5 Top Tips for Travel to Italy: The Story Behind the Travel Photos
- Nov 9
- 9 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
5 Top Tips For Travel to Italy
1. What Region? This is the most important thing to consider. If you can stay for at least a month, then, by all means, visit the entire country on a non-stop tour. But if you can only stay a few days or a week, then limit your visit to one region. You will be able to actually enjoy it without feeling rushed. Try the Amalfi Coast; Florence and the surrounding Tuscany region; Milan and the nearby Lake Como area; Rome and Naples; or Venice. Yes, these are touristy, but you can then ask around, explore and get to know Italy much better if you have an understanding of what you like and want to see. Are you a rural type of person? Then explore more of the Tuscany (Tuscano) area and the charming small towns that seem to pop up out of nowhere. Do you want the hustle and bustle of an urban place? Rome and Florence (Roma and Firenze) will get your juices flowing to hop around town with the best of them. Do you want somewhere in between? Brave the current "no more tourists" atmosphere of Venice, with many places close to one another but with that sleepy town feel in the mornings and evenings when the cruise crowds and daytrippers have left.
2. How to Get There From the USA? The answer seems like a no brainer until you realize that even if you are coming from overseas, you have a couple of options: you can fly or you can sail in on a cruise, either across the Atlantic or from ports in Europe.
Remember: if you are flying or taking a train in one city and out another, you will be booking multi-city tickets.
If you are taking a cruise: consider their transfers by bus to the city center or including the airfare in your ticket. Now is the time to consult a travel advisor for all those pesky details.
From the US, consider sailing across to the UK and then flying to Italy. If you're coming from Greece, you can sail into the Venice area. Otherwise, fly in from the city nearest your area. You can also take a day trip to one of the East Coast cities, like our town (!), New York, explore NYC for a couple of days and leave from there.
If you are already on the European continent: fly or take the train to Milan (Milano), Florence (Firenze) or Rome (Roma).
If you have the right documentation, some time to spare and a mobile phone plan that you can use with your cellular plan, rent a car and drive through the regions. Driving internationally should be investigated first but imagine, a road trip in Europe! That takes a lot of planning: don't wing it for the entire trip. Have a definite route, make a list of possible hotels and get a map or list of gas (petrol) or EV charging stations. Share your location with someone back at home and don't go off the grid entirely. Stay in touch.
3. Where to Stay? There are so many options nowadays: hotels, apartment rentals, vacation rentals through owners or your own vacation ownership (timeshare). Europe is known for small, boutique hotels, so consider those. Use a map website and figure out how close you will be to public transportation and attractions. Use reviews wisely: some people often will give a negative review for a minor reason. Also, check the date of a review. Our choice: an apartment rental near public transportation.
A few things to know about some European hotels: children may be considered adults at an earlier age and they might not stay for free. Connecting rooms might not be available at smaller or older buildings; communicate with the managers by calling or emailing and check to make sure the room is big enough or you're close to each other if you have to have more than one room.
Some hotels include breakfast as part of the package or it can be an add-on. Look at a map to see what else is nearby for dining options. It's frustrating to come back from a long, tiring day after sightseeing only to realize that you're hungry and you're in a remote part of town.
If you rent an apartment, first check the reviews of the location. You want someplace near transportation, clean, bug-free and safe. Read our blog article about how to read reviews objectively to help you to make the best decisions. Many hotel brands you may be familiar now locations throughout the world, under different names. Look at their websites and type in the city to see what's near you.
If you arrive to your destination by plane or train, you have options to get to your hotel. If you're not lugging a lot of stuff, consider mass transit. There are buses and trains that go from the airports and train stations to the city center (which is often the best place to stay anyway). Look on a map for hotels that are near metro or bus stops.
Getting to and from the train station or airport by car services is an option when you arrive and depart but while you're in your location, car services can get expensive and slow. Traffic is a factor in almost every city in the world and public transportation will get you places much faster. Most of the tourist sights are near bus stops or train stations, so it's convenient to learn how to travel by mass transit and to be comfortable.
4. What to Do? Italy is a good country to stay a few days in more than one region: explore Milan for two days (including Lake Como), take the train to Venice for a couple of days and end your trip in Florence or Rome before heading back to Milan to fly out. Another itinerary? Fly to Rome, take the train to the Amalfi Coast and head through Naples on the return trip to Rome. Leave Rome for last to explore and fly out of there home.
Each region in Italy is known for more than art, wine and food although those are good places to start. There are ancient ruins, mansions and castles, gardens, zoos, cathedrals and small shops as well as museums and wineries. There are also small, charming towns to explore as well as plazas and tiny streets filled with great people. To get from one region to another, use the bus for day excursions and use the train to transfer to the next region. Pick up brochures at the airport or train station when you arrive. They are probably up-to-date, so that you won't have any unpleasant surprises arriving at a location that has closed down.
For very popular places, research these before you leave from home. The small expense of a digital travel guidebook is worth it. You can download it to your phone and/or tablet and have it with you offline. You might have to buy tickets in advance to certain places. Print them out or download them to your phone before you leave from home. Many hotels do not have business centers any more and sometimes they can't or won't print anything out for you.
Like many cities around the world, there may be what is called a city pass. It is a ticket that covers the admissions to many of the more popular sights to see. Before you buy, go to the museum or garden you want to go to and see what they accept. Many times, the city passes are sold by independent companies. You want to be sure your pass is accepted.
Check to see if you need a reservation. Some are timed entries, some are good for all day. Some places only sell tickets online. Again, read the websites before you leave from home just in case the location doesn't use digital downloads. Print everything out.
You can leave room for flexibility for other sights, but for the ones you really want to see, don't leave it to chance: get tickets.
In each city, look for experiences: wine tasting, cooking classes, guided art drawing or painting, walking photography tours, shopping guides. You will have two types of tour guides: a native of the city or a transplant who loves the city so much, they have adopted it as their own and can understand how it feels to be a visitor.
Exploring on your own is great, but once in a while, a guided tour can enhance a visit to a city.
Florence: Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio, Museo, Pieta Rondanini, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza del Duomo, Gallerie Degli Uffizi, Accademia Gallery
Rome: The Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, Musei Capitolini and just walking around. Get a good map, it can get a little tricky, all of the plazas can start to look alike. Be careful at night, be street smart. Learn the area around your hotel so that when you return back at night, everything will be familiar. Take day trips to Naples.
Milan: a day trip to Lake Como (check the train schedule) and once you're there, the sightseeing cruise on the lake before you explore around on foot; the Duomo di Milano is worth going inside to see the view of the square (good for kids); the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the famous shopping arcade; Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" painting at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (you should really reserve tickets in advance for this) and shopping, of course!
The Amalfi Coast: People usually stay in Positano and use the buses to travel around the coast to the other towns : Praiano, Amalfi, etc. Getting to Positano is an adventure in itself. Trains from Rome and Naples will get you to Salerno, and then the bus or car service (more expensive) to Positano. From there, you can take a day trip to the Isle of Capri and a day trip to the other towns (such as Amalfi itself).
From each region, you can take a day trip with a bus or train and explore even more: Pisa, Cortona, Greve, Siena, etc. Sometimes, there is a guided excursion. Yes, you will be taken to vetted locations, it will seem a little like a school field trip, you might eat at a touristy spot and you will be on their timetable, but they have done the homework and thinking for you already and you can just relax and enjoy the excursion.
5. Traveling with Kids Italy is very kid friendly. In nice weather, the plazas are full of street fairs, entertainers and all the gelato you can afford. There are hundreds of museums, but even the most studious child will tire of them. When you have children on a trip to Italy, limit the museums to just the mornings, when they are more cooperative and only visit two or three. If every morning starts with a museum, you'll have a mutiny on your hands soon. Look at the weather app one week before you arrive to fine tune your plans. If you have sunny days, then you can plan more piazzas, parks, gardens, and just walking around.
Look at some websites for upcoming events, some might not be listed on websites until a couple of months out from your trip, so check often.
Florence (Firenze, in Italian) has a marvelous Leonardo da Vinci Museum with full sized models of his inventions that you can play with. Head to the Boboli Gardens, the Palazzo Vecchio, looking like a fort, may have activities on their agenda.
Hanging out in Rome? Il Museo Dei Bambini di Roma, the children's museum is there. The Villa Borghesi will have a park and is outdoors as is the Piazza del Popolo.
There are at least 3 popular water and theme parks. There's plenty of ancient ruins to explore and the kids can be the guide. The outdoor Piazza del Campidoglio will let them develop their skills in the art of people watching as well as give kids a little freedom of being outside.
In Venice, what could be more fun than exploring all of the back streets mixed in with canals? Take the touristy gondola ride; just walk around, there are hundreds of things sculpted into the buildings that can be an ongoing game; kids will like to see the glassblowers at the Murano Glass Factory, the giardini (gardens) will have playgrounds. Look for the nearest one to your hotel.
Other tips: Put kids in charge of the map and let them be the navigator. Some museums have scavenger hunts, kid audio guides and galleries just for children. There are also children's museums and gardens. It's difficult to explore entire, huge museums when you have children, so be prepared to sacrifice some things you may want to see. Spring, summer, early fall and holiday time will have lots of children's activities, you may have to do a search for street fairs, festivals and theme parks. The more you travel with children, the more you will know what works for you and them.
Take the time to focus on one region in Italy and you will get more out of your trip than just a blur of activities. And then, plan to go back!
All photos copyright Marcia Crayton, All Rights Reserved
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