All posts filed under: video

Black woman looking over her shoulder in floral dress in Venice with water and gondolier in background

Venice Will Charge Tourists to Enter the City Soon

Starting sometime this year, Venice will charge tourists to enter the city. There have been murmurings of this plan since around 2018. Now updates have been announced that the Italian city of Venice will charge tourists to enter the city, particularly, day-trippers later in 2022. Most Americans visiting Italy stay around 7-10 days with their time divided between Florence, Rome and Venice (add Capri or the Amalfi Coast in the summer). The city welcomes around 30 million tourists yearly and this has totally changed the social fabric of it. The negatives that you’ll hear? Crowds, floods, the price gouging of tourists, misunderstood inhospitality or lack of true Venetians in the city (around 50,000) are just a few. But guess what? Despite all of this, Venice is absolutely worth it. I will never say Venice is overrated because… just WOW. The floods? They just add to the urgency of “Venice is sinking! Get there now!” During my mother’s last pre-pandemic visit to Italy, despite a train strike, being exhausted, I insisted we go to Venice. “Mom! …

Bright colors with text saying Could Covid Free Flights Restart the Travel Industry and Rome airport with Covid-Tested Flights

Covid-19 Tested Flights Expand

The CDC is expanding the range of Covid-19 tested flights. Starting on January 26th all air passengers entering the United States will have to provide a negative Covid-19 test. The test must be taken 3 days before entering the United States. With the strain that seems to originate from the UK, currently, this regulation is in place for UK departing flights. By the end of the month it will expand to all international flights. At the end of 2020, I did an IGTV video on the new regulations being imposed by airlines like Delta and Alitalia for their “Covid-Free” / “Covid-Tested” flights. In 2020 the tourism industry suffered severe losses. Even with the vaccine on the horizon, the industry is struggling with solutions to make people feel safer traveling. Airlines and tourism organizations say testing is the answer and are opening testing sites at airports — though, I found the testing site at terminal 5 JFK to be wildly expensive (over $300 for a rapid test). They are adding test results to passenger records and …