Going to Paris or Rome?  We have built up quite a list of places to try in both places and are adding more and more all the time.  We are finding the cheapest happy hours, most interesting and budget conscious restaurants and a lot more worthwhile tips that will save you time and money.  Don’t be afraid of crazy phone bills for using data roaming because we are tagging all the free WiFi spots we can find.  If you do not have the Foursquare app yet download it now and friend iKangaroo.

Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s book about a plot to destroy the Vatican, has been made into an international blockbuster movie starring Tom Hanks.  For over 10 years tourists in Rome have been supplementing their guidebooks with this story that features six of Rome’s most famous sites including the Vatican, Pantheon, Piazza Navona and numerous artworks by Bernini, one of Rome’s most famous artists.  Even if you are not a fan of or familiar with the book the explanations of the sites themselves provide a through overview of Rome at a fraction of the cost of a tour guide or book.

The story is about a secret society called the Illuminati that have reemerged after plotting for centuries to annihilate the Catholic Church.  The yarn winds through the streets of Rome as Harvard Professor Robert Langdon races to find a mega bomb planted somewhere in the Vatican by following a secret path called the Path of Illumination which is marked by some of Bernini’s greatest masterpieces.  Besides being a good story, Angels & Demons is a chance to visit some of Rome’s less famous churches and learn more about Catholic symbolism.

For only $2.99 on the iTunes Store you can download this app that provides all the history of the people and places while recommending some of Rome’s best gelato, pizza and restaurants that are nearby to each point of interest.  To save you the pain of a ridiculous bill for data charges we have provided an offline map in the app but we also recommend just grabbing a free paper map in Rome.

Have fun, enjoy your tour and please don’t hesitate to drop us a line to let us know what you think.

St. Christopher's Inn London Bridge hostel - The Village dorm-cam

It was not that long ago that a trip abroad meant disconnecting with friends and family while you found yourself and figured things out.  Then getting away became a little more difficult when along came the internet, digital cameras, Skype, Facebook and now web cams in hostel dorm rooms.  Yes that’s right, St. Christopher’s Inn the London based hostel chain with locations throughout Britain and Europe has installed a dorm-cam into a 14 bed dorm room so the goings on of consenting hostel guests can be monitored 24 hours a day by just about anyone with an internet connection.

According to Murray Roberts, Group Sales and Marketing Director, “There’s nothing out there like this and in the test runs so far, our travelers are loving it. It’s being used to wave at Mums and Dads on the opposite side of the world, celebrate birthday parties happening thousands of miles away and for catching up with friends who are hanging around our other web-cams.”

Interacting with the dorm dwellers isn’t far away either and soon viewers will be able to send the residents free beer for all the fun stuff they do and sound off fog horns in response to the not so popular antics!

Yes, the guests do know about the web-cam as St. Christopher’s has just launched a new booking policy to insure that everyone is up to speed on what is going on.

If you are interested in tuning in to St. Christopher’s new dormcam just visit wwww.stchristopherslive.com.  There is a sign in after viewing for one minute.

Through its unique camera feeds, earthTV.com creates a window for visitors to travel to destinations in North America (including New York City and Hawaii), Europe (including Paris and Venice), Asia (including Hong Kong and Dubai), Africa (including Johannesburg and Durban) and Oceania/Australia (including Sydney Harbour and Melbourne).

Featuring transmission technology designed to capture the world at its daily pulse, the feeds for earthTV.com emanate from a global, remote-controlled broadcast camera network which offers, premium streaming quality and crystal clear pan and zoom images.  earthTV.com provides real-time weather and geographical information for all camera locations, as well as individual video links and embed codes for third-party websites to post the camera feeds.  The site brings the world closer together by providing a social network allowing travelers to create personal profiles, list travel destinations and chat with friends from around the globe.  earthTV.com has also recently launched a new Facebook application http://apps.facebook.com/earthtv/ and Twitter group @earthTV and will also be launching a new player later this month that can easily be used for content syndication.

earthTV has also teamed up with Briggs & Riley Travelware for the “Where In The World Is…?” competition, which offers entrants a chance to win high-end travel luggage or a bit of cash.  How the contest works: each day a panorama will be shown from one of the many earthTV cameras, contestants have the opportunity to show off their knowledge of sites and geography by guessing the actual location.  Contestants are awarded miles for corrrect anwswers and the one with the most wins.  In case of a tie there will be a drawing.  The contest runs from June 15, 2009 to July 15, 2009.

For a complete list of earthTV world cameras and more information, visit: www.earthTV.com

ABOUT EARTH TELEVISION NETWORK:

Founded in 1998 by Thomas M. Hohenacker, earth television network has developed a unique broadcast system that enables it to transmit streaming video feeds from 70 cameras locations worldwide.  In addition to providing live programming for over 50 TV networks globally, the company has launched earthTV.com, a website which allows its visitors to experience captured feeds from cameras all around the world.  earth television network is a company of TELCAST Media Group.

As of this update on June 16, 2009 iKangaroo would like to congratulate Anthony on his How to Tour Italy project.  So far he has been churning out helpful videos about everything from how to use the automated ticket machine to buy a train ticket to the history of the Pantheon on his Youtube channel.  Also, his weekly radio show has been hitting the top 10 on the iTunes store under Travel and Places.

This week, June 17, 2009 I will be on the show to talk about and promote iKangaroo’s new free podcasts for Angels & Demons, which can also be found on the iTunes Store.

How to Tour Italy aired for the 1st time on January 22, 2009 and Anthony has done an excellent job of creating some very fun and useful segments as can be attested by the podcasts doing so well on the iTunes Store.  Tune in this Thursday June, 18 at 12:00 CDT to hear Anthony broadcast from Florence Italy with lots of tips and details that will help you know exactly How to tour Italy.  And of course, I’ll be on too.

For your weekly dose of Italy be sure to tune in or download How to Tour Italy with Anthony Capozzoli on TalkZone.com.

Why I suggest trying this out:

I am very enthusiastic about Roman history and 3D Rome Rewind provides a faithful rendition of how ancient Rome physically looked.   Even the most skillful storyteller (i.e. tour guide) has difficulty communicating that at its height the Roman Forum had enough marble to make twenty Westminster Abbeys not to mention gladiator combat or how everyday Romans lived.  3D Rome Rewind effectively does this in a 30 minute show.  For me it was exciting to see a digital version of Rome surround me to the extent that at times I felt I could reach out and touch the walls.  The 3D modeling and stadium theater venue are excellent and in themselves worth the visit, even if only for the novelty of seeing how ancient Rome looked in surround 3D.

Why hard core history buffs might want to think twice:

The virtual model and story is based on Rome circa 310 AD when a power struggle was happening between the Emperor Maxentius  and Constantine.  While Constantine is famous the time frame for the story is not the most exciting or well known Roman history epoch.  I would think that with this sophisticated modeling that it would be easy to reconstruct let’s say Julius Caesar (complete with his face) to be the tour guide rather than an anonymous Roman aristocrat who at times can be annoying with his snorting laugh.  The gladiator combat in the arena exercises a few artistic liberties that I feel are unnecessary; however, they do not detract from the experience unless you are a stickler for Roman history, in which case I suggest simply enjoying the experience in itself.  I feel Rome Rewind is entertainment focused which for the mob is great but not so much for hardcore history buffs.  Those of you that could not get over the creative license Ridley Scott took with Gladiator it would be wise to not have very high expectations for the story line.

Rome Rewind is based on a virtual model that was developed in academia and is the same Ancient Rome layer in Google Earth.  From my discussion with CEO Joel Myers there is a real focus on keeping the content historically accurate as well as entertaining.  There are plans for launching other uses for this technology around Rome, and perhaps in other cities. Overall I feel that this is a novel and worthwhile experience that I recommend visiting immediately before seeing Coliseum and Roman Forum.  Seeing this show will do a lot to help you imagine what Rome was when seeing the ruins.

I wish them them great success because I can truly see the value of this technology and how it will greatly enhance how people lean about and experience Rome.

Address: 5 Capo d’Africa

Special prices available ONLY if booked through the website

www.3drewind.com

It was just a matter of time before mobiles would be ringing and beeping on airplanes and Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO, is unapologetic about it, saying, “if you want a quiet flight, use another airline.  Ryanair is noisy, full and we are always trying to sell you something.”  Ryanair is testing this system on 14 planes and Emirites already has this service on its Dubai / London route so we better get used to the fact that mobile will permeate the fuselage, but that may not be all that bad.

About the systems and costs: Companies that build these in flight mobile systems include Swiss owned OnAir (Ryanair’s provider) and British-based AeroMobile, which has fitted their systems into the Emirites airplanes.  AeroMobile charges about £200,000 (close to $400,000) to fit each airplane with its system.  Ryanair will be equipping 14 of its 160 something fleet, meaning that (assuming the £200,000 per system cost) the Irish airline should be spending close to £3,000,000, but we can assume that the savvy O’Leary drove down that price; so, let’s assume Ryanair fitted its 14 Boeing 747s for £2,000,000 which is not necessarily chump change, especially in this tight economy.  Each system allows up to 6 calls at a time (costing the user £2.00 per minute), unlimited text and Blackberry use and according to the OnAir website, Internet use; however,right now Ryanair is not advertising Internet connectivity.  Assuming, liberally and for the sake of simplicity, that Ryanair will take 50% from mobile providers’ roaming charges of the £2.00 per minute fee, then they will need to sell 2,000,000 in-use minutes to break even on the project.  Now assume that a plane can only sell this service for 10 hours a day (24 hours day – (grounded time+ ascent + decent)) that means that an average plane can sell 600 minutes and that by selling 100% of that inventory would generate £600, or £8400 for the 14 planes.  Thus, in the best of best case scenarios, the £2,000,000 assumed investment could be paid back in about 220 days.  But selling all those minutes to passengers who chose Ryanair based on price could be quite a challenge so they will have to figure out more ways to profit from this system such as music downloads, top-offs (for Americans that means recharging minutes for pre-paid phones) and possibly streaming in shows?

What I would like to see: It would be fantastic if Ryanair could digitize some of their on board magazine to enable passengers to download digital coupons, tickets to museums and or city transport tickets.  For example, an advertisement would instruct: “just text PRADA to 123 456 to receive a 10% discount at our Via Condotti store.” and voila you receive a promotional code or bar-code.   Ryanair is already selling language guides for £1.50 so this type of product may not be such a stretch plus they are about to have their full and noisy planes teaming with passengers able to buy lots of stuff with their cell phones which sounds like an O’Leary fantasy.  And also a passenger fantasy in that there will actually be something worth buying on an airplane in addition to the $5.00 Cokes and $7.00 stale sandwiches.

Who this would be good for: This type of service would be useful to everyone: the airline has a closed coupon system it does not have to worry about stocking, printing and distributing; advertisers have direct access to passengers getting ready to visit their city; paper is saved which reduces the weight of the airplane thus saving gas, money and creating less of a carbon footprint; moreover, the passenger has the benefit of possibly saving money on exclusive offers that can be distributed via airline only channels.  You see!  This system saves the world and whole airline industry.

The down side: Ryanair is taking a risk with this new system and for all of us it could mean unintentionally taking part in second-hand conversations.  Nevertheless, the pressure is on airlines to find more revenue sources to keep flying so let’s hope that some of these investments pay off.  In the United States this system seems to be a little farther off in that The Hang Up Act is currently before the House of Representatives and if passed would make it illegal, as in a crime, to talk over cell phones or VoIp.  However, if Ryanair and other non-US airlines can make this into a viable business model and “That Guy” does not have a loud conversation causing an “Air Rage” episode that gets filmed on a cell phone and is seen by 2M + people on YouTube then maybe the airline industry can make a buck while better benefiting us travelers.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Ciao Travelers!

With such a massive amount of information about Italy, researching can be overwhelming so why not just absorb a bit at a time?  That’s the angle that Unabellavista’s new widget called Do you love Italy? is taking.  The Unabellavista widget pipes in daily tips about Italian food, art and language.  Developed by Unabellavista and recently launched, Do you love Italy? can be added to most social networking profiles to deliver daily helpings of inspiration, travel tips or just Italia-nostalgia.  So now, when logging onto Facebook you can learn how to avoid making those pesky cliche mistakes such as ordering a cappuccino after 11:00am or covering your linguine and clams with a mound of Parmesan cheese.  Yes, there is a reason why Italians don’t put Parmesan cheese on the table when you are eating seafood, but you’ll have to get the Do you love Italy ? widget to learn why.

To check out the Do you love Italy widget, click here!

Happy Travels,

Here is an interesting concept. Have a reliable friend at home that you can call or text at any time to get information that you need. True, this power could be used for a number of things including getting stats about your favorite players, learning the score of the game, finding out who won the Apprentice, settling a bar bet or argument about an actor’s original name, but as iKangaroo is a travel website we will focus in how ChaCha can be used to make your life easier when you are on the road.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been “Guiding” for ChaCha a few hours a week. When I first heard about ChaCha and its concept of guided search in ‘06 I was skeptical about why people would need help searching via chat. As of April 2008 ChaCha no longer offers chat search via computer even though ChaCha.com is still alive. However, what ChaCha does offer is the avaunt guard of mobile search and a fantastic tool to those who know about it. As of press time, April 20, 2008, the service is still free but you are charged according to your wireless plan.

ChaCha Text / SMS (text 242 242 )-

How it works: Format your question into an easy to understand information request and send it off to ChaCha. From here a ChaCha Guide will field the question and search the internet for the best answer. They will send you back a response which includes a source link of where the information originated.

ChaCha Voice (1-800-2ChaCha)-

How it works: Call 1-800-2ChaCha and ask your question. There will be someone who will transcribe your question and send it along. Your question will be returned to you via SMS. Easy breezy!

Some tips for getting the best results from ChaCha:

Add as much detail to your query as possible in terms of your location (i.e. I am at 79th and Broadway in NYC, can you find me the closest place with free wifi?).

Remember that Guides are- for the most part- only as good as the internet and that even though the internet has a ton of info not all of it is accurate. It’s best to have it in your mind where YOU would look and exactly what information you are seeking (i.e. the more focused your question, the more quickly you will get your answer and the more accurate it will be).

Remember that the response you get from ChaCha is constrained by the number of characters that can fit into a message, which is 160. So, asking for lists of restaurants or lists in general may not be feasible. One way around this is that all of the customers’ questions are tracked and you could respond to your answer and ask for more options. The Guide would then be able to see what options you were given and then send other options.

Great uses for ChaCha when you are traveling!

• Flight info: If you know your flight number and info you can send it to ChaCha and they will access flightstats.com to get updated info on your flight. Don’t forget to add the airline, airport, date and flight number.
• Finding out opening hours: Nothing is worse then rolling up to a restaurant or museum only to find out that it is closed. To get around this ask ChaCha the hours. With museums you can ask if there is a dress code, if they accept credit cards and ticket price.
• Gas prices: If you are on a road trip and want to find the lowest gas prices then ask ChaCha. Don’t forget to add the location of where you are looking.
• Wine pairings: ChaCha can run checks on the wine you are interested in and what it should go with.
• Weather: If you are heading out for the day, send a quick text to ChaCha with your city and weather request.
• Get reviews: If you are unsure about a restaurant you are about to eat at then send ChaCha the name, address and ask for a review. Sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp give aggregate scores which you might find useful.

At the time of this writing ChaCha is only available in the USA, however, there are plans to expand into other markets. I love the idea of this for a travel tool and think that there is a lot of potential to make the travel experience much more rich. Too many times have I showed up to a closed restaurant- or needed reservations or a dress code- or just missed the closing of a museum, which for now seems that ChaCha will help me not do this in the future. Now in about 3 minutes you can have these questions answered and save yourself the time, money and hassle!

Happy Travels,

Chris