On crossing roads, advice from a native was to make confident eye contact with drivers, and they’ll give way. It works. Trouble is, you have to stride out in front of them to do so, and make eye contact without breaking your step, which takes either guts or an evening on rather harsh vino di casa.
I’ve never been to Rome but I have been to Venice. It was gorgeous.
Make sure you have a really good map of Venice. Check out where your hotel will be in advance and plot out a route. The streets can be very confusing, especially at night. Most people around are tourists, so not very helpful for directions. The police are very friendly though.
Also, make sure to eat lots of Gelato. Yum.
That said, if you’re more into the hostel end of things, I highly recommend Lonely Planet guides over most others. By the way - earlier, Spectre mentioned skipping the Colosseum and the Forum while you’re in Rome. Well, I might give the Forum a pass, but I would never skip the Colosseum! I thought it was one of the coolest things I saw in Europe.
Sure it’s filled with pickpockets and tourists and all that, but it’s unbelievable.
I didn’t skip the Forum, and wouldn’t recommend missing it out. However, we did manage to get there when it was quiet, despite being July - possibly because it was in the ferocious heat of the afternoon (for which we just prepared, i.e. light clothes but long sleeves & trousers, and lots of water refills).
It is amazing. Not the least is how surprisingly small it appears once you get inside. The proportions are so perfect, that you don’t realize the actual volume of the interior. The Baldacchino, the famous bronze canopy over the altar, is 90 feet high, about the height of a nine-story building. But when you see it from afar, it appears to be just an interesting church decoration.
When I was there, you could climb to the top of the dome for a small fee, and that’s definitely worth doing if they still let you.
Rome has good museums, but the museums aren’t the main attraction. It’s the city itself and the living history of its buildings and people that are the real point.
Oh, yes. If you don’t, they might temporarily invalidate your card for “suspicious activity”, which will require an international phone call to remedy.
On the subject of international phone calls:
The default type of cell phone service in the US is CDMA, while most of the rest of the world uses GSM. Unless you have a GSM or dual-mode cell phone, it won’t work in Europe. Cingular and T-Mobile have GSM networks in the US, while Sprint and Verizon don’t. You’ll probably have to rent a cell phone if you use Sprint or Verizon and want a cell phone to use in Europe (though Verizon does sell dual-mode phones). Text and multimedia messaging may or may not be available, or may cost more than it does in the US. Even if your cell phone carrier does have GSM service, and your phone can use GSM, you will probably need to do something to activate international calling before you go.
If your cell phone does work in Europe, you’ll probably get hit with roaming charges (which can be as much as $6/minute), so use it only when you really need to, and keep it short. If you call people at home from a regular phone, or have them call you, keep that to a minimum, too- international calls are not cheap. You can end up with a nasty surprise on your hotel, credit card, or phone bill if you aren’t careful. Think of it as being like the bad old days of expensive long distance calls…
If you do use a cell phone in Europe, and if you rent a car, remember that it’s illegal in many European countries, including Italy, to use a non-hands-free cell phone while driving.
Email is generally a better method of communicating from Europe with people back home than the phone is. It’s much less expensive, and you don’t have to deal with that pesky time zone issue. A lot of hotels offer in-room internet access, if you are taking a laptop computer with you. If you’re not, some hotels have computers in the lobby that guests can use, and there are internet cafes.
Before you go, get your passport well in advance, if you haven’t already. The new laws requiring passports for US citizens to travel to countries that previously didn’t require them have created a backlog of passport requests. It’s taking longer than it used to to get a passport.
The exchange rates you will get at all of those bureaux de change (you will see lots of them in the airport and around town in Venice and Rome) always suck compared to the rate you get by using an ATM or credit card, even with the fees the banks and credit cards tack on.
Yes Gelato
We stayed in Padua and took the train to Venice each day, much cheaper than hotels in Venice.
Do go to Murano and watch the glass blowers. We took a tour offered to us at the train station, and the guy made us a good price. Turned out he was pimping for one of the glass studios. No big deal tho. It was interesting and we didn’t have to buy anything. (we did tho…)
I wish I could go back to Venice RIGHT NOW. And EAT.
Venice… I’m not a fan. It reeks of sewage and there’s not much “there” there. (Venice is supposed to be one of the safest cities for women alone though) It is scenic, I’ll give it that. I enjoyed watching people going to work in their lux Italian suits… and hip waders. 
I don’t believe they have alt’acqua (high water) in the summer normally. There’s a water report on the morning TV just in case.
Also, the price of the water-bus in Venice is nothing less than rapacious. At least 5 Euro(~$7) – insane considering you can walk clear across Venice – from the train station to Piazza San Marco, with some detours – in 30 minutes.
A day trip to Verona is something to consider. Its an easy train trip.
Oh, so I’m ‘nobody’, huh? 
(hint: post 9 above)
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I have nothing to say except I am insanely jealous and that the Mausoleum of Augustus (if you’re into that sort of thing) is only open on Sundays, as per my notes from Classics 20, 144, and 152. Happy traveling!
I really want to thank everyone who’s taken the time to reply so far. There’s a lot of great info on this thread.
Renob, we’re hoping to get to Capri if we have time. It looks quite pretty. I want to see Positano and Sorrento. I think we’re going to pass on Naples, although we plan to fly home from the airport there so we don’t have to hike back to Rome.
My husband wants to see some ancient ruins. Would Herculaneum or Pompeii be the better choice? Bear in mind we’ll be there in early July.
No it doesn’t. You always hear this “fact” and it simply isn’t true. I’ve been to Venice in the heat of August, in the spring and in winter and have never ever noticed any unpleasant smell other than the occasional brackish lagoon type of smell you’d expect from a city built in a brackish lagoon.
Herculaneum and Pompeii are quite different. Pompeii is big, it’s like a ghost city. You can wander away from the main throngs and be on your own, look at Vesuvius and imagine their world ending. Mostly its a tracery of waist-high walls and paved roads though, a real ruin. There’s not much shade - Sun umbrellas are very handy!
Herculaneum is smaller, only partially excavated, and the buildings are intact for two floors or more. it’s like an archaological dig. I enjoyed them both! A couple of things to check - restoration and repair is ongoing at most sites in Italy, and it’s worth checking to make sure that e.g. half of Pompeii isn’t fenced off before you visit it.
Rome - most visitors to Rome go and see the Forum, the Colloseum, the Trevi Fountain, and consider it done. There’s a lot more, and there are better ways to do it.
In Rome, you buy public transport tickets at newagents. When you get on the bus or train, you “validate” them by stamping them in a machine, after which that ticket gives you unlimited travel on everything for an hour and twenty minutes. It’s a good system once you get used to it.
The metro in Rome is very simple - two lines forming an “X” , they meet at Termini station in central Rome. When I was there, one of the lines shut at 9pm for maintainance and was replaced by night buses. I caught a kid with his hand in my pocket on one of these night buses - nearly cost me my camera. External pouches aren’t that good! Musicians on the metro are to be discouraged, don’t give them any money, even if they’ve sent their waif-like children to collect it.
I have been on a couple of extremely good walking tours in Rome - one by night. Tour guides have to be licensed, they are well trained and usually highly informative and competent. Recommended.
TOP TIP - Palatine Hill! It’s close to the Forum, a BIG archaeological site, which hardly anyone goes to see. And you can buy a combined Palatine Hill and Colloseum ticket for about 10% extra, which means you can walk right past the HUGE line to get into the Colloseum afterwards. It includes an Emperor’s private stadium, a sort of mini Circus Maximus, which is well worth seeing because the Circus Maximus itself isn’t there anymore. (Well, there’s a long grass oval where it used to be, but that’s it.) The guided tours of Palatine Hill are well worth while.
Go see the Baths of Caracalla - as impressive as the Colloseum, but much more complex, and again there are rarely many people there. I walked down the old Appian way, but you can take a bus. (The old Appian way isn’t very pedestrian friendly, and it’s easy to get confused and end up on the new Appian way, which is a highway.)
Venice - I loved it, stayed a week just wandering about. You WILL get lost, don’t worry about it. (You can walk from one side to the other in forty minutes, getting lost is no big deal and you’ll see more, make some discoveries!)
Use the water buses, just for an alternative view of the place and a cheap boat ride. Food near St. Marco’s square is both very expensive and not that great. Further away, it is still more expensive and disappointing compared with food in the rest of Italy.
Bus tours arrive in Venice from all over Italy, so if you’re staying nearby, get there early before they arrive. Cooler too, first thing in the morning. The crowds thin out a lot at night as well, especially after nine o’clock. If you’re going to be there a wile, take a walking tour. If only one day, personally I’d get there early with a good map and guidebook and do my own thing.
The Doge’s palace and St. Marco’s Cathedral are breathtaking. The bell tower (Campanile) gives a nice view for photographs.
If you’re actually staying in Venice, bear in mind that wheels on your suitcase will do you no good at all, and there are no wheeled vehicles! Also, your hotel may not be that accessible by water taxi. I’m a fan of backpacks myself.
The maps of Venice in the Lonely Planet guides aren’t that great, buy a decent one from the Tourist Office. Half the food places they reccomend aren’t there anymore either. Still one of the best guidebooks, though.
Check your change, especially notes! I was never quite sure whether short-changing tourists was a national sport, or if the Italians are mathematically challenged.
Finally - Italians like chaos and disorder! Don’t be surprised at seemly ridiculous ways of doing things, or occasionally having to use your elbows. Take it as an experience, and keep your sense of humour.
1000 apologies, my good doper.
A couple more things that occurred to me:
The Colloseum is very impressive, and you can walk all around its outside for free. The line to get in snakes around it and is usually very long.
If you have a combo ticket bought at Palatine Hill, you can walk straight past the line, ignoring the looks you get. You’ll find the line is for a ticket office, selling tickets to get past the turnstiles. Waltz past the ticket office, wave your ticket barcode in front of the turnstile scanner and carry on through. Gloat if you must.
Inside is also impressive but a bit of a shell, and if you had to wait in the line you might have been disappointed. It’s good to see all the trapdoors and stuff from Gladiator are actually there, though. There’s a little sculpture museum as well.
To see a proper, still-in-use Roman Arena, go to Verona. In fact, if you’re staying in or near Venice for a while, take a day to see Verona while you’re there.
The Arena in Verona often has night time opera performances. The easiest way to see these is to book a guided tour of Verona - Opera tickets are often included. Take cushions - you’ll be sitting on marble steps! (Or IIRC, you can rent cushions when you arrive.)
Or €15 for a day pass (€30 for 3 days). Pricing to discourage single ticket purchases isn’t uncommon on European public transport. And I’d like to see you walk to the Lido 
Agreed. It smells quite similar to the river near me, when the tide is out, which I’ve always just thought of as ‘the smell of mud’. The one exception was where one canal had been drained for cleaning, which was particularly revolting, but localised.
If you’re off to the Amalfi coast I recommend a boat trip from Nerano to Amalfi, via Positano.
Cost about $15 each, lasts all day - picks you up at about 9am and the tootles along the coastline stopping off at various sights and towns along the way.
Really nice way to spend a day, no hassle with parking etc, and the coastline looks amazing from the water.
Getting bus/phone tokens as part of your change is normal, so is getting a couple of sticks of chewing gum or a few sweets.
At least it was when I was in Rome about 15 years ago.
Just a piece of advice about luggage aimed at American tourists in general.
When you fly domestically in the US, you get a substantial baggage allowance. Because of this expectation, most competitive transatlantic flights give you a substantial baggage allowance too - usually two hold cases per pax, no weight restrictions.
However, the moment you get to Europe, on subsequent flights you will find that your allowance is based on weight. As many hold bags as you want, provided that in total they don’t weigh more than 20 kg (44 lbs) or even less on some low-cost carriers.
Since you’re travelling independently, and won’t have flunkies around to load and unload your bags from various tour coaches, I advise that you don’t fall into the trap of packing as much crap as you possibly can, as many visitors from the US do. Whenever I go to Heathrow I see American tourists struggling with these frickin’ vast wheely cases, and I think “what the hell have you got in there that’s so important you bring it 5,000 miles to break your back manipulating those things in and out of trains??!” I’d wager that 80% of what they bring never gets used. Also, beyond the airports, transport is really not configured for massive bags.
So my advice is, pack like a European: you don’t need much in your hold bag. A couple of pairs of pants, shorts, shirts, maybe including one combination that looks ‘smart’ in case you’re eating out, a light jacket, lots of socks and underwear and your wash kit. That’s really all anyone needs in the long run. Your carry-on bag can tote your book/s, camera, medicines, cellphone. If you find there’s something you wish you’d packed - just buy whatever-it-is. I second Matt’s suggestion of backpacks not wheelies (though you can now get backpacks now that have wheels, which might be a good compromise).
If you want to see ruins, then Pompeii is an excellent choice. I was only able to take a very quick trip along the Amalfi Coast and was only at Pompeii for a couple hours, but it was great. I’m sure Hurculaneum is just as spectacular.