Italy from the Inside

Rick Steves’ new Italy audio walking tours


Rick Steves is a popular writer of European travel guidebooks and host in several travel shows on public television and public radio. His excellent Italy guides offer plenty of detailed information on places to visit and affordable accommodations in main Italy destinations (N.B. Our eBook is a perfect companion of Rick’s guides as we focus on the Italian culture and how to deal with everyday things in your trip).

Among his new media initiatives that I like the most are the FREE audio walking tours of Rome, Florence and Venice.
These audio tours are downloadable MP3 files narrated by Rick himself that you can put on your portable device such as an iPod or SmartPhone. Rick explains the history of places like the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Uffizi Gallery and other important locations as if you were hiring a dedicated guide.

I praise Rick for embracing blogging and podcasting as a way to create conversations with his audience and I look forward to see his audio tours start covering more areas outside the classic tourist circuit.

The iPhone has arrived


I’ve been playing with my iPhone for over a week now, and I’ve to say that I like it a lot.
I spent some time brainstorming new interesting ways to use this device in preparation for a trip to Italy.
Here are a few ideas that came to my mind:
– Listen to Italian music (get into the Dolce Vita mood)
– Watch an Italian movie converted from a DVD
– Practice your Italian with a language podcast (for your kids there is my daughter Silvia)
– Watch a travel podcast from Rick Steves’ (or one of ours)
– Browse pictures of Italy and dream about your next trip
– Store a photo of your passport (just in case)
– Use the Google mapping feature to study your itinerary (even point to point directions)
– Write some last minute ideas using the note taking feature
– Take our eBook with you (yes, the iPhone can view PDF files)
– Store useful contact information of restaurants, hotels, friends, etc.
– Download some audio guides for the key attractions
– Use it as an alarm clock
– Take some pictures of your trip
– Find out what’s the weather like in Rome
– Calculate the conversion rate from Euros in Dollars
– Make your friends jelous by sending them an email / SMS from the airport
– Use the calendar to plan your days
– Browse the internet to find out about the latest train strike
– or just use it as a phone (careful about those international charges!)

Unlike my video iPod, the iPhone doesn’t work as a backup storage for my digital pictures. Oh well…
Did I forget anything else in my list?

Our podcast about Italy on iTunes

Podcast ranking on iTunes
I’d like to share some positive facts regarding our New Media efforts to disseminate useful tips and information about Italy and its culture. Since we listed our podcast on iTunes just 3 months ago, we have been enjoying a steady growth in our audience.
In fact, under the iTunes category Places & Travel, we rank #8, ahead of bigger brands like Frommers and Lonely Planet.
More important, the 35 customer reviews received so far rate our shows a 4.5/5 stars. Here is an excerpt from their comments:

“Very fun and informative. And never boring as many podcasts can easily lean that way.”

“The author and his wife have the unique ability to offer an insight from both American & Italian perspective. The podcasts offer many insights not available from the usual travel guides.”

“Excellent. This is exactly what I was looking for. I’ll be living in Italy for 3 years and wanted something besides the standard travel book to go a little deeper into the culture and sights. This is it!”

“Love it! I live in Italy and this podcast is right on the mark. Very entertaining and accurate.”

“Subscribe to this podcast if you plan on going to Italy!”

“I highly recommend this podcast because it’s for people who hate being tourists.”

Silvia podcasting
My daughter Silvia has started podcasting too. Her passion is to communicate Italian tips to the younger audience. Every audio episode takes on average 3 hours to plan, record and publish. Video episodes usually require twice as much time.

If you own an iPod and/or have iTunes installed, it’s easy to subscribe to our podcast. And if you want to help us keep our shows ad-free, we always welcome your support thru the purchase of our eBook. Grazie!!