Lauren

This time on my trip to Europe, Italy mainly, I want to be a part of the ambiance and not so much want to do alot of things that a tourist is supposed to do.<BR><BR>Each country in Europe has so much to offer, what would you suggest to really emerge into the culture (for only three weeks this time).<BR><BR>

Grasshopper

Lauren,<BR><BR>I really understand what you're saying. My suggestion is that you go to one place and get an apartment. Shop the stores, ride the bus, do what the locals do. Sit and watch people for long periods of time. I watched kids on the promenade at Vevey for 2 hours one day while I waited for the bus and it was amazing the amount of life I saw.<BR><BR>Also, it helps if you go alone. You can't get absorbed in someone else's observations. Have fun!

jw

An alternative would be to stay in a very small hotel (pension or b&b) in a small town for a full week and take the half-board offering. I've found that each time I do this, I leave feeling as if I've made friends. Often the small town hotel's restaurant has regulars, and you get to know them as well. Combine perhaps three different locations like this with the local shopping, park- and cafe-watching that Grasshopper suggests, and I think you will indeed begin to feel part of the places you love. J.<BR><BR>Grasshopper's apartment suggestion is an excellent one, but I just thought I'd thrown in an option half-way between that and the on-the-move mode of most tourists.

Lauren

Thanks to both of you for some great ideas, both sound really wonderful. I, too, think that it the best way to travel. I have been on some whirlwind tours, not organized but of my own doing, and to just settle into a place would be such a dream come true for me.

Advice

Or you can ask a godfather if he needs your help.

Lauren

Since I am still on the computer...what do you mean....become a hit woman? I don't want to experience a country quite that way, sir. Bye for now.

off the tourist trail

Lauren, having been to Europe 4 times (and managed to avoid visiting art museums every time !! no joke, they're just not my thing) here's some tips I find to accomplish what you're after...<BR><BR>Travel alone, if possible. Plan to visit only 1 or 2 places since you only have 3 weeks. Frequent local businesses including but not limited to: grocery stores, bakery, library, wine shop, internet cafe (if applicable), post office, crafts or fabrics, public parks and pools.<BR><BR>Find out if & which day the open air farmers market takes place and shop there, most towns and villages have something of the sort. Often Saturday mornings but not always. Buy fresh bread, tomatoes, fruit, cheese.<BR><BR>If you like to drink, drink wine at sidewalk cafe tables and watch the people go by. Find a place you like and stick with the same one so the owners get to know you (you'd be surprised how quickly this can happen if you are a steady, happy, and friendly customer, even without speaking the language).<BR><BR>If not wine, well a park bench on the town square works 2nd best.<BR><BR>Challenge yourself (my personal best was finding Tampax on my first day (wouldn't you know it!) one trip in Venice, and later one trip to Paris, but let's not get into that one!). Ask someone if you may have a poster from a past event in their store window. Order olive bread from the local market ("no not olives, and no not bread, but do you have the bread with the olives IN it?" try that one for laughs all around, smiling but not speaking Italian).

StCirq

Lauren: I understand fully the urge to become part of the landscape and not just schlep around visiting things, though that's not all bad. Grasshopper's suggestion is a good one, as is jw's. I would add: Learn the language. There is nothing, nothing like being able to communicate, to read, to hear what the people around you are saying, and to be able to interact with them, that will provide you that portal into the "being" rather than the "seeing." Not an easy task, admittedly, but it works.

kate

Hi,Lauren,we rented a flat one year in London, and loved it.We would shop for flowers at the flower stall on Brompton Rd,bring home food from the Food Halls at Harrods.We went to the cinema.<BR>For 10 days, we felt like that was our little neighborhood and loved it! <BR>We have talked about doing it next time we go to Paris and I have been looking through Parker villas books on rentals in Italy.I can see myself,walking down the street with my gelato,returning to the apt in Florence<BR>I also think that this is a great way to appreciate the people in the city that one visits,when you live on the same street with them,rather behind that cocoon of a luxury hotel~<BR>

John

House exchange. Live the life, shop the shops, walk the dog, drive the car, water the plants, meet the neighbors, wash the sheets. Brilliant.<BR><BR>http://www.homelink.org/

Alice Twain

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jen

Enroll in a language school for two weeks (there is a great one in Pienza in the old convent where they filmed The English Patient - isn't that near Pienza??). You can learn quite a lot of Italian and use it, and they often have activities that are not typically touristy: visits to wineries, hikes, cooking classes, local markets. There is another language school with several locations whose name I forget but I'll try to find it and post it for you.

Alice Twain

As I was going to say...<BR>I do not like fast travelling, looks like I do not have time to see the things, but, on the other hand, just staying in one place can turn out boring. I would rather chose some little known area and spend the three weeks exploring it thoroughly after gathering as many informations about it, not oly looking for monuments but also trying to get to know the least-known things, getting in depth with landscapes, traditions, habits. Since you say that you re interested in Italy, you might, for instance, explore Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Marche and Abruzzo or Sicily: all these region, although not being as famous as Tuscany or maybe because of it, offer to the foreign tourist a lot in terms of discovery. Let us pick, for instance, Emilia Romagna: in there you might explore the several cities and towns of this region, places of great beauty and full of art such as Boogna, Parma or Ravenna, but also smaller places like the castles around Parma and Reggio Emilia, spend a few days having fun at the beaches of the very touristy Romagna and a few more relaxing in the quietness of the Appennini mountains, cross the corn and wheat fields of the largest Italian plain, have dinner at the open-air fairs organized by the left wing parties or by the parishes eating homemade food and sharing the long tables with perfect strangers, get to know the way world-fampour foods are made, such as Parmigiano Reggiano, travel along the Po river by boat and much more. But this is just an example: all the regions of Italy, all the regions of Europe (probably all the regions of the world) could offer you just as much if you only give yourself the opportunity to get a little in depth instead of just scratching the surface.

local events

Wherever you stay, watch and/or ask about local events. Outdoor free music concerts, children's school plays, special traveling exhibits at a local museum, wine festivals, firemen's fundraising cookout, church bazaars, parades or fireworks for a holiday, etc. etc.

just

If you really want to emerge yourself in the culture. Get a job in the country and go to work each day, toil away all day, etc. The true "culture" likely includes such a routine. NOT sitting around watching kids at a park (unless they are yours or under your supervision). Just hanging out, "being" if you will, is not reality, except for the unemployed or extremely wealthy.

Grasshopper

Good trick, Just, if you can pull it off. Problem is, it's not easy to get a job in a foreign country. So these suggestions are mostly for the "second best" way to immerse.

elvira

Lauren, "just a suggestion" has the right idea if you want to experience the everyday living of a country, but I don't think that's your intent, is it? The day-to-day grind in Western Europe isn't much different from that in the U.S. or Canada or Australia or any other number of industrialized nations.<BR><BR>What you're looking for, I assume, is a chance to see the small things that a harried tourist never sees, like how children play or what the public library has or how a neighborhood celebrates a holiday or feast.<BR><BR>Renting an apartment means you'll figure out what food on the hoof looks like and costs (vs restaurant food); you'll have to do laundry, so you'll have the thrill of figuring out the laundromat or the washer in your apartment; you'll get flyers stuck under your door for local rallies or cars for sale; you'll only have to figure out how one toilet and one shower works....<BR><BR>Wherever you hunker down, do a thorough search on the web and in other sources for things to do...I've spent periods of time in Paris from one week to five weeks, so I've had the chance to do things like take several cooking classes, or wander through street and flea markets for HOURS (I like to shop, what can I say?), or search out churches that never get a mention in the guidebooks (great architecture, sometimes great works of art and/or an odd history, sometimes a children's choir rehearsing...).<BR><BR>It helps to know the language, even just a little bit. Get language tapes, check out the web for on-line practice, sign up for a class at your local high school or community college or organization (Italian-American Club?). Get a couple of magazines (like Italian Vogue or Cucina Something) to get a sense for what the words look like and help you recognize the common ones. Little kid books are great for this too (check out your local library; they sometimes have children's books in foreign languages). <BR><BR>If you rent in Rome or Florence, for example, find a neighborhood that's not filled with tourist hotels; you want a residential area where the daily rhythm is controlled by the residents, not the visitors. Even better, find a place in a small town, maybe even one with absolutely NO tourist attractions (but on a bus or train line so you can get around).<BR><BR>Keep a journal; if you can draw at all, get a couple of small sketchbooks to capture your impressions (these and colored pencils are REALLY great to take to a museum where you can spend hours looking at the paintings and capturing details); take lots of photos, and don't worry about artsy. Maybe the photo of your dinner table with the bottle of wine you bought for 1 euro won't win a prize, but it'll make you giggle everytime you remember your dilemma about buying red or white...<BR><BR>Enjoy your trip; bring back lots of memories and prove that seeing the Acropolis or Mad Ludwig's castle isn't the only thing to do in Europe.

think about it

I think you mean "merge" into the culture not "emerge." That being said, not a bad goal! I think some language skills will be mandatory and to further your study of Italian once there would be a great entre into the local culture. Italy is a particularly friendly place to attempt some submersion (maybe you mean "submerge").

good

Topping because I like this!

Lauren

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I am taking them to heart and next year I will rent an apartment in a medium sized town in Italy. I will check back when I start making serious plans and get some more ideas. Thanks again!