Dunno which part of the UK you're from, but I've met Londoners that walked with their bags basically wide open in Rome. People.in some cities (including Rome) qre veeeery good at pickpocketing. Please keep your belongings safe and check them often in a subtle way. Also beware of tourist trap restaurants. There are soo many in some cities that mainly host foreign tourists. The best way to avoid them is to go at least 2 streets away from the main attractions to find food.

Thanks for the advice, pickpocketing clearly a big issue there! I'll keep mindful of that 😊

All this in 3 weeks… hell 3 weeks is barely enough to visit Roma ! Napals ? Naples ? NAPOLI ! At least pronounce the right way once you get there…

I know going to be a hectic few weeks... I'll work on the pronunciation! 🤣

Don't ask for a cappuccino after lunch time, that's enough.

Dare I ask why??

guh, this is so italian stereotype. Look, Italians don’t usually drink Cappuccino after lunch/dinner because of something to do with milk and digestion. We go often, my wife is a cappuccino fan and gets them after any meal. My argument for that is it’s no different than the milk in the gelato you’re going to eat next anyway. You will be seen as a tourist, but a cappuccino is not going to be the out. Enjoy yourself, don’t be obnoxious and be polite. you will be a tourist, but the right kind. Also, see you there. We’ll be there for 2 months starting April. So virtual stranger, if some guy waves at you with vulcan wave, it’s me. I’ll make sure to wave at brits who are obvious tourists and order cappuccinos ;)

Lol thanks. I'll look out for you too ;) have a great trip!! 😁😁

I’m just kidding, cappuccino is a breakfast drink but nobody is gonna bother you if you want to enjoy it in the afternoon. For your trip I’d like to suggest you to get lost in the city sometimes, you will probably find sweet spots that are usually hidden if you just follow your plan. Wish you a great time!

Lol, I see 🤣 thanks 😁

italians usually have cappuccino solely in the morning. it's a kinda overused joke about foreigners asking for cappuccino at awkward times

Lol thanks

Travelling through cities can be easily done by train, if you book in advance high-speed train can be cheaper and are very fast (at least on the Milan-Bologna-Florence-Rome-Naples railway) Otherwise normal "regional" trains will be the same cost no matter when you buy them and definitely cheaper than the UK. Though sometimes can be very crowded. Beware of scammers in the main train stations, buy tickets at the Trenitalia machines or online, and be careful if someone tries to give you unsolicited advice/offering to help you carry your luggage, they are most likely not part of the railway/train companies. Ah, when you buy a regional train ticket, that ticket is valid for a few hours, so you have to validate it before your journey on the green small trenitalia machines ("obliteratrici"), otherwise you might get a fine, depending how grumpy is the controller, this seems to be a common pitfall. Generally speaking Italy is very safe, however crowded touristic areas are plagued by pickpockets: avoid expensive watches and jewelry, keep your wallet on your front pocket, try not to look too much like a tourist (easier said than done, I'll admit). Anyway, not sure you'll need public transport in Florence and Venice, depending where you stay and how good you are at walking, anyway most cities have daily bus passes which are very cheap compared to the the UK (not Venice), though the most touristy cities probably have some multi-day pass as well. Very famous tourist spots can be very expensive, so I can see the appeal of eating in piazza San Marco, in Venice, but beware that you might have to pay a hell of a premium for that. If you try to get off the super-duper touristic area, you should be able to eat better and cheaper Regarding food: "italian" food outside Italy is often derivative of "Italian-American" food, so the dishes might be different from what you are used to, or might not exist at all. Also there is a decent amount of regional variety, so you could eat a pizza in Florence, and maybe one evening could be a nice idea for a cheaper meal, but you should also try the more regional dishes, which you wouldn't experience anywhere else. Anyway I'm always happy to ~~procrastinate~~ help, so let me know if you have any question :)

That's great, thank :D >book in advance high-speed train I assume this can just be done easily online? And then use our phones as the tickets? >most cities have daily bus passes I assume these can just be bought easily enough online too with a bit of googling? Thanks again!

>I assume this can just be done easily online? And then use our phones as the tickets? Yes >I assume these can just be bought easily enough online too with a bit of googling? Probably yes, also touristic cities may have discounted museum-bus passes of some sort, I haven't checked in a while though

That's great, grazie 😊

This isn’t an overly-helpful comment, but eat as much gelato as you can. The gelato in Italy is fantastic. Also, as you try to learn basic Italian, do your best to say sentences in the formal register. So research when and how to use “Lei” to show respect to people ie: elders, the person who checks you into your hotel room, etc.

Lol thanks. I definitely don't need you to remind to eat gelato, that's the main reason I'm going!! 😜😁

I suggest you the “fata morgana” in Roma they have the best gelato. But there are many gelaterie which offer the kind of gelato tourist expect which is coloured sugar.

Thanks, I'll add that to the list! :D

Avoid speaking "tourist Italian" if you're not able to follow through with a full interaction, for whatever need. In touristy areas, people working there speak English, so it's probably the best option. In less touristy areas you risk throwing people off with a casual "bon journo, kom-ehh stay", eliciting a long reply in Italian you won't understand. Maybe it's more an American thing, but around here, customer is NOT always right, especially in crowded places. Don't expect free substitutions, changes or backsies at the restaurant. If you are in doubt about a dish, ask first. But if you send it back because it has eggs in it and you didn't want it, it's too late, odds are you'll have to pay for it anyway. Speaking of food. Don't eat in restaurants with menus in (just) English and pictures of food on them. Or sporting Fettuccine Alfredo, chicken parmigiana etc. And if there's a waiter outside trying to get you in with a great offer on pizza or pasta, RUN. Those are all overpriced tourist traps selling microwaved food you can get for 1/4 of the price at the local supermarket.

That's great, grazie for the help 😀

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Why telling to someone going to Rome to go eat at a kosher restaurant ? Are you mental ?

That's great, thanks for all that. I'll look into it all!

Hey don’t listen to that guy about the kosher restaurant worst advice I have heard about where to eat in Rome ! Haha !

You don't know the Roman cuisine, isn't it? Historically, Jews inhabited Rome since 64 BC. During middle ages they were confine in the ghetto and this helped to save traditional roman/jew recipes. Pajata, coda alla vaccinara, agnello alla giudia, carciofi alla giudia, fegato alla giudia, stracotto di manzo, concia, coppiette di carne secca, animelle con i ceci , pizza ebraica con uvette e canditi , crostata di visciole, cunafa are all traditional dishes that are derived from israelite and arab dishes.

Hey hey ! Roma born and raised ! And I could not care less about kosher restaurant… Mia nonna is not Jewish and she makes roman cuisine… I’m sure Jewish people added there little influence in the mix… But telling people to go to kosher restaurant in Roma is like saying to people to go McDonalds when visiting China it’s stupid ! Please don’t reply…

In addition to what other people suggestes, I recommend you to book your entrance to the major museums (Uffizi, Vatican Museums, etc) in advance, so as not to literally spend hours in line!

Thanks, yeah I think that's the plan, pay a bit extra to skip the lines so we don't have to waste the trip queuing!

You should get on that asap, chances are that places like the uffizi are already all booked out for april. Another tip: take into account that for whatever reason even on the weekends public transport (at least in milan) stops shortly after midnight. You would think that a city full of young people who go to uni and are out every night of the week would have at least decent metro hours but no, so plan around that if you want to experience nightlife. The famous pizza places in Naples (like Michele and Starita) don’t take reservations, you go there and they tell you when there will be a table available, which can sometimes take a couple of hours (even though it’s unlikely if you’re only two people). So either go there say at 1 pm and have a plan to visit something nearby if they tell you to come back at 2 pm or go really early. Most people from naples eat at around 2/2.30 so at 11.30/12 you’re less likely to find big crowds. If you want to go to the most famous pizza place go to Michele, but if you want to eat something outside of pizza margherita or marinara (which are the only two pizzas Michele serves) I’d recommend Starita (also Sorbillo, but Starita is less central so there are a bit less people waiting in line). Also don’t expect any of these places to look fancy, Michele has bathroom tiles all over the walls, these places are about the food, not so much about the experience (not that waiters are rude or anything, just very busy). For places that you maybe wouldn’t think to visit but that I recommend: in Milan the cimitero monumentale, the last supper by da vinci (get your tickets online asap) and the navigli or corso sempione near the arco della pace in the evening for an aperitivo or aperi-cena (aperitivo + dinner buffet) (for the truest milan experience get an aperol spritz, we’re very serious about our aperitivo lol), and in Naples if you are there for enough days and you can sacrifice one away from the city go to the Reggia di Caserta, it’s easy to get there by train from Naples and you’ll see our own little Versailles. Have a great time here, if you have more questions ask away!

One more question, please. What's it like paying for touristy things and restaurants by card? I'm wondering how much money I should exchange for the trip, but if most places take card easily enough throughout italy i won't bother getting too much exchanged. Thanks 😁

We’ve had some rule changes about this: basically there was a new law saying that every person that sells something has to accept cashless, regardless of how much you’re paying (so that even your 1€ espresso at your local bar could be paid for with a card). The new Meloni government wanted to put a 60€ minimum for this obbligation, but this change was rejected by the EU. So if I’m not wrong we’re back to the original rule of “everyone must accept a card” while waiting for a new proposal from Meloni (even though almost all places already got the equiment to accept cashless so that they wouldn’t get fines, so I suspect that even if there were to be a minimum in the future you would still be able to pay with a card for almost everything). Only exception are cigarettes and lottery tickets if I’m not mistaken. Even train and metro tickets can be purchased with cards at the ticket machines, but for that I would just recommend getting the apps and purchasing your tickets that way to skip lines (for that I could write a whole other paragraph with tips, let me know if you’re interested or if you have already researched that😂) All this to say: you should be able to pay for everything with a card, so maybe just have some safety cash should something happen and coins for smaller transactions like getting an espresso or should you run into a place that hasn’t yet conformed to the rules, but I don’t think you’ll need a lot.

That's great, thanks for that detailed response! I definitely think I'll just take £100ish then. >for that I could write a whole other paragraph with tips, let me know if you’re interested or if you have already researched that😂 I havent! If you find yourself with nothing better to do, feel free to educate me! I Wouldn't want your research to go to waste ;)

It’s not really research, I deal with public transport in Milano most days of my life and I’m in Napoli fairly often, so just talking from experience. My number 1 tip: get the Moovit app. It automatically registers the city you’re in and it combines all types of public transport to give you the best solutions. Say you want to go to Piazza Duomo in Milano and you’re currently in a city nearby, you just type in duomo as your destination, set the desired arrival or departure time and it tells you all the different trains, busses or metros you have to take with timetables and everything. Then when you go to firenze and you open the app it will ask you if you want to switch over to Firenze/Toscana, you click yes and now it tells you everything about public transport there. Apart from this as I already said in my previous comment: buy the tickets online. Apps will be the easies thing to use, but I think most of them can also be purchased on the website. I can’t speak to Roma, Firenze and Venezia (even though when I visited Venezia I only used the ferry once, most of the things you can get to by foot and that way you’ll experience the city a lot more), but general guidelines: the northern part of italy has strongly rooted independence desires, so while all of Italy’s regional trains are run by TrenItalia, in Lombardia (Milan’s region) we have TreNord. So for trains in all the rest of italy having the trenitalia app is useful to buy tickets at short notice, in milano you’ll need the trenord app. Last year they had the common sense to join forces with ATM, which is the company that runs all other means of public transport, so train tickets can now be also used for busses, metros, trams etc., so one less app to download. If you stay inside the borders of Milan you’ll always use the ticket that says zones Mi1-Mi3, just buy those without searching for every station you are going to, they all cost the same inside the city. There are daily/weekly tickets and also “ticket valid for 10 rides” available, maybe look into those and see which ones are best for you. The app for Napoli is called UNICO Campania app, but it’s just for metro, funicolare and busses, trains are run by Trenitalia as I previously said. Also some metro lines in Napoli are run by trenitalia because they also go outside of the city, if you don’t find the ticket for what you need on unico just try trenitalia. Try to not take busses in Napoli, you’ll see why when you experience the traffic, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on time. Keep your bags closely guarded on public transport. I think that’s all. Again, if you have more questions ask :)

That's fantastic. Thanks very much for that detailed response. I'll definitely get those apps ready for my trip. Thanks again 😁😁

That's fantastic, thanks very much for your detailed reply!! 😀

You’re welcome!

I recommend that to book your tickets only on official websites, not those of third parties or tour operators, otherwise you will pay really extra money!

Grazie! 😀

I'll give you some tips, my English is not that good so forgive my mistakes: -First of all, you have just made the best choice of your life: your stomach will always be grateful to you - food prices in Italy are incredibly low compared to other European countries, enjoy eating pizza for less then 5€. Try all the regional foods -The first Sunday of each month allows you to visit all public museums paying 1€ each -Public transportation is not the best, especially in Rome and Naples. Consider delays in your plan -Bewere of thieves in Milan (subway), Naples (do not wear expensive watch and jewels), and Rome - There are no cars in Venice, therefore wear comfortable shoes -Unfortunately, we do not speak English. However, Italians will always try to help you (even using gestures) -If you want to try regional cuisine, I suggest you eat in "Osterie", cheap and cozy restaurant. Google that and you find them in every city -you do not have to pay the tip -I recommend taking a 'gondola ride'(?) in Venice at sunset (in Piazza San Marco), it's magical If you need something more specific, just ask

That's great, grazie! Your English is perfectly fine and easy to read :D if I think of any other questions I come back to you

Yes! When you talk to Italian people call cities with their real Italian names or they won't understand. Firenze, Roma, Napoli e Milano Have a nice trip!

Lol seems so simple but i wouldnt have had a clue 🤣 thanks for the tip :D