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

The ideal place of your stay will be a hotel room in major cities near the center, in a good area, in which there are no cult tourist places. For me it's Giudecca in Venice, Trastaver in Rome, San Siro in Milan. Of course, you can save money and live on the outskirts. But, firstly, not all areas far from the center are safe, and, secondly, you will have a long journey to the main attractions, and you will not be able to see such a miracle as the Colosseum at night or St. Mark’s Square without tourists.

 

In cities that you choose as a transit point or where you stay for a day, it is better to spend the night near the railway or bus station. So, we lived near the station in La Spezia, Verona, Milan and Naples. In such areas, be prepared for a large number of expats, unobtrusive service and dirty streets. In small towns, the area is usually not important, you can perfectly settle out of the center, especially when the owners offer to rent bicycles.

 

 

We always carefully choose hotels for accommodation, read reviews, description, conditions. We usually book rooms in small non-net hotels up to ten rooms with guest ratings from 7.5 on booking with free cancellation.

 

In such hotels, the hosts are very friendly and sociable, offer their help, recommend restaurants, take them to the station for free. They really want their guests to feel comfortable. For example, you ask where you can rent a bicycle, they say that it is impossible to do it near the hotel, and the next day they offer you theirs for free. And the questions in the morning: “What would the lady like to eat for breakfast?”, “What are your plans for today, maybe we need our help?” That's very nice.

 

Several times tried to book an apartment on airbnb, but failed. It is necessary to contact the owners and wait for their response, once we were not answered, the second time offered to extend the stay to seven days.

 

Having breakfast in Italian hotels is not an important choice, most likely you will be offered a cup of cappuccino and croissant. For two or three euros, you can buy the same at any Italian coffee shop. There are exceptions, of course. These are hotels three stars and above with a buffet or farm. In Montecatini Terme we had a four-star hotel and the variety of breakfast meals matched good Turkish all inclusive. At the agro-farm of Lake Como, we were offered farm products, berries, fruits, pastries, omelets for breakfast.

 

Booking hotels in a season is better than a month in three, in this case you can find inexpensive and excellent options.

 

 

 

In most museums, parks, exhibitions you can freely buy tickets for the day or the same day. Almost everywhere they are purchased for a certain time of visit, buying online allows you not to stand in lines. But there are a few places you can’t get to for any money, you’ll have to stand four to five hours in line or pay ten times more.

 

The painting “Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It is better to order tickets in three months, on the website cenacolovinciano.vivaticket, the date of the start of sales is determined, for example, May 9 for July and August. Tickets are sold out during the day. Then tickets may appear on sale, but to have time to buy them you need to go to the site every day. The chances are, of course, but they are small. Tickets are sold out until October first.

 

Vatican museums. Website rome-museum.com/booking-vatican-tickets Tickets are better to buy in a month, in ten days you can buy tickets only for the first call, at eight thirty in the morning. When we went to this museum, a ticket on the website cost 16 euros, it allowed you to pass without a queue. If you do not buy a ticket in advance, you will have a choice: stand in line for half a day or pay 100 euros for the so-called tour in Russian. We passed the queue for only fifteen minutes and during this time we were offered countless times to buy a tour in all languages of the world. In the Vatican museums there is an audio guide in Russian with high-quality and complete information, so you can do without a guide.

 

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It is better to buy tickets on the uffizi website, the ticket price is 24 euros. On other sites, tickets will be more expensive. If you want to have a choice of time to visit, buy in two weeks. Without pre-purchased tickets, the same as in the Vatican – half a day in line or overpayment.

 

Opera in Verona in the ancient Roman amphitheatre. Arena's official website. The performances take place late in the evening under the starry sky, magnificent acoustics, stunning atmosphere. On the uppermost tiers on stone benches, tickets are sold without seats. They cost 25 euros, and you can not buy them in advance, we had tickets for the opera Carmen for one hundred euros, to the sector in front of the stalls. Such tickets and tickets to the stalls are better to buy in two months. Tickets to the stalls cost about two hundred euros, women enter only in evening dresses, men in costumes.

 

La Scala Theatre in Milan. Teatroallascala website. The cheapest tickets for the gallery from 20 euros, on the day of the performance they can be bought cheaper. The site can see the scene from your seat. We had tickets to the second tier box for 90 euros, we bought them in two months. You can buy later, if this is not the premiere, then the seats will be, but most likely you will have to sit separately from each other. Tickets to the stalls and amphitheater cost about 250 euros. The price for premieres is higher.

 

Several times planned to go to some rock concert, but more often they are held in autumn and winter. Maybe you are lucky, it is better to buy tickets on the Italian official website Vivaticket. If you are a fan of some band or artist, it is better to buy tickets for the concert first, and then make a trip itinerary. My friends flew to Barcelona for a U2 concert. Keep in mind that you may not find a hotel for this day or the average cost of rooms will be twice as high.

 

Once we ordered an individual tour of Bari on the website experts-tourister. I recommend to get acquainted with the city, you can order it for 60-70 euros for a company. The information received helped us a lot when visiting the service in the temple of Nicholas the Wonderworker.

 

 

 

 

The most reliable option for choosing a restaurant or trattoria is to ask the Italians themselves. It doesn’t matter in a hotel or on the street. For most Italians, food is a cult and one of the most favorite topics to socialize with, and they will happily share their favorite places where tasty and inexpensive food is served. If you don’t know Italian, just pay attention to where the locals eat lunch or dinner. So we happened to stumble upon a stunning waterfront spot in La Spezia after seeing a line of Italians standing for food. They stood in line for an hour and ended up with stunning, freshly caught seafood, huge portions and just eight euros.

 

Only two times a visit to a particular restaurant was planned in advance, the time was chosen, the menu was studied. The restaurant is the Twelve Apostles in Verona and L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples.

 

About the "Twelve Apostles" presenters told in the program "Eagle and tails", and there was a desire to visit some good Michelin restaurant. Although they are a haute cuisine restaurant, they have three Michelin stars, but the atmosphere in the institution is quite democratic. You don’t have to wear evening dresses or costumes. We ordered a set for 60 euros per person of 8 courses. It seemed that you could not master the next dish, but everything was so tasty and varied (truffles, meat, risotto, sweets, sorbet) that in the end they ate everything. At our request, we conducted an excursion to the basement, showed ancient Roman ruins, a collection of pens and wine.

 

Pizzeria "De Michele" wanted to visit after reading the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, she so wonderfully described this place. I wanted to try the best pizza in the world. The film with Julia Roberts was shot in this pizzeria. Everything, as described in the book, a lot of people before entering, you need to take a ticket inside and wait for your number, unobtrusive service, the interior as in a station diner and only two types of pizza - Marinard and Margarita. Divine pizza with a subtle aroma of basil, melting dough, tomatoes and mozzarella in the mouth. You eat it with your hands, the sauce drips from your fingers, drips from your chin, and it seems like eating pizza is impossible, but stopping is even harder. You no longer pay attention to the interior, to plastic cups and just have fun. Unfortunately, after a year, everything changed. What they brought us was disgusting: smeared sour tomato puree on burnt dough. There were few visitors, mostly tourists. It is a shame that a great pizzeria has become like a diner not only in the interior.

 

 

 

Of course, in Italy in a non-tourist place to find an institution with bad cuisine is quite difficult. Of the hundreds of visits to restaurants, cafes, trattoria were extremely unsuccessful three or four, about ten establishments were mediocre. At the same time, the level of prices, the presence of positive reviews usually do not greatly affect the success of the choice. The most delicious food was in those places where we went on the recommendation of the Italians.

 

On each trip to Italy, you discover new tastes and dishes - pizza with asparagus, steak in Florentine, mussels in garlic sauce, Bellini cocktail, tiramisu and much more. It happens that some of your requests in restaurants cause bewilderment among the owners, order a dish, just because you like how it sounds in Italian and wonder when you bring it, do not understand whether in this institution you need to carry glasses with you. But you still enjoy great Italian cuisine. But that's another story.

 

Text and photo: Elena Konysheva