Travel Tips
 print
this page
LESS IS MORE
Italy is meant to be savored. Whenever we take a trip
to a part of Italy where we've never been before, we
make a list of everything we want to see in, say, two
weeks. Then we mercilessly cut the list in half. The
country simply cannot be, refuses to be, hurried. Thus,
if you plan to see Florence, Venice, and Rome in two
weeks, you're just not going to have a good time doing
it. This is a piece of advice we have given first-time
travelers on dozens of occasions, and we believe that
almost everyone has utterly ignored us. But nearly everyone
comes back and tells us that of all the pieces of unasked-for
advice we offered, this is the one they should
have followed.
CELL PHONES IN
ITALY
Vacanza Bella encourages you to take your cell phone
to Italy. It may eliminate the necessity to have a phone
in your vacation rental accommodation. (See our Essay
“The Telephone
and Your Security Deposit”.)
Not all US cell phones work in Europe. The two systems
are different. But more and more phones allow you to
switch from one system to the other, and more and more
of Vacanza Bella’s clients are bringing their own
cell phones to Europe with them.
You can also rent a cell phone in the US to bring to
Italy. Vacanza Bella can refer you to companies that
do this. We do not do it ourselves, as we own our own.
Many such companies will try to rent you a phone with
an English phone number. Vacanza Bella advises against
going this route, especially if your entire European
stay is in Italy. If so, rent a phone with an Italian
phone number. For one thing, to receive calls at an
Italian cell phone number is free.
We have also seen that cell phones are rentable at
airports in Italy. In this case, determine whether you
must return it to the same place and what its opening
hours are for that purpose.
Finally, if you rent a cell phone, be sure you understand
how to use it. In particular, understand how to retrieve
messages in the event the phone is set up with voicemail.
We can’t tell you how many times missed appointments
have occurred because of this. This is one reason we
go back to our initial recommendation: bring your own:
It’s the one with which you’re the most familiar.
Our last comment: If you travel in Italy frequently,
consider purchasing an Italian cell phone. There is
no monthly fee; you just buy a replenishable card and
make the calls you want.
CREDIT CARDS,
ATM CARDS, and TRAVELERS CHECKS
As far as we are concerned, travelers checks are a
thing of the past. ATM cards are universally usable,
in almost any locality, however small. ATM machines
(which Italians call “Bancomat”) are omnipresent.
Credit cards are a different matter. Many owners of
small businesses (including us at Vacanza Bella, for
that matter) don’t want to deal with the paperwork
involved in credit cards. Nor do they want to pay the
bank service charges. If you go to Gucci or to any fancy
restaurant, or even middle-of-the-road restaurant or
supermarket or gas station, your credit card is going
to be accepted. Some cards are more widely accepted
than others. But if you go into a mom-and-pop trattoria
or osteria, or into a neighborhood grocery store or
clothing store, the likelihood is that they either don’t
or won’t take your credit card, even if the card’s
symbol is displayed. You should determine whether a
place is going to accept payment by credit card before
you order in a neighborhood restaurant.
TIPS ON TRAINS
Buying a Ticket. Should you buy a ticket in
the US through a travel agent? No. You can easily obtain
tickets without any surcharges when you are in Italy
itself, even just before departure. You’ll find
easy-to-use ticket-dispensing machines in the lobby
of any train station, and all credit cards are now accepted.
You can get either first- or second-class, and you can
reserve your seat in smoking or non-smoking on the faster
trains.
You can, however, also buy and print tickets –
plus check current train schedules – in advance
by using the Italian rail system’s excellent website,
www.trenitalia.com.
Validating Your Ticket. Whether you have the
ticket in hand or not, together with a seat reservation,
your ticket is not valid unless and until you validate
it BEFORE getting on the train you’re taking. There
are little machines at the head of virtually every train
platform which stamp your ticket with the date and time.
If you forget to do this, you will be fined by the train
conductor, whether you claim ignorance or say you don’t
speak Italian. If you find you’ve gotten onto the
train without validating your ticket and remember it
before the conductor comes around to check, you should
immediately seek him/her out, in the hope of demonstrating
your uprightness and of avoiding the fine.
Luggage and Porters. A porter is now virtually
impossible to find in any Italian train station. You’re
basically on your own. On the other hand, there are
lots of free luggage carts you can use to wheel your
luggage right up to the door of your carriage. Difficulty
lifting your bags into the train? Italians are extremely
helpful people, and you should just ask some young,
strong-looking Italian passenger to help you. And don’t
offer money.
In smaller stations, one huge problem is getting from
the station building out to the particular platform
from which your train is leaving. Unless your train
is leaving from the platform immediately outside the
station (Platform 1, usually), you will almost certainly
have to take a staircase down under the platforms and
another staircase back up to your designated platform.
This is a huge pain, and elevators are almost nonexistent
If you have difficulty with your bags, the answer is
to ask for help from a bystander. Forget a porter.
First or Second Class? When we were young, we
traveled in second class. Then, when we got older and
more spoiled, we only traveled in first class. Now,
we’re back to second class. Why? Too many Americans
in first class, for one thing. But for another thing,
there’s hardly any difference between the two except
the price. You should have a seat reservation in any
case.
RESTAURANT ADVICE
General comments. Don't much worry about where
you eat. We don't even carry a restaurant guidebook.
There is hardly a really bad restaurant in the country,
and the simplest-looking place is often the best. (We
must admit, however, that things like frozen fried potatoes
do appear more and more these days.) One type of restaurant
not to patronize is the open-air places in touristed
piazzas like San Marco in Venice or the Piazza del Pantheon
in Rome. Here, although the food is not bad, it is not
extremely good either, and often prices are too high
and service rude. There are exceptions to this, but
in any event you'll be happier in an outdoor restaurant
in a quieter setting.
Another place not to eat is in fancy hotels or Michelin-starred
celebrity restaurants. It's just not worth it. Germans
and Americans ordering the most expensive things on
the menus. We recently violated our own rule and had
dinner at three of the most famous and expensive restaurants
in Rome, with celebrity chefs, Michelin stars, etc.,
etc. Our verdict? Well, for one thing, they think this
is still the 1970's with tiny nouvelle cuisine portions
that leave your stomach really empty at the end of the
meal. Decor? Mediocre. Service? Not up to professional
standards of a typical New York neighborhood French
bistro. Food? Sometimes moderately interesting, but
nothing compared to a medium-level restaurant in New
York or San Francisco. Price? Scandalously, absurdly,
expensive, so expensive as to make one really angry
given the kind of service offered. Maybe it’s better
in Milan or Florence or Venice. We doubt it.
The food and the experience are, we repeat, far better
in the most unpretentious places.
Another don't: Don't eat in any restaurant which prominently
displays a sign saying, "We speak English here,"
or some such thing, or any place which advertises American
breakfast. No matter how tired you are, no matter how
much you're dreaming of an American hamburger or bacon
and eggs, don't do it. It will cost too much and be
terrible.
A final don’t: Don’t ever eat in an ethnic
restaurant in Italy, anywhere. Every so often, we get
sick of pasta and crave Asian. In the past, we succumbed
and tried Chinese, again and again and again. Well,
never again. Same for Indian, Korean, etc., etc. It’s
all terrible. The only exception is African: There are
some more than decent Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants
in Rome and probably elsewhere in Italy where citizens
of Italy’s ex-colonies have formed a community.
We suspect that things will shortly change, too, for
the better – and for reasons we don’t completely
understand -- regarding Indian/Bangladeshi cuisine.
Ordering. In simple restaurants, most Italians
do not use a menu to order. The waiter simply makes
suggestions, or the patron asks for a particular dish
and the cook does it. Menus exist, however, and you
should ask for one if it isn't automatically brought
to you.
A “full” meal in Italy consists of the following
courses in this order: (a) antipasto, which is
any cold or hot appetizer or starter; it has nothing
to do with the “antipasto salad” served in
many Italian-American restaurants; (b) a “primo”
or first course, normally pasta, served in a portion
generally smaller than that one would get in an American
restaurant (because it’s not the main course);
a primo can also be soup or risotto; (c) a “secondo”
or main course, consisting of a portion of meat or fish
or eggs, without accompanying vegetables or salads which
are ordered a la carte as a “contorno” or
“accompaniment”; many Italians do not order
a contorno, and others order a contorno as their secondo
and have no meat or fish at all; (d) formaggio,
i.e., a cheese plate; (e) fruit or dessert;
(f) coffee, which is never ordered “with”
any part of the meal including dessert, it always follows
everything else. Dessert, unlike in Britain and the
US, is considered the least important part of the meal;
except when there are guests at a formal dinner, dessert
is almost never eaten at home in Italy, and indeed Italian
desserts are generally nothing to write home about.
In a simple trattoria, there is often no dessert on
order at all; fruit is served as a fine substitute and
is considered a more authentic end to the meal anyway.
For an Italian, the main business of the meal occurs
at the antipasto and primo stage; those courses appear
fast and are consumed rapidly. All of the rest of the
meal appears at glacial speed and is considered mere
accompaniment to conversation. Italian cheeses are first-rate;
try some you’ve never heard of.
The important thing is that you need not feel compelled
to order all of these courses, nor in the order indicated.
Unlike Americans, Italians tend not to order the entire
meal in advance. They might first order an antipasto,
and after finishing it order a primo. After finishing
that, they might, or might not, order a secondo. Don't
feel pressured to consume a four-course meal just because
you feel compelled by custom. We often order an antipasto
and a primo and leave it at that. Or a primo and dessert.
Or an antipasto and secondo. Sometimes, of course, you'll
want the full Italian treatment -- antipasto, pasta,
entree, contorni, fruit, cheese, dessert, coffee. Sometimes,
the waiter will take the order for the primo and ask
right away what you want for secondo. We invariably
put him off, for the simple reason that often we don't
know whether we'll be hungry enough to eat the second
course. Keep in mind that in general portions are considerably
smaller than what we are used to getting in an American
restaurant.
Don't be afraid to order what you don't recognize
on menus. At all costs, avoid the "menu turistico".
Try something other than a tomato-based sauce -- you
can get that in the US. Risotti are delicious substitutes
for pasta. You shouldn't neglect to order vegetables
with your entrée -- everything is à la
carte. The tasteless vegetables we take so much for
granted here are fabulous in Italy: green beans, spinach,
red peppers, broccoli, broccoli rabe, eggplant, zucchini,
etc. If you don't know the names, the food will often
be displayed, so point. We very often make our own antipasto
by getting up from the table and arranging an assortment
of vegetables or salads or cold meats on our plate --
rather like an American salad bar but infinitely better-tasting
and fresher. The waiter will make up a fair price.
Unless you're wine experts -- which we are not -- order
house wine, which is almost always a half-decent local
wine. Nobody cares about following the red-with-meat,
white-with-fish rules. You drink what you want. Bottled
water is also delicious.
Hidden restaurant costs. The “pane e coperto”
(bread and cover) charge is no longer legal. However,
it has been replaced by a per-person charge for “pane”
which we suspect could, theoretically, also be illegal,
but our advice is not to protest. Everyone pays it,
and to protest would be offensive. Besides, the bread
in Italy is so good you’ll want plenty of it anyway.
It is now also illegal to charge service separately.
Service is included in the bill. We have seen some family-run
trattorias continue to put a 10-15% service charge on
the bill, and we don’t say anything, especially
as the bill is usually modest. If such a charge appears
on the bill in a fancy restaurant, you should say something
about it or make a “denuncia” (a report) to
the police about it.
What about tipping? Since service is included
in the bill, and since waiters get a salary unlike in
the US, tipping at a 15% or 20% rate is neither customary
nor necessary. We usually tip 10%. Italians tip 5% or
leave nothing at all. It is not considered good form
to leave nothing if the service has been very good.
We can’t ever seem to get the waiter to bring
us the bill in an Italian restaurant. Why? We can’t
figure it out either. Italy must be the only country
in the world where you practically have to beg in order
to pay. If we order dessert or coffee, we will sometimes
ask for dessert, coffee, and the bill at the same time.
This request is rarely honored. When it does happen,
we leave more tip. If the bill is really taking far
too long to arrive, you can do what we do: get up, put
your coat on, and approach the cash register or maitre
d’hotel and ask for the bill to be prepared. This
is considered extremely bad form, but we have done it
on dozens of occasions.
THE BAR
The bar is a marvelous institution which you should
use several times daily. A bar is not a drinking establishment,
although it does serve alcoholic beverages. It is a
coffee bar. Here, you can buy coffee, iced coffee, cappuccino,
tea, soft drinks, aperitifs, sweets, often ice cream
and, yes, cocktails. See our Essay “Where
Can We Get a Good Latte?”.
If you sit down at an outdoor table and use waiter
service at a bar, the price doubles or triples. It is
not allowed to order at the bar, pay the lower price,
and then go sit down. (There is an increasing number
of exceptions to this rule, especially in non-touristy
areas.) On the other hand, no waiter would ever dream
of asking you to move from a table once you've finished
your coffee. You can sit all day for 1 euro!
Bars are a godsend to tourists in other ways. The Italian
main meal is taken at midday (around 1:00 or 1:30 or
2:00) and a smaller meal in the evening (after, often
well after, 7:30). This is not a schedule meant to fortify
tourists. Because breakfast is so small, a morning of
hot, strenuous museum- and church-hopping leads to starvation
which sets in long before 1:00. Here is where the bar
comes in. Any bar sells small pizzas or sandwiches that
you can buy to tide you over. In Rome, the tramezzino,
a triangular sandwich filled with anything from mozzarella
to artichokes, makes a great mid-morning snack.
Not only do bars sate hunger, they quench thirst. Two
of the most delicious treats in an Italian bar are the
"spremuta", or fresh-squeezed fruit juice,
and the "frulatte", a kind of fresh fruit
milk shake.
Finally, and to our mind most heavenly of all, is the
"granita", a kind of ice. The classic is the
granita di caffé con panna, coffee ice layered
with whipped cream. Often, there are also lemon or strawberry
granite as well. In Southern Italy, order a granita
di orzata or di mandorla, whose base is an almond-like
nut. The granita is almost a religious experience in
the heat of summer.
Remember that in a bar you decide what you want, pay
at the cashier, and then go over to the bar itself with
your receipt and order. In small towns, this rule is
not always followed, and you can pay after you eat.
But in the city, you always pay first.
TAKE-OUT FOOD
The rosticceria or tavola calda is an
institution you should definitely investigate, especially
since you are renting a place with a kitchen. Essentially,
it's a deli serving hot and cold dishes to take out,
wonderful for people as lazy as we are about cooking
on vacation. When we ourselves rent a house, we'll peek
into several rosticcerie to see what's offered.
When we find a good one, we'll make up several meals,
take them home, and put them in the refrigerator for
instant meals on several days running. Some small restaurants
and family-run trattorie will do take-out, too, so it’s
worth asking if a place in the neighborhood of your
rental will do so.
FOOD SHOPPING
Houses in Italy normally rent from Saturday, and arrivals
are programmed for late afternoon. This means that if
you intend to cook over the weekend or at least want
to make coffee on Sunday morning, you will have to go
out to do so, unless you shop on the Saturday
afternoon of your arrival. Most food stores are closed
on Sundays, though less universally than in the past,
and often on Monday mornings as well in summer. Since
if you're renting a country house you'll almost certainly
be arriving by car, we strongly recommend that on that
Saturday afternoon, you stop in some nearby village
before actually arriving at your house to pick
up some basic provisions: coffee, milk, salt, pepper,
bread, jam, bar soap, and whatever else you feel you
might need.
The first time you do it, shopping for food (or anything
else) in Italy can be quite a daunting experience. So
you want to snack on prosciutto and salami: how (and
where) the hell to you buy it? Where do you buy milk?
Etc., etc. Indeed, even though we've been to Italy no
few than four dozen times, there always comes the moment
when we cannot remember what kind of store sells a comb;
toilet paper; a pen; a light bulb.
In Italy over the past two decades, supermarkets have
proliferated. Often, Italian supermarkets are neither
as large nor as well-stocked as their American counterparts,
but they'll do. In the large cities of the north, the
wonderful small open-air markets so characteristic of
Italy have largely disappeared. In Florence, for example,
only one such market remains in the historic center.
We consider this development unfortunate. In fact, we
tend to avoid the "supermercato" and try to
shop the old-fashioned way, even though we know it costs
somewhat more to do so. After all, does one go to Italy
to shop in the Safeway?
An "alimentari" is a small grocery store
selling canned goods, pasta, fruit juices, etc., as
well, sometimes, as bread (always bought at a special
counter), cheeses, "deli" meats, and sometimes
even real meat. Often, even in the smallest town, there
is a separate store for bread ("panetteria")
and another for cheese and cold meats. Other meats are
sold at a butcher shop ("macelleria"). Sweets
are often sold in bars, or in a specialized institution,
the "pasticceria".
Milk is an important detail. Italy has two kinds of
milk. One is so-called long-lasting milk ("latte
a lunga conservazione") which is an awful-tasting,
chemical-laced liquid. "Latte fresco", fresh
whole milk American-style, is excellent and now universally
available, both in alimentari and often in bars, in
whole, low-fat, and skim versions.
Toothpaste, shampoo, Pampers, Tampax, aspirin, and
other such items are sold at the pharmacy, and now,
except for aspirin, also in the supermarket. Salt and
postage stamps are sold in tobacco shops, but salt is
also now available at the supermercato.
The etto. When you buy meat, cheese, and bread,
you do it by weight. Deli meats are ordered by the "etto",
or tenth of a kilogram. Five etti are about a pound,
so figure from there. Bread is ordered by kilo or half-kilo.
Now, don't get the idea that food shopping in Italy
is intimidating. It's something which, like everything
else in Italy, you should take your time with and have
fun doing it.
THE NIGHT
BEFORE THE ROME AIRPORT
Your rental in Tuscany (or wherever) ends on Saturday
morning, and you have to spend that one night before
departing early the next morning from the Rome airport.
Where should you spend the night?
One place we strongly advise you not to spend
the night is at an airport hotel, no matter how early
your flight is the next morning. Why end your trip in
such a depressing way?
Our advice depends on whether you have a rental car
that you need to return at the airport. If you do, and
you’re coming from the north, then our advice is
to stay at Tuscania at Al Gallo. Gorgeous hilltown;
charming, reasonably priced hotel; fabulous restaurant.
The drive down to the airport the next morning is about
an hour, virtually traffic-free on the coastal autostrada
which brings you straight into the parking garage and
rental car returns. That process takes literally 60
seconds, and you’re in the terminal almost immediately.
Want to be closer? We suggest one of the coastal towns
like Santa Severa or even Fregene.
Driving from the south? This is trickier. Our suggestion
is that you drive to Fregene and spend the night there.
There are some lovely towns to spend the night in on
the south side of Rome – Sermoneta and Nemi above
all. But the drive to the airport may not be traffic-free.
No rental car to return? Stay at a good hotel walking
distance from the station and take the little train
out to the airport the next morning. You’re 3 or
4 persons? Have the hotel arrange a driver for you for
around 30-50 euros. The Hotel Napoleon is excellent,
and we’ve heard good things about the Montreal
as well. (To splurge, the St. Regis Grand is very close
to the station, too.) Rome’s Termini station has
become a shopping mecca; it’s totally transformed
from the depressing place it was even a few years ago.
And the neighborhood is fine, too. Some very good restaurants
are right there, including Agata e Romeo, one of Rome’s
finest, but also delightful neighborhood places like
the Trattoria Monti on Via Carlo Alberto, and, even
cheaper and down-home, Da Angelino at the top of Via
Machiavelli.
Any of these alternatives are far better than the airport
hotel alternative.
PICKING UP AND
RETURNING YOUR RENTAL CAR TO THE ROME AIRPORT
Picking up. If you’re planning a rental
car pickup at the Rome airport, it’s a very simple
procedure. Once you collect your bags and go through
customs, signs will lead you to the rental car desks
which are all located in the airport parking garage.
The garage is easily accessible via elevators and moving
walkways by foot from the terminal: you never have to
step outside.
Dropping off. Rome’s Fiumicino (Leonardo
da Vinci) airport has become one of the easiest places
to which to return a rental car. You just follow the
signs for rental car return which will lead you straight
into the airport’s multistory parking garage. All
of the agencies are located together. The dropoff procedure
takes about 60 seconds. After dropping your car off,
there are luggage carts handy, and a series of moving
walkways which bring you directly into the departure
terminal.
Other advice. Where are you headed from the
airport? North to Umbria or Tuscany? If you look at
a map, you’ll see that the obvious easy way from
the airport is to take the GRA (the “Grande Raccordo
Anulare”, Rome’s beltway) to the Autostrada
A1 north. If you’re landing on a Saturday or Sunday,
that works OK. But if you’re arriving on a weekday
at any time of day, that GRA can be murder, with traffic
backed up for miles, sometimes for no apparent reason.
We never take the GRA any more (see the one exception
below). We exit the airport, follow signs for Roma Centro
for about 4 kilometers to the Autostrada A12 towards
Civitavecchia. This is the highway which goes up the
coast. It’s almost always empty.
If our eventual destination is Tuscany, we go up to
Grosseto and then go up one of the beautiful country
roads connecting that city to Siena, being sure to detour
to San Galgano, one of the most evocative sites in Italy.
If our objective is Orvieto or someplace else in Umbria,
we go up the A12, cut across on a country road to Vetralla
and Viterbo, and then get on the 4-lane superstrada
east from Viterbo. (This road passes near Tuscania,
our favorite hilltown in all of Italy, and Viterbo itself
has nothing to be ashamed of, even compared to Siena.)
When we reach Orte, we either get on the A1 north (e.g.,
towards Orvieto), or cross the A1 continuing on the
4-lane superstrada towards Terni, Todi, Spoleto, Perugia,
Assisi, etc. Much more pleasant and less stressful.
Now, what if you arrive on a weekend? If your weekend
is anytime except in July and August, you can do either
the coastal A12 or the GRA to the A1. But if it’s
a summer weekend, then our advice is to do the GRA to
the A1 because summer weekend mornings are the one time
in the year when the A12 is going to be packed.
THE LAST NIGHT BEFORE OTHER AIRPORTS
We’re less familiar with other airports than we
are with Rome-Fiumicino, but over the years, we’ve
used the airports in Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Ciampino,
Turin, Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Verona, Venice, Naples,
Palermo, and Catania. In all cases, our advice remains
the same: do not stay at an airport hotel, no matter
how early your plane is leaving. So it’s leaving
at 6am? At that hour, there’s not going to be any
traffic anyway, and it’s only going to take you
10 or 15 minutes longer to get out to the airport by
taxi.
Again, our specific advice depends on whether you have
a rental car to return or not:
For Milan-Malpensa, if you have car, stay at
the Hotel Giardinetto at Pettenasco on Lake Orta, or
at Stresa or Arona on Lake Maggiore. Your drive to the
airport won’t be more than 40 minutes. If you don’t
have a car, you could either spend the night in Milan
itself (Hotel Manzoni or Cairoli or Bonaparte are places
we’ve enjoyed) and then take the little train from
the Milan-Nord station or a cab. Or you could take the
train out to Arona on Lake Maggiore the day before,
spend a pleasant afternoon and evening there and a short
cab ride out to the airport in the morning.
For Milan-Linate, if you have a car, stay at
the Hotel Gourmet in Bergamo and drive over in the morning.
If you don’t have a car, stay in Milan itself and
cab it.
We can give similar specific advice on other airports.
Just ask.
GETTING TO THE
AIRPORT ON TIME
If you’re flying on a nonstop flight direct from
Rome, Milan, or Venice to the US, then our advice is
arriving 2 hours in advance. Not more than that. Not
3 hours and not 4 hours. Checkin at Rome and elsewhere
in Italy is extremely efficient, far moreso than at
airports in the US, and there is absolutely no need
to arrive, as far as we are concerned, more than 2 hours
ahead of time.
Flying back via London or Frankfurt or Paris or Amsterdam
or elsewhere? This is not considered an intercontinental
flight even if you’re continuing on to the US.
Our advice is to arrive not more than 60-90 minutes
in advance. Again, checking in is extremely efficient,
and no Italian would ever consider arriving for such
a flight more than 90 minutes ahead of time. Your flight
is at 6am? We can tell you: if you arrive before 5,
the airport may be closed.
“WE’RE
FLYING TO ITALY BY WAY OF PARIS. AIR FRANCE HAS OFFERED
US A GREAT CONNECTION. WE ONLY HAVE TO WAIT 45 MINUTES
FOR OUR FLIGHT ON TO ITALY. ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL?”
It would be wonderful, except for the fact that you’re
not going to make that connection; and we don’t
care if you have only carry-on bags. You’re not
going to make it. Period. We don’t care what the
airline tells you. And when (not if) you don’t
make it, it isn’t automatic that you’re going
to be put onto the next flight. Instead, you’ll
be put on the next available flight, and that
may not be literally for 2 or 3 days, especially
when we’re talking about cattle-car-full flights
in summertime.
London is the worst. First of all, please NEVER
accept an itinerary which involves a change of airports
in London. If you must do so, then leave at least 4
and preferably 5 hours between flights. If you need
to connect between Gatwick and Heathrow, our advice
is to take the subway between Heathrow and Victoria
Station, and then the Gatwick Express train between
Victoria and Gatwick; you simply never know what the
traffic is going to be like on that crazy bus connecting
Heathrow and Gatwick directly.
Even for connections within the same airport, Gatwick
or Heathrow, our advice for London now is to leave at
least 3 hours between flights. Coming into London, you
must clear customs there and then take a bus from one
terminal to another. The customs lines are interminable,
and sometimes so are the lines waiting for the interterminal
bus. For security reasons, you are not allowed simply
to walk from one terminal to the other. Ticket agents
selling you connections in London will insist that that
90-minute connection is legal, but we would refuse it
and insist on taking the next flight after. We used
to hate long layovers. Now, we eagerly seek them out
because we know (a) that we will make the connection;
and more importantly (b) that our luggage will make
the connection.
Paris is the second-worst; try to leave at least 2
hours between flights. Amsterdam, Munich, and Frankfurt
are better.
You’re flying from the West Coast of the US and
you’d like to avoid JFK at all costs as your connecting
point? Our advice is that there are airports far worse
than JFK these days: Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and London
among them. We’ve actually found JFK to do a good
job.
TRANSPORT STRIKES
This is a complicated and ever-changing situation.
First, let’s talk about strikes affecting air transport.
Usually, intercontinental flights are guaranteed,
and you should have no trouble getting to Italy from
the US. (This, of course, says nothing about possible
strikes on US or other carriers.) IntraEuropean
and Italian domestic flights have no such guarantees.
If you’re flying in to Milan and on to Naples,
and there’s an Alitalia strike on the day of your
arrival, you’re going to have to face the fact
that you’re not going to make it to Naples that
day, not by plane, at least. Sometimes strikes last
just a few hours; sometimes for an entire day, very
rarely longer than a day.
What to do in the case just mentioned? You need to
get to Naples that day. You’ve got basically two
choices: rent a car or take the train.
What if there’s a general strike? Italy
has had several general strikes lately. This means that
everyone stops working. On the relatively rare occasions
when this happens, you’re going to have to deal
with a difficult situation, as it may be difficult to
get anywhere. In the scenario described above, you’re
almost certainly going to have to spend the night in
Milan (and try to find a cab to get you there).
Will we give you your money back for nights in a rental
missed because of a strike? No, we won’t. These
are the risks of travel, and your trip cancellation
insurance policy should cover you; you should ask them
if such risks are covered. If they aren’t, then
buy a different policy.
OPERA (and
other music) IN ITALY
What has happened to Italian opera? The glory days
of Italian singers like Corelli, Bastianini, Olivero,
and Tebaldi are long gone. But going to the opera in
Italy is still fun. Everyone knows the plot, so it’s
more like a favorite family outing. We’ve lately
seen Rigoletto in Florence, a wonderful Flying Dutchman
(of all things) in Naples, Macbeth at the Spoleto Festival,
and a dozen offerings in Rome, a couple of which, like
Ballo in Maschera and L’Italiana in Algeri, were
actually good.
Opera isn’t cheap, especially with current exchange
rates.
It used to be practically impossible to obtain Italian
opera tickets outside Italy. Now, it’s a breeze,
as all of the houses, from La Scala to San Carlo, from
Venice to Rome, Trieste, Parma, Genoa, etc., all have
websites with on-line booking capability. So do the
big summer festivals, like the Arena in Verona; the
Rossini Festival at Pesaro; the amphitheatre at Macerata;
the Puccini affair at Massaciucolli. All can be booked
on-line.
Apart from opera, other music festivals like Umbria
Jazz have on-line booking.
It’s all much easier now.
CHURCHES
If you, like us, are church enthusiasts, you should
remember that only the most famous churches, like Siena
Cathedral, stay open all day. Most open very early,
6:00 or 7:00 a.m., then close between 12:00 noon and
4:00 p.m., and reopen until 7:00 p.m. or so. Many do
not reopen in the afternoon at all, and quite a few
open only for morning mass, around 7:00 a.m. Some rather
famous churches are permanently locked. If you have
your heart set on seeing one of these, you should by
all means inquire in the neighborhood for the keeper
of the keys. Do the same thing if the church is "in
restauro" -- the two cruelest words in the Italian
language. Find the keykeeper and beg him or (more usually)
her to let you in.
One of the most disappointing features of Italian churches
is the lighting. Often, famous works of art simply cannot
be seen. We carry both flashlight and binoculars for
better viewing. Another essential is a pocketful of
20- and 50-centesimi and 1-euro coins to operate the
timed lighting machines in the churches.
MAPS AND GUIDEBOOKS
We buy all our travel books and maps at The Book Passage
in Corte Madera, California, perhaps the best travel
bookstore in the country, which also happens to have
a fantastic mail-order catalog and website which cover
not only Italy but also the USA and the entire rest
of the world! You can get the catalog for free by calling
The Book Passage
toll-free at 800-321-9785 (in California, 415-927-0960).
You need a good map. If you're staying in the countryside
in one place for a week or two at a stretch, the Michelin
map of Italy is not sufficiently detailed. You need
a large-scale map (1:250,000 or less) of the particular
region you're exploring. The best are the Touring
Club Italiano maps of Italy by region, or their
clone put out by Kummerly-Frey; another good series
is put out by Agostini.
There are also hiking maps at an even more detailed
scale. You can get some of these through Book Passage.
There’s more variety at this level in local bookstores
in Italy.
For the cities, the best maps in our opinion are the
Falk maps. These maps are in a sort of booklet form
and have slits in them so that on a windy day you aren't
forced to open the map up fully to find where you're
going. Best of all, there is a complete street index
at the back. Falk puts out maps of Rome, Venice, Milan,
Florence, and Naples.
For our money, the very best guidebooks for sights
are still the Michelin Green Guides. There are now volumes
for Italy as a whole, as well as individual volumes
for Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Rome, and Sicily. The
Blue Guides to Northern Italy, Southern Italy, Tuscany,
Umbria, Sicily, Rome, Florence, and Venice are less
than exciting but the most thorough of all. For unstuffiness,
the Let's Go guide to Italy is one of our oldest favorites.
Finally, for Rome, Anya Shetterly's Romewalks, now unfortunately
out of print, revealed parts of a city in which we thought
we knew everything.
PASSEGGIATA
Around 6 pm, after siesta time, everyone goes
out for a walk, or passeggiata. This is a magical time,
and you should participate fully in it. Secure yourself
a spot in an open-air bar, order a gelato or a Campari,
and ogle. This phenomenon takes place in even the smallest
towns -- indeed, it is perhaps most dramatic in precisely
those small towns, especially in the south, where at
any other hour of the day you wonder if life exists
at all. The most spectacular passeggiate we ever experienced
were in the village of Lucera in Puglia and in the city
of Matera in Basilicata. Another in the tacky coastal
town of Catanzaro Lido. Another in L'Aquila. Como, surprisingly,
has a good one, as does Perugia. In Rome, it seems like
the entire city participates.
|
