Where to Visit in Italy

LisaW123

blacksta wrote: »

how does one act as a local - without speaking the language

Never drink cappucino (only have espresso) after 10.00 a.m., don't wear shorts, especially in cities and don't wear them anywhere if you are over 25 (years or stones), don't behave like a drunken lout, never walk into a shop and walk out of it without speaking to the staff, don't use an indicator when you have a horn. The list is literally endless.

Bob_the_Saver

blacksta wrote: »

how does one act as a local - without speaking the language

Gesticulate a lot and be ever ruder to foreigners than the French, oh and have very few children but that takes a while to assess.

VfM4meplse

Mr_Wang wrote: »

Naples is garbage, Rome is great but tiring, Venice is over rated and Pisa is a dive.

Cannot emphasise the comment about Napoli enough - stay away if you're constitution is even slightly delicate.

If you really want a beach location, I would recommend tha Amalfi coast which should keep you occupied for 4 days - 1 week depending on your pace.

If you're less bothered about a beach but still want water, go for Lado di Como or Lago di Garda in the North - still great temperatures in the summer.

If you want culture and an amazing environment, head for Toscana and Umbria where you can take in Firenze, Siena, Pisa and Assisi as well as Lake Trasimeno.

Enjoy....

lovesgshp

Italy is expensive, I live here so have got to know a few of the scams.
Some restaurants charge extra if you are not a " local ". Some bars will add a surcharge if you drink outside.
Watch out for the immigrants trying to get you to buy things from them (fake handbags etc) the fines can be horrendous if you are caught.
Keep all food/drink receipts for at least 30 mins after leaving a bar/restaurant, as the Financial Police could ask to see them.
Coastal restaurants can be very expensive, even on the Adriatic coast.

totallybored

I love Milan and the lakes. Lake Como at the start of September still has the great weather but not as many tourists. You can also go to Lake Lugano in Switzerland from Como which is a nice day out. Eating out can be reasonable if you want pizzas and snacks. A jug of house wine with a pizza is normally cheap and perfectly drinkable.

Go for aperitivo on an evening (I'm not sure if it's just a northern Italian thing) usually from 6/7pm for a couple of hours. You go to a bar for a pre-dinner drink and depending on the bar they will have free snacks or a mini buffet. Some only have crisps and nuts but some bars have decent hams, cheeses, bits of pizza etc. When i was a student in Italy we'd go and nurse a small beer for quite some time in order to eat for free!

I think I'm probably alone in actually liking Naples but I wouldn't recommend it as part of a holiday if you've not been to Italy before!

zagfles

totallybored wrote: »

I think I'm probably alone in actually liking Naples but I wouldn't recommend it as part of a holiday if you've not been to Italy before!

You're not - we went to Naples for a day and we loved it. Got there on the train and found a small cafe/restaurant which served the biggest & best pizzas we'd ever had, proper Napoli style, with a half litre of wine and cokes for the kids and it was dirt cheap (I think under 15 EUR for 4 of us). Then went to the archeological museum which had a lot of the best stuff from Pompeii and Herculanuem, plus a "naughty" room where all the sexually explict artifacts were kept (we told the kids to close their eyes:)).

On the buses and underground people were really friendly, more so than in any city we've ever been to. Even though we spoke virtually no Italian. On the underground an old lady offered the kids biscuits and had a sort of chat with us (hard when we didn't speak each other's language, but the effort was appreciated). On a bus we looked lost, consulting the map etc, and a young local couple came up to us and helped, showing us where we needed to get off.

Went to a kids playground, the local kids looked really rough, but there was no pushing and shoving in the queue for the slides etc which there usually is here...

Finished the day with one of those expensive "city sightseeing" open top bus tours as we were only there for a day - saw some really nice parts of Naples (yes there are some), and decided to get the boat back to Sorrento across the Bay of Naples which rounded a very enjoyable day off.

Mentioned all this to another English tourist in the hotel that night. He said he had his Rolex whipped of his wrist as soon as he got off the train!! I think there's a moral there somewhere...

vivatifosi

What about La Spezia? It's a pleasant enough town with a good market on certain days of the week. It can be used as a base to get to Pisa and Florence (though a bit further afield), as well as the Cinque Terre. It's also on the Rome/Genoa train line but Rome would be one heck of a trek. Back from the seafront there are reasonably priced places to eat and hotels and B&B aren't too badly priced.

peb

Sorrento is comparatively inexpensive but don't go their for the beaches. There seems to a lot of private beaches in Italy so staying at a cheaper hotel you may not be able to access a beach.

Venice is beautiful (went for a day from Garda - twice) and if you go to a self service cafe you can eat overlooking the Grand Canal for 3E50 - you will have to drink water which is in jugs starbucks style!