Did we pay for a tour? No. We did the tour ourselves. I am sure we saved a lot of money by doing so. We visited Zurich, Lucern, Interlaken, Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Castelluccio, Rome, and Lake Como.
For those that have never been, Europe is expensive in some aspects. Cheaper in others. If you are in the 'touristy' areas such as Rome and Venice, it's expensive. Smaller towns and lesser frequented places are way cheaper.
Switzerland is "efficient" in every way. They do not waste like we do over here in the United States. Everything seems to have a purpose and very little is wasted. The people of Switzerland are polite and direct to the point. The Polizei(Police) presence is almost non-existent. I only saw a few police officers at the train stations and still felt 100% safe.
Switzerland is a very clean country and the food is fresh. It is like they care about what they eat. Portions are smaller and healthier. Unlike the crap we buy from Walmart and Shop Rite here in the United States. In a way, this really worries me. Why are Americans eating such crap? Why can't we eat like the Europeans do?
Yes. You can drink in public in Switzerland. You can go buy a can of beer and drink it while walking, on the trains, or just sitting in a park.
The roadways in Switzerland are pretty organized as well. They use roundabouts to get around for the most part and the highways are pot hole free. Most cars are manual transmission(stick shift) and even the gas stations are clean.
Everything I just wrote about above pretty much holds true for Italy as well. The roadways, cleanliness(in most places I visited), great food, and people were amazing as well.
Don't get me wrong, there were a few things that were pretty hard to deal with.
Rome can be a rough country to tour in if you are not used to the heat. We stayed in a few apartments that did not have air conditioning and the only way to cool off the rooms were to open the windows. This is a bit problematic if the mosquitoes are around. I had an instance were they were buzzing my head at 3am one morning and it was not fun. Needless to say I went to the nearest hotel(Thank you Best Western of Rome, Italy!) the next day and jumped back into comfort with full air conditioning.
It is obvious that Europeans care about their lifestyle and well being. Maybe it helps because these countries are so beautiful to see. The air is clean and the food is fresh. I really wish that the United States would learn a lot from the Europeans. Would I ever go back? Absolutely. In time... I will.
So, where is the paranormal in all of this? Well, I stayed in a villa in Tuscany that had some weird occurrences happen, so naturally... I investigated the location a bit. The lights would flicker on occasion, I heard unexplained noises, the place even felt a bit weird. You know... like that electric/energy type feeling in the air. What really opened my eyes a bit to the place being haunted was a few things:
- The overall feeling of the place was slight bit electric/energized.
- Lights flickered on occasion and had no apparent pattern.
- Unexplained sounds. (Shuffling, footsteps, etc.)
- Feelings of being watched.
- My iPhone 5 shut off completely and had a 50% charge left.
This all happened at 3:30am in Tuscany at the villa I was staying at. I walked around outside and got that "I am being watched..." kind of feeling. Took a few photos, but nothing substantial as of yet. It felt pretty crazy to say the least.
Time for some additional pics! Click on a photo to enlarge it:
Check out this panorama shot:
