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Travel Tips in Italy - Weekly Updated
A tip for any readers who are heading to Rome (why wouldn't you?) and want to
wander the coliseum. Avoid the long wait in the cue to buy tickets to enter the
coliseum by heading to the Roman forum first. There is usually little of no line
here, and you use the same ticket to enter the colliseum, walking straight past
the hundreds of people lining up straight to the gates to scan your ticket and
you are free to wander at your whim.
Jason Gill, Switzerland (Oct 06)
Thefts should be reported to the Main Police Station at Via S. Vitale and NOT at
the Ufficio Straniero as listed in your book. (The reporting procedure is simple
and efficient and forms are in Italian and English). The latter has been renamed
Ufficio Immigrazione and deals mainly with visa & immigration formalities. It
has moved to Via Teofilo Patini snc (angolo via Salviati) zone 'Tor Cervara'.
(Metro line B to Rebibbia and then autobus No. 447). Tel: 0646863109 &
0646863098.
To avoid the horrendous queues for the Vatican Museum, go to the entrance from
which the queue starts. To the right are revolving doors for the exit from the
Museum. Just inside is the informazioni counter. There is no indication on the
outside.. There you can book an excellent guided tour for 21.50 which includes
the entry price of 12.50. They leave at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. & 4 p.m. You can
book in advance, or on the spot 15 mins before, providing there is room on the
tour and that way avoid the long queues. For both St. Peter's and the Vatican
Museum the queues in the morning are just impossible. But if you go around 3 pm.
you can almost walk straight in. No queues!
Florence. Just a quick note to let you know of the way we discovered to visit
the Uffizi & Gallery Academic bypassing the queues (I believe this new system is
the reason for the difficulty in getting reservations to those museums now and
the consequently very long queues):
The Bank Toscana has an arrangement with the museums whereby you can purchase a
50 debit card (for 55) from the bank, which gives you a voucher for each of
the above named 2 galleries, allowing you to purchase 2 entry tickets from each
of those galleries (using the debit card) without incurring a reservation charge
(eg 6.50 for admission to uffizzi instead of 6.5 + 3) AND allows you to enter
immediately so effectively skipping the large queues. The 5 extra cost of
purchasing the debit card goes to the banks' administration AND some gets to the
Gallery Academica for restoration/maintenance of Michelangelo's David.
As the purchase of 2 tickets for entry to each of the Uffizzi and the Gallery
Academica only amounts to about 26, there is some surplus cash left on the
debit card. The rest of this cash on the debit card can be used to purchase
souvenirs from the gift shops associated with the museums, and I think can also
be used for purchasing tickets to the other Florence museums. The purpose and
use of the card was being misunderstood particularly by non-italian speakers,
who thought that the 55 was for entry to the 2 museums only (and therefore was
more than a doubling of the normal cost).
If you are going up north in summer definitely take some strong insect repellant
with you, and some stuff for the bites afterwards. The chemist will give you a
cream for them but in some towns they close for a period in summer and the only
one left open can be up to an hour away.
One of main attractions in Rome. The Holy See (Vatican City). If intending to
visit during summer months (May - Sept), make sure you carry a lite t-shirt and
pair of track pants or lite trousers in backpack so you can pull over shorts or
vest before entering. Vests and shorts aren't considered appropriate attire for
entering The Vatican.
If you're not worried about getting a little lost, walk around Rome as much as
you can instead of taking public transport. Around any corner could be a Roman
site found whilst developers were trying to build new buildings. Although they
may not be fully excavated, they are great to look at.
In Rome I found the bus service excellent. I found it opened up the whole city
to me, and I also found that I was beginning to know my way around the city and
where the main points of interest were located as opposed to running around
tunnels in the dark. The only thing the metro has over the bus is the speed but
on any other criterion it simply does not compare. Presently the A metro line
(Battistini/Anagnina) is undergoing renovations/upgrading and will shut down at
2100 hrs for the next 3 years at least.
Having just returned from Venice I wish to pass on some information with regards
to getting from the Treviso airport to Piazzale Roma (Venice). Ryan air provided
a bus at a cost of 4.50 for a single trip and 8 for a return ticket, this is
excellent value for money as the buses connects with all Ryanair flights.
Just back from Italy. Please WARN women solo travellers against taking the
overnight trains, specifically on the Naples/Genoa route. I am not easily
frightened but I was on the overnight train from Naples to Nice. Very seedy
elements on board, I thought I would be raped, unable to sleep the entire time
out of fear.
If you buy anything in a tabacchi or other little stores and bars, you should
check the total and the change immediately and accurately. Within a few days we
would have lost about 20 at four shops. At a tabacchi, they gave us bus tickets
in a paper bag, so we were not able to see the price printed on the tickets. The
total was nearly twice as high as it should have been.
Have just got back from an amazing trip round Italy. Something to look out for
as Mum ended up in a Police Station in Rome is a single man waiting outside
Metro stops at night pretending to be lost and thrusting a map in your face. As
you stop to help, two other official looking men turn up flashing mock police
badges at you demanding your bank cards and passport saying the man you are
helping is very dangerous. They take your cards, all the time you believing that
they are Police, and demand very aggressively for your PIN numbers for your
card. Throughout this interrogation, they have scanned all your card details
into a small device and also given your details down the phone to someone. Mum
didn't give out her PIN and went straight to the Police station, where they
informed her this was a growing problem. The Italian Police were very helpful
and assisted her in canceling all her cards over the phone, which when checked
with the Bank in England had been done legit. It all happens very quickly and
your natural reaction is to stop and help someone lost who looks like a fellow
tourist, I guess just keep your wits about you after dark.
This year I spent some time in Sicily, about 2 months, which was very nice. It
occured to me that your "Sicily" book does not even make mention of a wonderful
little town named Novara di Sicilia. This very interesting, wonderfull,
untouched one-of-a-kind historic medieval town lies in the Nebrodi and
Peloritani mountains, not far from the cities of Messina, Barcelona, and
Milazzo. It exists as a medieval urban site since the 12th century and
historians and legends alike have spoken of its existance as a settlement since
ancient times. Novara did/does lie on the ancient route which carried greeks and
others from Tyndaris to Naxos in ancient times. Novara is also surrounded by
lush mountain terrain and agriculture and has a priceless view on the Aolian
Islands only a few miles away.
In the Liguria region there are plenty of "sagre", similar to the Spanish
fiestas. The best ones, and more suitable for the backpacker crowd, are those in
the hillside towns and villages. They always have some kind of religious origin,
and they start with processions and masses and all that, but usually at night
they develop in big parties packed with young people coming from all the
villages and towns around, with open air DJ sessions, cheap good food (the sagra
usually is named after the local gastronomic specialty), cheap booze, bars open
till late at night, etc. It can be a lot of fun for people on their 20-30's.If
you want to go for the most unique atmosphere, always choose the sagre in the
little hillside towns, because those on the coast are usually more family
oriented. Hillside villages are usually easy to reach by local bus lines (unless
you feel like going on foot or hitch-hiking). All these sagre are widely
advertised locally by street posters and billboards.
My wife and I recently spent a fabulous week in the medieval town of Oria, a
little village in the Apulia province of Italy (south). It is an extremely
interesting area, with the Trulli house (Alberobello) nearby, the cave
formations at Castella Grotte, terrific Byzantine and other buildings at Lecce ,
the warm sea at Campamorale. The area has a mixed history which has left a
fascinating variety of castles, cathedrals, Moorish, Byzantine and Greek
locations. The local people were very friendly and they are rightly proud of
their food and wine which we found to be cheap and enjoyable.There are several
economical restaurants in Oria, all serving excellent food.We highly recommend
this experience to other travellers who like getting away from the tourist rush
and feeling southern Italian life.
We stayed in Trestina situated between Cittα di Castello and Umbertide and
visited the nearby village Montone. Although we couldn't find it being mentioned
in any guide, it was recommended by the owner of the house that we rented. And
it was indeed a true pearl!
Brixen-Bressanone is a charming city. It was the diocesan town for the main part
of Tyrol until South Tyrol became part of Italy in 1918. There is the episcopal
castle with a museum (representative rooms, models of nativity scenes and
crucifixion scenes) and several paintings of famous Tyrolean artists of the 19th
century) and the beautiful cathedral with a gothic cloister (with frescos).
About 15 km south of Brixen is the small town Klausen-Chiusa, which was very
popular for artists in the 19th and early 20th century, they liked it for the
still medieval and romantic look, and it has kept much of it until today. On a
hill looking over the city is a convent (Kloster Sδben) which was the residence
of the bishop in the medieval age. It looks more like a castle, and it was built
to protect the citizens of the town and the villages around. Today there are
still some Benedictine nuns living there. You can walk up the hill (about 20
minutes), visit the churches and enjoy the view.
Summer in Rome, fabulous, amazing... hot and crowded. Think about staying
outside the city, I recommend
Terracina,
(famous for the white wine of the region)in the hills overlooking Rome. Its a
charming little place with Roman fountains, Roman temple ruins. The day time
heat & crowds are killers, and Rome by moonlight (and the specially amber
coloured streetlights) is unimaginably gorgeous.
Some of the Best Touristic Itineraries
in Italy
1st Itinerary
San Felice Circeo -Sabaudia - National Park of Circeo
S. Felice Circeo - Sea-bathing resort among the most wellknown and preferred,
San Felice combines the charm of an ancient settlement perched on the western
slopes of the mythical promontory with first class touristc attractions.
SABAUDIA - The elegance of this new town, founded only half-a-century ago, is
due to the regular urban planning and to the splendid natural setting of sea and
coastal lake of the same name. NATIONAL PARK OF CIRCEO - Constituted in 1934 to
safeguard the marvellous natural endownments of the area, the Park extends over
8,300 hectares one-third of which consists of uncontaminated state-owned forests
where wild-life and vegetation are rigorously protected.
2nd Itinerary
Abbey of Fossanova - Sezze - Sermoneta - Ninfa
Abbey of Fossanova - The Abbey of Fossanova is the first Italian example of
Cistercense gothic construction. Built in the 9th century, the church was
consecrated in 1208 by Pope Innocent III. The interior, with three aisles, is
without either painting or sculpure and the local live stone accentuates the
volumetric character of the building. The most beautiful cloister should also be
visited as well as the chapter hall, the refectory and the recently restored
infirmary. SEZZE- This is the most important and representative centre of Monti
Lepini. The cathedral is very interesting. On Good Friday, the streets of this
little town is the scene of a charming, moving re-evocation of the Passion of
Christ. SERMONETA - The medieval stamp of this town is most evident in its urban
structure and in its monuments, the most important of which is the Castle,
excellently preserved and seat of numerous cultural displays. NINFA - A medieval
town, completely abandoned in the 18th century due to malaria, it has been
defined by the historian Gregorovius as the "Pompei of the Middle Ages". Today,
it is a pictoresque ruin inserted in a verdant and natural botanic garden
dominated by the tower ot the Caetani Castle.
3nd Itinerary
Fondi - Grottos of Pastena - Abbey of Montecassino
Fondi - Situated on a lake of the same name, the sea and the slopes of the
Aurunci mountains, the plane of Fondi is one of the most renowned agricultural
areas in Latium. In the inhabited centre, there is the Cathedral of San Pietro,
the barional Castle and the Palace of the Prince. GROTTOS OF PASTENA - Very vast
spelaeological complex, among the most important in Italy, rich in stalactites
and stalagmites in fantastic forms, the grottos of of pastenas may be visited
along a stretch of approximately 2.5 kilometers, composed of lighted paths which
enable one to enjoy the horrid beauty of the interior. ABBEY OF MONTECASSINO -
founded in 529 by Benedict of Norcia, this most famous abbey became very soon
the most enlightened centre of western civilization. This is rather surprising
if one considers the various occurrences of the complex, several times destroyed
and each time arising agin as a symbol of civilization and peace.
4th Itinerary
Sperlonga - Gaeta - Formia - Minturno
SPERLONGA - The most ancient nucleus of the town, dating back to the Middle
Ages, is grouped together on a peak on the mountain jutting out towards the sea
and it has the typical appearance of a Mediterranean seaside resort. The climate
and scenery were renown and appreciated even in Roman times. (Grotto of Tiberius
and surrounding areas). Gaeta - From Sperlonga to Gaeta the coast winds in an
intricate and stupendous arabesque of promontories and bays up to the
characteristic natural port which was one of the attractions of the ancient city
of the Aurunci. The medieval district of St. Erasmus with its cathedral and
Angevin-Aragonese Castle is an authentic jewel. FORMIA - the healthy climate and
the seacoast rich in fish-life rendered it a renown holiday resort even in Roman
times. Cicero had a splendid villa in Formia and here he was killed by assassins
sent by Antonio in 43 A.D. Local tradition has idenified in a tomb of the 1st
century situated at 139,5 kms on the Via Appia, the sepulchre of the great
orator. The charecteristic agglomerate in the high part of the city is
interesting with the Torre of Mola and the church of St. Erasmus. MINTURNO - A
large town with a medieval aspect, Minturno rises on the terrace dominating the
sea. Particularly interesting are the ruins of the ancient Roman city of
Minturanae with its Theatre of the 1st century A.D. excellently preserved and
the seat of summer theatrical activity.
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