6 replies to this topic

[BoyFallDown]

Ive always wanted to live overseas (Im in america now), but Im under the impression that a lot of the architecture and city planning in other countries is old and not very accessible. Am I wrong in assuming this, or does it vary greatly from country to country? Im only interested in modern places, no third world countries. Particularly, italy and france. Can anyone weigh in on this? Are these places unaccessible?

[HiltonP]

I would urge you to rethink your classification of "modern places" versus "Third World" countries, and focus your attention on the services available (or not) rather than status of the country. You refer to Italy and France as being "modern places" yet Italy, along with Portugal, is considered one of the least accessible countries in Europe. Indeed I would argue that my own country, which is definitely Third World, offers vastly higher standards of access than Italy, or Portugal, or a number of other European countries. With regard to France I would say that access in the larger cities is acceptable at best, but elsewhere it is minimal or non-existent.

I would also urge you to cast your eye further afield to countries such as Australia and New Zealand, both of which provide levels of access and services equal, if not better, than any other country in the world.

My experience is that the levels of access in the "older" countries has little to do with the history, or architecture, but more to do with their state of mind. One needs to look no further than London as an example of this. For decades London's city fathers hid behind history as an excuse for poor levels of access. Then a couple of years ago they had a change of mind and the city has been transformed. All it took was mental application, and a can do philosophy, rather than a can't do excuse.

[sgrunt]

I live in Rome and i agree with HiltonP: accessibility is mainly a cultural thing.
Obviously, USA and Australia are natively accessible since their big spaces and new buildings, but here in Rome a lot should be done for improving accessibility.
However this should not prevent you from visiting Rome and Italy in general. A person in wheelchair can surely visit Rome, with his own helper and a bit of info and planning.
All the museums are accessible, so the main hystorical sights. You can surely find accessible hotels, but they are on the expensive side. The biggest problems that you can find are:

1) very few public toilets (but you can use accessible toilets of museums, monuments, big bookstores, mc donald's)
2) transports are tricky
3) pavement, since the city center has cobblestones

However Rome is much better than Prague or Istanbul for example.
If you need some more info just ask me.

[siobhanb]

 BoyFallDown, on 21 September 2011 - 05:25 PM, said:

Ive always wanted to live overseas (Im in america now), but Im under the impression that a lot of the architecture and city planning in other countries is old and not very accessible. Am I wrong in assuming this, or does it vary greatly from country to country? Im only interested in modern places, no third world countries. Particularly, italy and france. Can anyone weigh in on this? Are these places unaccessible?

I live in the UK and the access is fantastic and it is incorporated into all new plans and any renovations which take place. The majority of historical locations adapt as much as possible and so you still get to see everything. Whenever we go on holiday and come back I realise just how good we have it here. We went to Paris and it wasn't great for accessibility but that might have been my lack of French! We had a taxi company which had 2 accessible vehicles which is not great. We did find a small hotel which was in walking distance to a lot of locations. My partners wheelchair broke down in front of the Mona Lisa so had to leave asap which took 5 hours from the Louvre to sat on our sofa in Leeds...but thats a different story!

I didn't go with him to Amsterdam but when I was there I spotted how accessible it was for wheelchair as everyone else is on wheels too! Tenerife in Spain is accessible and has plenty of taxis.

I try to go to places which have hosted the Olympics because of their criteria to host the games. Our next stop will be Barcelona but need to look into their accessibility.

[sgrunt]

@siobhanb: Barcelona is fine about accessibility, you'll not be disappointed.

[Oldsparkie]

Most large Australian cities are pretty accesable, apart maybe for public transport in spots. The main problem is the 20 hour odd flight to get here from Europe or the US

[Chococat]

 siobhanb, on 27 December 2011 - 12:29 AM, said:

I try to go to places which have hosted the Olympics because of their criteria to host the games. Our next stop will be Barcelona but need to look into their accessibility.

Hey good thinking....i always finding holiday hunting a bit stressful cos of the research into accessibility, hotels etc. takes the fun out of the planning thanks.