Italy trip planning

Saria

Thanks for the advice, the Man in Seat 61 website is very useful. Will be pre-ordering our train tickets between Milan, Florence and Rome soon.
And good to know I will need to validate tickets on normal trains, as we might be making day trips to Siena and Pisa! Will keep an eye out for that.

Grumpelstiltskin wrote: »

You do realise you will be travelling over the Easter period?

This will mean hotels will be more expensive.

I do realise this, but as my partner is a teacher we are quite limited in when we can travel sadly. Easter seemed the best option as I get days off then too (and it won't be as hot as during summer). We just have to find out if certain places might be closed on the bank holidays.

Grumpelstiltskin

There is information here about Easter in Italy.

https://publicholidays.it/easter/

blindman

Saria wrote: »

If not, are there places people can recommend? Hotels or AirBnB (never used them before)?

I've used AirBnb a few times and there are definitely pros and cons to this form of accommodation.

Pros
1. Can be a lot cheaper than hotels
2. Get to use a home with all the amenities (cooking)
3. Get to meet the host and locals :cool:

Cons
1. Can be not near tourist stuff\transport links
2. Can be cancelled as you get on\off the plane-with no alternative.:eek:
3. Host can be a nightmare
4. Varying degrees of cleanliness.
5. Can be difficult to find\host not in when you arrive.

Most of my AirBnbs' have been short stays -3 days max.
So some of the above I can live with.

Con no 2 is my biggest worry-Never happened to me (yet).

Never had a nightmare (to me) host, but had some that were a little bizarre.:cool:

Adds to the fun of the experience!

Archergirl

If you use the Hop on Hop off bus in Rome, when you get off for the Vatican DO NOT USE Capital Museum Tours
We were approached by 2 girls from Capital Museum Tours when we got off the Ho Ho Bus.They said that their tour was good and only 9 euro more than what we would have to pay if we did it ourselves. A complete lie.
It was a complete rip off, after half an hour of a complete c*** talk we were taken to the square and told some things then we had to walk back to the office (in the pouring rain) while he collected the tickets for us (a group of 12) and 12 other people (who had an even worse tour than us but at least they skipped the c*** talk) The guide Sylvio told us to meet him somewhere after the Sistine chapel and we never saw him again, we missed all the galleries and most of the Vatican museum. Don't use this company........I asked for some refund but the company were not interested they had our money and were keeping it........

dlmcr

We did a tour around Italy a couple of years ago, starting in Rome, then went to Florence and then a couple of other places. For the accommodation we used homeaway.co.uk to book self contained apartments. In fact we generally stay in self contained houses / apartments as we can use the cooking facilities without spending a lot of money eating out, plus get the ability to chose why type of place (character / feel) we stay in.
We've stayed in around 10-12 houses / apartments which we found using homeaway and would suggest these tips:
- book places with previous reviews (and obviously read the reviews carefully!)
- look at the location
- book well in advance (we started to look at least 6 months as the best places go quickly)
- example prices: We paid 50 euro per night for a self contained house in the centre of Rome (yes really!) One bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathrrom. Self contained and modern. Not scruffy. Florence was a little more and me managed to get a 18 sq m(!) studio for a little more but very very central. The bargains are there you just have to look. You don't necessarily need to be miles out of town to get the best prices but it can be easier.
- This business about ramping the prices up for accommodation at holiday times seems to be a particularly british thing, and though a few apartment owners abfroad do have tiered pricing it is definitely not as common as in this country. Be mindful and if the increase in apartment price in peak hol season is large move on to the next apartment - there is amassive amnount of choice and you don't need to get ripped off!


Around rail booking we also went from town to town in italy using rail. Use Trenitalia (national website of italian trains) or dbbahn to check times. You can buy from Trenitalia and print off at home or in an internet cafe. For local journeys just buy ticket at the station using the machines, there is no difference in prices compared tio buying on the day. For longer journeys you will normally get discounts the further in advance you book, again seat 61 has the details. Try and get these advance tickets as you can save a lot of money doing so.

Buy food in local markets and cook at home, good quality local produce , prices are cheaper than restaurants. Avoid eating at tourist hotspots, often going only 2 streets away means much better quality food at better prices.

Always use review sites to look at reviews for restaurants, I used tripadvisor but there are others.

In general we did an itinerary day by day saying we will go here on this day and do that on that day. It is not something we followed religiously but gave a good bit of structure and made sure we gave time to do everything that we wanted to. Make sure you include a "chill out" day!