Florida 2003-2004

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: travel itinerary

Published on 23/04/04

We were in a group Departure on 25/12/2003 Return on 03/01/2004 Cost from 1 to 3 million

Florida 2003

by (bianucci@micronet.it)

Genesis of the trip

This trip was born from a brilliant idea of the R. couple, from their invitation, a friendly involvement in their certain and planned Christmas visit to C., their eldest daughter, in the States in Orlando (Fl.) for a post-university internship. Laughing and joking on a still very hot Saturday in September, at Monza park, with the B. present (from Cavezzo, Modena - we'll explain who they are in their "personal record" later -), we gave our agreement. Florida for ever. And besides, visiting the USA in winter, especially the Atlantic Coast, Boston, Chicago, New York, would have been almost crazy given the harsh temperatures and the steady wind that sweeps that territory.

So as a first approach to the States, "the Florida compromise" offers all the positive characteristics of a highly successful adventure: USA way of life, sea (indeed ocean), nature, national park, white beaches, internationally known attractions and a taste of the Caribbean...

And so, slowly, above all with the great and constant organisational commitment of A. and M. (with the important help of C., correspondent from Florida) we managed to "put together" this lovely trip, without passively relying on package tours pre-packaged by tour operators, which are, among other things, much more expensive, not customisable to any great extent, but above all such as to deprive you of the true taste of travel, which instead lies in the "eve", in everything that precedes it, in the logistical organisation, in the preparations, in the fancies that can and cannot be realised, in making and unmaking itineraries, in talking about it together, discussing accommodation options, researching etc..

And indeed the substantial difference between a tourist and a traveller lies precisely in the approach to the destination, in letting yourself be led passively (tourist) or instead choosing to take an active part, also personally providing to resolve material, organisational and technical questions and problems: it's no coincidence that "journey" comes from the Latin viaticum (= what is needed to move, the provisions) while tourism is a word borrowed from English through a French interpretation and originally means "to go round". We won't go "round" like so many little Japanese armed with futuristic cameras and technologically cutting-edge digital machines, behind a flag-waving guide, with noses in the air, almost alienated and a thousand miles away from the reality of the place.

We'll try to "enter" the places we visit precisely with the spirit of the traveller, with critical curiosity, with great love for nature, but at the same time also for the marvels invented and created by Man.

M. and R. have already been to America (North, I mean), while Ros. has been to Brazil, but all the other participants are on their first transoceanic experience (some even on their first flight ever): and yet - they say - going to the States for the first time causes a very particular phenomenon of déjà vu, almost a returning to known, familiar places, and this thanks to mass communication (now called media) that ever since we were children has made us familiar - even too much at times - with everything that is Yankee: films, TV series, extravagant fashions, Coca-Cola, chewing gum and hula-hoop, hamburgers and chips, the FBI and marines, beach watchers and sharks, flowery shirts and always-too-short trousers, socks and jogging in Central Park...

CR. has been in Orlando, DisneyWorld, for two months now, looking after tourism promotion for our dear Italy; she'll take us by the arm at the airport on our arrival on Christmas evening and lead our varied group to the first hotel near her home, the Days Inn Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista/Orlando...

... and from this hotel our American adventure will begin, after a very original Christmas... spent in flight among friends, family, with no relatives, aunts, uncles, cousins and little cousins, nephews and little nephews, tombola games and the like!

The Sunshine State: FLORIDA

Colour, and therefore dazzling light, is the leitmotif of this land, the southernmost state of all the States, the Caribbean state, the state of perpetual sun (let's hope, sic!). It's the most "fiery" star of the American flag and, thanks to its fortunate position, it has been nicknamed "the Sunshine State". And it's precisely the enviable climate guaranteed throughout the year that has decreed Florida's tourist fortune. The state's climate is generally warm all year round, though it varies from moderate in the north to subtropical in the south, particularly in the Keys area. The coasts are subject to the beneficial influences of the Gulf of Mexico and generally no significant seasonal variations are recorded. Averages range between 16°C in winter and 27/30°C in summer, with peaks in July and August of around 35/40°C.

Right now as I write (17.11.03) in Miami it's 18°C minimum and 27°C maximum! Florida's success was decreed in past decades by the "migrations" of (wealthy) American pensioners fleeing the cold of the northern regions, but nowadays with the slogan "Sun and Fun" it has become an enviable international destination for families and groups of young people.

A colour of primordial dawns and sunsets, expanses of green crossed by rivers and populated by alligators (the Everglades); long white beaches where you can drive right up to the water's edge; but also refined residences and villas for billionaires with boats moored at the private dock; a thousand golf courses scattered among woods and hills. Cities of considerable size, but fortunately not yet metropolises in the American sense of the term (like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago), skyscrapers and classic Yankee skylines, but with forests and mangroves as a backdrop.

Very powerful and unsinkable Boston Whaler speedboats (apart from a few unlucky examples imported into Veneto and Trinacria, Italy, ed.), bearing the Coast Guard insignia, ploughing boldly through the ocean waves: how many times since childhood have we seen on TV the exploits of these heroes of the sea! Remember children's TV? Enza Sampò and Febo Conti, Rin Tin Tin, Abbott and Costello, Yogi and Boo-Boo with the Huckleberry Hound Show, The Twilight Zone and Miami Vice? Disney's imaginative world suspended between naive fantasies and high technology (Disney World and Epcot Center), the MGM Studios (the famous roaring Lion) and those of Universal Pictures. NASA's Cape Kennedy Space Center and the voice of our commentator Tito Stagno in the background announcing the moon landing (July 1969).

The Overseas Highway, the legendary road of about 200km that links all the little islands (the Keys) from south of Miami up to their capital Key West, almost joining Florida to Cuba (after all, Fidel's island is closer than Miami!). And over all this bounty a warm, luminous, enveloping sun that will tear us from the cold and frost of our Po Valley in winter livery. Does that seem little to you?

I forgot one very important thing: music. Now while you read these four (as they say, just to say)... lines, try to picture for example the Overseas Highway from Islamorada (yes, the very one from Madonna's song) up to Key Largo, a ribbon of asphalt stretched across a thousand bridges and viaducts over the cobalt of the Atlantic Ocean on your left and the Gulf of Mexico on your right. You are at the wheel o