Can anyone give advice on travelling Italy?

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Kaila

I've never heard of Whoofing.
I'm an Italia gril and my english isn't good but I try to give U help.
U can travel in Italy with bus, train and taxi.
Taxi is the more expensive, train and bus are the cheeper solutions!
In my city a bus ticket cost around 1-2â‚¬, and for the train U can visit www.trenitalia.it.
For the food there are some cheeper restaurants and fast-foods (like Mc Donald 4 example).
If U go in cities like rome U must be careful to the prices before U enter in a restaurant...rome is very expensive!
For the accomodations U can go to b&b or in a hostel... Try to look on the web sites of Ryanair e "click" on "hostel"... www.ryanair.com

I hope U understand me!
bye bye

Travelling

BUY A MAP OF ITALY !!!

Decide on your destinations and plan your route. Torino, Genova, Pisa, Firenze, Roma, San Marino, Bologna, Venezia and maybe Milano are all worth a visit.

Decide on your transportation. You can fly to Italy and use public transport, fly to Italy and get a hire car or drive to Italy. Unfortunatley if you are driving from England you have drive trough France. If you fly, you are restricted on the amount of luggage you can take. If you drive you can take as much as you want, and you always have somewhere to sleep if your accomodation plans go to pot. Driving in Italy takes some getting used to. I would seem that Italians think the accelerator pedal is a on/off switch, it is either flat on the floor or your are stopped. So they drive very fast and right up your backside, I don't know wether this is stupidity or skill. Italians tend to ignore all speed and parking restrictions, and why they bothered to paint white markings on the road is beyond me, zebra crossings are total ignored.

Accomodation

The best web site I have found for accomodation in Italy is http://www.venere.com, they have up todate descriptions, and guest reviews. Currrently they have rates from Rome Â£40, Venice Â£45 and Florence Â£36. Some general points on accomodation in Italy.

Plumbing is generally poor, also the air conditioning tends to be a bit ropy.

Take a torch with you, because you will more than likely experience a power cut.

Dining

Italian breakfast normally consists of fruit/cereal ham/chese rolls etc.
If you want a large coffee ask for an American coffee, otherwis you will get an espresso.

For Lunch I suggest you find a cafe/bar that does a club sandwich. These can be bought for about 5 euros, and are normally enormous, enough to satsify any travellers appetitite.
In some cafes/bars you have to pay for your items first then take a ticket to the serving area, seems pointless to me.

For dinner the best and cheapest places to eat are the trattorie, try and avoid the tourists traps, and eat where the locals eat.

For a guide to Italian cuisine see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_cuisine.

Customs

The shops tend to be closed on a Monday morning, and take a siesta at lunch 12 - 4.
You can only buy cigs at a tobbacanist or from a machine.
The lifestyle in Italy is very laid back, they even have clothing range called Bastard, proudly made by those lazy Italians.

jhanvi

I can give tips for only accommodation.

You can visit two sites for accommodation in Italy

http://www.luxuryandcharme.com
http://www.posarellivillas.it
http://www.posarellivillas.com

Abby Normal

This may not be what you are looking for, but carry around plenty of small change in the local currency (euros) with you. The toilets are coin-operated.

Becky R

You can find some decent accommodations on the internet, you just have to search for them. I have used www.hostelworld.com to book in Venice. They do not drive on the wrong side of the road here, that is the UK. However, they do drive like morons, so I would not recommend driving yourself. Their gas is rather expensive as well. Your best bet for travel is the train system. It is pretty reliable and affordable. The Eurostar is your best bet for long distance travel, if it's a short hop go with the regional trains. For getting around town take a bus or walk, the taxi's are very expensive and we have had cabbies take us the long way around to get a larger fare. You should definitely try to carry some small change, they like exact change and will hold up a line to demand it when you are paying. The public bathrooms can range from a toilet to a hole in the floor or a bucket, depending on where you are. Use the Water Closet (WC) for .60-.80. You can find places with fixed menus (menu fisso) that start at around 7 euro and go up. If you opt for the first plate, second plate, you can easily spend 70 euro for two people. The area where I live (Veneto) is shut down on Mondays, I'm not sure if this is true of all of Italy. If you want to see The Last Supper and other popular sights you might need a reservation. I've been told that they only let a certain number of people at a time into certain attractions and the waiting list can be quite long. A lot of the larger and famous cities are very expensive to stay in. If you can find a small village close to the city you can usually find better prices. Be aware that their hotels are very different than ours, a 4 star hotel near Pisa that we stayed in was little better than a Motel 6. Try to find a hotel that provides breakfast, it saves you a little money each day. Do try to learn a little Italian before you come, it makes it much easier and they will treat you a little better if you try to speak to them in their language. Most of the hotel & resteraunt staff speak english in the tourism areas. You can get a rail pass that lets you ride the train for a certain number of days at a flat rate if you plan on seeing a lot of Italy. You can research that at www.raileurope.com. Make sure to order it in a timely manner as they will rake you over the coals if it has to be express mailed. Enjoy your visit!

ricsnake

depending on your budget you can find ostelli (hostels) o alberghi (hotels). Also outside town "agriturismi" have often rooms and home made food.
Alterantive travelling could be on the "couchsurfing" networks.
Italian comparative website for instance for hotels is kelkoo.it
Still depending on your budget you can have bar, trattorie, ristoranti the latter the most expensive type.
You can find good menu of the day at lunch especially for 10-15â‚¬.
Still there are many chains (like notably Autogrill or Flunch) doing express italian cuisine with a wide variety: better go there rather than the disgusting american chains like McWhatever..
Remember for last that on the very cheap side (you have a variety of local foods sold on streets or in roast shops (rosticcerie) like supplÃ¬, arancini, porchetta, piadina, different in every town or the genuine slice of pizza (4 â‚¬ and off you go!)
Buon viaggio!

Count riso of Daphnes

They drive on the other side of the road.

Claudio C

My advice is: don't think Italy is a small country where you can visit everything in few days. Lots of tourists think they can visit "Rome Florence and Venice" in one week or less. They spend one day in Rome, one in Florence and one in Venice, they don't see really anything and waste a lot of time and money on trains. Italy is relatively large (for instance to go from Rome to Venice by train it takes five or six hours) and every city is full of things to see. You'd better choose one city or one region and visit it well, without hurrying up: for instance, Rome, or Florence and Tuscany, or Venice and Veneto, or Sicily... if you can afford to stay one month, "travelling around" can be an amazing experience, but "travelling around" three or four days risks to be tiring, expensive and not worthy.

Stan

Never heard of Whoofing.

You can figure about 100 euros a day for modest accommodations, 30 euros a day for food and 50 euros a day for transportation and entertainment.

Toilets are free at McDonald's or any other American franchise (I still believe there or no Starbuck's in Italy)

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