A Month In Venice

Well rumor has it that Venice is the one city you should never, ever order a pizza. Fortunately I have to disagree with that statement as I have had far superior pizza anywhere in Italy when compared to the United States. Sorry for those that come from New York but i have never had a slice from there so I do not compare it to that experience.

After talking to many undergraduates from several Universities I have discovered what should be the best pizza restaurant in Venice. The name of it is Campo Santa Margherita in Dorsoduro and I believe that the best pizza to have is Margherita Pizza which is just plain cheese, tomato sauce and basil. If you are looking for fine dining at this establishment then forget it as there are only benches available to watch the locals. Sounds perfect to me!

If you have a favorite restaurant that you would like to share please do so! Comments are very welcome on this subject!

The first rule of thumb before making a move overseas is the old adage of buyer beware. Since many countries are not nearly as regulated as the United States it is always good to get a reference from someone you know and trust to help you find your home overseas.

The second item you must understand when you move overseas is that most banks are not easy to open accounts to foreigners. In many countries you may need to have a reference from someone actually doing business with the bank at the time. In some countries you simply cannot open an account in their country as this is not allowed by law.

The third item would be to get to know intimately the tax system of the country you have your heart set on. This will allow you to deal with your finances accordingly.

Fourth I would keep your expectations low. Many real estate agents will attempt to sell you on a property based on what is proposed to come later. Rather instead focus on what is around the property at that time.

Fifth I would keep a electricity or phone bill handy when applying for anything. Keep it in your pocket, backpack or purse. You will need to prove residency at practically every turn and having this slip at the ready will save you some time and frustration.

The sixth tip and perhaps the most important one is to try out a country for at least four to six months before moving. This is really important as the rose colored glasses become more clear as you begin to see the place you will be living as it truly is.

Seventh would be to buy what you need when you arrive. I would not recommend shipping furniture to any country as this is really not worth it. The shipping costs alone will eat you alive and then you have the possibility of your stuff coming damaged to boot. Do you really want to pay someone to break your things? I did not think so.

The eighth tip would be to relax about the same conveniences you have here in the United States. Let’s face it, we have it great here in the United States. You may not experience the same thing when you move overseas. So relax and become more like the locals and do what they do. Oh and by the way the locals do not want to hear how great the United States is when it comes to this and that. Not the best way to endear yourself to the locals.

The ninth tip would be to understand and get to know the health care system of your desired country. Is there a private health care system available? Is it actually better? What are the pros and cons of each? What do you need to know before you move?

Finally the last tip would be to understand and speak the language fairly well before you move. This can be done by finding a language buddy that you can converse with on skype or some other cheap communications channel. However the immersion method is by far the fastest method of learning any language.

Well I am finally back to writing my travel blog after traveling this week to West Palm Beach, Florida. Being away without a computer was a big step for me as I love to carry my laptop with me at all times so that if the inspiration should hit me I could put together the killer travel article.

However being away had me thinking that many novice travelers do not know how easy it is to set up a mobile office. I mean in this world you can work from anywhere and others are starting to prove this point. One of the initial reasons I went into software development as a career was because I would not be limited to where I worked. I will try to give you a brief outline of the steps necessary in order to free yourself from  your home and become truly mobile.

The first and most important step is to create a free email account on one of the major providers such as Yahoo, Google or Hotmail. In fact with many of these services it is very easy to set up multiple accounts.

The second step would be to set up a portable fax service. For this I would recommend using JFAX. JFAX will allow you to send and receive faxes from your computer. A fax service is necessary with many legal correspondences so it is always good to have a fax number handy when relocating overseas for any particular time period.

The third step would be to set up a forwarding postal address. To do this I would recommend you set up an account with one of the major providers in the United States that provide mail forward services such as the UPS store or a similar store in your area. Usually these stores will allow you to rent a box from them for a fee and then charge each month that you wish to have your mail forwarded.

The fourth step would be to set up a worldwide phone number so that you can be reached anywhere from one number. This is now possible through the VOIP services such as Vonage, Net2Phone and pc2call which allow you to make phone calls through a high speed internet connection. Since I have already discussed the difficulties in obtaining Internet access in Italy I will not bore you by explaining the problems that can occur with this particular aspect of moving overseas.

So there you have it a step by step guide to going mobile so that you can travel anywhere at anytime without really losing touch with any important contacts or friends. It is always interesting how technology has really enabled us to become independent of any one particular location.

Do you have any tips on how to live a truly mobile lifestyle?

It is always advisable to plan far ahead in order to save money when booking flights, hotels and car rentals. That is just common sense and how the industry is organized. However there are times when you need to leave at the last moment due to family illness, job responsibilities or you just want to get away for the weekend. I have stated previously on how to save money with airfaredig and using other websites. However I found yet another website to help you save some money. It is called lastminute.com believe it or not and this website specializes in finding deals on packages made at the last minute, hence the name.

Hopefully with these websites such as airfaredig.com and lastminute.com you can save some serious money on a last minute trip.

One of the best ways to avoid the dreaded homesickness that you eventually get when you are on an extended stay is to stay in touch with close family members and friends. However Europe and Italy are well known to be very expensive when it comes to obtaining internet access. I remember when I was in Rome having to sit in the lobby of the hotel to surf on my PDA because I could not get a wifi signal in my room. This is not the case in most modern hotels in the United States.

It is very common to have either wifi or direct internet access through a port in the wall. You want to have access to high speed internet connections while you are away because not only will this save you money on phone bills but also allow you to continue to work while you are away. I am sure I am not the only one who has a business to run regardless of where I am at in this world.

Well fortunately I have some a really good resource out there if you want to have a free wifi connection while you are in Italy or Europe. The only website I would recommend would be jtwire.com. This neat little website keeps track of all of the hotspots in the entire world so you can use this to find wifi spots while traveling within the United States as well. A quick look will tell you if the wifi spot is free or not and since this lists the location by type you can see if your hotel is wifi enabled or if there is one close by you.