Rome Suspends River Cruises Because Tiber Too Polluted

by Adam Hodge on

Visitors to Rome this year won’t be able to cruise along the Tiber River, which weaves through the city, because it has become “strewn with rubbish,” according to a representative of Rome Boats, the company that controls the river tours.

In an interview with AFP, Rome Boats’ Mauro Pica Villa said there would be no tours because the tour operators would be “ashamed” to show the Tiber in its current state. He described the embankments as “grey with pollution” and the trees that line the river as covered in plastic bags and other rubbish. The last time the Tiber was cleaned was in 2008, and the river suffers from bureaucratic idiosyncrasies that have shuffled the responsibility for its care away from the city government.

This is a good thing. Not the pollution – the tour cancelation. Though quite popular at their launch a decade ago, a Tiber tour is generally a terrible idea. Unlike on a cruise down the Seine in Paris, it’s difficult to appreciate much of Rome from the deeply set and narrow Tiber. The tour is a good way to see Rome’s bridges, but the remainder of it is spent gawking up at the ugly grim parapets that line the banks. Because the walls are so high (or the Tiber so low, really), you can’t see much of Rome this way.

Hopefully the Tiber gets cleaned up, but the best way to see Rome and its iconic river is still by foot along its banks.

[Photo credit: Flickr user The Wolf]

Look Out For Goats At Chicago O’Hare

by Libby Zay on

Twenty-five to 30 goats will soon start grazing at Chicago O’Hare Airport. The animals will help landscape 120 acres of foliage, including space near creeks and hill areas that are difficult for groundskeepers to maintain, CNN is reporting.

According to the news outlet, the city announced the plan on Wednesday as part of a two-year contract for “sustainable vegetation management grazing services” that will help them reduce costs and carbon dioxide emissions. To make sure the goats don’t get too close to runways, they will be separated from the airfield by security fencing and will remain supervised while on airport property.

CNN reports other airports that have brought goats in to landscape have seen mixed results. In San Francisco, goats are successfully used two to three weeks each summer to clear vegetation, which allows the airport to clear a firebreak without interrupting some endangered species that call the area home. But in Seattle, goats came and went within a week in 2008 because they were too effective, eating everything in sight – including native plants the airport wanted to protect.

Chicago’s herd is expected to arrive in about a month. Look out for them as you take off and land at the airport.

[Photo credit: Armin Kübelbeck / Wikimedia Commons]

Turkey Offers Moustache Transplant Surgery Vacation Packages

by Reena Ganga on

We’ve all heard of medical tourism in which travelers head abroad to get liposuction or a nose job and then recuperate on the beach – but have you ever heard of a mustache transplant vacation?

Cosmetic surgeons in Turkey have been performing hair transplants on balding men for years; however, it seems there’s now growing demand from men with bald upper lips.

Men from Asia, Europe and the Middle East have been flocking to the country in order to give their mediocre moustaches a helping hand and tourism agencies have taken notice. Many local companies have begun offering “transplant packages” in which tourists can get their surgery done before chilling out at a Mediterranean Resort or hitting the capital’s shopping malls.Turkey has quickly been making a name for itself in the health care tourism industry. Last year alone, the country earned $1 billion from travelers visiting to have surgical procedures done. Of course, most of that revenue likely comes from procedures like plastic surgery, but the facial hair transplants are certainly adding up, with one doctor in Istanbul claiming he performs around 60 mustache transplants a month.

Interestingly, there’s little interest from Turks in getting the procedure done. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of Turkish men sporting moustaches has fallen radically in the past two decades – not that they have any trouble growing facial fuzz. “Personally, I’d be suspicious of a Turk who couldn’t grow a mustache,” a salesman from Istanbul told the newspaper. “But if foreigners need to come anywhere for the operation, it should be here. The Turkish mustache is still the envy of the world.”

[Photo credit: Flickr user hapal]

Spirit Airlines Ditches Toll-Free Customer Service Line

by Libby Zay on

Famous for its no-frills approach (and for being the first airline to charge for carry-on bags), Spirit Airlines has decided it no longer needs a toll-free customer service line, the Los Angeles Times is reporting. In lieu of a 1-800 number, Spirit quietly replaced all its phone numbers with 801 area codes, which correspond with a geographic area in Utah.

The change won’t affect most mobile customers, who typically have unlimited long-distance calling plans. But according to the L.A. Times, people dialing Spirit from a landline could incur fees up to 18 cents per minute, depending on the phone plan. Let’s just hope Spirit doesn’t have long wait times for speaking with customer service reps, or else fees could start adding up quickly.

“Our new numbers are allowing us to keep our costs low, which we in turn continue to pass along to our customers by way of the ultra-low fares they have come to know and love,” airline spokeswoman Misty Pinson told the news outlet. Although the toll-charge number doesn’t seem like it will hit most wallets, when coupled with the airline’s 71 other passenger fees, the price of a “low cost” flight just keeps getting higher and higher.

[Via Skift]

[Photo credit: Flickr user ​Clemson]

Harvey Milk Likely Honored With Terminal, Not Airport

by Libby Zay on

A proposal to rename San Francisco International Airport after Harvey Milk has been scrapped by a California lawmaker, the Associated Press is reporting. Instead, there is a possibility one of the airport’s terminals will be named after the politician and gay rights leader who was assassinated in 1978.

David Campos, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, told the news outlet that public opposition to re-naming the airport caused him to cancel plans to put a question on the city ballot. It seems the city’s daily newspaper and Mayor Edwin Lee are not thrilled about the idea, as well as other politicians, businesspeople and locals.

Moving forward, Campos now plans to establish a committee that would recommend which of the airport’s four passenger terminals should be named for Milk, as well as additional airport landmarks that could potentially be named in honor of other prominent San Franciscans. Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, who is also a gay rights leader, said he believes the airport’s international terminal would be most appropriate – especially since Milk is already recognized abroad, with a gay rights celebration observed in his honor in Chile and a gay community center named for him in Italy.

[Via USA Today]

[Photo credit: Flickr user Håkan Dahlström]