Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Note: These are the notes I have taken on the above title which is a guide designed for
seminarians at the NAC who are in their theologate studies. 99% of the information in the
document is from what he has written and only minor adjustments have been made for guys
- Money
o Recommends Capital One Credit Card and Charles Schwab Debit Card
- Planes
- Trains
o Resource: www.seat61.com
- Automobiles
- Lodging
- Maps
- Info
o CityMaps2Go has wiki articles which you can download in the app
Chapter 3: Money
- Capital One Credit Card has no foreign fees
- In looking for credit cards and currency changes, watch for bad exchange rates and
- If you travel somewhere that doesn’t use the Euro, have USD on-hand as you will get a
- Eastern Europe is the cheapest area of Europe you can go whereas the EU is the most
expensive
- Don’t chase credit card points because that is what credit card companies want you to do
Chapter 4: Planes
- Over the ocean and big flights
- Around Europe
- Don’t chase points because you will end up spending more than you need to just to get
more points
- Use inPrivate/incognito browsing or delete your cookies because flight companies will
raise your prices if they see you checking specific flight dates and cities
o Checking in early sometimes helps avoid fees (if there is an option to check in
- Jet lag options: Stay up until local bedtime or sleep when you’re tired
- Rome Airports
o FCO – take St. Peter’s train to Trastevere to FCO for €8 (this is from the NAC)
o CIA – taxi €30 *don’t let them charge more because they will try
Chapter 5: Trains
- Get a CartaFreccia (Trenitalia) rewards account
- Seat61.com is a great resource to help you get anywhere in the world by train
- When does your travel weekend begin? When you have checked into where you’re
- If you have the money for first class on a train ticket, get it!
o Regionale: regional train that stops at every single station, Second class cars
o Regionale Veloce: fast regional train that stops at bigger stations, Second and
o Intercity: the poor man’s fast train, usually cheap and dirty trains that stop city to
city and make longer trips, Second and First class cars
o InterCityNotte: set up to travel through the night (ie. Make long distance trips)
Genova or Torino and the other down to Reggio Calabria) but very
Bolzano and the other down to Lecce), Second and First class cars
Frecciarossa: true fast train, two lines from Termini (one up to Milan and
Price levels refer to the changeability of your ticket and class refers to
o Price levels
Base: The price you pay if you show up to the station the day of,
offer base price while others offer base price plus discounts
Discounts
Super Economy: 2/3 the base price, but sometimes less than ½ the
2x1: Two tickets for the price of one on Saturday only figured off
the base price (ie. You each pay half the base price)
Age: If you are under 26, you can get a discount with a Freccia
Speciale:
Some destinations are offered half-off for no apparent reason,
which is usually 30% off travel to or from Rome on the fast trains
o Global Pass: allows you to travel on the Frecce for €10, the InterCity for €3,
Regionale and Regionale Veloce are free, and InterCittyNotte costs varying
amounts
- If you buy Regionale or Regionale Veloce online, you can use the ticket on other trains
going to the same route within four hours of the purchase time
o Make sure to validate your ticket before you board, and once onboard, make sure
you sit in the right class car (there are no assigned seats)
- All other train tickets will assign you a seat and specific time your train leaves
- Buy Regionale and Regionale Veloce at the station through the machines and all others
online (Trenitalia)
- Never buy tickets at the Base price (except for Regionale and Regionale Veloce since
- Neither trenitalia or italo check for identification on trains (only on night trains) so if you
buy tickets and someone has to back out, someone else can take their spot even if the
o In general, Super Economy sells out quickly while the other tickets are available
o If you plan in advance (a couple months), you can usually get the Super Economy
tickets, whereas if you want to check on the weather for a weekend/day trip, you
can usually still get the A/R or 2x1 deals until the last minute (two midnights
before)
- Use your rewards points on tickets, not on merchandise and do not upgrade your ticket
- For day trips, take Italo instead of Trenitalia since cars are faster and cleaner
o Frecciarossa Routes
Route 1 (heads North and then West)- Salerno, Naples (Napoli), Rome
(Torino)
Route 2 (heads North and then East)- Salerno, Naples (Napoli), Rome
Route 1 (heads North through the center of Italy)- Rome (Roma), Florence
Route 2 (heads East and then South)- Rome (Roma), Caserta, Benevento,
o Frecciabianca Routes
Route 2 (heads South along the West coast)- Rome (Roma), Naples
- Night Trains
o Since night trains are starting to become a thing of the past, take them while you
still can!
o The train to Sicily gets floated on a big boat… yeah your train goes on a boat
Lecce
Syracuse (Sicily)
Palermo (Sicily)
o There are also night trains to Munich and Vienna from Termini (can be booked at
www.oebb.at or at www.bahn.de),
shower, sink, and toilet. In the morning, you are served a typical
Includes a sink, mirror, and a little cabinet. In the morning, you are
Booking options:
get this)
men)
women)
o Posto Doppio – Intero (an entire room for two people, must
Cuccette are bunk beds with thinner mattresses than the other
rooms
Booking options:
unisex room)
for women)
o All of the above booking rooms described have a night mode where the beds and
bunks fold down for night and are stored in compartments during the day
Just a seat
2nd class: only a seat for the whole night, can be cheaper, but not
by much
Termini to Palermo
Class Price Level
Base Economy Super Economy
Bed in a one person first class compartment 269.00 119.90 99.90
Bed in a two person first class compartment 181.00 99.90 89.90
Bed in a one person room 216.90 89.90 79.90
Bed in a two person room 152.90 79.90 69.90
Bed in a four person room 109.30 69.90 49.90
Cuccette in a four person room 102.30 59.90 39.90
o If you use this for a big day trip (requiring two long distance train tickets per day),
o Once activated at a train station, pass holder has one month to use the days they
will be charged a full ticket price + €200 fine (same goes for scribbling
any mistakes out…. If mistakes made, you have to write the correct date in
o Compare doing your trip without the pass and with the pass to see which would
o Global Pass allows you to buy the tickets five minutes before the train leaves as
- Outside of Italy
Note: Italo prices are usually cheaper, but less time at your destination
o Frecciarossa Routes
o Frecciargento Routes
Route 1 – Heading north through the center of Italy
takes about 50 minutes to get to Civitavecchia and costs €4.60. Helps you
Bracciano: Freshwater lake with a beach. A train goes there every half
Assisi: A few direct trains every day which take about two hours to get
there and cost €10.40 each way per person. Another way to get there is to
take a two hour train to Foligno and then a 12 minute train to Assisi – also
costing €10.40. Once you get to the train station, you will need to take a
bus into town. Just follow the crowds, everyone else is going there too.
Nettuno: trains about every hour which take just over an hour to get there
and cost €3.60. Nettuno is the home of St. Maria Goretti’s tomb and the
Castel Gondolfo: trains almost every hour which take about 40-45 minutes
and cost €2.10. Castel Gondolfo is home to the Pope’s summer residence.
Tivoli: There are trains to Tivoli every hour or two which take 54 minutes
Spoleto: three or four trains in the early morning and five in the afternoon
costing €8.20.
- Renting a car can be effective if going with a group, but you will pay for three days use
instead of just one since rental car places aren’t open on Sunday (also a little extra for
o San Marino: last Italian nation state (technically its own country), mountainous
Best way to get there is either rent a car (~€100) or take fast train from
Termini to Bologna to Rimini + bus to San Marino (round trip cost €210
as of spring 2016)
o Milan: Italo tickets from Roma S. Pietro and hopped off at Milano Rogoredo even
though tickets went to Milano Centrale (saving 15-20 minutes), took subway to
tomb too), train from Milano Centrale to Pavia to visit tombs of Augustine
you can sleep/work/stare out the window on the fast train and
grab lunch and do a Holy Hour in the little country before you
have to drive through the Swiss Alps again (more great views!)
person (€244 first class train tickets to Milan and back at 2x1 rate,
per person)
border
Take first and last trains to and from Milan, rent a car and drive to
This would give you about 5-6 hours on Matterhorn where you
meal
border
First and last trains to and from Milan, rent a car and drive to Mont Blanc
(though Turin is closer, it would take an hour longer each way for the train
to reach Turin while the drive is only 40 minutes more from Milan…about
2:30)
- If you really want to see a country, you have to get out of the cities
- Cars will be mostly manual, not automatic (indicator for shifting in manual cars so they
o Mobility: Can go virtually anywhere you want, not restricted to any one route,
o Time Saved: Public transportation (buses) wastes your time if you have to wait
rental’s insurance as long as you have auto insurance from your credit card
o Gas: make sure to check the fuel gauge matches the paperwork
Don’t fall for turning it in empty… not worth the hassle of actually trying
to bring it in close to empty and run the risk of running out of fuel
o GPS: get your own or use your phone because car companies charge €15/day,
plus you have to figure out how to use the GPS since you aren’t used to it
o Crossing borders: make sure to read the fine print, when in doubt, don’t cross the
border
Not like the US, it is assumed you know the speed limits as they are not
posted anywhere
Speeding: can only go 4km (2 mph) over or cameras will get you
Traffic cameras are there to raise money, not enforce the law, and
- Make sure to get an intermediate car or larger for the sake of space
- Most rental places won’t let you ferry a car (make sure to read the fine print)
- Renting cars is the biggest pain that has always been worth it
Chapter 8: Lodging
- Lodging cheaper in Europe than US
o www.booking.com (for few travelers and short stays, look for ≥ 8.5 stars)
o www.airbnb.com (more people and longer stays, check other property listings
- Airbnb is usually cheaper, but you don’t know what you’re getting and you have to plan
o Sometimes shared beds come in the form of four “beds” which are actually four
places for people to sleep (two queen beds instead of four different beds)
- Ask around the seminary for connections in places you are going to be staying
- If you will be staying in an expensive city (any place in the EU), try to find a parish or
monastery to stay at
o See how you can help once there (serving Mass, cleaning up, etc.)
- Your hotel room ends up being a home base for hanging out, so make sure it is something
comfortable for your travel situation, not just the cheapest smallest thing only designed
for sleeping
- Traveling well depends 30% on where you go and 70% on WHO you travel with
Do you sleep in on a travel weekend or feel like you have to conquer a city
in a weekend?
o Food
o Expenses
o Leader
Have someone who will make decisions, especially when the group isn’t
- You’ll make bonds you never would have made traveling with the people you do because
of the experiences you go through together (especially the hard ones…kind of like in
- Make sure to at least try and get along with your DB’s… they will be the people you will
o Sniffling, cracking knuckles, clicking pens, tapping your feet, humming, snoring,
- Don’t put up with your brother’s annoying behaviors…correct him and help him learn
- It’s not bad to fight every once and a while, just be civil about how you do it
- Have each other’s backs especially when you or one of your mates gets sick
o Plan in advance for Mass, schedule the rest of your day around that
o EP before dinner
o NP before bed
o Each of them has a unique way they lived out Jesus Christ and for which they are
canonized
o This knowledge brings hope, not only for ourselves, but for our future
parishioners as well
- Use your travels to grow closer to Him, not to take a break from Him
- Italian restaurants typically don’t open for dinner until 7 PM whereas Hungarian
restaurants close by 8 PM
- If you are tipping, leave no more than €1…Europe just doesn’t tip…waiting is a career,
not a place where you have to make a regular income off tips
Weather
- Weather ‘colors’ your trip…you tend to associate where you went by how the weather
Boating
(www.grimaldilines.com)
sense
Travel Tips
- Don’t use up your travel hours planning out your travels when you could have done that
beforehand
- Don’t be afraid to rest while on vacation, especially if you don’t get much rest normally
- Send postcards! Make sure to do it from the destination so they have local stamps and
postmarks
- If you’re taking pictures simply for the landscape, you might want to reconsider
Safety
- Assume people are out to get you, don’t be afraid to be a jerk (it might seem that way
etc.)
- When push comes to shove, most people will not have your back
- Don’t let yourself get surrounded or surprised…keep the person/people talking to you in
- Typically the poorer the country, the more prostitutes and sex workers there will be
- Don’t think that just because you are a seminarian, you are safe
- Stay close to God and be brutally honest with your spiritual director
- Bled, Slovenia
- Switzerland
Take train from Termini to Orbetello then bus to Porto Santo Stefano,
hour-long ferry to island and a 30 min. bus to the west side of the island
- Montenegro
- Greece
- Venice
- Padua (Padova)
- Bologna
- Pavia
o St. Augustine’s tomb is here and it is only 30 min. train ride south of Milan
- Lourdes, France
- Holy Land
- Turin
- Tunisia
- Swaziland
- Are you coping with celibacy lite which avoids the temptations of your sexual drive but
- Prison stories are bad enough in the US, don’t get arrested in other countries
- Figure out what people love and then show them what they are really after is our Loving
- God made the world to get you to Heaven: travel with that purpose
- True humility is being in the truth and thanking God (you might be a rich kid, you might
- When speaking of your travels, try to enliven other people’s visions of God NOT
yourself