Italy The country is beautiful
A story about a holiday in Italy with impartiality
I really liked Italy. The country is beautiful, cheerful, cheerful, despite not the highest standard of living in Europe. The cities that I visited are all very interesting, each new one is not like the previous one, and, nevertheless, there is a common style. Unforgettable are Venice, where I would definitely like to return, Rome, Naples... yes, in general, I would be happy to visit everywhere again.
But I must say that Italy is one thing, but the host country (Italcamel) and the quality of the services it provides are completely different. of course, tourists were not abandoned anywhere along the road, and for that we are already grateful. but nevertheless. . .
Accommodation
in Rome and Florence there are really good hotels, in Florence even more than, but the hotel for the first night in Rimini can hardly be called a three-star hotel: dirty, shabby, without air conditioning, with a knocking fan and cardboard walls. This hotel is called "Rubens".
but this is still a luxury compared to the hotel in Lido di Jesolo, where I was lucky enough to spend two nights. The hotel has not been renovated for a long time, with a washstand in the room, leaking taps, a shower, of course, without a fence, peeling paint on the walls, and even without a fan. The towels that were issued in this hotel were not terry, but waffle, old rolled up blankets, in general, I even photographed, so to speak, the "interior details" of this room, so as not to be unfounded. This hotel bore the impressive name "Eden".
Separately about the accompanying person and guides
accompanying Elena Petrovna Kucherenko, who for some reason introduced herself to everyone as Elena Kappa. A woman who certainly knows a lot about Italy, but is completely unable to present this so-called historical information material. For the experiment, I once listened attentively for about ten minutes to a story about some historical place we were passing through. It was not logically connected information. Absolutely unheard of. Just a set of historical, few people without a special study of famous names, dates, names, events. And so everything related to the history of Italy was presented.
But this is not its only disadvantage. The attitude of the escort to tourists, to put it mildly, left much to be desired. The rudeness of this Elena is at every turn. Rudeness and arrogance. She positioned her relationship with bohemian people in every possible way, and treated the tourists in the group like a herd of sheep. It was impossible to come up with any additional and, God forbid, a clarifying question. In response, you received a boorish tone and an answer in the style of: “you didn’t listen to me? I already talked about this for an hour on the bus! ”
There is no understanding that tourists are not in the mood to follow the line and turn their heads to the right and left on command, that this is not a group, not a team formed and polished over the years, but completely different people unfamiliar to each other with different habits, different ages, status and wealth, united in the same bus and, by definition, unable to understand her words from a half-word, and even more so not always sensibly issued explanations. It's natural for tourists to ask the same questions and it's her job to answer them. After all, the tourists paid her money for it, and not vice versa.
Elena Petrovna frankly insulted me three times, the reason is somehow connected with my refusal to buy several additional excursions (for the sale of which she has a percentage). Well, her tolerance for elderly tourists, or pregnant women, is out of the question. But on the other hand, she famously traded in souvenirs in the Vatican, and in gold in Florence - she climbed behind the counter herself. In general, this lady spoiled the mood for me and other tourists a lot.
The guides in the cities are the same, someone indifferently monotonously mumbles jagged material into the microphone, someone like the guide in Pompeii resembled a warden in a prison (shouting to tourists: where did you go !!? ? to the left !!! , I said - to the left ! ! ! ) her "please" pronounced in such a tone sounded like "hands behind the head! " the only pleasant guide is in Florence, the Bulgarian woman is very friendly, humorous and very polite, especially against the background of the lady accompanying us.
But, it's true, almost all the escorts are like that, at least I watched other groups and somewhere they were even worse than the aunts. Their main task is to dilute the tourist to buy additional excursions and additional services, often bad ones.
About Rimini
The only, perhaps, the city that I did not like in Italy is Rimini. Dirty cheap town flooded with Russians from all over the former USSR. At first glance it looks like a market. Everywhere there are shops with low-grade cheap clothes, jewelry, shoes, often all this is made in China or India. Very expensive food, I literally went broke on this. I still didn’t understand why I didn’t have dinner included for the second week, at the hotel it cost 24 euros. And, in my opinion, without dinner I was alone. all other Russian tourists had dinner included.
There is no greenery in Rimini. That is, it is in the district, but it is not in the city. Hotels-roads, roads-hotels. The only park named after Federico Fellini can be overlooked. In size, it is more like a small square.
The beach is dirty, there are cigarette butts and rubbish on the sand. Also, I was unlucky with the weather. There was a storm for several days, rain, I never even swam or sunbathed. I was for the sake of interest in Richon. The place is really expensive. Instead of cheap shops, expensive boutiques. Few Russians, but perhaps all the differences. They say in hotels there food is good. And so it is no different from Rimini, there is also no greenery in the city, only stones and asphalt, as in Rimini. In general, in order to enjoy nature, which, in my opinion, by the sea is simply necessary in Italy, you need to pay two to three times more than I did.
By the way, since I'm telling you everything, so about the Continental Hotel. This was once a very good hotel, now pretty worn out. On the last day of my stay there, bedbugs were found in one of the rooms. It stands by the sea, but a big drawback is that all Rimini hotels are separated from the beach by a road along which cars go. And there are a lot of cars in Rimini, so together with the sea air you get another portion of exhaust gases.
In general, I do not advise tourists who can pay even a little more to go to Rimini. By the way, I'm not the only one with these opinions. all Russian tourists who visited Rimini for the first time spit. Lido di Esolo is a very decent resort. Although there is also, in my opinion, very little greenery, but in itself it is an order of magnitude higher, cleaner and more intelligent. And besides, Venice is just over an hour away.
This is how I got my vacation. No, I don't regret going. I did not go to communicate with accompanying people and guides, but to enjoy the cities. In general, I did not expect high culture and goodwill from them. I regret that I went to Rimini, but on the other hand, wherever I went in the second week, it rained all over Italy.
I advise you to go to Italy, but if possible not to Rimini and not with a tour of the country. And if with a tour, then abstract from the guides and independently and freely roam the cities, after reading something interesting about them.