Travel Tips
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.