The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

A Reluctant West Point Prince on Prom Night

"I will be forever grateful to the jilted college girl I was able to rescue the night of her prom, making me, for a time, her prince."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/booming/a-reluctant-west-point-prince-on-prom-night.html

From the article:

my 18-year-old daughter, Lilly, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology

[garbon]

[Eddie Teach]

Maybe she designs dresses for robots.

[derspiess]

It's a fairly well-known fashion school. 

[Syt]

Admittedly, I'm not familiar with fashion schools, but the name struck me as ... odd.

[katmai]

They count Calvin Klein as alumni.

[fhdz]

TYPE 7 ALERT

[Josquius]

Its all but confirmed, I'll be in Europe for just shy of a month in August. 
I want to do some (budget) travelling whilst I'm there. Suggestions?

Contemplating heading down to Manchester and Liverpool because I've never been there before.
And looking at some sort of Barcelona-Valenica-Madrid journey. Though unsure on Valencia's worthyness.
I will hop over to Dublin for a little it at some point. Maybe. Haven't been for donkies of years.
Budapest is also a heavy consideration for a quick trip. As are to lesser extents Oslo, Warsaw.

The main place I want to go is Italy. How are trains in Italy?
Rome and Florence are the biggies. Is Pisa worthwhile? Venice is a bit of a hole I hear but...maybe? Nipping into San Marino could be good too...and doubtless Siena et al have something to offer also. hmm....

I can't do them all...money is a factor as is time (I really should spend time with my family when I'm home...). hmm...

[The Larch]

Barcelona - Valencia - Madrid in August? Do you enjoy sweating?

[FunkMonk]

The main place I want to go is Italy. How are trains in Italy?
Rome and Florence are the biggies. Is Pisa worthwhile? Venice is a bit of a hole I hear but...maybe? Nipping into San Marino could be good too...and doubtless Siena et al have something to offer also. hmm....

I can't do them all...money is a factor as is time (I really should spend time with my family when I'm home...). hmm...

The train rides are good in Italy, but being an American I can't really compare them to much else. They're easy to use and pretty fast. I went from Florence to Pisa, then Lucca, and back to Florence in less than a day and had no hiccups at all using the automatic ticket machines (in English).

Rome and Florence are great, of course. Florence is overwhelmed by tourists. Pisa only has the leaning tower where everyone has to take their obligatory "IM HOLDING UP THE TOWA MOM" photo, and it costs 18 euro just to climb to the top 

Lucca is beautiful and I advise spending some time there. Fewer tourists and when I was there they were having a festival and the main piazzas were filled with people. The old town walls have been converted into a giant park and walking around the town on a beautiful sunny day on top of an old and intact Renaissance wall is a great experience.

Siena is really cool. The town hall has some great medieval frescoes and the cathedral is a sight to behold. I also really liked Assisi, though it's kind of touristy too, trying to cater to the pilgrims visiting St. Francis' tomb.

If you get a chance, climb Vesuvius. I got some pretty cool views of Naples from the top of the volcano. 

[Caliga]

Rome and Florence are great, of course. Florence is overwhelmed by tourists. Pisa only has the leaning tower where everyone has to take their obligatory "IM HOLDING UP THE TOWA MOM" photo, and it costs 18 euro just to climb to the top 

*shrug* What the hell else does Pisa have in terms of ways to make money?

When I was in Pisa, it seemed like everyone hanging around the leaning tower was either a Gypsy or some variety of sub-Saharan African.  Hardly an Italian in sight.

[FunkMonk]

In Pisa one person I was with pissed off some Nigerian peddling some cheap sunglasses and he followed us for a couple minutes screaming "FOOK YU!" 

[Caliga]

Ha.  One of them tried to get me to buy something and I (thought I) politely declined, and he mocked me for a while.

[Maladict]

Funny how tourism works. The cathedral and baptistery next to the leaning tower are way more interesting and get completely ignored (the other interesting places in Pisa even more so), but a roughly equally interesting cathedral in Siena is suddenly a must see.

Anyways, visiting Italy in August? I'd avoid the usual tourist hotspots like the plague, basically everything you mentioned including San Marino.
The South is out too, because of the heat. I'd stick to the north and visit Turin, Bologna, Ravenna, Mantua or Padua instead. 

[Ed Anger]

TYPE 7 ALERT