We are planning an independent trip to Italy (from personal experience). Part one

 

1. What do we want to see in Italy?

2. How to get and what to move around the country?

3. Where to live?

4. Where to go and where to have fun?

5. Where to eat?

 

 

Eternal Rome, beautiful Venice, fashionable Milan, bustling Naples, aristocratic Florence, or you can just relax on the sea, enjoy nature, and the beauty of small Italian cities and move away from tourist routes.

 

 

 

Wonderful Giudecca, Venice

 

 

My task is to tell you how to plan a trip to Italy, and this is facts, data, links to websites. Let me give you an example of the five routes we have travelled in the last four years. Planning began three months before the trip.

 

Route one, 2014, May. Rome - Piano di Sorrento (island of Capri) - Naples-Milan (Venice, Lake Como).

 

Route two, 2015, July - August. Verona (Milan, Lake Garda, Venice)- Bologna (Florence) - Bari - Nettuno (Rome, Naples, island of Ischia) - Verona

 

Route three, 2016, Aug. Verona Venezia - Montecatini Terme (Pistoia) - Spezia (Cinque Terre National Park, Porto Venere) - Anzio-Rome.

 

Route four, year 2017, April. Milan (Turin) -Menagio (San Siro)-Venezia (Treviso, Mestre, Noale, Martellago)

 

Route five, 2017, July-August. Milan – Mentona (Nice, Monaco, Ez) – Milan – Grandola ed Unity on Lake Como (Lugano, Bellagio) – Venice – Barcelona – Madrid.

 

 

 

With each trip, the routes become less saturated with museums, exhibitions, attractions and more relaxing. So, on the last trip we visited only the aquarium in Monaco and the Biennale in Venice, but a lot of walking around the cities, enjoyed the sea, mountains, lakes, delicious food.

 

 

Unknown Italy, Treviso

 

There are a lot of flights to Italy from Moscow, there have never been problems with tickets. When flying to northern Italy, always choose the "Airports nearby" function when booking tickets. The difference between the cost of a flight to Milan, Bergamo, Verona or Venice can be more than one hundred euros per ticket. Travel between cities on average two hours, and you will pay for a fare of no more than 20 euros. Unfortunately, not all airlines offer the opportunity to fly to one city and fly from another without increasing the cost of the flight.

 

If you are planning to travel long distances within the country, for example, from Milan to Rome, it is better to buy tickets in advance. In Italy, the best way to get around the country is by train, the Frecciarossa reaches a speed of 360 kilometers per hour. It can be reached from Milan to Rome in three hours. On a regional train, it will take you eight hours, by car a little less.

 

Tickets for high-speed trains start selling for three months at the lowest price on the trenitalia website. A ticket from Milan to Rome will cost thirty euros if you buy in advance and 50 euros if you buy the day before.

 

It is better to buy long-distance tickets in southern Italy in advance, trains are much less and during the holiday season you can simply be left without a ticket. From Bari to Rome, only three high-speed trains depart a day, the journey time is four hours. On the regional train you will get eight hours. Honestly, traveling on such a train in southern Italy is a dubious pleasure. The trains are very old, the seats are around the perimeter, there are a lot of people, most likely, will have to stand in the crowd, a lot of beggars and just wanting to take something from you.

 

It seems that in Italy trains are not decommissioned, but sent to the south. The most modern and comfortable trains are in the north of Italy, normal - in the center, and in the south - everything that can just go. Of course, this does not apply to high-speed trains, there the service is the same everywhere.

 

Regional train Verona - Venice

 

 

Yes, trains in Italy can be late, but most of the time, such a delay is not critical. But it is better not to take risks, we always came to the city of departure the day before and stayed in a hotel near the airport or train station. Last year we missed the train twice with super economy tickets.

 

At first, the plane to Milan was late for an hour and a half, we tried to change tickets at the station, but we, of course, were refused. So instead of buying a nine-euro ticket for twenty-five, we ended up at twelve o'clock in the morning in a closed station in Ventimiglia in the "excellent company" of people who love to live on the street. And we had to get to Mentona, France. Trains started running only at six in the morning, but a miracle happened - a group of students from Paris, a night bus to Nice, the driver refuses money for the fare.

 

The train from Varenna on Lake Como to Milan was also two hours late. We had non-refundable tickets from Milan to Venice and an hour and a half between trains to drink coffee and eat. We again decided to try to change tickets in the trenitalia office, in order to communicate with a specialist you need to take a ticket in the machine and wait for your electronic queue. Surprisingly, we had no problem changing tickets for the nearest train. Tickets were without seats, you need to approach the conductor on the train, and he will find free seats for you.

 

Therefore, if the delay occurred due to the fault of trenitalia, you can safely get a free ticket even at non-refundable rates.

 

Sometimes we buy all tickets in advance, so as not to depend on the usual rise in the price of euros in August.

 

Continuation to be...

 

 

Text and photo: Elena Konysheva