June 2008

Wherever English is spoken, the word “clink” indicates a place of imprisonment or punishment, but few people know that it was a real prison.

My wife and I took a trip in January ’06 that included Brazil, and we got the necessary visas. In January ’08 we returned to Brazil and, while preparing for the trip, I was asked if we had ever been there before and when.

I looked up our old visas, still in my current passport, and noticed that they were good for five years if the initial entry into the country had been within 30 days of the effective date of the visa, so each of our visas was still valid and we saved $100 each.

We spent two weeks just walking around in Venice, Italy, in September-October ’07, not entering a single church or museum but going to a lot of dead ends and making sure we didn’t miss anything. It was rewarding and I would like to do it again.

Getting around Venice on foot is cheap and immediately available, but sometimes it’s a confusing time-waster because of the often missing and sometimes contradictory signage plus having to find a bridge to cross a canal.

• In both the Roma Termini and Napoli Centrale train stations in Italy, the overhead signs that point toward washrooms, exits, platforms, etc., also direct travelers to ticket sales offices (biglietterie). In each station I saw only a single Trenitalia ticket office but several travel agencies sporting lots of Trenitalia logos.

It can be difficult to distinguish the official sales office operated by Trenitalia from the travel agency ticket offices (especially in Naples). Pay close attention or you may find yourself paying an unexpected sales commission on your tickets.

by Richard Berner, San Diego, CA

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 388th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.