A personal blog about all the things I wouldn't put on the Zo'C Blog.

Right now, I am living in Levico Terme, a city of a population of less than 7000 inhabitants which in most places of the American Continent I know would hardly considered civilization by metropolitan people.

Five kilometers east of Levico is a rural zone whey they grow apples, strawberries, flowers, potatoes and other things. And some 15Km northeast of Levico is Trento, the capital of the Province with a population of about 100,000, which is not big for a metropolis in American Terms and, well, not even in European terms, if compared with Rome, Milano, Paris, London and so forth.

Oddly enough, in a way here I feel a bit like in a metropolis.

Which way is that? Well, I think one of the things I like the most in metropolitan life is the amount of things you can do and this is only possible because when a critical urban mass occurs, the mobility over different things create a very interesting synergy that makes everything more interesting, even better if you have a transportation system that becomes a second nature to walking.

One of the things I like the most in Europe are the trains, the transportation system in general and the relationship of people with them. Why, because every little city has a very good transportation system, in general train, that connects them in an easy way with the places around and, eventually with the whole europe.

In a way, taking the train to Trento, from Levico is not different of using the underground in a big city, apart from the cost and the trip time, but I think that this leads to a somehow metropolitan mentality even on the rural areas, and this is one of the things that makes Europe so great, at least from my point of view.

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I’m here again in Piazza di Fiera using the free wireless network of Trento. I should have shown pictures of Piazza di Fiera because is Beautiful but I had none at hand when I wrote my last post. So here are two of them. And, by the way, there are new picutres on trento on my flickr.

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Here I am, sitting in Piazza Fiera, using the Internet via free WiFi Internet access available through a simple as quick subscription process. Most of the historical Center of Trento is covered by this network, and keep in mind that when we talk about history here is not just a couple hundred years.

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We finally are in Italy, our destiny: Trento, the extreme north of Italy, some 100Km south of Austria, but our flight’s destiny was Milano which is a 3 hours train ride away from it, so we had already decided that we would spend the first night there.

And what better place to spend a night like this than in a youth hostel? Well, of course, it would have been great to go to a very fancy and expensive hotel, sure, but youth hostels are very nice options for travellers with less budget. Because we are moving here and we would need to settle with our saved resources, any penny saved is of good use.

But youth hostels are not only good options because of the price, some ten years ago, when I started backpacking, I was kind of uncomfortable with the perspective of sharing a room with strangers, but I felt brave enough if I had to do it. And I will have to, because, back then, my travel budget was very limited.

In that trip I managed to get a very cheap single room in a very respectable place in Madrid, my first stop, but I wasn’t so unlucky in the Barcelona, the second one. Yes, I wrote it right: unlucky!

I was very lucky I couldn’t get a single room, because in the room I stayed I really made good friends with 4 other guys from France, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand and even after almost a decade has passed and we never met again, I’m still a good friend of this last one.

Thanks to this, my stay in Barcelona was extremely fun and enjoyable and I had the chance to know Barcelona better than I had known Madrid. So I can only say I was lucky to stay on that place, despite not being either as cheap or as respectable as the one in Madrid, and above all I was lucky on in despite of being shared, but because of it.

Now things are different, I am a decade older, married, and I am moving to here with my wife, not travelling to rediscover the old world. Sharing a room with a bunch of post-tenagers might not be quite as pleasant as It was when I was one of them.

Moreover, staying on a crappy place, might have seen adventurous in the past, but now I’d feel rather annoyed. But then, there are hostels and hostels.

Hostelling International is a network of hostels that require some minimum conditions a hostel should have in order to give its credentials to it, and these requirements are really good.

Staying on a HI hostel means that you will have, at least, good hygiene, a reasonable degree of security and safety, an English-speaking staff and a reasonable price.

HI hostels are all around the globe, but they abound in Europe, prices vary, but here are generally between 15 Euro and 25 Euro per night per person.

I already stayed on all kinds of hostels and found most of them fun at the time, but I wouldn’t stay on many of them today. But a quality hostel (and there are many quality hostels outside the HI network as well) is still a good option for cheap and good accomodations, many of them would allow you to have a room for two shared with your wife and some even have two-placed beds.

Going back to the story, we booked a night on the Piero Rota Hostel in Milano, close to the Fiera Milanocity, northwest of the central area.

My opinion: Piero Rota hostel is probably the worst HI hotel I’ve ever been, but by no means the worst I’ve ever been, not even a bad one.

As in all HI hostels, we had good hygiene, security and safety, a fine breakfast, good price and, because we booked a family room for 6 more Euros, we had some privacy, although we had no double-bed.

After the night in Milano, we woke up very early and came to Trento. Trento is a lovely and charming city that will be the subject of a future post.

Here in Trento, we are also staying it a hostel for the first days while we settle: the Giovani Europa Hostel, but this one is very good. I’m not sure if it is a HI hostel, apparently it already was, but today is not listed on the HI site and it is very strange.

Anyway, this hostel has much better infrastructure than Piero Rota, let’s say within the average quality of a HI hostel (even though I’m not sure if it is HI), someone not used to hostels would say that is wonderful, as Anna did, but the truth is that is not a top one also, the Nordic network of hostels, that is itself federated to HI has a much higher level of requirements, and most hotels I’ve been outside Nordic countries doesn’t seem to fit them.

That is no shame for them, the Nordic network really has incredible standards. My all time favourite hostel in the world is the one in Vondelpark, Amsterdam and compared to it, Piero Rota might seem very bad. But unless you are very used to the Nordic network, you might do alright by staying there if you need.

[I have very scarce internet resources right now so I’ll come back to edit this post later :-) ]

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