Rick Steves's Blog, page 60

With more than 600 Rick Steves tours a year, we have guides working all over Europe all the time. It’s an amazing pool of talent, passion, and travel savvy. They have their own digital communication portal and are constantly rendezvousing, sharing ideas, lessons, and having fun. For me, touring with Reid and Trish is a good chance to get in on the social end of things. Here (from left) guides Ben, Francesca, Trish, Reid (mugging for the camera), and me try out a new restaurant near Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori. (By the way, many of the photos on this blog are shot by Trish Feaster, who’s own blog is at The Travelphile.com).



There are plenty of people researching for various guidebooks and websites in Europe, and rarely do I feel a strong, kindred spirit with them. But meeting Tom, who founded EuroCheapo.com, was really fun. Tom is a hotel wonk; he’s friends with many of the same hoteliers that I’ve recommended for decades. He’s right up-to-date on the trials and tribulations hoteliers are suffering in this age of Booking.com and TripAdvisor. Even the most independent of hotel spirits are finding themselves “invisible” if they don’t enlist with booking sites (like Booking.com). I don’t understand how these various booking agents can justify taking 18 percent of a hotel’s gross income when you compare all the real investment and tangible expenses of running a hotel to a website. Here, over a fascinating conversation about the hotel business, Tom, Trish, and I are enjoying one of my favorite kind of restaurant: an enoteca (a place specializing in fine wine by the glass and simple, rustic plates of ingredients that pair nicely with the wine).



As a tour guide, even when trying to vacation on a tour led by someone else (as I’m doing on this Best of Europe in 21 Days tour), I can never let a teachable moment go by. On this tour, each of our guides stops by his or her favorite hill town to break the long drive from Rome to the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre). Reid stops at Massa Marittima–a delightful hill town that was new to me. Walking around its medieval walls, we came to a fig tree. After all the fig leaves we saw yesterday at the Vatican Museum, I just had to try one on. All I can say is, “They’re really sticky.”

In this video clip, I’m surrounded by a cacophony of tour guides explaining one of the highlights of the Vatican Museum’s collection, Raphael’s “School of Athens.” This is the last stop as they muscle their way through all the art to get their gangs to the coveted Sistine Chapel–just around the corner from here. In the video, I’m talking softly as to not disturb all the guiding going on…so you can barely hear me (turn on YouTube’s captions for subtitles). With emerging economies (China, India, Russia) and more cruise groups than ever, must-see cultural attractions like the Vatican Museum are jam-packed with tourists at all hours. Still, of course, these attractions are great experiences. This clip gives you a feeling of the crush of tour groups as we see the Raphael Rooms, which were done at the same time Michelangelo was creating the Sistine Chapel frescoes a few steps away.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

One of the big challenges for groups or individuals traveling in Italy is to handle the mob scenes at the Vatican Museum. There are a few sights in Europe (Versailles and the Vatican Museum come to mind) where there’s almost no way to experience it without a constant and raging commotion of tourists. Even in the worst of crowds, these sights are correctly considered “must-sees.” It’s up to a smart tourist (or tour guide) to do whatever is possible to visit away from peak times or get reservations in advance when possible. Even with the crush of crowds, I find the Vatican Museum one of the most exciting in all of Europe. And the adjacent St. Peter’s Basilica is so big, it can handle the crowds (once you get through the security line to actually get in).

There is just one relatively small entrance to the Vatican Museum. You can find it by looking for a long, long line snaking around the towering fortified walls of Vatican City–still an independent country. Only sanctioned Vatican guides are allowed to take groups through the museum, and the tour must use sanctioned whisper systems. You’ll see boxes of these sets–each with a transmitter for the tour guide and 30 or so receivers for each tour member–ready for groups with reservations as they enter.

Thankfully the great art is higher than the tallest tourist. After the grand halls showing off some 15 centuries of art collected by the popes–and before the climax of the experience at the Sistine Chapel–you pass through a series of rooms frescoed by Raphael. The Raphael Stanza (or Raphael Rooms) are a great example of how the Renaissance popes embraced the classical, pre-Christian art and philosophy of the ancient world. Here in Raphael’s “School of Athens,” the great Greek thinkers from about 300 years before Christ are celebrated (and are portrayed with the features of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance from Raphael’s generation–around the year 1500).

Museums across Europe are doing their best to handle the crowds. This sign, with “silence” in Russian and Chinese in addition to English, Spanish, and Italian, is a reminder of a big change in the last few years: Lots of people from emerging economies are tourists, too. Even if most people in Russia or China are too poor to travel, there are huge numbers of economic elites who can and do.

Thankfully, the Vatican lets tours (and slippery individuals) slip from the Sistine Chapel out the back and down this grand staircase directly to St. Peter’s Basilica without needing to retrace their steps way back to the museum’s entry. From there, you must literally walk around the country (which is not so small when you’re on foot) to get back to St. Peter’s. Slipping from the Sistine Chapel directly into the basilica is a huge time-saver if trying to visit the museum, Sistine Chapel, and basilica in one go. Thank you Vatican officials for offering this!

As guides, we love the challenge of introducing 25 Americans to a new subway system. While we could hop on our big tour bus, it’s a great and empowering experience for our group–most of whom have never been in Rome and many who’ve never used a big city subway–to learn to do Rome as the Romans do. Here we get to the platform with one minute to spare.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

With just under two days in Rome, our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour needs to be very well designed. We do what I call the “Caesar Shuffle” upon arrival (Colosseum, Forum, Capitoline Hill, and Pantheon). We go together to Campo de’ Fiori and disperse to find dinner on our own before embarking on the romantic night walk (lacing together floodlit spots like Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps). The next day is all about the Vatican (with the afternoon and evening free). After two exhausting days, we are ready for the Italian Riviera.

The main street of ancient Rome cuts authoritatively through the heart of the forum today like it did 2,000 years ago. I love to imagine the pageantry that filled this street when generals returned home after successful campaigns with all their booty, plunder, slaves, and caged barbarian kings to the delight of the crowds and the appreciative emperor.

Unlike other tour companies that just take the next available guide on the sight’s roster, we carefully select our local guides. Francesca Caruso (who’s helped me with our guidebooks and TV shows, as well as tours, for well over a decade) is one of our favorites. With Francesca as our teacher and the top ruins of Rome as our classroom, our Caesar Shuffle is the best three hours of Roman history you could imagine.

Various details help humanize Roman society of 2,000 years ago. I find this a particularly impressive sight: the only original doors from the ancient world still hanging and swinging on their original hinges. You’ll see these when you visit the Roman Forum (assuming you have a good guide or guidebook).

All over the world, street art is making a statement. One theme has grabbed my attention lately. Inspired by an anti-authority message, graffiti artists are turning Do Not Enter signs into creative ways to say no to authoritarianism. You’ll see variations on this theme all over Florence.

Our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour hits all the biggies: and one of those is certainly Florence. With just under two days each in Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris, ever hour needs to be carefully planned. Hotels are central, restaurants are artfully chosen, and reservations are made for the major museums and sights (e.g. “David” in Florence, Vatican Museum and Colosseum in Rome, Louvre in Paris) so not a minute is wasted. Intense? Sure. Exciting? Absolutely.

In Florence there’s always a long line to see Michelangelo’s masterful “David.” With reservations long in hand, our group walked directly in. Tour Guide Reid Cohen covered the context and the story before giving us quality time to be on our own with perhaps Europe’s greatest piece of art.

A big challenge when traveling with groups of 25 people is to find restaurants that enthusiastically welcome groups but that don’t feel like “tour-bus restaurants.” That’s why our guides love Ristorante Giglio Rosso. A pet peeve of mine is a tour that feeds you what’s expedient–oblivious to the region and season. In my early days–escorting groups on big, cheap, European bus tours run by other companies–I was amazed at how the food fed to the groups had nothing to do with where we were. On our tours, we eat what is seasonal–and we eat the regional specialties throughout.

As a tour organizer, I feel a real triumph when we connect Europeans who have a passion for their work with appreciative travelers. At restaurants I never let a good dining experience go by without inviting the hard-working chef and kitchen crew to come out for a round of applause and to take a bow. And our groups enjoy personally thanking them for a meal they’ll remember fondly all their lives.

All over Europe, old Industrial Age, iron-and-glass farmers’ markets seem to be celebrating their hundredth birthdays by getting a new lease on life as trendy food halls. Here in Florence, the old Central Market has been particularly enjoyable as a thriving local market, and now its long-neglected upper level hosts a wonderful collection of quality eateries–it’s as busy as the produce stalls on the ground level. Central Florence has new, extremely restrictive driving and parking laws which keep most locals eating dinner in the suburbs. But Florentines seem to strive for good eating at lunchtime as a result. This new food court is a real hit with the neighborhood’s office workers.

While we all pride ourselves in getting away from the tourist clichés, as a tour operator I’m also excited about maximizing the classic experiences — even if they are touristy. And in Venice, one of those is a glassblowing demonstration.

Any tour group is welcome to climb the stairs from St. Mark’s Square to watch a mesmerizing demonstration, which is always followed by an entertaining 10-minute sales pitch in the showroom. As many guides live for the sales kickbacks to supplement their income, most tour companies really push this and similar shopping experiences (like diamond polishing in Amsterdam). But our tours accept no kickbacks for the shopping our tour members do, and anyone buying anything here gets the standard 20 percent guides’ kickback discounted off their sales price. That way, as we explain to our groups, you’re only paying double what you should be… rather than triple.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

As I personally experience every hour of our flagship Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour, I’m debating each point of our itinerary with our guide. Adding musicians to the gondola ride adds about €10 cost per person to the ride. As our four gondolas gathered together on the Grand Canal with the floodlit Rialto Bridge behind us and we enjoyed a romantic little concert, it was clear to me that this was an experience well worth the time and money. And I was happy to pay a bit extra for the shared serenade.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

Another Venice cliché, which I absolutely love, is the gondola ride. Sure, it’s expensive (about $160 for a 50-minute ride). But the cost (and romance) can be split by up to six people. While Venice is crowded, the gondoliers’ Venice is a parallel world of dreamy tranquility as your vessel slices through the city’s watery magic, providing a timeless, almost trance-like experience.

The route you take is determined by how much you pay (two options: €80 for 30 minutes or €120 for 50 minutes) and where you pick up your gondola. A highlight of any ride picked up near St. Mark’s Square, of course, is gliding under the famous Bridge of Sighs.

As you’ll be in the care of one person, it’s important to choose a gondolier whose personality you enjoy. He’ll likely give a brief commentary if you like. I like to talk with several gondoliers before choosing my captain for the romantic little voyage.

The gondoliers generally pass their treasured license to work on the Venetian canals down from generation to generation. Some of them chat with each other and smoke as they pole you sloppily through the standard route. Others — like the one we chose — are charming and expertly give you an experience that, while pricey, I consider a very good value.

At the end of our ride, we passed a family who flashed my guidebook. Only then did our gondolier find out what I do for a living.

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.