Mrs. Tashoya and I will be visiting Italy soon – Rome, Florence, and Venice, to be exact – and though we have an okay idea of what we want to see and do, I was wondering if anyone had modern-day travel tips.
Specifically, I was wondering if there are any worthwhile Italian equivalents of:
[ul]
[li]Groupon/LivingSocial (local deals)[/li][li]Uber*/Lyft (ridesharing)[/li][li]Yelp (user reviews of restaurants, etc.)[/li][li]OpenTable (online restaurant reservations)[/li][/ul]
Recommendations for travel and translation apps would also be appreciated. We have TripIt and decently stocked Google Translate phrasebooks, but I’m sure there are more that we should check out. (Anyone know if Google/Niantic’s Field Trip app covers Italy?)
FWIW, we’re planning to get this deal for our smartphones, so we should have mobile data.
Hm, looks like Uber itself is up and running in Rome. Anyone have any experiences with them overseas?
You clearly haven’t been to Italy yet. It’s got a sort of Mexico-like (or maybe the other way around?) “we’ll do it later” feel. And things aren’t nearly so tech-intensive there, like they are in other parts of Europe, like say… the UK or Netherlands.
It’s part of their ethos to not be in a hurry, and to do things the old way, and stuff like OpenTable kind of goes against that.
Personally, based on my European travel experiences (6 trips), I’d get the Rick Steves books, figure out what you want to see, and then plan out your days roughly- give yourself a day for the Vatican/Vatican museums for sure, and look at Rick’s restaurant recommendations for nearby things. In my estimation, they’ve been consistently excellent across 8 cities in 3 countries. It’s also worth reading up on Rick’s opinions- they’re usually on-point, so if he says to skip something, it’s almost certainly a boring tourist trap.
I must say this: Rick Steves’ advice screwed me over, royally and repeatedly, while I was in Italy. I would buy one of his books, and chuck it out the window of the first train you get on.
Okay, moving past my personal trauma: bump is right. Italy doesn’t do scheduling. They don’t do technology. They don’t do accountability. Here is my best advice:
If you want to be seated at restaurants, eat during off-hours.
If you want to ride a train, buy the ticket at the station (not, not, please god NOOOT via Italy’s train travel website!) a couple of days before you take the trip, so that you are sure to get a reserved seat. They will let you buy a ticket on a sold-out train. You will be expected to stand in the aisle.
If you want a bargain, don’t go to Italy.
Wait: that sounded belligerent. I didn’t mean it to be. I love Italy. Of the many European countries I have been to, I am happiest there. The food is great, the people are friendly, the everything is beautiful. You will have a wonderful time there. But make no mistake: you will have to take the experience as it comes, and that will probably involve paying through the nose.
Were the books up to date? I have noticed that ALL guidebooks that call out specific restaurants have to be as up to date as possible, or else you’ll wander halfway across town and find that the restaurant closed, or changed ownership, etc…
I still stand by the Rick Steves books, if only for the maps and attraction descriptions. It’s unusual to find a guidebook that isn’t all sunshine and light, and his do actually say that certain things aren’t worth the trouble, and to see something else instead.
Restaurant wise, we had a very up-to-date guidebook of his in Rome, and its recommendations were great.
Ciao from the Veneto. To answer your questions as best as I can:
Groupon/LivingSocial (local deals)
Groupon exist (groupon.it) and is enthusiastically used at least here in the north. Site for Italian deals is Italian, though.
Uber*/Lyft (ridesharing)
Where I live (near Venice) Uber doesn’t exist yet, so I can tell you how well it’s working in Rome. Obviously pointless in Venice itself.
For longer distance lifts BlahBlahCar.it is being heavily promoted at the moment and has worked quite well for me personally, as long as you are going for one big place to another and can be a bit flexible about the times.
Yelp (user reviews of restaurants, etc.)
I think it exists, but very few people use it. Trip Advisor is popular for these kinds of reviews; it can make or break a new restaurant.
OpenTable (online restaurant reservations)
Never heard of it. We have some online take-away systems, but not for booking I don’t think.
Not to pile on Rick Steves, but he has no fondness for Florence and loves Sienna…
Anyway I’ve posted on Yelp and Trip Advisor for places around Italy. Italy is slowly getting into the cyber age, free wifi in certain piazzas. On the high speed trains they take the boarding passes on your smart phone. You’ll need reservations too. If you have a paper ticket…All ways validate it before you board. ( little yellow boxes on the platform)
We go to Italy once a year and are pretty familiar with how things Work out. Can’t be too rigid. Bring your own bags to the grocery store, house wines in restaurants are almost always cheaper and pretty darn good.
If you don’t like art museums or have had your fill, Florence can be boring as shit. If you’ve seen the Duomo (and associated stuff- baptistry and museum), the Uffizi, Bargello, Accademia and Pitti Palace, you’ve seen the vast majority of what Florence has to offer. That’s not to say that those aren’t amazing- they are, but Florence is 99% art-centric.
Siena’s a little more interesting, but really more in the context of a day trip from Florence.
For my money, Rome was where it was at. I could have easily spent our entire trip in Rome and not have seen everything I wanted to see.
I don’t know if this counts as a “hack,” but you can save money by ordering your cafe food to go. If you sit at a table, the price is about twice what it is for take-out. Then go find a nice piazza and sit on a bench and enjoy your food and the sights.
There are no wheeled vehicles in Venice proper – there’s the rapaciously priced “vaporetto” (waterbus) but you don’t really need it, you can walk clear across the city in 40 minutes, and getting lost is half the Venice experience.
The Doge’s palace is well worth seeing, and the glass workshops on Murano are neat to see – though the hawkers will hard sell the shit out of you, you’re not obligated to buy anything.
October/November are times for high water (alt’acqua) so make sure to check the water report each morning. Consider packing tall rubber boots - Major attractions lay down walking platforms but minor streets can be flooded especially around St. Marks (and you’ll see Venetians walking to work in gorgeous suits and hip-waders).
I’m not a real big fan of Venice but it’s at it’s most interesting during the late fall.
No matter how long you’re in Rome, you’ll leave wishing you had stayed there another day or two. But if you do want a day trip, take the train to Pompeii.
Florence is the most beautiful town from the other side of the river.
Venice: Walk and walk and walk. Chuck the map and just get lost. It’s a town of finite dimensions, so don’t worry about where you’re going.
Rick Steves deserves to die. He basically calls Capri a tourist trap which it is not. He told us we could walk down from the top of Capri. Yeah. No. My good walking shoes broke and I nearly sprained an ankle multiple times on the way down.
Venice is the world’s most beautiful place. Get a three day vaporetto pass so you can take it whenever you want. and your feet are hurting Visit Murano and Burano. They are also spectacular. Take the time to walk around at night. The place is even more magical at night when it is like a gloriously pretty maze. You don’t even have to do much. Just sit and look around as it is so pretty.
Florence is dirty and a bit of a disappointment after Venice but it is still quite nice. Go to the market there. Wash your hands at the fountains by famous artists. Explore the Pitti Palace. You don’t need to rent a car as it so small.
Rome is magnificent. It is awe inspiring the way New York is awe inspiring. You can’t turn a corner with out being confronted with something glorious. I walked inside to use the ladies room someplace once. The building outside was nondescript but the interior was the church of the Something or Other and it was amazing. You must see the forum as is is just unreal. I spent four days there. I could have spent a month easily. Get the pizza. They sell it by the etto rather than the slice and they put all sorts of fabulous toppings on it like potatoes.
I love Italy. I liked France. I enjoyed Costa Rica and Canada but oh I LOVED Italy. I want to go back there for six months at some point.
Don’t drive in Rome. Subway is clearly marked in all languages, goes where you need it, and is inexpensive using day/multi-day passes. Venice is walking - wet season as I remember it was in Jan-Feb. See Murano for the glass exhibition and Burano for the lace - just don’t buy anything there. Don’t shop, eat, drink in major squares (tourist traps). Walk a 100 yards down most side streets and the prices are much less. Check AirBnB for stays in the areas if your note blocked into a tour. Second just getting the house wine. Cheap and good. Bakeries are great, take your time, morning ca-pu-cho and pastry is essential. Don’t get started too early, nobody else is on that schedule. Dinners are late - think 8-9 pm and take an hour at least to enjoy. Slow down.
Spent six months in Rome. Italy, outside Lombardy, is pretty laid back. It is the birth place of the slow food movement, which could have been the slow life movement - tradition is all and that pretty much excludes internet based savings which will mostly be aimed specifically at tourists.
Basically what you are trying to do goes against the grain of Italian life. Things get more relaxed as you head south - for instance they say that traffic lights are obligatory in Milan, advisory in Rome and Christmas decorations in Naples.
TripAdvisor is good throughout Europe for restaurants and hotels if you eliminate the 5 and 1 star reviews, otherwise forgot internet sites largely. You will meet with disappointment and not really live the Italian way whilst you are there.
Rome is obviously great, Naples is very underrated but probably my favourite strip is the Pisa, Lucca, Florence. It’s all linked by a handy train line - Lucca especially is a lovely city. You can stay in the old town, Puccini’s birth place is now a small hotel.
I’m posting this from the train on the way to Pompeii, as a matter of fact, after a harrowing encounter with Termini’s surprisingly spotty signage.
That and some minor, painful physical infirmity aside (these joints apparently aren’t made for walking), we’re having an excellent time.
Thank you all for the tips, which we’re integrating where we can. Which brings me to a couple quick questions.
Pookah, you mentioned blablacar.it. We didn’t manage to get our TIM sim card working in time to use blablacar for Pompeii, but we’re considering it for a couple of upcoming day trips, and maybe even the Florence-Venice leg of the trip. That said, how…unpopular would our lack of Italian make us? (Especially with our luggage for Florence to Venice.)
eenerms, you mentioned that the high-speed trains can read your ticket off a smartphone. Our ticket for Rome to Florence came in the form of a PDF; is that going to be good enough for the ticket checkers, or should I find someplace where I can print it out? (And if the latter, any suggestions as to where?)
Well, looks like our train is literally pulling into the station, so I guess I’ll leave off here. Thanks again for all the advice, everyone!
Those of you cursing Rick Steves, could you add some detail on what he got wrong? We’re making a first trip to Paris soon and his is one of the books I’ve read in preparation.
One thing we encountered at Termini: There are people wandering around offering to help you with the machines. Don’t let them. They are not employees, and will demand payment for their services afterwards.
I encountered that same problem in Rome. Basalt streets really give your joints a pounding.
