viaggio_sempre

I have been using satellite photos to familiarize myself with the places I am going to. Does anyone else do this? And, do you print them off to take with you? And, if you do, does it help?

e.g. I like the look of Florence at google earth and have printed it. Am I decieving myself about how much it will help me to have it with when I go?

fishee

I've used them when vacationing in the Florida keys when we were trying to get a sense of structure of the waterways in front of various rentals. We wanted to fish right off our property, so the photos were really helpful in giving us an idea of how much active or stagnant the water was, its relative location to productive fishing sites near bridges, etc. I've never used it for an urban excursion although I imagine it might be helpful.

Everyone talks about how easy it is to get around Florence but I was never more lost than I was in this little town -- the piazzas completely turned us around, walked around in circles for over an hour one night with a friend when we were overly absorbed in conversation. With no metro to orient me, tiny streets that go off in all directions, and those piazzas, I could have really used a compass more than anything else. Have a great trip!

viaggio_sempre

thanks fishee.

hey, I remember getting on the bus in Minneapolis once, going in the complete opposite direction than I thought I was. I can't imagine what it will be like in Florence, let alone at night. I'll see if they help there.

It soumds to me as if you were structure fishing. Wow, now I will have to look down there to see if I can zero in on currents. Hadn't thought about that. Where I was growing up in northern MN, the water was too clear, so we had to read the bottom, not the top!

fishee

Yes, I was veering off in multiply wrong directions (directly opposite would have been less confusing...) in Florence. Since it's obviously not a hyper-rationalized grid, the street would end and I'd have no idea which street to continue onto as there were often 2-3 options (and these weren't even the Piazzas). Having a compass would have enabled me to just walk generally in the right direction without having to stop and study a map. It was actually driving me a little crazy as the street names kept changing and I'd have to keep stopping and reading -- a distraction from my surroundings, especially at night when I'd often have to walk towards a light.

But Florence was amazing -- don't miss the roast beef bollitos with hot peppers at Nerbone's in the Centrale Mercato. I was shocked to realize, "Hey, this is like a divine version of a dipped Italian beef from Al's..." -- couldn't believe the "Italian" in Italian beef sandwich actually corresponded to something in Italy.

Having relocated to Chicago, I've been trying to adjust to shore-fishing in the mid-west but it's been fun. Love crappie and the seasonal/occasional salmon but I miss the variety that the ocean offers.

isabel

I used satelite maps last year before my trip to Sicily. It was pretty helpful to see where the major roads went, how far the little towns were from one another.I didn't bother printing them.

I use the google maps for cities in the US. They are much more detailed then anything you can buy. But you have to print them out and piece them together. I just used pagesjaunes for Paris and did the same thing. Kind of tedious, but there are all sorts of streets, passages, alleys, etc that aren't on either of the maps I purchased.

allisonm

I just downloaded Google's earth program and have been looking at places where we have been and where we will be in April.

www.earth.google.com

grsing

I've used Google Earth quite a bit; it helps me get oriented before I show up, so I'm not quite so lost as soon as I arrive (and it makes you look a little bit less like a clueless tourist if you can memorize the route to your hotel/hostel and walk there without a map, instead of standing right outside of the train station staring at it because you haven't the faintest idea, or having to pay for a cab because you can't figure it out). Maps would work, as well, but I've put a lot of the attractions and such I want to see into Google Earth, helps with planning and such.

rkkwan

Let me get philosophical here. Yes, I use Google Earth, and find it a lot of fun and extremely interesting. It's also helpful to look at potential hotels and its relationship with attractions and transportation.

However, I also avoid looking into it too hard, especially to a new place I've never been to. Don't you find that all the online information, guide books with pretty pictures, etc, are actually diminishing the excitement of visiting a new place? If I already know what a place looks like, why even go there?

Instead, I find it very enjoyable to do last-minute trip to places I'm unfamiliar with. The surprises, the unexpected sights, etc, make a trip more enjoyable. Then I come home and THEN look at satellite photos.

---

As for Florence, I find that it's hard to get lost there. You can see the Duomo from everywhere, so it's not hard to figure out which direction you need to go.

nukesafe

We used sattelite images for planning a barge trip in Burgundy last September. I was able to follow the Saone River and some of the canals.

I had purchased the "Navicarte" canal maps that were great for distances, number of locks, and places to moor the boat, but which had very little information on nearby places of interest. The resolution was not very good for those rural areas, but I was able to follow the waterways as they wound through the forested areas, and to see villages near the canals that might be worth a visit, as wekk as to plan short excursions to sites that I found in other guides or online.

Google Earth is doing even better now, and it is fun to sweep along a river to plan our next trip.

rkkwan

Oh, I did remember that when planning a driving trip in Idaho last year, I used the satellite image in maps.google.com (before Google Earth was available on the Mac) to study some routes. In particular, one small road is marked as unpaved on many maps, and I worry about rental policy about driving on gravel road. But from the satellite picture, it's pretty clear that the road is paved; and I found out it is.

Zeus

Rkkwan - At the risk of sounding like a troll or just a pain in the butt, I couldn't disagree with you more. Seeing these places on maps and photos only makes me want to go more. I only wish there were more webcams like the Amsterdam live cam that ALMOST makes you feel like you're sitting in that window looking down on the street. I use maps and satellite photos to give me a sense of direction before I get to my destination. That way I will hopefully avoid getting lost and wasting valuable vacation time. By the way, despite all my precautions, I still end up lost at least once a day! Even if somehow, someday we are able through some sort of cyber-reality to see, hear, smell, taste and even touch the sights of Europe, I'll still want to go just to be able to tread in the tracks of so much history and culture.

Right now my major complaint is that so little of Europe is available on the detailed satellite photos. Only small portions of Germany are worth zooming in on. I thought we were supposed to be spying on them for so many years?

:-?

fishee

I do think it's possible to over-prepare for a trip although it's a fine line between having enough information for things to go smoothly and not over-researching.

I don't want/need spontaneity and unpredictability when I'm trying to get to my hotel after a 9 hr transatlantic red-eye, so I appreciate people's step-by step reports about going down to the second level and walking behind the ticket counter to the left to find your shuttle, etc. And I appreciated rkkwan's warnings about La Scala's obstructed balcony seating -- not something I wish to personally experience although I would stop short of looking for images on-line to see what La Scala's stage looks like, etc.

viaggio_sempre

rkkwan, I appreciate the thought that it may take something away from the first-time impact of a place. I think I will allow that, as I want to relieve some of the stress involved in trying to figure out where I am going once I get there.

The maps I look at do not give me the true spatial relationship, either. When I look at an overhead picture, it helps me budget "getting around" time better.

At this point too, it adds to our excitement to see where we will be!

grsing has a point too, in that I don't want to come out of the Florence train station and look like I need help.

It looks like I'm agreeing with Zeus, too.

--"And I appreciated rkkwan's warnings about La Scala's obstructed balcony seating"--
Fishee, I tried to find what rkkwan said about obstructed views but after searching back a ways could not locate it. I expect that one of our seats in the second row of the first gallery has a pole obstructing the view. When did he comment on this, was it back in the Fall of last year?

fishee

Hi VS,

Here's the link --
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...kwan&fid=2 .

Sounds like you can move around, however, in the event that you don't like where you're sitting...

fishee

That didn't work... how about this...

"My parents and I went to the ballet at La Scala on New Year's Eve. The performance was excellent, but that's not what I want to talk about. Instead, it's about seats and seat selections in the balconies.

There are some threads about this, but most are a little old, and there were some speculations that after the renovations, things could be better. Well, this was my first time at La Scala, but I can't imagine things being much worse, at least for the seats.

First, like reports from before, balcony seats are accessed from the side entrance next to the museum. Don't go in the front doors. There's a elevator, and the stairs aren't bad. The balcony reception also isn't bad - with a bar, multiple coat checks and a foyer to stand and chat, etc. It doesn't feel "cheap", except you can't get to the lower levels.

There were three of us, and there's no way to get three seats together via the website or phone system. [I've posted a seperate thread about this 2 months ago, and I've even called Italy to confirm.] So, my parents got 2 seats together on the 2nd Balcony to the side, on the first row; while I got a seat on the 1st Balcony in the back, on the 2nd row. Well, while the cost of the tickets are the same, our experiences were entirely different, and here's why:

While the seat themselves are all the same - very very narrow with no armrest - the front row have seats in triplets, seperated by columns on each side. On the 2nd row, seats are in a very tight group of 7. The center one sees nothing but the column in front!!! And even other ones will likely have the view severly obscured by the person in front. For my seat, basically the center 40% of the stage was blocked by the head and shoulders of the person in front.

There's also a third row in the 1st Balcony which is slightly elevated, behind the corridor. I don't know how bad the view was back there, but many of the poeple in those seats instead stood behind me throughout the ballet.

My parents got the 1st row on the side on the 2nd balcony. While they could only see about 85% of the stage if leaned forward, or about 50% if sat back, they really enjoyed whatever view they have back there. And I would also be happy if I were on the first row, despite the narrowness of the seats.

A 2-hr ballet may be tolerable, but I would have left my seat and found somewhere else to stand if it were a 3.5-hour opera.

So, my recommendations is that only get the Balconies if the website assigns you the first row. Otherwise, spend more for something downstairs or in a box."

(Quoting rkkwan)

rkkwan

fishee - Thanks for finding my post for the others. I was away from the computer for a while.

Zeus - Hey, no problem. Just a matter of differing opinion. And in fact, I agree with a lot what you said. I find Google Earth useful in a lot of situations too; I just tried not to overdo it.

viaggio_sempre

thanks fishee, I'll read this when I get home.