Italy From The Inside

Posts Tagged ‘iPod’

Rick Steves is a popular writer of European travel guidebooks and host in several travel shows on public television and public radio. His excellent Italy guides offer plenty of detailed information on places to visit and affordable accommodations in main Italy destinations (N.B. Our eBook is a perfect companion of Rick’s guides as we focus on the Italian culture and how to deal with everyday things in your trip).

Among his new media initiatives that I like the most are the FREE audio walking tours of Rome, Florence and Venice.
These audio tours are downloadable MP3 files narrated by Rick himself that you can put on your portable device such as an iPod or SmartPhone. Rick explains the history of places like the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Uffizi Gallery and other important locations as if you were hiring a dedicated guide.

I praise Rick for embracing blogging and podcasting as a way to create conversations with his audience and I look forward to see his audio tours start covering more areas outside the classic tourist circuit.

I’ve been playing with my iPhone for over a week now, and I’ve to say that I like it a lot.
I spent some time brainstorming new interesting ways to use this device in preparation for a trip to Italy.
Here are a few ideas that came to my mind:
- Listen to Italian music (get into the Dolce Vita mood)
- Watch an Italian movie converted from a DVD
- Practice your Italian with a language podcast (for your kids there is my daughter Silvia)
- Watch a travel podcast from Rick Steves’ (or one of ours)
- Browse pictures of Italy and dream about your next trip
- Store a photo of your passport (just in case)
- Use the Google mapping feature to study your itinerary (even point to point directions)
- Write some last minute ideas using the note taking feature
- Take our eBook with you (yes, the iPhone can view PDF files)
- Store useful contact information of restaurants, hotels, friends, etc.
- Download some audio guides for the key attractions
- Use it as an alarm clock
- Take some pictures of your trip
- Find out what’s the weather like in Rome
- Calculate the conversion rate from Euros in Dollars
- Make your friends jelous by sending them an email / SMS from the airport
- Use the calendar to plan your days
- Browse the internet to find out about the latest train strike
- or just use it as a phone (careful about those international charges!)

Unlike my video iPod, the iPhone doesn’t work as a backup storage for my digital pictures. Oh well…
Did I forget anything else in my list?

I’d like to share some positive facts regarding our New Media efforts to disseminate useful tips and information about Italy and its culture. Since we listed our podcast on iTunes just 3 months ago, we have been enjoying a steady growth in our audience.
In fact, under the iTunes category Places & Travel, we rank #8, ahead of bigger brands like Frommers and Lonely Planet.
More important, the 35 customer reviews received so far rate our shows a 4.5/5 stars. Here is an excerpt from their comments:

“Very fun and informative. And never boring as many podcasts can easily lean that way.”

“The author and his wife have the unique ability to offer an insight from both American & Italian perspective. The podcasts offer many insights not available from the usual travel guides.”

“Excellent. This is exactly what I was looking for. I’ll be living in Italy for 3 years and wanted something besides the standard travel book to go a little deeper into the culture and sights. This is it!”

“Love it! I live in Italy and this podcast is right on the mark. Very entertaining and accurate.”

“Subscribe to this podcast if you plan on going to Italy!”

“I highly recommend this podcast because it’s for people who hate being tourists.”

My daughter Silvia has started podcasting too. Her passion is to communicate Italian tips to the younger audience. Every audio episode takes on average 3 hours to plan, record and publish. Video episodes usually require twice as much time.

If you own an iPod and/or have iTunes installed, it’s easy to subscribe to our podcast. And if you want to help us keep our shows ad-free, we always welcome your support thru the purchase of our eBook. Grazie!!

Picture this scenario: Jennifer is a pretty American woman traveling solo in Italy. She stops at a nice restaurant in Florence for dinner, and is promptly approached by Mario, an Italian man who doesn’t speak a word of English. Despite Mario’s various attempts to communicate, it’s clear that Jennifer is not interested in him.

With class, she takes out her iPod, and after a few wheel clicks, she shows Mario one of the iTalian iCards.
Mario is disappointed, but with a gentleman’s smile, he goes back to his table.

After an hour, Giuseppe comes to the same restaurant. He is Mario’s friend, just much nicer looking, yet not much English skills.

Giuseppe sees Jennifer alone at her table and approaches her for a drink.
This time Jennifer takes her iPod, and picks a different iTalian iCard.

Success!

iTalian iCards are a series of translated phrases converted into digital images. Once loaded on your iPod, they can be shown to other people to make yourself understood. No need to say a word, just smile and show the screen of your iPod.

This series is about Relationships and contains the following phrases and related Italian translations:

- What’s your name?
- My name is <…>
- I come from <...>
- Sorry, I can’t speak Italian
- Sorry, but I’ve to leave soon
- Please, leave me alone
- Sorry, but you are not my type
- You are really a nice person
- When can I see you again?
- What’s your phone number?
- Can I invite a (male) friend?
- Can I invite a (female) friend?
- I love you
- I like you very much
- Let’s do something crazy?
- Let’s make love

Installation instructions
- Download the iCards-Relationship.exe file onto your desktop (EXE – 600K )
- Run the self-extracting file and browse to your My Documents > My Pictures folder. Then press Unzip. The folder iCards – Relationships will be created
- Connect your iPod, launch iTunes, and click the name of your iPod under Devices
- Then go to the Photos tab and make sure to include your new iCards – Relationships folder (17 photos) among the photo folders to synch-up with your iPod.
- Synchronize your device, disconnect it and navigate to the Photos menu of your iPod. Your iCards folder should appear as one of the items of the Photos menu
- iCards are compatible with any iPod Video, iPod Nano and Microsoft Zune. Enjoy!

How do you like the iTalian iCards concept? Please send your feedback to [email protected]