Atac Rome!

April 29, 2008 · Filed Under Rome · 2 Comments

No, not literally! ATAC is the Roman equivalent of Milan’s public transport company - ATM. Like ATM, whose site I talked about in my ‘A useful site, almost - ATM Milan‘ post, ATAC also has a site which allows you to calculate routes around Italy’s capital.

Despite my slightly disparaging comments and owning to my knowledge of Italian, I often use Milan’s ATM site to find out how to get to where I want, so the Roman system should also prove helpful.

You can try out the service by visiting the ATAC site and clicking on the little Union Jack flag in the at the base of the header on the right.

You can even set the date and time of your journey, which means things like summer timetables should be taken into account.

Not sure what ‘private’ and ‘public means’ means. Maybe if you flag ‘private’ a helicopter will be summoned just for you! Fun, but probably more costly than a simple bus ticket!

Route planning options include:

The quickest with (With what? - possibly refers to the options above)
few transfers (Fewest transfers?)
few short walks (Fewest short walks - presumably from one stop to another)

Then just choose your point of origin and your destination, hit the ‘Calculate’ button, and see what happens.

The English language is improving, as on the date I wrote this initially, the English language section of the ATAC site was a bit of a mix between Italian and English, now, it’s all in ‘just about’ English.

Let me know how you get on, or if you find yourself going round in eternal circles in the Eternal City.

Happy travelling!

Tags: ATAC, Italian, Italy, Roma, Rome, tourism, tourist, vacation, visit

Crystal Ball Gazing - Techno Travel

March 21, 2008 · Filed Under Holidays · 10 Comments

Recently I’ve been contacted by two emerging new travel sites - Volette.com and So Much World. Both are very interesting, but quite different in their takes on travel.

Volette is perhaps more aimed at the business traveller, but not only, whereas So Much World is more like an on-line version of my favourite Lonely Planet guides. I know that both sites are still in a development phase, especially Volette.com. Indeed, the brain behind Volette.com, one Joe Tangredi, has several ideas as to the direction he wants to take his internet venture, although I don’t know what they are just yet. Read more

Tags: a list, book, bookmark, computer, eat, future, hotel, idea, Information, interest, interesting, internet, Italy, local knowledge, lovely, meeting, mobile, People, phone, pocket pc, read, rented car, Rome, sea, service, sicily, site, tour, travel, Useful, visit, weather, web, wifi

Le Marche

February 10, 2008 · Filed Under Italy - Regions · Comment

This is not really a video, but it does have some nice images of the Marches region of Italy. The accompanying song is by the Italian singer Zucchero.