A friend and I were discussing over dinner the inevitability of getting terrifickly lost while travelling, even with a host of maps and guidebooks. It's a fact of travel, and it sometimes leads to the most surprising and pleasant situations; I'd love to hear others' experiences with being "a bit turned around" while charting unfamiliar territory. <BR> <BR>Cheers <BR> <BR>Greg

One of my most pleasant memories is going down the wrong street in Rome and then, within ten minutes, having no idea where I was on the map. Until I got "unlost" twenty minutes later, I suddenly found myself "forced" to simply soak in the overwhelming beauty of the city instead of going from site to site and saying "So here I am at XXX; gee, that's nice; now how do I get to YYY?" If at all possible, I recommend wandering without looking at a map in Rome for a least a few hours or so.

I found it relatively easy to get around with only the free hotel maps all over Europe. The one exception: Venice. Even with a map, we couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for. It wasn't a problem, however. Getting lost in Venice is the best!

Once, having gotten lost in Nuremburg, I found myself on a street where I'd been early that morning, so I cheerfully started to head back to the youth hostel. A street-level window that had been shuttered in the morning was now open, and there was a woman in a low-cut dress sitting there. I was baffled--it was winter, it was cold. I walked a little further and saw more women in more windows, and eventually I saw some US servicemen talking to to them. Aha! I had lost my way but found the red-light district. I decided I'd rather pass through an iffy neighborhood than turn around and have to rely on my dubious sense of direction.

Our "favorite" place to get lost (ha!) is Heathrow. We pick up the car and can't even get out of the airport without getting lost! And then get on a motorway going the wrong way. And we're usually pretty good at finding our way around!! Oh well - part of the adventure!! <BR>

Hi Greg, <BR>We were lost in Siena,or rather we tend to say our car was lost in Siena, It just couldn't find us!!!!! We had no plans to go to Siena that particular day, so did not have map or book with us. We parked outside the walls, and wandered around then realised we didn't know where we had left the car. Had to buy a map and sit down and figure where we had been. It was just around the corner, so to speak. In the meantime, we saw some wonderful back streets looking for our gate. We too, so lots of an airport car park. Rome, couldn't get out of it, round and round we went. After that, not a spot of bother finding our way onto ring roads around Rome and up to Tuscany. <BR>Yes, Anne, just part of the adventure. <BR>Denise

I have an extremely good sense of direction and just about never get lost. However, when I was in Rome, somewhere near the Piazza Navona, my friend and I were so lost, every time we got to another street corner, we consulted our map, positioned ourselves in the right direction, and continued for another block. Then we'd start the whole process over again to find that we were lost again! We finally made it through and rewarded ourselves with some gelato.

I have an extremely good sense of direction and just about never get lost. However, when I was in Rome, somewhere near the Piazza Navona, my friend and I were so lost, every time we got to another street corner, we consulted our map, positioned ourselves in the right direction, and continued for another block. Then we'd start the whole process over again to find that we were lost again! We finally made it through and rewarded ourselves with some gelato.

<BR>Thanks for the follow ups about being "misplaced" while abroad - I was going to relate my own incidents of excursions gone awry, but both have been mentioned! Heathrow always has surprises for me, and last year was no exception; construction at the Tube exit necessitated a rather grim tour of numerous car parks, passageways, and a steam tunnel right out of a bad horror flick! Funny how Rome and Piazza Navonna factors into getting lost for someone else also; I arrived in Rome after a night flight from New York, first time in Italy, and all I knew was that my hotel was somewhere near Piazza Navonna; to make a long story short, I was fully "Romanized" by the end of that afternoon, and found the hotel out of sheer luck. (Even careful directions by several wonderful people were no help in my jet lag addled mind) <BR> <BR>Thanks <BR>Greg <BR>

Rome has to be the most difficult city to maneuver on foot. My sister and I have been able to get around countless cities with nothing more than a map, but what is it about Rome?? While we were there in 1997, EVERY NIGHT we got lost trying to find our way back to the hotel. Once we got so lost, we had to catch a taxi back to the hotel. Perhaps the delicious food we devoured affected our sense of directions!

I think I have a pretty good story of being lost in a foreign country. When I was 19, my college friend and I travelled in Europe with my sister, who was 16, for 3 weeks. After a week in England staying with my relatives, we took the bus to Paris (via ferry, of course). It was the first trip to Paris for all of us. We were so disoriented and excited about being in a foreign city that, when we got off the bus in Paris, we jumped in the first taxi we saw and went straight to our hotel without bothering to find out the address of the bus station - the same bus station where we had to pick up the return bus a week later! Once we realized that we had no idea where to get the bus back to London, we spent several days making phone calls to see if we could find it. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of bus companies in Paris. We even resorted to walking around Paris one day to see if we could "find" the bus station (such naivety!). Then, a couple of days before we were about to leave (when we were convinced we would have to buy train tickets home, even though we had roundtrip bus tickets), we were standing in line for the Jeu de Pomme museum when my sister spied a girl in line who had been on our bus. Fortunately, she knew the address of the bus station and we made it back to London. I sure learned my lesson, though!

Our first trip to Europe we rented a car in Zurich. We drove from the airport out to the countryside on the autobahn trying to get to Interlaken. At the time, there weren't nearly as many directional signs as now. For two hours we thought that we were going in circles because we kept seeing the sign for "Ausfart", we didn't want to go to "Ausfart". We finally relented and exited and found "Ausfart" to be a quaint village with a lovely schloss. Well as you all know "Ausfart" means "exit/off". We weren't lost at all, just ignorant! <BR>

Our first trip to Europe was on a tour which started in Germany. Like the above poster, I kept noticing signs on the freeway pointing to "Ausfart." I, too, got to thinking it was strange that I had never heard of this city, as it must be quite large, judging by the number of signs pointing to it. One of our first stops was in Rothenburg, which is laid out like a wheel, all the streets being spokes leading down to the center hub of town. The tour buses must park outside the city walls. Our guide led us all to the center and then left us on our own for a couple of hours. When it came time to return to the bus we went up what we thought was the correct spoke, but we weren't getting anywhere and we knew we were hopelessly lost with a whole busful of people waiting for us. Suddenly a couple of young locals appeared and without thinking, I blurted out, "Do you know where they park the tour buses?" The fellow looked a bit taken back for a moment, then replied in perfect English. We were one spoke over from where we should have been. I think it is such a sad commentary on our general education system that most of us can't even speak correct English, let alone a foreign language, and it seems all the Europeans speak several languages, almost always including English. We have been "lost" many times, but one of the most frustrating was being unable to find our way out of the Vienna Opera House when we decided to leave in the middle of the performance.

Rome wins hands down..My husband and I <BR>decided to take a trolley to the Vatican for mass. <BR>It was our last day in Rome. We had only <BR>been there 2 nights. We checked the <BR>schedule and bought a ticket at one of <BR>those automated kiosks. We made sure we <BR>got on the the correct # trolley. After, about 45 mins. We realized we were at the end of the line. There was one other gal on the trolley with us and luckily, she was an American. I asked her where we were and that we wanted to see the vatican. She told us the trolley number was correct but that we had taken it in the wrong direction...It was her last day after a month in Rome and she had nothing left to see so decided to ride the trolley to the suburbs. Lesson learned...if you aren't sure ask!!! <BR> <BR>

The first time I went to Europe, I got lost driving through the Snowdonia Mountains in Wales. The roads are even harder to drive on than the ones in Cornwall. I was completely lost for about two hours while I was driving to Cardiff. I arrived in Cardiff at 11PM and I was planning to be there around six. It was a bit scary driving on those twisting roads that late at night.