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Archive: July, 2009

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Visiting the Vatican City during your Italy Vacation

One of the most popular destinations for people on a vacation to Italy is the Vatican City. Most people do not know that this is a sovereign city-state. This means that it makes its own rules and has its own governing system independent of the Italian system. The Vatican City is a walled state within the city of Rome. It is the smallest independent state in the whole world with only a little over 100 acres. It was formed in 1929 under an agreement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. The Holy See refers to the central governing system of the Catholic Church headed by the Pope. The Pope is also known as the Bishop of Rome. The Vatican City houses the official residence of the Pope and it is visited by millions of people each year on an Italy vacation.

You can enter the Vatican City through the famous St. Peter’s square. This square is characterized by great Baroque architecture from the 1600s to include symbols of the church motherly embracing its people in its arms. St. Peter’s Basilica is another place you can visit in the Vatican City while on your Italy vacation because it is also found in St. Peter’s square. It is the most notable building in the Vatican City and this church’s dome can be seen for miles around Rome. St. Peter’s Basilica seats 60,000 and is said to be the largest building in the Christian church. It is noted for being the burial site of St. Peter who is said to be the founding father of the Catholic Church by being the first Bishop of Rome. The discovery of his tomb was announced in 1950 after a decade of archeological research.

Catholic tradition says that St. Peter is buried under the altar of this Basilica and therefore all the Popes since then have also been buried in the Basilica the most recent being Pope John Paul II in April 2005. At the entrance of the Basilica are statues of Christ, St. John the Baptist and 11 of the 12 apostles. You can enter the Basilica for free during your Italian vacation if you are properly dressed with no bare shoulders or knees. If you would like to attend mass you should go to the Basilica on a Sunday.

There are several other places to see here during your Italy vacation. The largest museum in the world is also found in the Vatican City. It has over 1400 rooms and galleries that represent 3000 years of art. The Sistine Chapel is also found here and is known for being the private chapel that the cardinals go to when electing a new Pope.

So what is the best way to see all the sights that the Vatican City has to offer during your Italian vacation? There are guided tours available that can be taken for half a day or longer. You can take a guided tour of just the museum or a guided tour to include all the important places of interest in the Vatican City and this will ensure that you don’t miss a thing here on your Italian vacation.

categories Vacation

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Travel Nursing With a Friend

Working as a travel nurse can be a fun career that is filled with new faces and exciting adventures. Working as a travel nurse can also be a very lonely profession.

Travel nurses are nurses who make a living traveling from hospital to medical facility, moving from state to state. Traveling nurses temporarily fill positions at hospitals and medical facilities for a short period of time. Typically travel nurses work at an assignment for three to six months before they move onto another position. If a travel nurse works several back to back assignments if can be years before they get back to their home town to spend quality time with family and friends.

One way to alleviate the loneliness is to work tandem with a friend. Two nursing friends, often a pair who went through nursing school together, joins a agency that specializes in finding positions for travel nurses at the same time. Once their applications have been accepted at the agency the two friends scan the agency’s available jobs and find two assignments available at the same hospital or medical facility. If they are unable to find jobs in the same facility the friends might be able to find assignments in the same town.

Travel nurses that work in pairs know that when they leave on a new assignment that they will see at least on friendly face when they get to a new town in a new state. When they start their new job they know that there will be at least one person who is willing to listen to them complain or rejoice about their new co-workers. Travel nurses who work together are able to offer each other a shoulder to cry on when everything seems to go wrong.

A benefit to friends working together as travel nurses is the ability to share travel expenses. Most travel nurses shun flying, preferring to drive from a completed assignment to their new assignment. Driving from assignment to assignment means that travel nurses came save the expense of renting a car. Friends that are both travel nurses can drive together to the new assignment can split the cost of gas and share hotel rooms.

Friends who work together as travel nurse can also save money by sharing living expenses. Not only can the friends split the cost of the monthly rent, the pair can also split the utilities and the cost of groceries. When you are going to be living together tell your nursing agency and let them know that you will be sharing the housing, this could mean that the agency looks for a bigger space. If you are going to be rooming together remember that the apartments nursing agencies generally find for their travel nurses are small. Be prepared for tight living quarters. The space becomes even tighter if one of you has a pet.

Having a friend with you will give you someone to go out with while you are in an unfamiliar city. The experiences you share will strengthen the bonds of your friendship.

Some nursing agencies report that they have had a great deal of success with spouses who work and travel together as travel nurses.

categories General

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Who Makes a Good Travel Nurse

On some levels working as a professional travel nurse looks like the ideal job. It provides nurses with an opportunity to live and work in different parts of the country. They can interact with new people. Travel nurses pull in an excellent salary. They make friends all over the country. They can move south in the winter, and north in the summer. If they feel like taking a few months off, they don’t have to worry about explaining things to their bosses, they just give themselves a few months to improve their mental health before they accept a new assignment. Travel nurses claim that their jobs gives them an opportunity to re-establish their patient focused medicine. Nurses have excellent medical and dental benefits. Who wouldn’t want to be a travel nurse?

The reality is that not every person who comes out of a nursing program is not suitable for a career as a travel nurse.

When you are considering a life as a travel nurse you have to ask yourself if you really like to travel. The life of a travel nurse is serious, hard core traveling. Travel nurses are constantly on the move, going from one state to another, taking assignment after assignment. All the moving around eventually takes a toll on the body and soul.

Bear in mind that travel nurses are working, this is not an extended family vacation, they aren’t back packing across Europe. While they are on an assignment travel nurses are on a schedule. They are expected to report to work, on time, at the beginning of each one of their shifts. While they are working they are dealing with sick and injured people. They are expected to give one hundred and ten percent of themselves while they are working. Travel nurses go away to work, not to party.

Do you have an easy time making new friends. Travel nurses are constantly going to cities and towns where they are strangers. They don’t know anyone in these places. In order for their experience to be positive they have to have a talent for turning complete strangers into close friends.

Nurses that have a significant other may have a hard time adjusting to life as a travel nurse. Unless the significant other is able to travel from one location to another it is difficult to stay together as a couple. One circumstance when travel nursing does work when a couple decides to work in tandem and are able to find nursing assignments in the same hospitals and medical facility’s.

Before you sign with a nursing agency decide if you can tolerate moving away from your family, friends, and pets. Working as a travel nurse is going to require you to spend several months away from your home town.

Carefully consider all the requirement and responsibilities expected from a travel nurse before you sign with a nursing agency. Qualities that a good travel nurse should embrace are a zest for adventure, a strong work ethic, confidence in their medical knowledge, and a gregarious personality. If you are a nurse with at least one year of experience working in a hospital and feel that you would make and excellent travel nurse start placing your application at agencies.

categories General

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Airfares to Costa Rica

When you’re traveling to Costa Rica you want to get the cheapest airfare and the issue with flying is that the prices change every few minutes to an hour and it’s ideal to research sites like Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com and Cheaptickets.com because they offer rates for flights at different times whether it’s high or low travel season.

Most of the major carriers have fares that are early bird specials for when the peak season of travel happens usually during the summer and holidays. Nailing the perfect airfare when you want to travel to Costa Rica will be a work in progress because you could be sitting in front of your computer for hours surfing travel sites for the perfect airfare because the rates change quickly and they can be up one moment and down the next. Your goal is to book the cheapest rate possible and it’s ideal to do it through travel sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia and Hotels.com because independently owned websites may not be reliable and you will get a better deal through these reputable sites.

Book your flight at least 90 days before you travel so you can have time to get your tickets if mailed to you and any documentation with travel visas and passports.

Usually the summer is the best time to book flights for the fall season because late summer is when you can get the best deal on airfares. Airfares aren’t cheap to Central America since you’re looking at least a couple grand and that even depends on who you’re flying with since the major carriers out here will change rates quickly usually on the hour because of the competition that’s out here they have to be able to keep up with the current rate for airfares. So it’s ideal that if you have an account with the travel sites on the Internet always check on a frequent basis usually early morning, mid-day and evening to see how the airfares to one place change within 12 hours.

When you see the airfare that you want book it right away because within the hour it will likely go up since travel sites usually change their information when the carriers change up. The only downside is that if you book online you have to have a major credit card and not everyone has a credit card to book their flights with.

Now it’s easy to use your debit card since many banks issue them with the VISA or MasterCard logos on them so that people can use it to book an airline ticket right away when they spot the fares they want and can catch it before the fares change in the next few minutes to an hour. If you can access the Internet wherever you can it’s easy to nail the fares you want if you catch them early and often. Some sites offer email notices that can inform you of when a discount or reduced fare comes up during the hour since emails are sent on a daily basis so you can keep tabs on when the airfare you want is posted and sent out by email.

categories General

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