PC600 Sicily 2011 Index

Before this see the - 581 Tunisian Index
Sicily 2011 Postcards
- 601 Sicily Circuit 1
- 602 Circuit 2
- 603 Palermo
- 604 Central Sicily : walking Etna etc.

- I split this page in three
see ITALY 2011 Index , Walking The Via Francigena Index & Links

Now touring Sicily after 3 months in Tunisia.
- Bit tricky as the weather's cold, the high prices of accommodation etc. it's overtouristy, the insecurity of people and the main attraction is Baroque churches, which I have no interest in. I don't know why I am here, but I'll give it a chance.

- Done Palermo, Cefalu area, Catania, Syracusa, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Agrigentro, Sciacca, Menfi, Castellovitrano, Mazara, Marsala, Trapani, Erice, Castellomamare, Zingarro Palermo, Enna, villages to NW Etna Area, Messina, to mainland..

My Opinions 2011 Italian Culture
What I am interested in is not so much what is "nice", but what is strange and different compared to other places.
- What I can see in towns is
- 1. Urban Ugliness -A lot of rundown heritage buildings which would not be in such an ugly state in other countries - A lot of vandalism and garbage.

- 2. Insecurity in society - driving like they have small penises
- They are no where near as open and friendly as Albanians are

- 3. Why not just Rename The Country Chuiso (Closed) ?
- Chiuso - the most important word. 50% of the time when I get somewhere it's "chiuso" closed for some reason, cos it's siesta or Sunday, or they don't work after 5 or it's under renovation, or the workers have gone home early etc .

- 4. Strange Attitudes towards sex .. it's like the 1970's here.

- 5. Bus - no you are encouraged to use a car ..

- 6. Now I understand why some tourists Dream of Italy .. it's the Italy of 2000 years ago not today

- 7. 90% of Tourists Affected with this cancer. .. stop taking bloody photos ..they are all on the internet anyway

- 8. The Time for Traveling in Europe has finished. .. 20 years you could travel a round Europe on a budget, but NOT now bloody photos ..they are all on the internet anyway

- 9. TIME OF CAMPING VAN TRAVEL in Europe .. there is no worrying about bus schedules or costs, nor hotels. still costs €40/day per person !

- 9. FREE CAMPING AND WALKING TRAVEL .. is best

Italian you already know
- Mostly like Spanish with a few words changed ..
chi-ttà - city
big - grande
piccolo/a
biera
moneda - the change small money
Do -ve ? Where
quanto costo ? = how much ?
inglese - English language, English Person
banca - bank
mercato - market
pullman= bus
treno - train
mezz'ora - half an hour
benzina - petrol
chi ta = city
zucchero = sugar

camera doppia - double room
tourista
Grat ze= Thankyou
Come stai? = How are you?

benne = good
Si = yes, No= no
parlo Italiano - speak Italian ?
andando - travel, caminando - walk, a piedi - on foot

Others phonetic spelling
mi excusi = excuse me

0 = cero
1 = uno
2 = doo- e
3 = tri
4 = quattro
5 = chink ko
6 = say
7 = se-te
8 = oto
9 = no-ve

-
10 = deedch
20 = venti
30 = trenta
40 = quaranta
50 = chinquenta

-
11 = un deedch
12 = dua deedch
13 = tri deedch
14 = quat-or deedch
15 = kin deedch
16 = sed deedch
17 = deedch sete
18 = deedch oto
19 = deedch nove

-
100 = chi entro
1000 = meel


- GOOGLE Translate Italian

Safety
sleazy men chasing foreign ladies.
SICILY HOT LINKS : Some useful stuff

EVENTS
- Cultural Week - 9th to 17th April- Free Museums
- LAPIS events list
- siciliainfesta.com not comprehensive

Palermo events http://www.visitpalermo.it/what_to_do.html
some events http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/VisitPalermoit/45113262961

TOURISM
- not much - the tourist information centres annoying practice of not stocking any material from other areas.. So commonly one reaches the neighbouring area during Chuiso time and one can't get info.
- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/sicily
- CS Sicilia Wiki
- FB : Foreigners Living in Sicily

Couch Surfing Forum
- CS Forum Group Sicilia very active, see the city subgroups
- Tunis CS Forum Group Palermo City very active
- CHECK CS EVENTS **

CS camps http://ww.lt/www/cs-campsevents-2011-all-world-couchsurfing
http://tentsurf.com/
CS now last minute box appears after you select the city

check groups for Cultural and languages exchange meeting ( CLEM )

Cultural and languages exchange meeting ( CLEM )
- FB Dave's English Club
- Associated School : The English Room
- FB English Conversation Club Catania
- Modica Barocco-English-Club-Modica, english.barocco.biz
- teachers group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45945036379#!/group.php?gid=45945036379&v=wall
- A guy in Acireale running club and film club http://www.misterobuffo.org/chit-chat-english-corner/

TRIP ADVISOR
- TA Tunisia forum
- Tunis City Forum
- TA Tunisia Main Page

virtualtourist
- VT Tunisia forum
- VT Tunis City Forum not much
- VT Tunisia Main Page

PALERMO
Davids group OLD ?
- ERASMUS IN PALERMO
- ENG ERASMUS IN PALERMO
- FB ERASMUS IN PALERMO

BARGAIN Accommodation not in guidebook
- Free camp ..most of the campsites are closed when I reach them anyway
- apparently Couchsurfing is difficult for men cos a large amount of the Italian hosts are playboys who only host men ..see Opinions on Italy
Modica - Blue Moon Hotel is €20 Bed,
Syracusa - Don't stay at the LOL Hostel in it's a ripoff,
Trapani - Dave lists a guy who does B&B including evening meal for €20,
Palermo - The Campsite in Sferrocavallo (inland not the one on the beach) is OK,
Agrigento - The Valle of the Templei camping is good value and between the ruins and the beach ..free wifi,
Castelmammare - The woman was friendly at the Camperhome park (opposite the closed campsite)
- Most of the time on Sundays I travelled free on the train cos the ticket offices were closed and the ticket machine vandalised

There is this strange imperialism of English coming into Italian language

- whereby English are used often wrongly when a perfectly good Italian word exists.
: "Bed and Breakfast", weekend and drinkeria ! are ubiquitous

Now touring mainland Italy
- was in Sicily then : Cosenza, Peistum, Salerno and Pompei (Naples) area .. Next Pozzouli ..maybe Appian way

ITALY HOT LINKS : Some useful stuff

EVENTS
- Cultural Week - 9th to 17th April- Free Museums

TOURISM
- not much - the tourist information centres annoying practice of not stocking any material from other areas.. So commonly one reaches the neighbouring area during Chuiso time and one can't get info.

http://www.writingtravellers.com/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Italy limited pages LP has more
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/

Couch Surfing Forum
Italy
Check subgroups for province and sub sub for cities
- CS Italy Wiki
- CS Wiki transport info is good, but the hotel info is expensive ..lacks info and links to Wikipedia mostly
- CHECK CS EVENTS **
Rome - We are having a weekly aperitif every Tuesday starting at 8 pm at the Pepato Wine Bar, in Via del Politeama 8 (Trastevere) - map. First drink and abundant buffet food: € 8.

CS camps http://ww.lt/www/cs-campsevents-2011-all-world-couchsurfing
http://tentsurf.com/
CS now last minute box appears after you select the city

check groups for Cultural and languages exchange meeting ( CLEM )

Cultural and languages exchange meeting ( CLEM )

British Council centre, Via Morghen, 36 80129 Naples

- Wednesday nights meetup in Naples FB British Community Naples, website http://www.britishcommunity.it/
- Treviso Conversation-Group-Treviso on FB
- Bergamo
- Rome , Tuesdays 7pm
- Milan http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_111771958897721
- Udine in Far NE.. We meet once a week (on Thursday or Friday) in Udine's city centre to practice foreign languages, in separate groups, and help foreigners with their Italian. UdineBabel's meetups are NOT language lessons, we just meet, talk and have fun together while making new friends. See you there!!! To know more about the UDINE BABEL Group, JOIN US on: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=162233693788545
- their English group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159238474088922

TRIP ADVISOR
- TA Tunisia forum
- Tunis City Forum
- TA Tunisia Main Page

virtualtourist
- VT Tunisia forum
- VT Tunis City Forum not much
- VT Tunisia Main Page

Accommodation not in guidebook
-

LIMITED USE

Rationalist Connections

- rationalist : basic page on FB ..http://www.uaar.it .. Naples meet on thursdays and first friday of the month events
- skeptic - cicap
- science society - some science festivals genoa in october, from may http://tower.eurac.edu/en/sciencecafe/whatson/default.html in Tyrol
- freethinkers
- secularist - nothing found
- Humanist - European http://www.humanistfederation.eu, cos Humanist has a different meaning in Italy
- brights - http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/brightsitalia/ have to be a member ..little found ..Udine meetup http://www.meetup.com/Brights-Meetup-Group-Udine/
JOBS

http://www.jobinrome.com/ has real jobs, but must be an agency cos all big computer jobs

Search with "English" on kijiji.it or bricabrac.it ..checked again
- wwoof helpx.net ..19 pages done
http://ukinitaly.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-italy/finding-job EXCELLENT Tips
http://www.britchamitaly.com/ chamber of commerce

expat forums
- http://expatsinitaly.com/phpbbforum ..
Job forum nothing good
Good job tips
http://britishexpats.com/ http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77good
expatforum.com active but only general thread ..nothing
- http://www.alloexpat.com old only
- http://rome.angloinfo.com/forum/forum.asp?FID=1001 only a few jobs ALL ABOUT ROME

Checking English language newspapers
- GOOD http://ukinitaly.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-italy/eng-lang-publications
- http://www.italianinsider.it/ no jobs
- http://www.inromenow.com/ no jobs
- http://www.wantedinrome.com/ LOT OF INFO SOME JOBS IN CLASSIFIED
- http://www.informer.it not much
- http://www.theamericanmag.com/classified_ads/ rubbish jobs
- some jobs last year http://www.italymag.co.uk/community/category/topic/living/work
SEEMS QUITE GOOD
italymag.co.uk

- teachers forums

Jobs checked
From Helpx.net
I see an Irish owned school is offering WWOOF (freestay volunteer jobs) http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostID=2709&network=3 http://www.asanaitaly.com/#/about-garfagnana/4538545333

another family in Tuscany say people can stay for free in the Winter ..just pay for fuel http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostID=4173&network=3

host 7607 holiday home company ---possible

4909 guides association in Rome starts October www.anticopresente.it

5997 theatre people but no location

campsite massa Lubrense http://www.villaggionettuno.it/

at Ballestrate I see a macroeconomics professor looks for helpx.net volunteers (host number 6451) to help maintain his holiday rental Villa and apartments

there is a backpacker hostel barrea abruzzo ..cant find more

treviso thing is near venice

- WWOOF - nothing for me

VOLUNTEER check vfp.org - but UK site has better search to filter out younger age projects

Other Sources of Info : Libraries, newspapers etc
English libraries
- The British Institute of Florence a list in Rome http://rome.angloinfo.com/af/246/rome-libraries-and-book-exchanges.html Rome: English Library opening in Servigliano (Palazzo Monti, Via Vecchiotti, 7) on Monday 4th April, 10am - 12 midday. Initially open on 1st and 3rd Monday mornings (market day) and Friday afternoons for now.
- http://www.bibliocastiglione.it/library.htm Castiglione del Lago is a town in the Province of Perugia of Umbria (central Italy

Mo Tu Wed Thu Fri 5 Sat Sun 7

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