How to Live Like a Local in Italy

~ How To Experience Local Family Life On Your Trip In Italy
by Margaret Cowan

Today on vacations in Italy, travelers want to experience real, local life in a meaningful ways with families, to visit their homes, share pieces of their lives, learn new things and even make new friends.

Four ways to get to know locals are cooking with families in their homes, taking a course and renting a room in a local home, staying at a farm B & B, and dining with families in their homes through Home Food.

1. Take a cooking class or cooking school tour with a family in their home kitchen
Here's an example of a delicious cooking school in Bologna, Italy's gastronomic capital.
For your cooking week you live in an independent apartment in the medieval centre, next door to your host family's home, so you live like a local and have local friends nearby.

With the mother and daughter, both excellent home cooks, you cook full menu dinners hands on for about three hours in three lessons in their kitchen. Then you gather around the dining table to eat your creations with the father, sons and your two cooking teachers, sharing laughter and good conversation. You soon feel part of the family!

Your cooking teacher tours you around Bologna's food market, telling you about local food treasures like parmesan cheese and buying ingredients for your lesson. Your week also includes a Bologna city tour and a day trip to Florence or Venice where a local guide shows you the sights. You can also enjoy a one day experience with market visit, cooking class and lunch.

2. Take a course and ask for home stay accommodation
In 1996 I took a month long Italian language course in Rome and asked the language school to get me a room with a family where nobody spoke English. They matched me up with Lucia, a 45 year old high school art teacher, architect and single mother of two kids, aged 8 and 16 in their apartment near the Vatican.

At first Lucia was surprised to see a woman her age arrive, not the usual 22 year old student. We discovered we had a lot in common, had many long conversations in her kitchen and became friends. For 12 years, I've visited Lucia, shared many meals around tables with her friends and taken trips to Naples and her country home in Le Marche with them.

Take a course, stay with a local family in your favourite Italian city! You never know what lovely surprises may come out of the experience!

3. Stay on at a farm B & B or apartment where the owners live on the property
If you're renting a car to explore the Italian countryside, stay in agriturismos (farm B&Bs or apartments). Many agriturismo owners make wine and olive oil. You may want to help pick grapes or olives at harvest time!

To make sure you meet the owners, confirm they live on the property so you'll get to know them. For example, in southern Tuscany about nine km south of Montalcino, Agriturismo Podere La Fonte offers two small suites in the country with marvellous views of Val d'Orcia. The organic property full of exotic plants and trees, birds and a chemical free swimming pool, has many olive trees. Owner Alberto makes olive oil the traditional way using the big granite wheel.

Friendly, joyful Alberto and his wife make your breakfast and can make dinner for you. Alberto is a fantastic cook and gives cooking lessons too.

4. Eat traditional dishes with families in homes all over Italy through Home Food
Imagine yourself arriving at 8:30 p.m. at a family's home in Venice. The mother, Mercedes, whom you don't know, welcomes you warmly to share a dinner of traditional Venetian dishes she's just cooked for you. You join her and up to five food loving tourists you may not know around her table through the Home Food organization.

You savour dry cod with polenta (a dish from the 1500s), risotto with radicchio from Treviso, sardines with saor (fried onions, wine, vinegar, pine nuts, raisins) that fishermen in the 14th century made, vegetables in oil and pincia, a soft cake of bread soaked in milk with raisins and apple.

As you eat and drink local wines, you learn about Venetian culinary traditions and history and get to know a local family as well as fellow food lovers.

Home Food started in Bologna in 2004 and spread to 14 regions in Italy. Its mission is to preserve traditional recipes and food traditions handed down from mothers to daughters and to share these dishes and local food culture with food lovers.

About 100 women throughout Italy, all excellent home cooks with a wealth of food knowledge, enthusiastically open their homes for scheduled dinners for small groups. Visit the Home Food website to know more and register for dinners.

Have fun cooking, speaking Italian, picking grapes or olives and dining with Italian families at their homes! You'll experience genuine Italian life as an insider friend and soon feel Italian!

About the Author
Since 1995 Margaret Cowan has owned a tour company, Mama Margaret & Friends Cooking Adventures in Italy. For a free report on finding the right Italy cooking school tour for you, see Italy Cooking Schools.
Thanks to Margaret, and Go Articles for the use of this entry...

Campervan Rental in Australia

~ by Will Stewart

Although Australia is an island it is also a continent and for this reason alone it is large. Very large. To get around the country there is a very large and competitive air travel network. The southern parts of the country also offer fairly substantial train travel while the more remote areas of the northern part of the country mainly only offer bus travel.

One other option which is becoming very popular is to hire or rent a Campervan.

Considering that with today's prices a single bed in a hostel dormitory averages around $27.00AUD per night per person. So for three people travelling together that equals an average daily cost - just to rest your head for the night - of $81.00.

It is no wonder that Campervans are becoming so popular.

A basic campervan vehicle can take two forms. One type is the Camper Wagon or Campa Car which is often a large Ford or Holden Station wagon (you may know this type of vehicle as an Estate) which comes equipped with full camping equipment including tents, Gas cooker, linen, cookware and crockery and camp chairs for each person.

These vehicles can comfortably seat 4 adult passengers and the daily rental prices start from as little as $32.00AUD per day including insurance. When you compare that price with hostel accommodation then the saving is substantial. In fact with 4 people travelling, the savings cover the cost of fuel and often camping fees in campervan parks.

The most popular type of vehicle rented in Australia is the HiTop. These units are based on a Toyota commercial van but have an extended raised main roof, so you can stand inside. They are fully fitted and most have a 2 way fridge, sink and 2 burner stove all built in. They are very popular units - over 85% of the rentals that we get are for the HiTop unit. They are fairly similar across the different companies and have the same standard "basics". The majority of these units, although they may have slightly different layouts, all basically present with the same features. Rental pricing does vary quite a bit from company to Company and prices are also season dependent.

A HiTop rental starts from about $62.00 per day and can go as high as $120.00 per day. Rental rates are seasonal and very dependant on the length of the rental. The longer the rental the less the daily rental rate. Be warned that most Campervan rental companies will not even look at a rental less than seven days so if your planning a short trip (less than 6 days) you may not find it easy to secure a rental campervan.

Are there "Other Costs" in Renting a Campervan?
Yes. So we'll take a look at what costs are really involved for you. If you understand this better you will be able to make a better choice when you go to book your campervan Holiday.

Daily Rate
This is the actual cost per day to hire the vehicle and usually includes basic insurance. Basic insurance will cover you and your passengers in the event of an accident with another vehicle. Some rental companies do not include "Single Vehicle Accidents" - where you drive into a tree or a wall - and may charge an additional fee to cover this. If it is not explained to your clearly what the Insurance covers - ASK!

Stamp Duty
In Australia the Government charges a 2% fee on any contracts relating to the rental of gods or services. This includes unit/apartment/house rental, car hire and Campervan rental. It is not a secret little fee that Camper rental companies have created to squeeze a few more dollars from you. It is a Mandatory charge by the government. Some rental companies may offer to waive this fee - which simply means they have included it in the cost of the rental.

One Way Fee
This is usually applied if you are renting the van from one city or state location to another - for example, Sydney To Cairns.

This fee is fairly common and has come about as a result of some companies having to engage professional drivers to collect a vehicle and return it after a rental. With some of the smaller rental companies the fee cover's the cost of the Agent at the destination depot to "turn the vehicle around" - ie; prepare it for another rental.

One Way Fees vary from $120.00 to $495.00 Depending upon the vehicle type and destination.

Security Bond/Excess
The Security Bond or Excess is the amount you are liable for in the event of a major accident. In other words this is the maximum amount you would have to pay if the vehicle was damaged beyond repair. With many rental companies this Security Bond or Excess is in the region of $4,500.00 to $6,000.00. With some companies this figure can be only $1,000.00. So when you are enquiring about a Campervan rental make a point of asking what the Bond/Excess is.

Many rental companies offer an "optional" Collision Damage Waiver" (CDW) which effectively means you pay an additional amount per day on top of the rental but reduce the Bond/Excess by half. This CDW can vary from $10.00 per day to $26.00 per day.

The reason for the wide variation in these and rental rates is due to the nature of Campervan Rental Insurance Companies. There are about 3 companies in Australia that will insure Campervans on Rental. Some have one set of rules and the others have another set.

The important thing about all these "fluctuations" is that if you are not knowledgeable in what the costs are it may end up costing you far more.

Following are two possible rental scenarios over a 15 day period from Sydney to Cairns rented from two separate rental companies. One, at a daily rate of $75.00 per day including Base insurance with a Security Bond/Excess of $1,000.00 and the other at a lower daily rate but with a higher Bond/Excess, which may help clarify the "costs" of a rental.

1. Company A - A campervan is to be rented at a daily rate of $75.00 per day including Base insurance with a Security Bond/Excess of $1,000.00.

Rental Value is $1,125.00
Stamp Duty $ 22.50
One Way Fee $ 170.00
Total Rental Value $1,317.50 with a $1,000.00 Bond/Excess.

2. Company B - A campervan is to be rented at a daily rate of $65.00 per day including Base insurance with a Security Bond/Excess of $5,000.00.

Rental Value is $ 975.00
CDW @ $20.00/day $ 300.00 (reduces the Bond to $2,500.00)
Stamp Duty $ 19.50
One Way Fee $ 170.00
Total Rental Value $1,464.50 with a $2,500.00 Bond/Excess.

The above example shows that with the same rental over two different companies there can be a difference of $147.00 and a Bond/Excess of over $1,500.00 difference after paying more.

The message here is to be careful. When you hear someone quote you a really good daily rate there may be hidden extras which may end up costing more than the other company who may have quoted you a higher daily rate but with a lower Bond/Excess.

Other Costs / Options
Some companies offer extra items that can be rented. These mat include outdoor bar-b-ques, portable toilets ("Porta-Potti"), Child booster seats and baby capsules. If you may be requiring some of these extras then just simply ask if these things are available.

A Word Of Caution
Most Campervan and Motorhome rental websites advertise vehicles that are 6 berth Winnebago Motorhomes. However often these are not actually available and we have, on many occasions while acting as an agent for another Australian company in Cairns, found the customers have just stepped off a plane to discover that what they are getting in the way of a 6 berth motor home, just is not what I have shown them.

So if you are booking your trip from outside Australia please really make sure that the vehicle you are getting is what you actually saw on the website and believed you will be getting. Have the company email you a picture of the type of vehicle. You may need it!

Also watch out for "false descriptions". For example: The company's confirmation email to you reads… "We take pleasure in confirming your booking for a 6 berth Mercedes Motorhome". You may just be getting a large van that sleeps 6, and it may very well be an Iveco or a Fiat and not a Mercedes.

Whomever you book your Campervan (or Motorhome rental) through they will usually send you some form of Confirmation that will detail your rental. READ THIS thoroughly and if there any items on your Confirmation ask the company to clarify it.

In general Campervan Rental in Australia is very safe. There are the odd one or two "shifty" operators but all in all it is a very safe way to see the country and there is an amazing variety of Australia too see.

Will Stewart owns his own Campervan and Motorhome business and has been involved in the industry for over 9 years.
Thanks to Will and Article City for the free use of this article.

Dealing With Jetlag

8 Tips On Dealing With Jet Lag
by Trevor Johnson

Jet lag is an awkward side effect of jet travel when you cross too many time zones for your body's liking. Face it, most of us have enough problems when we shift just an hour to daylight savings. Follow these tips on avoiding jet lag to help reduce the effects.

Not all these tips are relevant for every trip, especially if you're travelling on business at short notice, but at least some of them should be useful for you.

1. Adjust your sleep time
Start helping your body clock to adjust to the new time zone by changing the times that you go to sleep at night and awaken in the morning. You'll start to become accustomed to the new times. Make the adjustment about an hour each night.

2. Set your watch
As soon as you board your flight, set your watch to the new time. We look at our watches an amazingly high amount of times, so adjusting the time as soon as possible will help your mind realize that it's changing clocks.

3. Drink water. Lots of it
Sure, you can ask the stewardess for water but they have hundreds of other passengers to look after as well. Buy a bottle of water once you've passed through airport control and drink plenty of water during your flight.

4. Say no to coffee and alcohol
They both act as dehydrators. So they'll help to dry up your body even more than the flight already does. Soft drinks or water are to be preferred.

5. Get some rest on the flight
Depending on how enthusiastic the cabin staff are, this may be easier said than done. And if that child behind you rocks your seat once more, then that's another story. If you get the option, a window seat or one in the center of a block of seats will minimize the number of people who need to ask you to move out of their way. Noise cancelling headphones aren't standard issue on many flights, so if you are a regular traveler then treat yourself to a set. They really do cut down the disturbance of engine noise.

6. Go walkabout occasionally
OK, this is at odds with getting rest. But sitting down for hours on end isn't a good idea either. Walk up and down the aisles a few times. Not so much that you're pacing them but certainly go for this exercise a few times on a long flight. Just be certain not to time your expedition for meal or drinks or duty free services.

7. Adjust to your new time zone on the plane
If it's daytime at your destination, stay awake. If it's night where you are going, get some sleep. You can catch up on the in flight entertainment when you've got a bigger screen and better sound. Start adjusting as soon as you can.

8. Keep adjusting at your destination
Even if you've been on a plane for hours and hours. The sooner you start adjusting, the better. So if you arrive in the dead of night, get to sleep. A dose of melatonin may help here - it's a natural sleeping aid that's already produced by your body.

Trevor Johnson writes regularly about airline travel on his website...
Thanks to Trevor Johnson and Article City for the free use of this article.

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