April 11, 2025 • 42 mins
Ever wondered how you could take an extended trip to Italy and explore on your own terms? Our guests Kristen and Jason came up with a plan to do exactly that. Lucky for us they're sharing their tips and tricks for managing a working vacation in our beloved Italia!
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/269
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The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/269
NEW! - the Untold Italy app - DOWNLOAD FOR iOS • DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID
The app is FREE to download and check out our Milan guide and general travel content. Upgrade to PREMIUM for a one time fee to access Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Ischia, Tuscany, Campania and Lazio with much more to come
Support the show
Join our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning checklist - subscribe here | Join us on tour: Trip schedule | Discover our Trip Planning Services | Visit our online store | Follow: Instagram • Facebook • YouTube • Italy Travel Planning Community • Online travel assistant
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
- Subscribe to our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning toolkit - subscribe here
- Need help with your trip? Check out our Trip Planning Services
- Join us on tour. Browse our Trip schedule
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever schemed of spending a longer break in Italy.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Many of us have only limited vacation time, but we
would love to stay a little bit longer than that
two weeks or even three weeks. Join us as we
chat with adventurous empty nests Kristen and Jason, who share
their innovative approach to a working vacation in Italy, offering
tips and making the most of extended stays, navigating time zones,
and finding that perfect balance between exploration and productivity. Amidst
(00:27):
the beauty of wonderful Italia.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Tawatuti and Benvenuti Tuan Told Italy the travel podcast to
where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes,
hills and coastlines of ballet Italia. Each week, your host
Katie Clark takes you on a journey in a search
of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course,
(00:57):
a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming of it
Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to the
right place.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Do you dream of speaking Italian but feel stuck? I
hear you. Whether you want to connect with your Italian heritage, a.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Partner or you want to live in Italy, finding the
right tools to match your learning style is important. My
friend Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical approach to
learning Italian with her unique eighty twenty method, teaching you
only what you need to know. As an adult learner
herself with Italian heritage, she really knows how to bridge
the gap between English and Italian.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
As Angela from.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Australia said, I put my inability to learn down to
my senior stage of life, but with Intrepid Italian it
seems to just fit. To find out how Intrepid Italian
can help you learn Italian, and to claim an exclusive
twenty dollars coupon code that you can use on any
of Michelle's online courses from beginner to intermediate, visit untold
(02:04):
Italy dot com, forward slash Italian or visit the link
in the show notes. As a bonus, you'll also get
a downloadable travel phrase guide absolutely free. So visit untold
Italy dot com forward slash Italian to accelerate your Italian
buon giano friends. Have you had your espresso today? I've
had two, which is in fact my limit, Otherwise I'm
(02:25):
bouncing off the walls at midnight unless I'm in Italy,
of course, and in that case the espressos are limitless.
I've had a lot of lovely messages lately from people
missing Italy, and when Kristen and Jason, our guests today,
reached out with a unique way to travel in Italy,
I thought getting them on the show may spark some
ideas for you. Working vacations and the digital nomad lifestyle
(02:47):
is not a new concept, and in fact, several members
of the Untold Italy team work that way, but the
way that it's positioned is that it's something that's more
attainable for let's just say, a younger demographic than maybe
myself who's Jeff lea gen x, and for those of
us with say, full time jobs and carrying responsibilities. In
(03:07):
those cases, hitting the road for more than a couple
of weeks can seem like an impossible dream. But Kristin
and Jason found a way to make their dream of
exploring Italy work for them, and they're here today to
share that with you ANDIAMO.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Let's hear all about it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Then, Venuti, Kristin and Jason welcome on to the Untold
Italy podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Thanks for having us here.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Thank you. We're excited.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I just love hearing our listeners' journeys in Italy, and
you just have a really unique way of traveling there
that I can't wait for everyone to hear about. But
before we get started on that, let's hear from you
where you're from and how did you fall in love
with Italy.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Well, we're empty nesters.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
We've got three grown children who flow in the coop,
and after twenty years of the hustle and bustle of
suburban Washington, DC, we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. We traveled
several times with the kids to Italy. It always was
our on school vacation time, as you might imagine, which
lends itself to being in the ungodly heat of Italy.
So we wanted to try a different type of vacation.
(04:09):
It was really Chris's vision on what we wanted to try.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
So one of the things we decided to do when
COVID took both our jobs and made them either full
time remote for me or part time remote for.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Jason, that enough of the touring with the family vacation.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
We'd planned big trips for ourselves for our anniversary.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
We brought our three kids when they were younger.
Speaker 7 (04:33):
We took eleven people on a fiftieth anniversary trip from
my parents.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
But that's one and done. That's a summer vacation. That's
crowds in Italy, that's heat.
Speaker 7 (04:44):
And when we found ourselves kind of empty nesters.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I looked at Jace one day and I said.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
You know, in the middle of what September October, we
could go to Italy.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And he looked at me, like, are you crazy? It's
the fall. I'm like, I know. So that was how
this whole thing started.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But what was it about easily that really made you
like keep going back?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It sounds like you've been doing that for a while.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
I'll be honest.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
There's a recent me making the rounds on social media about,
like guys think about all day the Roman Empire. I
kind of did for a while, and I was just
drawn to the magic of.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
The place and the history.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
And we loved the history of it, the buildings, the beauty.
It's also Italy, frankly, like it's a relatively safe, comfortable
not safe as insecure. It is safe and secure, but
like it's a comfortable place for Americans to go. It's
not too strange, the language isn't too far and certainly
in the big locations, everybody in the services industry speaks English,
(05:46):
so in Rome it's not difficult to navigate and get around.
So we really just enjoyed it, and we loved our
first trip. We crammed in like many people do. Rome
and Venice. We're gonna cram it into a short amount
of time. The next one we're going to do Roame
again and cram and Florence and do Venice again. And
we wanted to go beyond that kind of travel notion.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I think when you are looking at trips you go
with a family, and then you think, oh.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
When we retire, we're going to do all these great trips.
Well we're not there. We're not quite ready to retire.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
But what we came up with was a way to
take our love of travel and our.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Need to continue working and do both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Amazing, because you know, with Italy, this doesn't seem like
there's enough time to explore, and you do realize that
when you've been there a few times, you need to
sort of have that extended period to really make the
most of it, don't you. And I think you know,
it might seem out of reach for a lot of
people to do that, and I think what you've done
is a really creative and unique way to have that
(06:47):
extended travel experience that a lot of us are craving.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So tell us a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So how do you actually go about planning your trips
and making the most of your time that you have
in Italy?
Speaker 7 (06:59):
Well, to start with, you said it's a little out
of reach for people. I have to say some of
the way we do this is so cost effective that
my parents joke that what they spend for a week
at the beach, we spend for three weeks in Italy.
So this can be done in a fairly cost effective way.
We did a few test runs and we kind of
really talked about what was important to us.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
The concept is built around time zones.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
When you look at it, Italy is usually six hours
ahead of the US East Coast, so eight am here
in Virginia is two pm in Italy. So what we
realized is we could play in the morning, spend all
morning touring and doing all this fun stuff, have an
amazing Italian lunch and still be back at our remote
desk in an Airbnb.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Ready to go at.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
Two pm and work through the evening. And that was
the first real cool thing we realized.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
But we did have to test it out. We didn't
do this accidentally.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
We did a trial run in Ottawa, Canada to see
if we could work remotely together.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I figured out a few things there as we were
visiting our daughter. But we realize I thought this would work.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, it may not work as well for Australia, not
as quick on the math of the time zone difference,
but honestly it works really well for East Coast United States.
It does make for long days because we get up
very early. We're up at six or seven, we have
an Italian colazzione with a cappuccino and a cordnetto or two,
(08:29):
and then we're off traveling.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
We'll have a nice lunch.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
Sometimes we can take our time at lunch if we
plan it correctly, and then we're at work for our
normal eight hours two pm to ten pm Italy time.
So it makes for a long total day. But I'm
not crying about getting to go tour in this town
or that town, or possibly have a glass of wine
at lunch before the workday starts.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Well, and I'll be honest American lunch time in Italy
we go out.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
We go out, we get a nice Gilano and we
you know, sometimes when the working day's over, there's a
chance for us to go out for a late dinner.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Sometimes when the working days over, we look at each other,
we're like, yeah, we're done. We're done from delata, maybe
a glass of wine.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
And then it's straight to bed because we know we're
going to get to start again.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I can imagine on your meetings everyone else is
there clutching their coffee, just you know, getting warmed up
for the day, and you're like, hey everyone right away.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Yeah, it's actually interesting. The first time we did it,
I didn't brag and talk a lot. I mean I
had permission from my office to do it, but I
didn't tell a lot of people what I was doing.
Nobody had any idea, there's no reasonable expectation. I wanted
to kind of take a meeting from in front of
the coliseum for fun, but I didn't actually do that.
And nobody really know the difference. I mean, everybody's used
to zoom you put on some different background and again
(09:47):
it's not hiding it, but it's you know, being smartly
discreet and not showing off.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Sure, I think this is the beauty of you know,
the technology. This is when technology is really working for us,
I think, and just see your to do that is
just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Oh I love it. Now.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I guess finding a place to stay because you did stay,
you stay put in like one place or a couple
of places for each of your trips, right, So how
do you find those longer term rentals because I think
that that's really what gets a lot of people stuck,
is they're trying to find a rental that's going to
take you know, maybe two weeks or three weeks.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Actually, what we've done so far is we haven't stayed
in one place more than a week. We tend to
pick the region and focus on one week there and
then the weekends are great times for us to move
cities and spend longer times.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
But we have found and.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
I know a lot of times on the podcast you
talk about the benefit of hotels for what we're doing,
airbnbs really do work far better. They're a little more
cost effective, they offer us a kitchen. They offer us laundry,
which when you're staying for a while, it's nice to
know where're going to clean and we're much more able
(11:02):
to get the most important thing. We realized we got
to have two separate working areas.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
We're both on zoom calls.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
He loves me dearly, but the first time we tried
this in Canada, we were right on top of each
other and I thought he was gonna have my head
by the time I was done.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
With my meetings.
Speaker 7 (11:18):
I'm a little animated, I'm loud, and it was driving
him crazy. So we do need two separate work areas.
So once we've identified a place, then it does take
a lot of looking in advance, a lot of looking
at pictures and recognizing am I looking at two different bedrooms?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Am I looking at the same room from a different perspective?
Speaker 5 (11:41):
You know?
Speaker 7 (11:41):
In some cases, what furniture do I see in this
place that I could maybe reposition in bedroom so that
Jason can have the living area I can have the bedroom.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
This is why the practice run an Autowa worked really well,
because you couldn't really tell from the pictures the size
and where we'd be. There were two seven areas for
us to sit, but essentially they were in the same room,
and so we learn like, yeah, that just doesn't work
for two people who are online and doing zoom calls
all day. So you look more carefully and say, Okay,
this is a bedroom that has a desk Chris cansider
(12:14):
in the kitchen. You don't even have to close the
door all the time. But they're separate enough spaces that
they work.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, I can imagine my husband's voice is very loud
and I would just be throwing things at him, probably,
but that's really good to know. Yeah, and I think
in the smallest cities as well, the airbnb situation is
probably it's a lot easier. And if you're staying a
longer time, it does make more sense, you know, to
have a kitchen, because you can't be eating what you
(12:41):
can be eating out. But I mean, yeah, I totally
understand that. I just think if you're coming for it
just a two or three days, it's sometimes easier to
get out home.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
That's another thing we've learned working vacation.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
So we do work, but the timing of how we
do this is almost more. We really have a kind
of I do when I do all the planning, Jas
says all the driving once we're there.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I do all the planning getting us there. But I
have a hard fast rule that we work about a
third of the time we're out of the country. So
that just requires looking at long weekends.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
It requires looking at school vacations because a lot of
the times offices are much quieter during school vacations, and
it's an easy time to take off even if you're
an empty nester. It requires looking at flights that'll work
with our work schedule.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
We know we have to get there and have a couple.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Of days to get acclimated because we're not ready to
jump into it right away. We love it if we
can find a week where we take a personal day,
or we take time off on a Wednesday or a Thursday.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We don't like to work more than two days in
a row. Ideally at work week is four days, and
you've taken off the Wednesday. That makes such a difference.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
And the other part is that I strongly believe in
the very last few days of it, be it a week,
be it four or five days, those are off.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Those are just vacations.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
So and you're done with your final workday, you get
to say yes, we got five days of only vacation
now coming and for those days we often do hit
at Richarizmo's or bmb's or hotels.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Oh beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now, I think everyone wants to know where have you
had these amazing experiences where you've managed to work, because oh,
I mean, I know you've given me a little hits
up and I think that you've made some excellent choices.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
How about you tell us about some of your favorites.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
So you can see the progression of as we get
more and more courageous, Like our first trips are like
typical tourists do everything you can with your family and
running around and it's crazy and it's hot. We absolutely
loved Luca in Tuscany, and so when we tried this
out after our big Ottawa test run, we found a
place inside the walls Lamoura of Luca and it was
(14:59):
a perfect town. Enough restaurants were open late that we
could go grab dinner. They got plenty of gelato so
we could run in the middle of the day, and
it's so well located. We did rent a car, we
parked outside the walls and like we could take it
was a half day trip and we're back in time
to work to go see the leading Tower of Pisa.
We were there before the tourists. We had no weight
(15:20):
to go up the tower. As we walked back, all
the buses had arrived, were weaving our way through all
the tourists to get back to our car. And we
were back and we picked up lunch, and I think
we ate in our airbnb. So some of the trick
is a location where there's relatively easy access to other
half day trips.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, and Luca was like perfect right there in the middle.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
And Luca is great to do a half day even
within the walls itself, like renting the bikes and riding
around and exploring the town itself was an easy half
day for us.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean, Luca is just honestly, it's the best,
isn't it. I think my husband and I spent like
one or two hours just looking at real estate boards.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
We've done that many times and every single trip that's
part of the process.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Never've discovered that is a different kind of working environment.
Twice we've done the big cities.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
First trip we did Rome, and we'd been to Rome
multiple times, but this time we stayed much further out
towards the walls. We got a little more space that way.
We were in more of a workaday neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I would say. And we also did the same thing
in Bologna, kind of in the university area.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
So if you don't want to deal with the car,
which is a whole different game. The big cities, Rome, Bologna, Florence,
they often have enough activity.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
That you can have an easy half day where.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
The transportation is so much easier, and still get back
to someplace closer to the outskirts.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
We loved Rome.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
We have been to Rome so many times and we
had adventures on our working week in Rome that we
never would have had if it had been.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
A folk family vacation. Bolognia was an.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
Awesome recent trip because the train station is there, and
the train station got us to Parma, got us to Padua,
got us to Verona. So easy to get around in
those cities as well. So there's two different ways we've
looked at it. The small towns you know more in
the countryside, but you can.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Also do this in the bigger cities. The bigger cities
have the benefit of better internet too.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that actually because
you can get a little bit dicey there. I know
sometimes when I'm recording the podcasts with people that are
in the country, it can be a little bit flaky.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
So yeah, I can.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Imagine getting the really good internet is a priority too.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
That's part of the art and science of using Airbnb
andcooking dot com is see what they say about the
Wi Fi. Chris usually finds the places, and then I
do some backup, more detailed research. Is there any reference
to Wi Fi in the comments? Because sometimes people will
say great Wi Fi? Okay, good start on, while you'll
see terrible Wi Fi. All right, we're not even going
(18:02):
to bother. And then we've also started just simply mailing
the owner and asking them do you have a Wi
Fi test? And I think all of them have provided
something or have said like no, We've had people that
have worked here.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
And it's fine.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
You are taking a chance because you don't know for
sure until you get there. So one of the first
things we do when we arrive at the airbnb is
we open up our laptops, we make sure we can
log on. We do it a little test run to
make sure what kind of service we have in one place.
The internet was very spotty, and the owner immediately said,
you know what, I can solve this.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I'll go reset the router.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
It was in a different apartment she ran, and she
took care of us in Luca. The first day Internet
was real spotty for me but not for Chris. So
I went out and bought a long Ethernet cord so
I could plug in directly, and now we carry that
around with us as a backup plan.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
My backup that I.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Haven't needed to use, thankfully yet, is scouting out locations
where they have shared work spaces in the towns.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
So we stayed in Ostuni.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
The Wi Fi was fine, but I knew in the
absolute worst case, I would have driven to Bari and
they had like a very inexpensive shared workspace or like
an Internet cafe. That's my extreme backup plan if things
really well. But we've never needed it, and we've been
in small towns like Spello been totally fine. Rome was
obviously fine, no Internet problems there. So it just takes
(19:26):
a little bit of due diligence and then tests, so
you're ahead.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Of the game when you get to Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love the how organized you are, and I think
it's great that the internet's working, because I've been doing
this big project which has required me to be looking
at Italian websites.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Like basically religiously for eight hours.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
A day, and I have found that seventy percent of
them don't work.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Oh it's been really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So I find it super interesting that they do have
that connectivity. But you know, the online infrastructure isn't so
great over there, like they just don't.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Like part of me finds that super frustrating, but the
other part of me says, you do, you that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
We don't know what need to be online twenty four cent.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
So it also sometimes matters where you're sitting. In Spellow,
I was in the kitchen and I had no problem.
Jase was on the other side of a very thick
brick stone wall and he was a mess, and he
ended up having just come and kind of be next
to me if he wasn't talking, and then it was great.
So again, we've moved locations, even in these tiny apartments sometimes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And so you were mentioning about Rome that you had
some really cool adventures. What was the adventures you have
in Rome? Because I do like to go exploring and
I always think, oh, I wish I had more time here.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Well, I mean we every time we go.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
We love just walking in the chentro in the center
of town and being immersed by coliseum and the Forum.
One little secret place we'd never in all our years.
Up until recent one of these working trips had been
up to the Victoria Manual monument right next to the Forum,
and work like, fine, let's just go up at something
we haven't done. We had seen most of the sites,
(21:06):
and we found ourselves in their cafe.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
It's free entry into the cafe.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
You have to pay for food, but it's on a
like a porticoat balcony and overlooks the road that leads
right to the Colisseum, and it is the most gorgeous
spot to just sit. You get a little breeze and
you overlook the historic right across from the Trajan's Forum.
It's a pretty special spot that we just came and
(21:31):
now it's like every time we go to Rome. When
we were there last time, we're like, we're going up
and we're having a coffee up there, just to relive
that moment.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
It's not crowded. Usually it's an easy way, there's no Line. Yeah,
and I think we've done for our full days in Rome.
We love the Appian Ways.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
We actually rented bikes and been out on the Appian
Way and did some way out of Rome touring. Took
the bus to get out there. We took a full
day to do that. That was our Wednesday. You know,
we have the day off activity, so we've done different
neighborhoods we'd never seen before. Saint Peter's is always fun.
I don't care how many times you visit. We'll climb
(22:06):
to the coople up. We met great people in Line.
We've had some great experiences that way.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How about that Appian Way.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know what I was expecting, maybe that the
cobblestones would be like in the town. They're huge, aren't
they those cobblestones.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Yea, I'm not sure.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
I recommend the biking of the Appian Way if you want.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
There's a backstory to that.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Definitely, don't lock your bikes up and go to lunch,
no matter what they say about the.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Luck they give you.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Oh No, the Appian Way it's special. And the Aqueduct
Park if you can get there riding a bike. The
cobblestones are gigantic. It's like impossible to write. I'm like,
what what are we doing here? This is impossible to do.
But it is a very unique spot and would definitely recommend.
That was one of our full days.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's so cool, isn't it Like you can go on
the side of those cobblestones though, But he's very hard
on your bottom, Isn't it Like I can't stress them up?
We went back there just in December and we went
to one of the churches there, which is one of
the original Christian churches in Rome, and it was absolutely phenomenal.
(23:13):
Like I can't even count the number of times I've
been to Rome now, and there's always something. And with
our friend Nazine, we went out to the Garbatella neighborhood
and went to this amazing restaurant.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And Rome is just the best.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I sometimes get stuck in a rut going back
to my favorite haunts, but like I'm always trying to
force myself to.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Go somewhere different.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So this time I'm going to go deep into Pratti
neighborhood next time. So I don't know if you've been
around that area, but it's always so much just explored,
just in that historic center anyway.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
That's actually a good example of what we're doing with Italy.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Writ large, You've you've been to Rome so much.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
You love going to your same places, but it also
because you know you'll be back and you've been there,
he sort of gives yourself permission to explore the corners
that aren't on the tourist track. And that's exactly what
we've started doing with Italy, is like, we can still
do Rome, or we'll go for one day, or we'll
hit it on the next trip. Let's try Umbria this
time hadn't really been on our radar. I think it
(24:16):
really got on a radar from listening to your show.
But it's like, because you've done it enough and you
know you're going to be back, it's an easy enough experience.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Let's try this little corner that we wouldn't normally go to.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Oh look, Umbria is just so amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
And I actually just recorded a podcast a couple of
days ago. Another place which I'm going to put on
your radar too, which is called Tusha, which is on
the border with Umbria and Tuscany, and it's actually in Lancio.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
So you drive up there the motorway.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Everyone just does this me included just drive straight through
this area and it's just I was talking to Eleanor,
who's one of the guides there.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And I was like, what is going on? Why haven't
I not stopped here?
Speaker 8 (25:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So again like just even two hours outside of Rome,
you can get there very easily.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
One of our working weeks this fall was in Spello
in Umbria, which is ten minutes from a CC, and
that was my find when we couldn't settle on the
right apartment in a CC, so I said, what about Spello.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I cannot recommend Spellow enough.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
It is a sleepy, little gorgeous village, comes alive once
a year with their flower festival in May.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
But we literally walked.
Speaker 7 (25:29):
To the same cafe every morning down more or less
empty streets.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
It was just locals. In this October week.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
We were there and you got in the train, you
got in the car, and ten minutes away was a CC.
Fifteen minutes away. It was just so well located and
you're right Umbria. You're going to face so many, so
much less crowds than you would in tust.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Me and it's just as beautiful, actually if not more.
And I feel like it's it's got that more local character.
You have the people that are going about their daily business,
which I find so interesting because it is very different
to our lives at home, and you know, they have
their routine and sometimes I'm someone who likes to be
(26:13):
constantly stimulated or something like doing something different, but they
just know, they don't mind. They do the same thing
every day and they're happy. And I really envy that, actually,
because I wish I always kind of like that in
a way, but it's so lovely to see that culture
in action too.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yeah, and that's part of also the magic of staying
a week in a place, a small town like that
is obviously we're not living there like the people who
actually live their full time, but you do get a
taste of it because it is a quieter town. By
the nature of our work schedule, we're eating later like
they do there, and it's more we'll go grocery shopping
like normal tourism.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
You're not going grocery shopping. You're eating out most of
the time. So it's fun to explore and experiment with
a slower a type of travel.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And now tell us about driving, because I know you do,
and I think we have a similar plan. I do
the planning and the navigating, and my husband drives. And
but I have driven a few times. I know where
I will never drive again. And it's I have said
this many times. Do not drive in Liguria, like seriously,
it's it's hair raising. But I have driven in Poolia
(27:23):
and I know you have too.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
We drove down to Pulia.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
We drive actually from Spellow to Pulia to Stoony, so lovely.
And it's at one point on that drive I said, Jess,
stop looking at the road and look at the GPS.
All you can see on the entire GPS was olive trees.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I mean all we can see out the window.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
But the GPS that wide review is just one giant
olive tree with three roads going through it.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
It was amazing.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
Yeah, and you have to admit, nothing's better than an
Italian rests up.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Let me tell you can get some amazing lunch.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
It's the best.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
It is different, but not entirely different.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Every time we go, it takes me about thirty minutes
to shift into Italian driving Jason mode. You do have
to be I don't say aggressive, but you need to
be more assertive. It's okay to put the pedal to
the medal a little bit and realize the pattern. On
the two lane highways, people are much more accustomed you
sit in the right lane and let other people go
(28:23):
on the left. In our larger highways in the US,
people are just doing whatever they want in whatever lane.
The signs are mostly the same, but not exactly the same.
There's signs that have red crosses through them that don't
necessarily mean don't go there. So you are figuring it
out as you go, and it helps. Like we've gotten
into a good routine to have a good navigator that's like,
(28:45):
I don't think that's the left turn we're supposed to
make going, keep going, and also be okay with like
you're gonna make wrong turns, it's not that big a deal.
You'll extricate yourself from the situation. Ninety five percent of
the time, we're just turning around and we're winding our
way back. A couple interesting stories. We did get lost
very quickly. The first day we were in Spello. We
(29:08):
ended up on the middle of Mount Sebasio.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Not at all where we're intending to go.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
In fact, there was one scary road, a lot of rocks,
and we were not in a very powerful rental car.
Chris got out and made sure that I could drive
out with as minimal amount of weight as possible, and
eventually we were off the mountain and the GPS got
us back home, like it wasn't that big of a deal,
and it's a good story that we have. The ztls
in towns are more scary. We're both very cognizant of
(29:37):
during normal daylight hours, you can't drive into the true
hearts of the towns, whichever town that you're in. I
think we've avoided them all except for Ostuni. I was
hyper focused on getting to our airbnb, which was in town,
and Chris is like, are you sure this isn't going
to take us through the ZTL.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
I'm like, why would the ZPs lead us through the ZTL?
Speaker 6 (29:58):
But sure enough, before I knew it, we're surrounded by taurists.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
I was in a piazza.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
Clearly I was driving where I wasn't supposed to be,
and I'm like, we got no choice but to keep
going and drive ourselves out of it.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
In about six months, that ticket's going.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
To in the US and we'll just look at each
other and say, opportunity costs yes, sorry, two euros and
we'll move on with our life.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's pretty funny to look back on, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Like I know, at the time it's so stressful and
there's people everywhere and you're like, but then you go,
oh my god, like that was actually super funny.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
More than once we've stopped, I've gotten out, I've looked around.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
I've sometimes run up to the corner to see if
we should keep going or turn around, and I've just okay,
back it up, back it up. The other thing that
he doesn't tell you is one thing that really helps
is Jason is a very competent stick shift driver. I
think it's a lot more intimidating for Americans who are
used to automatics to realize you got to drive a
stick pretty much in Europe.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, I think it does help you. It gives you
more options, and you know, especially if you're going up
hills and stuff like, you're not getting an SUV's type
car that's got four wheel drive, so you really do
need to have.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
A bit of that skills. It's ideal.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you know, the other thing that's we've noticed, actually,
you know Facebook group, is that people have been given
electric cars, which is fine, but you need to make
sure you've got someone to charge it, and not everywhere
has that.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
That was our problem in Rome this year, and that
was all on me.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
You have to really read the reservation page on the
websites carefully because we got to Rome, we were jet lagged,
we were tired, and this woman knew we were taking
this car to the south and she's like, do you
know you rented an electric car?
Speaker 4 (31:46):
So we literally freaked.
Speaker 7 (31:49):
Out and she gave us the very last car in
the lat I wouldn't recommend an EVO in Europe. At
some point Bason and I just closed their eyes and
prayed we were going to get.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Up a hill.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
We made it, but again, you're right, there aren't a
lot of charging places, especially as you go further south.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I think up around Bologna and in Emilia Raman, you're
in Tuscany, I think it's fine for electric vehicles, but yeah,
down south, I wouldn't risk it, no way.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
No.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
We didn't want to experiment with that and be stuck somewhere.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, yeah, there's only so many exciting stories you can
take in one quickly exactly, So now where are you
going to go? Next, because you've you've hit or you've
done some beautiful places, and you know, I think you're
building your confidence as you say.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
And Jason, I know you speak Italian now, is that right?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
I speak a little bit.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
See.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
For the last year and a half, I've worked with
my Italian professor, Essa. She's a teachers English. She's based
in Bologna. On our last trip, she and her husband
drove down to we were in San Jeminiano and took
us to a winery there and it was the most
memorable moment of the trip to meet her in person
after spending nine months with her at the time, and
(33:06):
she was so warm and outgoing and that was a
lot of fun. So she and her husband actually are
going to meet us for a couple of days in Torino.
We've never been northwest, so that'll be the first time.
I would like to see some mountains. Turin has some
wonderful museums, so that'll be our base for the probably
(33:26):
for the first week. We just listened to your podcast
on Vicenza and after consulting with my Italian tutor, she
confirmed that's probably also a good base for our second
week because there's lots of places to access for our
half day trips and then maybe we'll do a vacation
(33:47):
weekend in Venice.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh that sounds amazing. Yeah, and when will you be there?
Will you be there in October?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
No? Right now, we're aiming to go on October November.
We've been trying to go twice a year. We gave
this spring a break.
Speaker 7 (34:02):
We were stayed home for the birth of our first grandson,
so we have.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
A little extra time to plan the fall trip. But
again we'll go north, we think in the fall, and
hopefully next spring we're heading back to Umbria.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
We had a great week in Sicily a couple of
years ago as a full vacation week, and we're thinking
maybe Palermo might be a working place.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Palermo was amazing, so we're working on it. It's nice
to dream.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
It's also nice to not feel the pressure because you
know what, if we don't get to it.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
This year, the way this is working, we'll be able
to try it next year.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Isn't it so amazing how different say Cicily is to Umbria,
Like it's just like a different country.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Oh, Sicily is amazing.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
We had the greatest week there and we were free,
we were not working.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
That wasn't a work week, it was a full vacation week.
But yeah, we loved. We were in Palermo for a
Holy week at Eastern end.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
That I got to tell you, Holy Thursday and Good
Friday and Palermo is something you've got to see to believe.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
It was amazing, totally accidental.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
We didn't know what to expect and all of a
sudden we're following a procession down the street with bands
and it was really an amazing thing to witness.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah. I've also spent a Good Friday in Sicily, and
people don't understand here in Australia we have Good Friday
as a public holiday, so and basically everyone maybe goes
to the beach or goes camping or something. But there
it is a community effort, isn't it. And we living
traditions that they've done for hundreds of years, even down
(35:32):
to the food, the way they dressed everything.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
The churches. It was amazing. So that's on our list again.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So I've got a good place for you, I think
next time in Sicily, because you know, sometimes you have
to branch out a bit, but if you go down
to not to I reckon around.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
There okay, that's fire List.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Or even or Teacher, which you may know is one
of my favorite players.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
That was an amazing day. I would love to go
back there too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I know it's something when you look at it on paper,
it's kind of like, yeah, but I don't know what's
a feeling there for me anyway, and so oh so exciting.
I just love that you've got this plan and you're
so flexible. Is anyone asking if they can come with
you at this point? Any of your friends?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
You know what. That's one of the things about this trip.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
There are family vacations, and we still take them with
our family, but these working vacations we find that they
are much easier to do with just the two of us.
I mean, I can't say enough. We are working. We
are actually sticking to our workday schedule, and there might
be a little stress as we get to one thirty goes,
oh god.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
We got to get back. Let's go, let's not be late.
We both have to log in. So these kind of
trips are kind of our holding off retirement trips. We
are kicking around having people meet us.
Speaker 7 (36:51):
But as far as the working part, that works really
well with two of us. So I know we both
have parents who would like to join us at some point,
so maybe we'll figure out way to bring the retirees
in with us one of these days.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
I think it's amazing what you're doing, because when you
think about when people think about retirement, they're thinking, you know,
then they will be taking these really long trips. But
what we were talking just before we came on air
is that you can't actually.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Travel for that long. When you're in Europe, you think.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That you can, but they have a visa for ninety days.
So I have a cousin who's, you know, heading into
the retirement age, and he said to me, I want
to travel for six months. And I said, oh, buddy,
you can't, because you know, you can only stay for
three months and then you've got to get out, you know,
and then you have to stay out for another ninety
days before you go back in. So this way that
(37:40):
you're doing it is such a great transition to getting
to that point, and you get to see so much
and experience so much.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I love it. It's great.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
Yeah, I've told many people that it's really for me
extended my desire to want to retire early. I don't
feel that need as strongly because this gives me more
time to explore different things and particularly now learning the language,
just to feel more of the event while we're being
(38:08):
there in the travel. Five years ago I had I
was much more anxious to try and retire so we
could travel more, but this has really.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Kind of pushed it out. Doing this kind of hybrid
travel where we.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
Get enough days off, we do our work, we don't
blow up all the rest of our vacation days.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
It's a good hybrid well.
Speaker 7 (38:25):
And you know what, we're also at that stage life
where a lot of people enter in their fifties and
early sixties, where there are grand babies coming on, there
are children spread out in different places, there were aging parents,
and you know what, being out of the country for
extended period of time isn't always practical, but we can
do two, three, even maybe four weeks twice a year
if we're lucky.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
So I love how you've just put so much thought
into it as well, and you've really you know, zoned
in on how it's going to work for you, and
I think anything's possible. But I do have a message
out there for anyone who's an employer, is that.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Like, look, at these people. Look how happy they are.
I'm sure they're.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Really productive and great employees in their workplace. And I
have a team that's all over the world, and I'm like,
just get the work done. Our work isn't time sensitive,
so we don't have to have specific meetings all the time.
But yeah, like, look at this. It's such a brilliant experience.
And you know you're going to be talking about this forever,
(39:25):
and you know, sharing these moments together. You know, maybe
one day when you can't travel, we have all these
memories of meeting your Italian teacher and catching up exactly. Well,
thank you so much for sharing these unique experiences with everyone.
And I'm really so thrilled that you reached out because
it is such a great way of looking at things,
(39:45):
and I think if you don't hear about those different
ways of traveling, then you might not realize what's possible
for yourself. So thank you so much, Christian and Jason's
been lovely chatting with you today.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
So How great is that plan.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I love how Kristin and Jason have found a way
to make their dreams of traveling in Italy become a
reality with a bit of persistence, actually quite a lot,
and I have to say much more excellent planning. They've
created something truly oneful that works wonders for them. If
you have a trip you'd like to share or a
different way of traveling in Italy, please reach out to
(40:20):
us at chow at Untold Italy dot com. I'll be
upfront and say that we're looking for unique places and experiences,
the untold ones, so we can inspire others to go
beyond the obvious, connect with places that aren't one hundred
percent set up for tourists. So if you have personal
experiences that fit the brief, do please reach out, and unfortunately,
(40:41):
we will politely be declining business pictures.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
In favor of personal experiences.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
To learn more about the places that Kristin and Jason mentioned,
head on over to our show notes at Untold Italy
dot com forward slash two six nine for episode number
two hundred and sixty nine, And if you want more
insider tips on spending time in Lovely Luca, a place
that we all love, you'll find them in the Tuscany
Guide on the premium version of the Untold Italy app,
(41:08):
including restaurant and hotel recommendations, favorite shops, day trips and
local wineries Grautzier. Thank you to all our wonderful listeners
for your ongoing support of Untold Italy. I hope you
enjoyed today's show. If you did, then it would be
amazing if you gave us a rating or review in
your favorite podcast app. Next week, we're taking a little
(41:28):
pause for Pascua or Easter, but we'll be back in
a fortnight with a wonderful Sicilian adventure and some insight
into the night train from Messina to Roma.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
But until then, it's chowfin now.
Speaker 8 (41:39):
The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production podcast editing,
audio production and website development by Mark Hatter, Production assistance
and content writing biby.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Are they kJ Clark?
Speaker 8 (41:51):
Yes, there are two of us. For more information about
Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy dot com look b
Ever schemed of spending a longer break in Italy.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Many of us have only limited vacation time, but we
would love to stay a little bit longer than that
two weeks or even three weeks. Join us as we
chat with adventurous empty nests Kristen and Jason, who share
their innovative approach to a working vacation in Italy, offering
tips and making the most of extended stays, navigating time zones,
and finding that perfect balance between exploration and productivity. Amidst
(00:27):
the beauty of wonderful Italia.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Tawatuti and Benvenuti Tuan Told Italy the travel podcast to
where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes,
hills and coastlines of ballet Italia. Each week, your host
Katie Clark takes you on a journey in a search
of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course,
(00:57):
a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming of it
Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to the
right place.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Do you dream of speaking Italian but feel stuck? I
hear you. Whether you want to connect with your Italian heritage, a.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Partner or you want to live in Italy, finding the
right tools to match your learning style is important. My
friend Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical approach to
learning Italian with her unique eighty twenty method, teaching you
only what you need to know. As an adult learner
herself with Italian heritage, she really knows how to bridge
the gap between English and Italian.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
As Angela from.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Australia said, I put my inability to learn down to
my senior stage of life, but with Intrepid Italian it
seems to just fit. To find out how Intrepid Italian
can help you learn Italian, and to claim an exclusive
twenty dollars coupon code that you can use on any
of Michelle's online courses from beginner to intermediate, visit untold
(02:04):
Italy dot com, forward slash Italian or visit the link
in the show notes. As a bonus, you'll also get
a downloadable travel phrase guide absolutely free. So visit untold
Italy dot com forward slash Italian to accelerate your Italian
buon giano friends. Have you had your espresso today? I've
had two, which is in fact my limit, Otherwise I'm
(02:25):
bouncing off the walls at midnight unless I'm in Italy,
of course, and in that case the espressos are limitless.
I've had a lot of lovely messages lately from people
missing Italy, and when Kristen and Jason, our guests today,
reached out with a unique way to travel in Italy,
I thought getting them on the show may spark some
ideas for you. Working vacations and the digital nomad lifestyle
(02:47):
is not a new concept, and in fact, several members
of the Untold Italy team work that way, but the
way that it's positioned is that it's something that's more
attainable for let's just say, a younger demographic than maybe
myself who's Jeff lea gen x, and for those of
us with say, full time jobs and carrying responsibilities. In
(03:07):
those cases, hitting the road for more than a couple
of weeks can seem like an impossible dream. But Kristin
and Jason found a way to make their dream of
exploring Italy work for them, and they're here today to
share that with you ANDIAMO.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Let's hear all about it.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Then, Venuti, Kristin and Jason welcome on to the Untold
Italy podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Thanks for having us here.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Thank you. We're excited.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I just love hearing our listeners' journeys in Italy, and
you just have a really unique way of traveling there
that I can't wait for everyone to hear about. But
before we get started on that, let's hear from you
where you're from and how did you fall in love
with Italy.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Well, we're empty nesters.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
We've got three grown children who flow in the coop,
and after twenty years of the hustle and bustle of
suburban Washington, DC, we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. We traveled
several times with the kids to Italy. It always was
our on school vacation time, as you might imagine, which
lends itself to being in the ungodly heat of Italy.
So we wanted to try a different type of vacation.
(04:09):
It was really Chris's vision on what we wanted to try.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
So one of the things we decided to do when
COVID took both our jobs and made them either full
time remote for me or part time remote for.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Jason, that enough of the touring with the family vacation.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
We'd planned big trips for ourselves for our anniversary.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
We brought our three kids when they were younger.
Speaker 7 (04:33):
We took eleven people on a fiftieth anniversary trip from
my parents.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
But that's one and done. That's a summer vacation. That's
crowds in Italy, that's heat.
Speaker 7 (04:44):
And when we found ourselves kind of empty nesters.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I looked at Jace one day and I said.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
You know, in the middle of what September October, we
could go to Italy.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And he looked at me, like, are you crazy? It's
the fall. I'm like, I know. So that was how
this whole thing started.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But what was it about easily that really made you
like keep going back?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It sounds like you've been doing that for a while.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
I'll be honest.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
There's a recent me making the rounds on social media about,
like guys think about all day the Roman Empire. I
kind of did for a while, and I was just
drawn to the magic of.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
The place and the history.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
And we loved the history of it, the buildings, the beauty.
It's also Italy, frankly, like it's a relatively safe, comfortable
not safe as insecure. It is safe and secure, but
like it's a comfortable place for Americans to go. It's
not too strange, the language isn't too far and certainly
in the big locations, everybody in the services industry speaks English,
(05:46):
so in Rome it's not difficult to navigate and get around.
So we really just enjoyed it, and we loved our
first trip. We crammed in like many people do. Rome
and Venice. We're gonna cram it into a short amount
of time. The next one we're going to do Roame
again and cram and Florence and do Venice again. And
we wanted to go beyond that kind of travel notion.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I think when you are looking at trips you go
with a family, and then you think, oh.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
When we retire, we're going to do all these great trips.
Well we're not there. We're not quite ready to retire.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
But what we came up with was a way to
take our love of travel and our.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Need to continue working and do both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Amazing, because you know, with Italy, this doesn't seem like
there's enough time to explore, and you do realize that
when you've been there a few times, you need to
sort of have that extended period to really make the
most of it, don't you. And I think you know,
it might seem out of reach for a lot of
people to do that, and I think what you've done
is a really creative and unique way to have that
(06:47):
extended travel experience that a lot of us are craving.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So tell us a little bit more about it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So how do you actually go about planning your trips
and making the most of your time that you have
in Italy?
Speaker 7 (06:59):
Well, to start with, you said it's a little out
of reach for people. I have to say some of
the way we do this is so cost effective that
my parents joke that what they spend for a week
at the beach, we spend for three weeks in Italy.
So this can be done in a fairly cost effective way.
We did a few test runs and we kind of
really talked about what was important to us.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
The concept is built around time zones.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
When you look at it, Italy is usually six hours
ahead of the US East Coast, so eight am here
in Virginia is two pm in Italy. So what we
realized is we could play in the morning, spend all
morning touring and doing all this fun stuff, have an
amazing Italian lunch and still be back at our remote
desk in an Airbnb.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Ready to go at.
Speaker 7 (07:47):
Two pm and work through the evening. And that was
the first real cool thing we realized.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
But we did have to test it out. We didn't
do this accidentally.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
We did a trial run in Ottawa, Canada to see
if we could work remotely together.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I figured out a few things there as we were
visiting our daughter. But we realize I thought this would work.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, it may not work as well for Australia, not
as quick on the math of the time zone difference,
but honestly it works really well for East Coast United States.
It does make for long days because we get up
very early. We're up at six or seven, we have
an Italian colazzione with a cappuccino and a cordnetto or two,
(08:29):
and then we're off traveling.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
We'll have a nice lunch.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
Sometimes we can take our time at lunch if we
plan it correctly, and then we're at work for our
normal eight hours two pm to ten pm Italy time.
So it makes for a long total day. But I'm
not crying about getting to go tour in this town
or that town, or possibly have a glass of wine
at lunch before the workday starts.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Well, and I'll be honest American lunch time in Italy
we go out.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
We go out, we get a nice Gilano and we
you know, sometimes when the working day's over, there's a
chance for us to go out for a late dinner.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Sometimes when the working days over, we look at each other,
we're like, yeah, we're done. We're done from delata, maybe
a glass of wine.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
And then it's straight to bed because we know we're
going to get to start again.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I can imagine on your meetings everyone else is
there clutching their coffee, just you know, getting warmed up
for the day, and you're like, hey everyone right away.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Yeah, it's actually interesting. The first time we did it,
I didn't brag and talk a lot. I mean I
had permission from my office to do it, but I
didn't tell a lot of people what I was doing.
Nobody had any idea, there's no reasonable expectation. I wanted
to kind of take a meeting from in front of
the coliseum for fun, but I didn't actually do that.
And nobody really know the difference. I mean, everybody's used
to zoom you put on some different background and again
(09:47):
it's not hiding it, but it's you know, being smartly
discreet and not showing off.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Sure, I think this is the beauty of you know,
the technology. This is when technology is really working for us,
I think, and just see your to do that is
just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Oh I love it. Now.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I guess finding a place to stay because you did stay,
you stay put in like one place or a couple
of places for each of your trips, right, So how
do you find those longer term rentals because I think
that that's really what gets a lot of people stuck,
is they're trying to find a rental that's going to
take you know, maybe two weeks or three weeks.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Actually, what we've done so far is we haven't stayed
in one place more than a week. We tend to
pick the region and focus on one week there and
then the weekends are great times for us to move
cities and spend longer times.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
But we have found and.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
I know a lot of times on the podcast you
talk about the benefit of hotels for what we're doing,
airbnbs really do work far better. They're a little more
cost effective, they offer us a kitchen. They offer us laundry,
which when you're staying for a while, it's nice to
know where're going to clean and we're much more able
(11:02):
to get the most important thing. We realized we got
to have two separate working areas.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
We're both on zoom calls.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
He loves me dearly, but the first time we tried
this in Canada, we were right on top of each
other and I thought he was gonna have my head
by the time I was done.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
With my meetings.
Speaker 7 (11:18):
I'm a little animated, I'm loud, and it was driving
him crazy. So we do need two separate work areas.
So once we've identified a place, then it does take
a lot of looking in advance, a lot of looking
at pictures and recognizing am I looking at two different bedrooms?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Am I looking at the same room from a different perspective?
Speaker 5 (11:41):
You know?
Speaker 7 (11:41):
In some cases, what furniture do I see in this
place that I could maybe reposition in bedroom so that
Jason can have the living area I can have the bedroom.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
This is why the practice run an Autowa worked really well,
because you couldn't really tell from the pictures the size
and where we'd be. There were two seven areas for
us to sit, but essentially they were in the same room,
and so we learn like, yeah, that just doesn't work
for two people who are online and doing zoom calls
all day. So you look more carefully and say, Okay,
this is a bedroom that has a desk Chris cansider
(12:14):
in the kitchen. You don't even have to close the
door all the time. But they're separate enough spaces that
they work.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, I can imagine my husband's voice is very loud
and I would just be throwing things at him, probably,
but that's really good to know. Yeah, and I think
in the smallest cities as well, the airbnb situation is
probably it's a lot easier. And if you're staying a
longer time, it does make more sense, you know, to
have a kitchen, because you can't be eating what you
(12:41):
can be eating out. But I mean, yeah, I totally
understand that. I just think if you're coming for it
just a two or three days, it's sometimes easier to
get out home.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
That's another thing we've learned working vacation.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
So we do work, but the timing of how we
do this is almost more. We really have a kind
of I do when I do all the planning, Jas
says all the driving once we're there.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I do all the planning getting us there. But I
have a hard fast rule that we work about a
third of the time we're out of the country. So
that just requires looking at long weekends.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
It requires looking at school vacations because a lot of
the times offices are much quieter during school vacations, and
it's an easy time to take off even if you're
an empty nester. It requires looking at flights that'll work
with our work schedule.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
We know we have to get there and have a couple.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Of days to get acclimated because we're not ready to
jump into it right away. We love it if we
can find a week where we take a personal day,
or we take time off on a Wednesday or a Thursday.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We don't like to work more than two days in
a row. Ideally at work week is four days, and
you've taken off the Wednesday. That makes such a difference.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
And the other part is that I strongly believe in
the very last few days of it, be it a week,
be it four or five days, those are off.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Those are just vacations.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
So and you're done with your final workday, you get
to say yes, we got five days of only vacation
now coming and for those days we often do hit
at Richarizmo's or bmb's or hotels.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Oh beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now, I think everyone wants to know where have you
had these amazing experiences where you've managed to work, because oh,
I mean, I know you've given me a little hits
up and I think that you've made some excellent choices.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
How about you tell us about some of your favorites.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
So you can see the progression of as we get
more and more courageous, Like our first trips are like
typical tourists do everything you can with your family and
running around and it's crazy and it's hot. We absolutely
loved Luca in Tuscany, and so when we tried this
out after our big Ottawa test run, we found a
place inside the walls Lamoura of Luca and it was
(14:59):
a perfect town. Enough restaurants were open late that we
could go grab dinner. They got plenty of gelato so
we could run in the middle of the day, and
it's so well located. We did rent a car, we
parked outside the walls and like we could take it
was a half day trip and we're back in time
to work to go see the leading Tower of Pisa.
We were there before the tourists. We had no weight
(15:20):
to go up the tower. As we walked back, all
the buses had arrived, were weaving our way through all
the tourists to get back to our car. And we
were back and we picked up lunch, and I think
we ate in our airbnb. So some of the trick
is a location where there's relatively easy access to other
half day trips.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, and Luca was like perfect right there in the middle.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
And Luca is great to do a half day even
within the walls itself, like renting the bikes and riding
around and exploring the town itself was an easy half
day for us.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean, Luca is just honestly, it's the best,
isn't it. I think my husband and I spent like
one or two hours just looking at real estate boards.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
We've done that many times and every single trip that's
part of the process.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Never've discovered that is a different kind of working environment.
Twice we've done the big cities.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
First trip we did Rome, and we'd been to Rome
multiple times, but this time we stayed much further out
towards the walls. We got a little more space that way.
We were in more of a workaday neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I would say. And we also did the same thing
in Bologna, kind of in the university area.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
So if you don't want to deal with the car,
which is a whole different game. The big cities, Rome, Bologna, Florence,
they often have enough activity.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
That you can have an easy half day where.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
The transportation is so much easier, and still get back
to someplace closer to the outskirts.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
We loved Rome.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
We have been to Rome so many times and we
had adventures on our working week in Rome that we
never would have had if it had been.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
A folk family vacation. Bolognia was an.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
Awesome recent trip because the train station is there, and
the train station got us to Parma, got us to Padua,
got us to Verona. So easy to get around in
those cities as well. So there's two different ways we've
looked at it. The small towns you know more in
the countryside, but you can.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Also do this in the bigger cities. The bigger cities
have the benefit of better internet too.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that actually because
you can get a little bit dicey there. I know
sometimes when I'm recording the podcasts with people that are
in the country, it can be a little bit flaky.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
So yeah, I can.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Imagine getting the really good internet is a priority too.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
That's part of the art and science of using Airbnb
andcooking dot com is see what they say about the
Wi Fi. Chris usually finds the places, and then I
do some backup, more detailed research. Is there any reference
to Wi Fi in the comments? Because sometimes people will
say great Wi Fi? Okay, good start on, while you'll
see terrible Wi Fi. All right, we're not even going
(18:02):
to bother. And then we've also started just simply mailing
the owner and asking them do you have a Wi
Fi test? And I think all of them have provided
something or have said like no, We've had people that
have worked here.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
And it's fine.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
You are taking a chance because you don't know for
sure until you get there. So one of the first
things we do when we arrive at the airbnb is
we open up our laptops, we make sure we can
log on. We do it a little test run to
make sure what kind of service we have in one place.
The internet was very spotty, and the owner immediately said,
you know what, I can solve this.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
I'll go reset the router.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
It was in a different apartment she ran, and she
took care of us in Luca. The first day Internet
was real spotty for me but not for Chris. So
I went out and bought a long Ethernet cord so
I could plug in directly, and now we carry that
around with us as a backup plan.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
My backup that I.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Haven't needed to use, thankfully yet, is scouting out locations
where they have shared work spaces in the towns.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
So we stayed in Ostuni.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
The Wi Fi was fine, but I knew in the
absolute worst case, I would have driven to Bari and
they had like a very inexpensive shared workspace or like
an Internet cafe. That's my extreme backup plan if things
really well. But we've never needed it, and we've been
in small towns like Spello been totally fine. Rome was
obviously fine, no Internet problems there. So it just takes
(19:26):
a little bit of due diligence and then tests, so
you're ahead.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Of the game when you get to Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love the how organized you are, and I think
it's great that the internet's working, because I've been doing
this big project which has required me to be looking
at Italian websites.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Like basically religiously for eight hours.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
A day, and I have found that seventy percent of
them don't work.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Oh it's been really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So I find it super interesting that they do have
that connectivity. But you know, the online infrastructure isn't so
great over there, like they just don't.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Like part of me finds that super frustrating, but the
other part of me says, you do, you that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
We don't know what need to be online twenty four cent.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
So it also sometimes matters where you're sitting. In Spellow,
I was in the kitchen and I had no problem.
Jase was on the other side of a very thick
brick stone wall and he was a mess, and he
ended up having just come and kind of be next
to me if he wasn't talking, and then it was great.
So again, we've moved locations, even in these tiny apartments sometimes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And so you were mentioning about Rome that you had
some really cool adventures. What was the adventures you have
in Rome? Because I do like to go exploring and
I always think, oh, I wish I had more time here.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Well, I mean we every time we go.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
We love just walking in the chentro in the center
of town and being immersed by coliseum and the Forum.
One little secret place we'd never in all our years.
Up until recent one of these working trips had been
up to the Victoria Manual monument right next to the Forum,
and work like, fine, let's just go up at something
we haven't done. We had seen most of the sites,
(21:06):
and we found ourselves in their cafe.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
It's free entry into the cafe.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
You have to pay for food, but it's on a
like a porticoat balcony and overlooks the road that leads
right to the Colisseum, and it is the most gorgeous
spot to just sit. You get a little breeze and
you overlook the historic right across from the Trajan's Forum.
It's a pretty special spot that we just came and
(21:31):
now it's like every time we go to Rome. When
we were there last time, we're like, we're going up
and we're having a coffee up there, just to relive
that moment.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
It's not crowded. Usually it's an easy way, there's no Line. Yeah,
and I think we've done for our full days in Rome.
We love the Appian Ways.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
We actually rented bikes and been out on the Appian
Way and did some way out of Rome touring. Took
the bus to get out there. We took a full
day to do that. That was our Wednesday. You know,
we have the day off activity, so we've done different
neighborhoods we'd never seen before. Saint Peter's is always fun.
I don't care how many times you visit. We'll climb
(22:06):
to the coople up. We met great people in Line.
We've had some great experiences that way.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How about that Appian Way.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know what I was expecting, maybe that the
cobblestones would be like in the town. They're huge, aren't
they those cobblestones.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Yea, I'm not sure.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
I recommend the biking of the Appian Way if you want.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
There's a backstory to that.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Definitely, don't lock your bikes up and go to lunch,
no matter what they say about the.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Luck they give you.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Oh No, the Appian Way it's special. And the Aqueduct
Park if you can get there riding a bike. The
cobblestones are gigantic. It's like impossible to write. I'm like,
what what are we doing here? This is impossible to do.
But it is a very unique spot and would definitely recommend.
That was one of our full days.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's so cool, isn't it Like you can go on
the side of those cobblestones though, But he's very hard
on your bottom, Isn't it Like I can't stress them up?
We went back there just in December and we went
to one of the churches there, which is one of
the original Christian churches in Rome, and it was absolutely phenomenal.
(23:13):
Like I can't even count the number of times I've
been to Rome now, and there's always something. And with
our friend Nazine, we went out to the Garbatella neighborhood
and went to this amazing restaurant.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And Rome is just the best.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I sometimes get stuck in a rut going back
to my favorite haunts, but like I'm always trying to
force myself to.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Go somewhere different.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So this time I'm going to go deep into Pratti
neighborhood next time. So I don't know if you've been
around that area, but it's always so much just explored,
just in that historic center anyway.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
That's actually a good example of what we're doing with Italy.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Writ large, You've you've been to Rome so much.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
You love going to your same places, but it also
because you know you'll be back and you've been there,
he sort of gives yourself permission to explore the corners
that aren't on the tourist track. And that's exactly what
we've started doing with Italy, is like, we can still
do Rome, or we'll go for one day, or we'll
hit it on the next trip. Let's try Umbria this
time hadn't really been on our radar. I think it
(24:16):
really got on a radar from listening to your show.
But it's like, because you've done it enough and you
know you're going to be back, it's an easy enough experience.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Let's try this little corner that we wouldn't normally go to.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Oh look, Umbria is just so amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
And I actually just recorded a podcast a couple of
days ago. Another place which I'm going to put on
your radar too, which is called Tusha, which is on
the border with Umbria and Tuscany, and it's actually in Lancio.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
So you drive up there the motorway.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Everyone just does this me included just drive straight through
this area and it's just I was talking to Eleanor,
who's one of the guides there.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And I was like, what is going on? Why haven't
I not stopped here?
Speaker 8 (25:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So again like just even two hours outside of Rome,
you can get there very easily.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
One of our working weeks this fall was in Spello
in Umbria, which is ten minutes from a CC, and
that was my find when we couldn't settle on the
right apartment in a CC, so I said, what about Spello.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I cannot recommend Spellow enough.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
It is a sleepy, little gorgeous village, comes alive once
a year with their flower festival in May.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
But we literally walked.
Speaker 7 (25:29):
To the same cafe every morning down more or less
empty streets.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
It was just locals. In this October week.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
We were there and you got in the train, you
got in the car, and ten minutes away was a CC.
Fifteen minutes away. It was just so well located and
you're right Umbria. You're going to face so many, so
much less crowds than you would in tust.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Me and it's just as beautiful, actually if not more.
And I feel like it's it's got that more local character.
You have the people that are going about their daily business,
which I find so interesting because it is very different
to our lives at home, and you know, they have
their routine and sometimes I'm someone who likes to be
(26:13):
constantly stimulated or something like doing something different, but they
just know, they don't mind. They do the same thing
every day and they're happy. And I really envy that, actually,
because I wish I always kind of like that in
a way, but it's so lovely to see that culture
in action too.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yeah, and that's part of also the magic of staying
a week in a place, a small town like that
is obviously we're not living there like the people who
actually live their full time, but you do get a
taste of it because it is a quieter town. By
the nature of our work schedule, we're eating later like
they do there, and it's more we'll go grocery shopping
like normal tourism.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
You're not going grocery shopping. You're eating out most of
the time. So it's fun to explore and experiment with
a slower a type of travel.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And now tell us about driving, because I know you do,
and I think we have a similar plan. I do
the planning and the navigating, and my husband drives. And
but I have driven a few times. I know where
I will never drive again. And it's I have said
this many times. Do not drive in Liguria, like seriously,
it's it's hair raising. But I have driven in Poolia
(27:23):
and I know you have too.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
We drove down to Pulia.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
We drive actually from Spellow to Pulia to Stoony, so lovely.
And it's at one point on that drive I said, Jess,
stop looking at the road and look at the GPS.
All you can see on the entire GPS was olive trees.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I mean all we can see out the window.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
But the GPS that wide review is just one giant
olive tree with three roads going through it.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
It was amazing.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
Yeah, and you have to admit, nothing's better than an
Italian rests up.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Let me tell you can get some amazing lunch.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
It's the best.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
It is different, but not entirely different.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Every time we go, it takes me about thirty minutes
to shift into Italian driving Jason mode. You do have
to be I don't say aggressive, but you need to
be more assertive. It's okay to put the pedal to
the medal a little bit and realize the pattern. On
the two lane highways, people are much more accustomed you
sit in the right lane and let other people go
(28:23):
on the left. In our larger highways in the US,
people are just doing whatever they want in whatever lane.
The signs are mostly the same, but not exactly the same.
There's signs that have red crosses through them that don't
necessarily mean don't go there. So you are figuring it
out as you go, and it helps. Like we've gotten
into a good routine to have a good navigator that's like,
(28:45):
I don't think that's the left turn we're supposed to
make going, keep going, and also be okay with like
you're gonna make wrong turns, it's not that big a deal.
You'll extricate yourself from the situation. Ninety five percent of
the time, we're just turning around and we're winding our
way back. A couple interesting stories. We did get lost
very quickly. The first day we were in Spello. We
(29:08):
ended up on the middle of Mount Sebasio.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Not at all where we're intending to go.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
In fact, there was one scary road, a lot of rocks,
and we were not in a very powerful rental car.
Chris got out and made sure that I could drive
out with as minimal amount of weight as possible, and
eventually we were off the mountain and the GPS got
us back home, like it wasn't that big of a deal,
and it's a good story that we have. The ztls
in towns are more scary. We're both very cognizant of
(29:37):
during normal daylight hours, you can't drive into the true
hearts of the towns, whichever town that you're in. I
think we've avoided them all except for Ostuni. I was
hyper focused on getting to our airbnb, which was in town,
and Chris is like, are you sure this isn't going
to take us through the ZTL.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
I'm like, why would the ZPs lead us through the ZTL?
Speaker 6 (29:58):
But sure enough, before I knew it, we're surrounded by taurists.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
I was in a piazza.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
Clearly I was driving where I wasn't supposed to be,
and I'm like, we got no choice but to keep
going and drive ourselves out of it.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
In about six months, that ticket's going.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
To in the US and we'll just look at each
other and say, opportunity costs yes, sorry, two euros and
we'll move on with our life.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's pretty funny to look back on, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Like I know, at the time it's so stressful and
there's people everywhere and you're like, but then you go,
oh my god, like that was actually super funny.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
More than once we've stopped, I've gotten out, I've looked around.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
I've sometimes run up to the corner to see if
we should keep going or turn around, and I've just okay,
back it up, back it up. The other thing that
he doesn't tell you is one thing that really helps
is Jason is a very competent stick shift driver. I
think it's a lot more intimidating for Americans who are
used to automatics to realize you got to drive a
stick pretty much in Europe.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, I think it does help you. It gives you
more options, and you know, especially if you're going up
hills and stuff like, you're not getting an SUV's type
car that's got four wheel drive, so you really do
need to have.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
A bit of that skills. It's ideal.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you know, the other thing that's we've noticed, actually,
you know Facebook group, is that people have been given
electric cars, which is fine, but you need to make
sure you've got someone to charge it, and not everywhere
has that.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
That was our problem in Rome this year, and that
was all on me.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
You have to really read the reservation page on the
websites carefully because we got to Rome, we were jet lagged,
we were tired, and this woman knew we were taking
this car to the south and she's like, do you
know you rented an electric car?
Speaker 4 (31:46):
So we literally freaked.
Speaker 7 (31:49):
Out and she gave us the very last car in
the lat I wouldn't recommend an EVO in Europe. At
some point Bason and I just closed their eyes and
prayed we were going to get.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Up a hill.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
We made it, but again, you're right, there aren't a
lot of charging places, especially as you go further south.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I think up around Bologna and in Emilia Raman, you're
in Tuscany, I think it's fine for electric vehicles, but yeah,
down south, I wouldn't risk it, no way.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
No.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
We didn't want to experiment with that and be stuck somewhere.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, yeah, there's only so many exciting stories you can
take in one quickly exactly, So now where are you
going to go? Next, because you've you've hit or you've
done some beautiful places, and you know, I think you're
building your confidence as you say.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
And Jason, I know you speak Italian now, is that right?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
I speak a little bit.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
See.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
For the last year and a half, I've worked with
my Italian professor, Essa. She's a teachers English. She's based
in Bologna. On our last trip, she and her husband
drove down to we were in San Jeminiano and took
us to a winery there and it was the most
memorable moment of the trip to meet her in person
after spending nine months with her at the time, and
(33:06):
she was so warm and outgoing and that was a
lot of fun. So she and her husband actually are
going to meet us for a couple of days in Torino.
We've never been northwest, so that'll be the first time.
I would like to see some mountains. Turin has some
wonderful museums, so that'll be our base for the probably
(33:26):
for the first week. We just listened to your podcast
on Vicenza and after consulting with my Italian tutor, she
confirmed that's probably also a good base for our second
week because there's lots of places to access for our
half day trips and then maybe we'll do a vacation
(33:47):
weekend in Venice.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh that sounds amazing. Yeah, and when will you be there?
Will you be there in October?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
No? Right now, we're aiming to go on October November.
We've been trying to go twice a year. We gave
this spring a break.
Speaker 7 (34:02):
We were stayed home for the birth of our first grandson,
so we have.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
A little extra time to plan the fall trip. But
again we'll go north, we think in the fall, and
hopefully next spring we're heading back to Umbria.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
We had a great week in Sicily a couple of
years ago as a full vacation week, and we're thinking
maybe Palermo might be a working place.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Palermo was amazing, so we're working on it. It's nice
to dream.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
It's also nice to not feel the pressure because you
know what, if we don't get to it.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
This year, the way this is working, we'll be able
to try it next year.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Isn't it so amazing how different say Cicily is to Umbria,
Like it's just like a different country.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Oh, Sicily is amazing.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
We had the greatest week there and we were free,
we were not working.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
That wasn't a work week, it was a full vacation week.
But yeah, we loved. We were in Palermo for a
Holy week at Eastern end.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
That I got to tell you, Holy Thursday and Good
Friday and Palermo is something you've got to see to believe.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
It was amazing, totally accidental.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
We didn't know what to expect and all of a
sudden we're following a procession down the street with bands
and it was really an amazing thing to witness.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah. I've also spent a Good Friday in Sicily, and
people don't understand here in Australia we have Good Friday
as a public holiday, so and basically everyone maybe goes
to the beach or goes camping or something. But there
it is a community effort, isn't it. And we living
traditions that they've done for hundreds of years, even down
(35:32):
to the food, the way they dressed everything.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
The churches. It was amazing. So that's on our list again.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So I've got a good place for you, I think
next time in Sicily, because you know, sometimes you have
to branch out a bit, but if you go down
to not to I reckon around.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
There okay, that's fire List.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Or even or Teacher, which you may know is one
of my favorite players.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
That was an amazing day. I would love to go
back there too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I know it's something when you look at it on paper,
it's kind of like, yeah, but I don't know what's
a feeling there for me anyway, and so oh so exciting.
I just love that you've got this plan and you're
so flexible. Is anyone asking if they can come with
you at this point? Any of your friends?
Speaker 4 (36:17):
You know what. That's one of the things about this trip.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
There are family vacations, and we still take them with
our family, but these working vacations we find that they
are much easier to do with just the two of us.
I mean, I can't say enough. We are working. We
are actually sticking to our workday schedule, and there might
be a little stress as we get to one thirty goes,
oh god.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
We got to get back. Let's go, let's not be late.
We both have to log in. So these kind of
trips are kind of our holding off retirement trips. We
are kicking around having people meet us.
Speaker 7 (36:51):
But as far as the working part, that works really
well with two of us. So I know we both
have parents who would like to join us at some point,
so maybe we'll figure out way to bring the retirees
in with us one of these days.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
I think it's amazing what you're doing, because when you
think about when people think about retirement, they're thinking, you know,
then they will be taking these really long trips. But
what we were talking just before we came on air
is that you can't actually.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Travel for that long. When you're in Europe, you think.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That you can, but they have a visa for ninety days.
So I have a cousin who's, you know, heading into
the retirement age, and he said to me, I want
to travel for six months. And I said, oh, buddy,
you can't, because you know, you can only stay for
three months and then you've got to get out, you know,
and then you have to stay out for another ninety
days before you go back in. So this way that
(37:40):
you're doing it is such a great transition to getting
to that point, and you get to see so much
and experience so much.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I love it. It's great.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
Yeah, I've told many people that it's really for me
extended my desire to want to retire early. I don't
feel that need as strongly because this gives me more
time to explore different things and particularly now learning the language,
just to feel more of the event while we're being
(38:08):
there in the travel. Five years ago I had I
was much more anxious to try and retire so we
could travel more, but this has really.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Kind of pushed it out. Doing this kind of hybrid
travel where we.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
Get enough days off, we do our work, we don't
blow up all the rest of our vacation days.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
It's a good hybrid well.
Speaker 7 (38:25):
And you know what, we're also at that stage life
where a lot of people enter in their fifties and
early sixties, where there are grand babies coming on, there
are children spread out in different places, there were aging parents,
and you know what, being out of the country for
extended period of time isn't always practical, but we can
do two, three, even maybe four weeks twice a year
if we're lucky.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
So I love how you've just put so much thought
into it as well, and you've really you know, zoned
in on how it's going to work for you, and
I think anything's possible. But I do have a message
out there for anyone who's an employer, is that.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Like, look, at these people. Look how happy they are.
I'm sure they're.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Really productive and great employees in their workplace. And I
have a team that's all over the world, and I'm like,
just get the work done. Our work isn't time sensitive,
so we don't have to have specific meetings all the time.
But yeah, like, look at this. It's such a brilliant experience.
And you know you're going to be talking about this forever,
(39:25):
and you know, sharing these moments together. You know, maybe
one day when you can't travel, we have all these
memories of meeting your Italian teacher and catching up exactly. Well,
thank you so much for sharing these unique experiences with everyone.
And I'm really so thrilled that you reached out because
it is such a great way of looking at things,
(39:45):
and I think if you don't hear about those different
ways of traveling, then you might not realize what's possible
for yourself. So thank you so much, Christian and Jason's
been lovely chatting with you today.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
So How great is that plan.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I love how Kristin and Jason have found a way
to make their dreams of traveling in Italy become a
reality with a bit of persistence, actually quite a lot,
and I have to say much more excellent planning. They've
created something truly oneful that works wonders for them. If
you have a trip you'd like to share or a
different way of traveling in Italy, please reach out to
(40:20):
us at chow at Untold Italy dot com. I'll be
upfront and say that we're looking for unique places and experiences,
the untold ones, so we can inspire others to go
beyond the obvious, connect with places that aren't one hundred
percent set up for tourists. So if you have personal
experiences that fit the brief, do please reach out, and unfortunately,
(40:41):
we will politely be declining business pictures.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
In favor of personal experiences.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
To learn more about the places that Kristin and Jason mentioned,
head on over to our show notes at Untold Italy
dot com forward slash two six nine for episode number
two hundred and sixty nine, And if you want more
insider tips on spending time in Lovely Luca, a place
that we all love, you'll find them in the Tuscany
Guide on the premium version of the Untold Italy app,
(41:08):
including restaurant and hotel recommendations, favorite shops, day trips and
local wineries Grautzier. Thank you to all our wonderful listeners
for your ongoing support of Untold Italy. I hope you
enjoyed today's show. If you did, then it would be
amazing if you gave us a rating or review in
your favorite podcast app. Next week, we're taking a little
(41:28):
pause for Pascua or Easter, but we'll be back in
a fortnight with a wonderful Sicilian adventure and some insight
into the night train from Messina to Roma.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
But until then, it's chowfin now.
Speaker 8 (41:39):
The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production podcast editing,
audio production and website development by Mark Hatter, Production assistance
and content writing biby.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Are they kJ Clark?
Speaker 8 (41:51):
Yes, there are two of us. For more information about
Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy dot com look b
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