Winter in Prague: Final Thoughts

WINTER PRAGUE: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS N.2

NOVOTEL PRAHA CITY: nothing to say and criticize, convenient and central location in the New Town, 50 meters from the I.P.PAVLOVA Metro station, and from trams 22 and 23 (the classic and convenient ones for visiting all of Prague, especially Malá Strana), on-site parking (for a fee), good restaurant where we also had dinner on New Year's Eve (45 euros per person, excellent quality-price ratio, "value for money" as the Americans say).

Only flaws: the physiological surliness of young Czech women, waitresses and receptionists, typical of Prague women under 40 (from 40 up everything changes, especially middle-aged and elderly ladies, who are very kind, very sweet and helpful with tourists because they understand that they bring wealth and hard currency) and the fact that the wi-fi Internet system in the room or in the common areas and even the PC station in the bar area are for a fee, at the stratospheric cost of 7.5 euros per hour! Something unacceptable in a large hotel chain like Novotel of the French multinational group Accor (see also Mercure, Sofitel and Ibis and other smaller ones). But that is their policy. Of the ACCOR group.

In the USA, in Northern Scandinavia these services, by now part of common usage, are free or at least at truly affordable costs in the large hotel chains of any level, from 5 stars to motels!

PRICES AND CONVENIENCE: we are outside the Euro area and this is a disadvantage and an advantage at the same time; hotel prices have skyrocketed enormously and are now in line with other major European capitals. So they are expensive and I am talking about the large multinational chains now present throughout Prague with a diversified offering of hotels for every budget, which however are no longer as competitive as they once were! Then there are hostels for young people and some kind of cheap B&Bs. But can you picture a couple of 50-year-olds in a youth hostel? Been there, done that, sure, but back in our university days and internships abroad. As for restaurants, trattorias and bars, we still manage well.

The Czech crown (if you pay in their currency, otherwise with the Euro the Czechs take disproportionate advantage) has changed at around 28/30 per 1 euro: that is, 300 crowns = about 10 euros. And with 300 crowns you can eat, and eat well, obviously without going overboard. Naturally there are much more expensive restaurants, but in any case with costs lower than ours in Rome and above all Milan, the most expensive in Italy for public establishments. On the street you are always pestered by private and illegal currency exchangers (let's call them that) who even offer 36 Czech crowns for 1 euro. The hourly ticket for transport, Metro or surface tram, costs 20 crowns (0.70 euro) and the daily 24H one valid everywhere costs 80 crowns (almost 3 euros) and is therefore very convenient.

Very cheap and interesting purchases of vintage and antique items, various non-tawdry objects and things from tourist bazaars, in the many little shops scattered among the various neighborhoods and usually run by people of a certain age, very kind and helpful (even open to haggling over the price), especially elderly ladies. (TO BE CONTINUED 3)

WINTER PRAGUE: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS N.3

A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ITINERARY: first of all get yourselves (if you don't already have one from Italy) a good guidebook, but the excellent and free one is the one offered at the Tourist Office (you just need to know how to look for it and ask for it) or the visual and convenient one sold for example inside the Tyn Cathedral in the Old Town Square for only 6 euros. It also remains as a nice souvenir, it's not the usual book of old, predictable images! Then make yourselves a custom itinerary discovering all the houses and buildings with coats of arms and/or signs placed above the main entrance portals: you will discover wonderful things, a treat for avid digital photographers. You will find plenty of them in the Nerudova street area in Malá Strana (the House of the Three Violins, of the Golden Chalice, of the Sun, etc.), in the Jewish Quarter and near Wenceslas Square.

Prague is a wonderfully Baroque city, but a Baroque – not very Rococo – that is extremely elegant and well balanced!

MAY PRAGUE BE A LESSON FOR ITALIAN CITIES OF ART: MONUMENTS AND PALACES BEAUTIFULLY RESTORED AND ILLUMINATED (at night, for example, Charles Bridge and the Malá Strana and Castle hill – the largest in Europe, by the way – or the Old Town Square are masterfully illuminated) GIVE US THE SENSATION OF BEING AS IF IN A FAIRY TALE, IN A MAGICAL THEATER, WHICH IS NONETHELESS REAL. IT ALMOST SEEMS THAT AS IF BY ENCHANTMENT ALL THE PALACES, CHURCHES AND VARIOUS MONUMENTS WERE RENOVATED AND RESTORED IN AN INSTANT BY MAGIC, BY A MAGIC WAND. NOT A SINGLE SCAFFOLD OR WORK IN PROGRESS TO BE SEEN, EXCEPT FOR SOMETHING ON THE OUTSKIRTS.

OF COURSE AT CHRISTMAS THE SNOW AND THE NUMEROUS MARKETS (which, mind you, have nothing to envy in our well-known and famous South Tyrolean and Austrian Christmas markets) IN THE MAIN SQUARES DID THE REST, CROWNING THE SCENOGRAPHY OF A UNIQUE, ELEGANT AND DAZZLING CITY THAT IN A FEW YEARS HAS MADE GIANT STRIDES REGARDING HOTEL ACCOMMODATION, TOURIST AVAILABILITY, EXCELLENT TRANSPORT AND THE PERCEPTION OF A POLICY AND PHILOSOPHY OF TOURIST HOSPITALITY THAT HAS FULLY UNDERSTOOD THE NUMEROUS ADVANTAGES OF THIS INDUSTRY THAT BRINGS FRESH AND GOOD MONEY, MAKES COMMERCE PROLIFERATE AND HELPS, FIRST AND FOREMOST, THE CZECH PEOPLE TO EMERGE FROM THE TEDIUM AND POVERTY OF THE SAD THIRTY YEARS THEY ENDURED. FROM THE PRAGUE SPRING OF 1968, FROM JAN PALACH (to whom a square and a monument in the Jewish Quarter are dedicated) ALMOST TO OUR DAYS.

MALÁ STRANA, THE CASTLE AND ST. VITUS CATHEDRAL, VYŠEHRAD, OLD TOWN, NEW TOWN, PARIS STREET AND THE JEWISH QUARTER: splendid cities within the enchanted city to be observed especially at sunset from Petrin Hill or from the Castle Square in Malá Strana. We certainly had the luck of snow on the streets and rooftops and of a splendid winter sun that painted the Prague sunset in watercolor pink!

SMOG AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT: as in Habsburg imperial Vienna (visited on the way back to Italy) traffic is very limited, in any case flowing and orderly and "polite" and therefore little or no smog; but the credit goes above all to the absence of buses. Public transport is based on the Metro lines and above all on the famous trams that always work (at night replaced by the numerous night lines, also on rails, that guarantee a safe return home even for the most die-hard night owls). In fact, the trams are the best means for a first sightseeing tour of the city, especially the two lines 22 and 23 which take you even beyond the Vltava up to the Castle, to the Strahov Monastery and to Loreta, as well as to Petřín Hill and then down toward Malostranské náměstí and Charles Bridge.

So we Italians, especially Milanese and Romans, have a lot to learn, we who have savagely and not very cleverly replaced trolleybuses and tramways with polluting buses, only to then blame private traffic for atmospheric pollution and PM10 dust that thus gift us with stupid, ineffective and unjustified Sunday and weekday traffic blocks! Or at least justified only by palace political and economic intrigues...

IN SHORT, A GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL CITY, BUT TRULY ON A HUMAN SCALE WHERE WALKING AND STROLLING IS A HIGHLY RELAXING ACTIVITY AND PERHAPS THE BEST METHOD OF VISITING IT. AS LONG AS THE ITINERARIES ARE ORGANIZED LOGISTICALLY! ONLY WARNING IN WINTER: THE ICE PATCHES THAT ARE EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHERE, DESPITE THE CONTINUOUS CLEANING WORK OF THE LOCAL MUNICIPAL COMPANY (in a city in the grip of frost from October to March-April) ARE A HAZARD FOR PEDESTRIANS. BUT THE MAGIC, THE FAIRY-TALE SNOWY PRAGUE IS WORTH A LITTLE RISK!

For more technical information, I'm completely at your disposal via email.

Fabrizio Bianucci