Going to italy and need some answers first.?

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trabia

i apologize for my english

if you are 18 you can buy everything

i think 3-5 days are few
the cost of the plane ticket is bigger than the hotels
you can eat with few euros

i think it's better if you reserve an hotel near the subway (in rome) this is the site of roman bus http://www.atac.roma.it/

you can reach the other cities by train
this is the link http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/

Allora

3-5 days is nowhere near long enough for Italy. That would cover Rome, that's about it. There are many great places to visit - Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Pisa and the Tuscan countryside just to name a few places.
It really depends on what sort of places you want to stay at, if you're a backpacker or whether you like nice hotels. For a fairly decent hotel, you're looking at about 50-60 euros a night I would say but it's more in bigger cities such as Rome & Venice. For info about hostels, visit http://www.hostelworld.com and for hotels, go to http://www.venere.com or just do a search for italian hotels.
For flights, check out http://www.cheapflights.com/
It can cost as much or as little as you want. I travelled through Italy for a month and probably spent $1000 but people can easily blow that in a weekend if they go out to dinner every night and stay in really nice places. If you want to save, I'd recommend staying in hostels or pensions (probably not best if you're going with a group as you stay in a person's house so can't really make heaps of noise), find accommodation with a kitchen so you can cook, make your own lunch and breakfast and buy beer from the supermarket and drink in nice landmarks (it's legal).
Nice restaurant food is pretty cheap compared to other places in Europe so even if you eat out in the evenings, you can probably find something for under 10 euros.
Have fun! Italy is awesome.

Al M

Ah, the classic American "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" tour of Europe.

Allora's advice above is very good. I also applaud her for spending as much time in Italy as she did.

Because it's sometimes difficult for Americans to have a good feel for what Europe is like, some comparisons:

Italy has a land area about two-thirds that of California, but Italy's population density is about twice that of California. Italy's history goes back a few thousands years, while European culture only arrived in California just over 200 year ago. In Italy, it's common to see ancient buildings and ruins left to crumble because there are just too many of them for the state to care for them all, while in Californian anything more than 100 years old is considered a historic monument to treasure. There are also many other differences between California and Italy, not least the tendency of Italians to consider themselves a, for example, Sicilian or Roman or Milanese first, and an Italian second. Italians are very proud of their local heritage (and I mean _very_ local -- as in the tiny village they were born in) while many Americans tend to consider themselves an American first, last and always. The result of this for tourists is that there will be unique things to be found in just about any little area you find yourself in. Italy is not really a homogeneous mass; it's more a huge collection of small communities.

Now, the questions are these: do you think an Italian could gain any real sense of what California and Americans are like if he spent four days in the State? If not, then what do you think the odds are that you and your friends will leave Italy after four days with any sort of understanding of what Italy is and what life is like for Italians?

I do appreciate that you will have only a limited amount of time to "see" Europe (I assume Italy is just one stop). However, if you have at most five days in Italy, then I would suggest that you aim at seeing no more than, say, three places. That way, you will not spend almost all your time in the country seeing it from the windows of trains or planes.

The obvious suggestions are Venice, Florence and Rome, but there are other things you could do if you have particular interests or want to be a bit different. As far as planning your itinerary is concerned, I'd recommend studying the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet guidebooks.

Those books also have good advice on how to get to Italy, where to stay and how to get around. The also have sections on laws and local culture which you and your friends might find useful.

It's good that you're thinking about your visit to Europe a year in advance. If you're doing it all on your own rather than just booking a tour through an agency, you will need some time to figure it all out.

maiky_79

In italy there isn't the drinking age,so there isn't the limit age to drink alcool,but there are some laws about to drive the car down effect the alcool.For example:if you drank just beer you are out!!!
Be carefull...
Ciao

lion of judah

i live in southern italy. i can't help with costings but as for drinking laws in the south no problems.the italians are quite liberal about the drinking age although i think the law maybe 18 and over. same for buying cigs there is a law but again it's mostly ignored. i cannot say if it's the same in the north as i've never been north of roma... i'd suggest you start in napoli and work your way north to roma then on to firenze. 3-5 days is a little short if you want to see alot of italy it would be ideal tho' if you wanted to visit just one city. napoli and roma are ideal if you like roman histroy and firenze and tuscany are ideal if you like medieval history. then there's always venezia..
depends what rocks your boat really. try and learn a little italian tho' 'cos if you get off the tourist trail english speakers maybe hard to find..

be warned july can be very hot with temperatures reaching nearly 40Â° celcius

buon viaggio e buona vacanza

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