United States and within days they are making plans for the future; within months, Marlena has joined Fernando in Venice and the couple are making plans for their wedding. If it sounds a little crazy that's because it is. A middle aged woman seduced by a complete stranger and one with whom she has so little in common. De Blasi reminisces about the various family homes she has lived in with her two now grown up children; houses she has turned into homes, full...

fizzytom 16.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Days in Venice - Marlena di Blasi