Countries

Most would love to visit Italy, but very few end up going. Italy is a country which offers a plethora of options, the cities are legendary, history is fascinating, food is mouth-watering, wine is a lifeline, and then there is Venice ! Along with being historical, Italy is equally modern and contemporary. For any kind of traveller or tourist, Italy has a lot to offer. And its never a bad idea to live up and experience the proverbs you’ve listened all your live, viz. Rome wasn’t built in a day, All Roads Lead to Rome. The fashion here is eye-catching and food & wine are lip-smacking. I hope this definitely will make you plan a trip to this wonderful country Italy. All this contributed in making our decision for our trip to Italy.

As always, I did extensive research before our travel and finalized the itinerary in advance. This was a 7 night trip wherein we planned to cover the major cities and again, without Rush. Below is the same:

1) Rome (3 Nights)
2) Florence (2 Nights)
3) Venice (2 Nights)

Things to remember before traveling to Italy

It is one of the most tourist friendly places, hence should not worry much on how to travel within the city, where to eat, etc. For the transportation you can opt for Euro Rail Pass, but before that look at your utility and how extensively are you travelling.

In our case we didn’t take Euro Rail Pass and rather opted for daily tickets/passes which are easily available at any “Tabacchi”/ tobacco / General stores, and this commutation is not expensive. Also if you manage to get your Bnb/Hotel in a correct location, you might not need to take a lot of local transport.

Very important thing to remember is to do the pre bookings for all the places/monuments you plan to visit. And ensure you take “Jump the que” tickets by default if not with a guide, coz there is always a huge rush at all these places. Must buy advance tickets for Colosseum (Roman Forum comes along with it), Vatican Tour, Pisa, Duomo. Do these bookings well in advance. Also, you should pre book the rail tickets for between the cities travel, 1 point to remember is even though the trains here are among the fastest in the world but surely not as convenient if you travel with heavy luggage.

In Italy Vodafone works perfectly fine and we didn’t face any issues during our entire trip. Its recommended to purchase the sim from the authorized store only, as if you pick up from any general story or Tabacchi, it takes longer for sim to get activated.

An important thing to remember and avoid doing is to not engage with vendors selling bands or wanting just to
speak to you or try to be over friendly for no reason, they could con you.

The best time to travel is March – April when the weather is moderate an not much crowded but we travelled here in end May and by then the summers had set in.