i need some slowtravel help in understanding this... i've just had some guests from California... lovely people (two couples) spent a week here on Lake Como... they were extremely lucky with the weather since it was lovely: sunny, hot, low humidity with the "Breva" refreshing the afternoons and a couple of wonderful storms cooling off the evenings... my problem is: THEY DIDN'T EVER LEAVE THE VILLA except for some dinner at local restaurants (which they loved).... what i want to say is if it has any sense to fly over to Italy just to enjoy the views and sit around a pool all day with a good book... can't you do that in California (where i'm sure you can also find excellent italian restaurants) saving yourself the stress of the flight? you can't come to Lake Como and NOT visit Bellagio or Varenna or Villa Carlotta or Punta del Balbianello just to mention four spots EVRYBODY visits.... i will await your most valuable comments on this... Ciao!
I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion, I cannot conceive if travelling only to remain in a villa for 2 weeks but this is surprisingly common. Friends of ours have invited us to Turkey with them next year and to persuade us to come they extolled the virtues of doing nothing by the pool and never venturing outside the complex for 2 weeks!!!!! a random poll of other friends revealed lots of them did likewise. They actually think we are mad for doing so much on holiday. Needless to say we wont be going to Turkey!!
Posts: 1222 | Location: UK | Registered: 12 June 2005
Giò, just think of all the Italians traveling to some outlandish country, from the Red Sea to the Maldives, just to stay in some resport and never ever meet anyoine that's not Italian... The mother of a friend of mine has a B&B in northern Lazio (I have been trying to convince her to place an ad here), and she often complains about people comong all the way from Milano just to do the same: they drive several hours and spend three or four days sleeping amongst the olive trees.
Maybe, they'd been to the area several times already and had seen those things? Now, they just wanted a place to relax, away from home (i.e., change of scenery can do you good)?
Alice, i certainly agree with you... i guess it's just that this the EXACT opposite of my idea of travel... i also have some friends that will spend the whole month of august in the same hotel doing nothing but beach, pool, hotel, pool, beach, hotel.... Personally i would go nuts after the second day! i don't look at vacation as a time to rest (mind you: you can relax even if you are not resting!) and maybe i exceed in the opposite way (i remember my last trip to New England: almost 7000Kilometers in 20 days! changing accommodation evry night) but when i am in a place that is so different from my home (culture, scenery, way of life, food... ecc.) i have to experience the most in the time i have (never enough!)...
I don't know what part of California they are from or what they do but life can be awfully stressful here. Maybe they have some insane commute to work, maybe they work eighteen hours a day.... or both.
The body sometimes needs to rest. It sounds like a great place to do it!
Originally posted by Giò59: (i remember my last trip to New England: almost 7000Kilometers in 20 days! changing accommodation evry night)
Um, Gio,
I hate to break it to you but that is NOT Slow Travel. You came here to New England and did what many Americans do when they go to beautiful Italy. The 40 cities in 10 days scenerio. I think your guests really enjoyed themselves, each other and the villa. Were they newly weds?
Beats me ! Why not to Lake Tahoe instead--which is as beautiful as Como without the Villas. But, at least they can say they spent time on Lago Como to thier friends. Sorry Gio, non capice.
I hate to break it to you but that is NOT Slow Travel....
I know.... but i wasn't driving very fast!! but i truly enjoyed every inch of that trip... the only thing i really could not accept was that lobster i had in BoothBay Harbour: it looked wonderful till they put ketchup on it!!
I know people whose idea of a vacation is to sit and do nothing. NOTHING! Maybe they chose Lake Como simply to be able to say "we vacationed in Italy" While I can perhaps understand it, it is not my preference. I gotta see, I gotta do. Then I go home, and sit around and do nothing.
Posts: 193 | Location: Derby, NY | Registered: 03 July 2005
i need some slowtravel help in understanding this... i've just had some guests from California... lovely people (two couples) spent a week here on Lake Como...
Also, consider that maybe the week they spent at Lake Como might have been just one week in a longer trip. It may have been the relaxing "do nothing" part of a trip that included lots of sightseeing. Makes perfect sense in that case.
-Krista
Posts: 1686 | Location: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: 21 May 2004
I did the same in Mexico once.. friends invited us to a birtdhay villa celebration.. in one of those places for the rich... not my style. maids cooking for us etc... I was exhausted..and just stayed in the pool..and read books.. for me it was a real vacation!
went to town once or twice.. for drinks and looking at the market.
the rest of the trip though was on our own and we traveled!
I was raised in California and went to the beach and other beautiful places all the time just to lay around and listen to music. I have vacationed in Malibu, and never left the beachfront hotel where I was staying.
When I went to Lago di Como, I had such a beautiful room with a terrace with a spectacular view of the lake from up a hillside over Varenna, I bought food and wine in town and sat on the terrace almost ALL the time. Yes, I went to Bellagio and the view was gorgeous, but I think it has too many tourists! I liked my quiet terrace. I read intellectual literary magazines.
I asked the women who owned the place if I could stay longer than I booked, but after she told me yes, she told me I should go out and see more of Italy! So we went to the Italian Riviera and it was very, very beautiful. We didn't leave our terrace there the whole time either.
When you are from California, you like to lay around like a cat in the sun. It feels natural and like home.
It also depends on the life they do at home. Maybe they have a hectic existence and they need to fly on this side of the ocean to avoid people bugging them!
It is actually quite common. Some ot guests going to Il Passo degli Ulivi end up spending the whole time by the pool or in the garden reading and sun-bathing.
I like to do a combination of both. Some days I run around crazy seeing as much as possible...other days...I stay by the pool/beach all day and just relax...
Andrea
Posts: 238 | Location: MD | Registered: 19 September 2004
That is so true. My husband and I enjoyed vacationing in California and by lakes in Canada, except his employers would call him with "just one question" (all the time). Then one year we went to the Isle of Skye in Scotland for a week, and we left all kinds of phone numbers but nobody called! For some reason, calling 4000 miles away in America was easy for them to do. But calling 4000 miles across the water made them hesitate.
So we got this idea.
Let's move to Europe so the phone will stop ringing.
I'm sure this was mentioned somewhere else and I missed it, but U.S. News and World Report had an article recently on the trend towards slower travel -- including a mention of Slowtrav. One of the things that struck me in the article was the thought that the root word in vacation is vacate. We enjoying sightseeing but it is also very enjoyable to vacate sometimes -- especially when the work-related stress has been building up. Personally, I find it easier to relax far away from home. Perhaps that's what they were doing.
Posts: 169 | Location: Fairfax, VA | Registered: 30 June 2005
it was lovely: sunny, hot, low humidity with the "Breva" refreshing the afternoons and a couple of wonderful storms cooling off the evenings... my problem is: THEY DIDN'T EVER LEAVE THE VILLA except for some dinner at local restaurants (which they loved).... what i want to say is if it has any sense to fly over to Italy just to enjoy the views and sit around a pool all day with a good book..
Clearly, Giorgio, the solution is to make your villa(s) less attractive.
M
Posts: 6926 | Location: Montclair, NJ, USA | Registered: 16 March 2003
people are hard to undertand sometimes; I guess that's reality check. I have americans folks living in the San Remo area who claims pizza is better in NY and always complaints about the local food vs NY better! go figure it out!!!
quote:
Originally posted by marzi: Also, the Italian food in Italy really is better than the Italian food in Californa.
I liked my lunch in San Remo but New York pizza is good, especially if you like New York pizza. It is a style all its own. I prefer New York pizza to pizza in Napoli, but personally the pizza I like best is Roman pizza because I like a crunchy crust. I also like pizza bianco.
Pizza in California? I can remember a few good ones here and there.
What, ketchup on the lobster- was someone on drugs??? I've lived in NE my whole life, seen and ate many a lobster and never heard of such a thing. Now, more relevant- we go to the US Virgin Islands when we can scrape up the money and are always surprised when we meet people who spend the entire vacation sitting by the pool drinking. Gees, there's snorkling, sailing, all kinds of relaxing things to do so my mantra is "its their vacation ,its their vacation"...
Posts: 466 | Location: Massachusetts | Registered: 11 April 2006
Aren't what Americans call "Russian" and "French" dressings made with some ketchup in them? A lot of it ends up on classic cold lobster salads and sandwiches in America, including the northeast.
Interestingly, the Spanish also favor mayonaisses (sp?) mixed with tomatoey sauces on a whole host of tapas, including seafood tapas.
I've never asked, but I wonder what Italians think of drowning lobster in butter?
Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever eaten lobster in Italy. In what part of the county can it be found fresh?
Topic Closed
You came here to New England and did what many Americans do when they go to beautiful Italy. The 40 cities in 10 days scenerio. I think your guests really enjoyed themselves, each other and the villa. Were they newly weds?
I have vacationed in Malibu, and never left the beachfront hotel where I was staying. 
. Please accept my apologies for the state of New England, hell how about the entire Eastern seaboard. 
