Because that’s where we’ll be in late June/early July for about sixteen days. We’re also going to see the Amalfi Coast.
I’m very excited! I’m an American and this is my first trip to Europe.
What specifically would you like to know?
It won’t be a problem if you don’t speak any Italian. There will be lots of people around who speak English.
Things are going to be expensive- the euro is $1.35 right now.
Be very careful crossing the streets in Rome, even when you have the “Walk” sign (which is a green little man walking).
If having your own bathroom in your hotel room is important to you, that’s usually called an “ensuite bathroom”. If you do share a bathroom- there is a time and a place for hour-long showers or baths, and a shared bathroom in a hotel is not one of them.
The food will be wonderful. One way to spot a tourist trap (where the food will be decent, but you’ll pay too much for it): a restaurant with menus in four different languages is probably a tourist trap.
Lucky you! Well its true what everyone says, the food is amazing! Beyond that I don’t know what to tell you. I was a little surprised that Rome was pretty dirty, but their both beautiful places. Also buy a map in Venice because its VERY easy to get lost.
I would like to know anything anyone thinks might be of use. I am planning this trip as I write this. 
We’re not doing a guided tour group because I don’t want to spend my vacation with strangers so we’re on our own.
Don’t stay in a hotel near the Piazza San Marco in Venice, because you’ll be able to walk there from a lot of hotels in other, less expensive, locations.
Don’t even think about renting a car in Rome. The drivers there are insane, and there’s no parking.
If you do rent a car, and you plan to drink alcohol, designate a driver. European countries tend to have DUI laws that start at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05, rather than 0.08 as it is here in the US. Rick Steves recommends not drinking in Europe unless you are done with driving for the day.
If you do drink alcohol, and you like wine, be sure to try the local wines. Lots of restaurants in Italy have quite nice house wines.
Soda is expensive there, and beer and wine are cheap. I’ve had several experiences in Europe of paying more for a can of Diet Coke than I would have paid for a beer or a glass of wine. Oh, and beverages in restaurants generally don’t include free refills, and are smaller than what you’d get here.
If you ask for water in a restaurant, they’ll assume you mean mineral water. Mineral water is not free. If you want what you’d get if you asked for water in a restaurant in the US, learn how to say “tap water” in Italian (I used to know, but have forgotten), and expect to get some strange looks.
Mineral water is not like bottled water here- it has a very strong flavor. I don’t like it- I think it tastes like Los Angeles tap water, only more so. But you should try it at least once- maybe you’ll like it. It comes in still and sparkling- sparkling is carbonated. Be careful when opening bottles of sparkling mineral water- I found they were quite likely to fizz over.
If you like fish and seafood, you will love the food in Venice. One thing you should try is called baccala. It’s salt cod mashed up and served with polenta. It tastes a lot better than it sounds or looks.
Italians eat dinner very late by our standards. Mr. Neville and I went to a few restaurants at 9pm, and nobody was there yet- we felt like the old fogies who eat dinner at 4pm here.
Take comfortable shoes. You’ll probably be walking a lot more than you normally do. I love my LL Bean Comfort Mocs for travel.
Who’s going- adults, kids? What sort of things are you interested in seeing and doing?
Get some travel guidebooks. I like Rick Steves and Let’s Go for ideas of what to see and do, but I prefer a more upscale travel guide (Fodor’s or the like) for places to stay- Rick Steves and Let’s Go are a little too much toward the hostel end of things for my tastes.
alla spina, as in l’acqua alla spina
The trip will be and my husband. We’re in our late thirties. We hope to get a taste of Italy and perhaps return for a longer stay down the road. The only books I’ve bought so far are the current Frommers and an Italian phrase book.
My little girl’s going to stay with her retired grandparents during our vacation. She loves them and they love her so it’s a nice combination.
Thanks for all the info so far.
One important thing I forgot to mention: If you’re planning to go to any churches (if you have any interest in art and your religion doesn’t forbid you to go into churches, you should), be sure to bring clothes that cover your shoulders, knees, and everything in between for the days when you plan to visit churches. They do have people stationed at the door who will turn you away if they think you are dressed inappropriately for their church. Some churches will allow skirts or shorts that are just above the knee, but not short shorts or miniskirts, but I’d wear long pants just to be on the safe side. They don’t seem to care about the formality of your clothes (T-shirts and jeans are fine), but they do care very much about certain parts of the body being covered up.
It will very likely be hot. Really hot. And I’ve heard a lot about the canals being smelly, but I was there in September and in May so haven’t been when it’s supposed to be smelly.
If you take public transport in Italy, it will probably be crowded and people (male ones especially) will be pasted against you. Seems to be a local hazard - I wouldn’t get too upset about it.
When last I was there (it’s been a while) we were warned to bits about pickpockets, etc. I’d definitely invest in those travel wallet things that you wear under your clothes and keep a small change purse in easy reach for your purchases of the day.
I’m not trying to make it sound bad - Italy’s delightful, but forewarned is forearmed and you’ll have a nicer trip if you don’t encounter unpleasant surprises.
Oh, I totally agree about drivers in Rome. The taxi driver we had spend some of our trip driving on the sidewalk!
Venice is a very cool and unique place. It isn’t all that big but it is true that it is very easy to get lost. The city is much like a labyrinth of twisty narrow passages that branch off. You will be walking most places or taking water taxis. I wouldn’t worry much about taking a gondola ride. They can be a huge rip-off and you will be on the water anyway in the water taxis and shuttles. There are lots of scams in Venice though. Like Rome, Venice has plenty of gypsies that will walk right up to you anywhere and ask or demand some money. Don’t even acknowledge their existence. Make sure you know how much things cost especially in the tourist traps (which there are a lot of around the big squares). I once ordered a regular mixed drink that was $23 dollars.
Remember that Italy hasn’t even been a country all that long and Venice used to be a very powerful empire on its own. Venice has its own food style that you won’t ever see in the U.S. It uses lots of exotic seafood’s combined with pasta-like dishes. I recommend you keep an open mind and try some new things while you are there.
This is a very good decision. It’s so much better to get lost in the alleyways and discover little churches and grottoes and markets, than be bussed in with a load of other grockles to take pictures and bugger off.
I’ve never been to Venice, but have visited Rome several times.
Random tips:
Unless you’re in a high-budget hotel, don’t expect room service and so on. It’s quite laid-back and friendly, but not the 24 hour service culture you may be used to.
Similarly, there may not be a/c where you stay, and it may be very hot. It only takes about two nights to get used to this, but the first couple of days might be tough.
Don’t eat at the touristy places - on the squares and piazzas and so on. You don’t have to go far away from them to get food at a decent price. Literally, round the corner, and there will be a place with decent prices and great food.
Pasta is an appetizer! In a traditional Italian meal, you get antipasto (before pasta) which could be cold meats, then pasta (a very small course), then the main, which is usually meat-based.
Pizza in Italy is very very different to US pizza. It’s 99% thin-crust, and the sauce is either replaced with fresh ingredients, or is very light. It’s absolutely beautiful, but it isn’t a Chicago pie.
Learn a few bits of vocab. “Dove il bagno” is my stock phrase (where’s the bathroom). Generally, nouns are good - say the noun and jump about and you should get the meaning across.
The default coffee is a very small espresso. If you ask for “caffè lungo” you’ll get something closer to a normal cup of coffee.
As I say in all the Italy threads, when in Rome… don’t miss the Pantheon. It’s wonderful, and has a great place
Get a good travel guide that gives a shedload of history and cultural background. And read those sections before you arrive. The Lonely Planet series of travel books are very good for background, and also for the independent traveller. Whereas Fodors are aimed at the rich package tourist, and also suck ass.
When crossing the road, choose an old person and cross with them. My reasoning is that they clearly haven’t been run over yet. And preferably a nun.
If you are going to ride the bus in Rome, you have to buy your ticket at a newspaper stand or somewhere like that. You can’t just get on and buy a ticket. We made that mistake in Rome. We ended up getting a free bus ride out of it, but I’m told that if you get caught without a ticket you can get a nice little fine.
The Amalfi Coast is nice. Are you going to make it over to Capri?
In Rome, don’t spend all your time seeing the big main things like the Forum and the Colosseum. Try to see the adjacent fora, like the Forum of Trajan, which was a sort of outdoor shopping mall in ancient times. Also, you should make an effort to appreciate the way Romans have built things in different eras right on top of each other, or in other cases simply continued using the original structure. The Forum is interesting but it’s a pile of ruins; by contrast you can see churches built almost as long ago but which are still in good condition and being used today–as churches. I always tell people to be sure and see the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, off the Roman Forum. There’s an apse mosaic of Jesus and a couple of donors, wearing togas–they actually still did wear them when the mosaic was made! It wasn’t just the artist’s attempt to hark back to some “ancient” time. Also check out San Clemente, that has an early medieval version of the church below it, and below that a temple to Mithras. And it isn’t just churches, there are numerous other buildings from antiquity that have been added to and are still in use.
It’s unpleasant to stand for a long train ride, though. Book your train tickets in advance, and take the Eurostar train.
On the subject of money, your Visa or Mastercard will be accepted in a lot of places there (your American Express or Discover card, probably not). Your ATM card should work at ATMs (though it may not work as a debit card). I’ve heard that ATM cards that don’t have four-digit PINs won’t work in Europe. ATM keypads supposedly don’t have letters on them in Europe, either, so if that’s how you remember your PIN, you should find another way before you go.
We don’t get traveler’s checks or exchange currency when we go to Europe. What we do is, after clearing customs at the airport when we arrive, go to an ATM (there will almost certainly be one in the airport) and get a fairly largish amount of cash. You want to get your cash in as few transactions as possible, because your bank will charge you a per-transaction fee. Then we use our credit cards whenever we can and only pay cash when we have to, just like we do at home. You get a better exchange rate doing this sort of thing than you would exchanging currency. Check your credit card, though- credit cards tend to tack on exchange fees, and some cards have higher exchange fees than others.
Gondola rides are expensive- in the neighborhood of 100 Euros ($135), at least when Mr. Neville and I went there on our honeymoon in 2003. You take a gondola ride as an experience in itself, not as a taxi getting from one place in Venice to another.
In general, anything that foreign tourists are into that locals are not is going to be expensive. Venetians and Romans (and Italians in general) are not so much into mixed drinks- wine is the adult beverage of choice there. So wine will be cheap, mixed drinks and sodas will be expensive. I don’t know about beer- I generally prefer wine, so that’s what I drank there.
Restaurants on a side street a little ways off the main squares will be cheaper and often better than restaurants right on the squares.
Portions of pasta are sizeable, though. Mr. Neville and I ate just pasta for a lot of our meals there, and we certainly got enough to eat.
I wrote: “don’t miss the Pantheon. It’s wonderful, and has a great place”
I think I meant to say: “It’s in a pice piazza with some expensive cafés, but worth paying over the odds for a beer or a gelato to sit and contemplate it.”
Anne Neville’s advice about just using the ATMs in country is good advice - don’t bother faffing around with travelers’ checks or bureaux de change or currency in advance. Just stock up at the airport. But I should clarify that your debit card will not ever be accepted as anything other than an ATM card.
Buy a map, and you will still get hopelessly lost. If you don’t, you’ve spent all your time in too small an area. And aimless wandering can be wonderful in the city.
Take the vaporetto out to Murano, rather than any tourist offering (which will basically be an overpriced boat ride). Also stop off at San Michele (IIRC they’re both on the same route). The cemetary island gives quite a different sensation from being on any of the others.
Yes, most ATMs here expect 4-digit numbers.
I did get confused in Italy once, when it was expecting six. Until I had the brainwave of hitting ‘enter’ after entering the 4 digits :smack:
Rome and Venice are totally, totally amazing. I’m so jealous.
But I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned this yet: Pickpockets, pickpockets, pickpockets.
Watch out for pickpockets. They are AMAZINGLY talented. It’s not just the: ‘BUMP’, “oh, sorry” ‘PICK’ routine.
They will chat you up while asking if you know their brother who just happens to live in the same town as you, etc, with their hand in your pocket.
One guy will flick something on your shoulder to distract you while another picks your pocket. Then, you put your bag down to check your pocket because you think “Hey, maybe that was a scam to pick my pocket” and, ‘POOF’, now your bag is gone too.
They’ll put a fake sign on a lamp post that says “Watch For Pickpockets” so that you’ll indicate the location of your wallet my giving it that reflexive, reassuring tap to make sure it’s there. How nice of you to point out it’s location for them.
While you are over there, look around. If you can’t see a tourist who looks and acts dorkier than you, then you are the slowest gazelle in the herd.
Just now, while you were reading this, did you feel that? No? I just picked your pocket.
So, yea, watch for pickpockets.
This is excellent advice for Rome. Luckily, there are plenty of nuns around.
St Peter’s Basilica is an astonishing building and a must see. It’s quite staggering to think of the impact that it must have had on pilgrims in the 17th century.
It’s a good idea to let your card issuers know beforehand that you will be using them in Italy.
Above, “my giving” = “by giving” :smack: