Italy for 28 days?

williewonder

I’m wanting to go away to Italy in April next year for 28 days. I want to go backpacking but I’m nervous as I’ll have a tight budget of about £150 a day. £4000 for the 28 days. I will be nervous about traveling around and getting lost, reading train/bus signs etc. And I think it could be too much but I love the idea.

I’ve been to Lake Como before and I love Lake Como. I had a brill 9 days there but this was a coach holiday. I could rent an Apartment with Lake views for £1500 for the 28 days and have this as my base. I could travel to Milan, Venice, Lake Garda, Lake Maggiore.. go further south if I wanted to do for a few days. I think this will be more stress free.

Hopefully doing it this way will ease my anxiety around backpacking Italy. I don't know why I feel anxious about backpacking?

I’m already booked and committed to Ireland (May) and Israel (June) next year as these got transferred to next year due to Covid. I also have a Coach trip booked with my male lover for October next year to Rome, Sorreento, Pompeii, thats already paid for which was also meant to do this year but got moved to Next year.

What are the pros and cons to backpacking/renting a apartment. It will only be me travelling. Thank you.

Neruda

The main 'con' to renting an apartment is that it is expensive, far too much space for just one person. And of course you might get bored with that region and want to move on before the 28 days are over. See if you can rent just a room (Air BnB) in the same area to save some money, and perhaps commit to just one or two weeks.

Trains work in the same way as here and there is no difficulty about reading 'signs' on them. Buses can be more confusing, and of course the language does not help.

martindow

Here's all of the information you will need for rail travel in Italy

https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

jimbo6977

Lots of hostels, agriturismi (farm stays) and other reasonably priced accommodation in Italy. Trains and buses/coaches between major towns are not expensive either. 

https://www.hihostels.com/

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Also I find it best to use the German dbahn website for most European countries as its easier to navigate, is more reliable, and saves having to cross reference national and regional sites.

https://www.bahn.com/en

eDicky

williewonder said:

Hopefully doing it this way will ease my anxiety around backpacking Italy. I don't know why I feel anxious about backpacking?

Would you also feel anxious about backpacking around Britain..?

Italians are very friendly and I'd say there's less chance of encountering unsavoury characters there than in UK.

Ability to speak English is less common among Italians than in some other European countries, but you have plenty of time to learn some Italian before you go. Then, with ability to communicate easily you can make use of the excellent public transport facilities with no reason for anxiety...

maman

I've had many holidays in Italy with no language problem in places like Verona, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome etc
In more remote areas I fell back on sign language, dictionary or digging back to the Latin I learned at school. Now you'd have Google to help you.

What I would be thinking about is where you hope to go in your 28 days. Having an apartment could be restrictive although trains are good. Hostels or cheap hotels might be a better bet. I'd work on an itinerary.