Italian Travel Tips

Ciao from Italy!

My head is swimming with the sights, sounds, and taste of the trip. I have much more to write and tell you about those impressions in some later posts. But first, I have some practical observations about the travel experience that I think will be helpful if you’re thinking of an Italian or European trip.

Verona was a pleasant surprise, my favorite city on the tour.

You can map out any itinerary you want and see all the sights in the world, but these little practical considerations probably have the biggest effect on your experience. So, here we go:

Our view from Genoa.

Kelly enjoys a nice glass of local wine at Cinque Terre.

Hmmm. . .

• Pack light. You carry things everywhere. Each person should have one rolling carry-on size bag and one lightweight collapsible backpack for day trips. Any more than that and you will really regret it. It’s hard to find space on trains in transportation for anything any bigger. There are a ton of blogs about ultralight European travel, all of which will give you great ideas. Whatever it is you’re thinking of bringing, cut it in half. There are plenty of places to pick up other clothes. It’s not the wilderness. You also have to leave room for the stuff you’ll bring back.

• Take care of your feet. You are probably going to walk a lot more than you think you will. Particularly during the days. Make sure you have a very comfortable pair of shoes with good socks. Pack athletic tape, bandaids, and moleskin for blisters.  If you have kids along, make sure that they are checking for hotspots during the longer walks. On non travel days, we averaged about 18,000 steps per day. You are simply going to walk everywhere, all the time, every day. Two pairs of shoes are enough. One for power sightseeing and another nicer pair for dinner.

• Try as best you can to get outside of the cities. Everyone plans their European vacation with cities as the base camp and the countryside as an afterthought. The cities are crowded and will wear on you. There are tourists everywhere standing in lines. If you can stay in an agriturisimmo for a day or so to break up the constant urban pace you’ll thank yourself. I would also recommend a guided day tour by bus into Tuscany. We did one with four stops during the day culminating at winery tasting that was fantastic. I regret not staying in the Tuscan countryside.

• Set aside the entire evening for dinner. It’s the best part of the day. People begin to have a late evening cocktail or spritz about five and usually don’t start eating till seven. I found that every meal I had in a hot tourist location or on the photogenic square was too expensive and bad quality. Get to the side streets for the best food. Pizza is good everywhere. You don’t have to walk far to get to a good restaurant. If you see someplace you like during the day, call and make a reservation.

• Phone Data. When everyone in your party gets on the plane make them turn off their cellular data signal. Data overages are brutal. I have AT&T and they offered a 1 GB international travel plan for $60. It was worth it. When we touched down I went to a cell phone store the first day and got an Italian Sim card with 30 gigs of data for about $15. It works in a regular iPhone. You are going to need it for directions and access.

• Bathrooms. The Italians seem to have a grudge against bathrooms. They are hard to find especially in tourist areas. If you have anyone who is sensitive to those issues, you sort of need to get some Street layouts so you know where the public restrooms are. They are very hard to find. I found it a little ironic that a culture so focused on what you put into your stomach was so contemptuous of its inevitable consequences.

• Emergency Prep. Make a separate emergency packet that another adult keeps with additional credit cards, copies of your passport, important phone numbers, and other stuff in case you lose your phone or your documents. No one person should be carrying all of that stuff at one time. Use your credit card – not your debit card – for your purchases. You get a better exchange rate and don’t run the same fraud risks.

• Take Trains! Train travel is great. It’s how people get from one place to another. The upgrade to first class is usually not that much money and worth it. We took several high-speed trains and travel first class and it’s a very easy way to travel. You can download the Italian train app and buy your tickets online.

• Learn some Italian. You hardly ever need to speak Italian but it makes it more fun if you do. English is really the international language of Europe. But you miss something when you don’t try to speak the language. Italian is a beautiful language and not that hard. I took some in college, and my professor was fond of saying that “everyone is a speaker of Italian in their heart, you just have to let it out”.

• Journal. Everyone should keep a handwritten journal. Especially kids. Write down the sensations you experience every day, little things you would normally forget. Make sketches. Keep train tickets and museum tickets and paste them in there. Print some of those cell phone photos when you get back and put them in there. Keep a shoebox for the trip. There’s something wonderful about how tactile sensations bring back memories.

• Clothing. In researching and packing, I discovered the joy of merino wool clothing. It is warm, also cool, and does not smell after a few days. I would recommend only taking two pairs of long pants. Dark jeans look good everywhere. You will definitely need a jacket. It can get cold. Italians love their dark puffy down jackets. The Patagonia nano puff hoody is my first choice. It also makes a great pillow. Dark colors are more European. Take a scarf or a buff for windy days.

• Airports. If you can possibly avoid it, try to stay as close to airport as possible if you have a flight the next morning as possible. We had several very early travel arrangements and it made for brutal travel days. I would avoid flights earlier than 10 o’clock next time at all costs.

• Italian beer is surprisingly much better than you would think.

• You will climb an enormous number of stairs.

• Careful with liquids. If you have anything liquid that you were packing, make sure you put it in a Ziploc bag because it will probably explode on the flight. Take bar soap and shampoo. (That’s right, there is such a thing as bar shampoo).

• You can now download Netflix on your ipad  prior to boarding the plane. It’s the best way to make a long plane ride go by. Invest in one of those small power supplies that store power in a lithium ion battery for your devices.

• Lastly, and most importantly, don’t get so caught up in checking off the list of places to see that you forget to take time doing the things that make Italy so special like strolling with your gelato, having a morning coffee outside while the city wakes up, or enjoying a nice long dinner.