Tara C
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I went to Rome, Florence and Venice last March, the weather is supposed to be similar, so make sure you bring a coat, I found it pretty chilly.
Travelling around Italy is so easy. The train stations (termini) are easy to locate in every city because most busses make a stop at them. In Venice the waterbus stops there. They are also punctual and pretty cheap. On the way from Venice to Florence we took what we would consider a "local train". It made a lot of stops and seemed to take forever, although it was only about 2 hours. It was on time, clean and crowded. From Florence to Rome we took the Eurostar, much faster, about 1 hour. Again it was punctual, clean and very crowded.
I have to say that I didn't love Rome. I thought it was much like NYC but with older buildings. The best time we had in Rome was in Testavere. What a great little neighborhood. I much preferred Florence to Rome. I really loved Venice but you can see most things in 2 days. It's a really small city. Like I said I didn't really love Rome, but you really do need a few days to see everything you want to. We spent a whole day in Testavere, when we didn't plan on it, just meandering through the streets and going to an enormous flea market. A great place to buy cheap souveniers. The second day in Rome we took the 110 Trambus for 13Euro and it took us to or near most of the major sites in Rome. It was totally worth the money. It's an open air bus that you can get on and off all day. Make sure you get to Vatican City early enough to get to the cupola. By the time I had sat through service it was 6 pm and it was closed. I didn't know so we missed it. Also, be prepared for a lot of gnats on the Palentine Hill. I couldn't take it and we left.
Depending on the type of accomodations you are getting, we weren't in luxury, but not in a hostel either. What would be considered something like a Clarion in the states is where we stayed in all three cities. None of them had an iron. Make sure you bring an iron and a electrical socket converter. We ended up having to buy one at a supermarket for about 30Euro. I have to say it is by far the best iron I have ever used, and it's lavender but I can't use it in the states. Even with the converters our outlets don't put out enough electricity to get it really fired up. Also, don't pay any attention to what you are reading about what people wear in Italy. I would say that 60% of the people we saw in March (not high season) were tourists. Make sure you bring comfortable clothes and shoes. I can't mention this enough. I was so mad that I had not brought more flats. Many of the roads are still cobblestone and are horrible to navigate in heals, not to mention the pain when you return home from a long day of walking. Don't get sucked into all the tours that are offered outside major sites. Not worth it. Most of the sites have audio tours in your native language that you can rent for less than 10Euro, and your not stuck looking at 1 rock for 20 minutes.
Not that we weren't prepared to spend quite a bit of money $3000 for 10 days, and came home with 5Euro, so we spent it all! But now that we have been there I would definitely do things differently. Eat breakfast at your hotel. Most of them are pretty good, and you will need the energy. I never eat breakfast, but there I couldn't not. We were actually excited to get up every morning and eat. That might have been the cheese, bread and juice though ; ) Also, don't sit in restaurants and lunch. It costs quite a bit more. Take your panini and sit in one of the many piazzas and people watch. For dinner skip any restaurant on a main thoroughfare. They aren't as good and are more expensive.
Find a supermarket! Not only is it fun walking the aisles looking at all the different products, they are cheap for things you want in your room. For example after we had walked about 10 hours around Testavere I just wasn't open to going out for dinner. My fiancee went to the supermarket bought a pretty good bottle of wine and a pizza for less than 10Euro. It was a great dinner we ate in the garden at our hotel.
If you are flying from the US do not fly Alitalia unless you are getting a deal you can't pass up. It's about a 10 hour flight from NYC and the seats are tiny, the food terrible and the "in flight entertainment" they promise are old movies. And that's if your headphones work. They also cancelled one of our flights and didn't say anything at all. Then they changed the gate and only said it in Italian. When most of the flight got up and started walking to a different gate we just followed them. All that being said, we got a really great deal through Gate1 Travel, $2100 for the both of us, air, hotels and transfers included for 2 days in Venice, 3 days in Florence & 4 days in Rome. The two travel days are not included. Also, you will loose a day because of the time change so if you are offered a 7 day trip you will probably only have 5 solid days in Italy without travel.
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