Familiar with Italy?

[Rapunzel]

My roommate's family purchased a trip to Tuscany for a week in the summer for 8, and lucky me, I get to tag along. I've never been out of the country, so for me this is a big deal. I'm in charge of finding airfare for myself and thought "why not just stay an extra week or so?"

I would love to travel to Venice or Rome from Tuscany. I have been looking into transportation and accommodations. I am really just looking for any advice from someone familiar with travel in Italy. I am on a starving student budget and will be traveling alone- hopefully with enough knowledge of Italian for basic communication at the time. Any suggestions on places to go, where to stay or how to get around would be much appreciated!

[SusieP.]

Here is a great hostel in Rome that is owned by Americans, is easy to get to from the train, and you can walk to the Coliseum from there. You'll be able to meet people easily and find others to hang out with. Looks like they've upgraded a lot since I was there in 2002, and they have a cafe now, which is nice.

The Beehive - budget & ecological hotel / organic & vegetarian caf - Rome, Italy

Italy was really easy to get around, and the people were very nice. I would LOVE to go back!

[Exprmnt626]

Where in Tuscany are you going to be? Are you flying into Rome, and taking the train or bus/car?

Summer in Italy can be tremendous fun. I lived there for 4 years as a kid, in Sicily. We did most of our travelling in the summer and things can get very hectic. The big tourist cities such as Rome and Venice are crowded with throngs of other tourists, but with a good guide you can get through it. Venice especially is crowded since it's islands connected by bridges. If you can hang out till later in the evening the day trippers usually go home and you can see the real Venice.

In all cases try to spend as much time in local neighbourhoods as possible. Be a traveller, not a tourist

--nick--

[Rapunzel]

Wow! What a wonderful suggestion SusieP! Thank you.

Exprmnt626, to tell you the truth I'm not too certain of the exact place we are staying in Tuscany because I traveling with a friend's family and I haven't been provided with exact dates or location yet... though I'm sure that will change shortly. I was looking into train transportation, or just into what looks the most affordable. What would you recommend in terms of destination or transportation? I am very flexible and would love any advice from someone familiar with Italy.

[Exprmnt626]

Originally Posted by Rapunzel

Wow! What a wonderful suggestion SusieP! Thank you.

Exprmnt626, to tell you the truth I'm not too certain of the exact place we are staying in Tuscany because I traveling with a friend's family and I haven't been provided with exact dates or location yet... though I'm sure that will change shortly. I was looking into train transportation, or just into what looks the most affordable. What would you recommend in terms of destination or transportation? I am very flexible and would love any advice from someone familiar with Italy.

From my experiences with the Italian train system- VALIDATE your train ticket! Look for the yellow boxes in the station before you board the train. My parents and I nearly got a big fine for not validating our tickets leaving Torino. The trains are a big time saver, as driving in Italy can be a religious experience into itself. I don't know how the Italians can manage to turn a one-lane mountain road into a 3-lane expressway, but they manage! LOL...

You might be flying into Firenze, Genoa, or Milano. From there you can take the train to Siena and Pisa...if you can go to the Cinque Terre (it's actually 5 small towns connected by train) it's beautiful that time of year.

If you get to Bologna, there's tons of good food. It's the food capital of Italy!

--nick--

[ketch18]

i advice you to look for a hotel where they are offering discounts for students like you..ive been to venice 4 yrs ago and i really enjoyed my stay there great place and awesome people..

[snorkeld]

I just got back from the Tuscany region last week. We stayed in Certaldo Certaldo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , it was very cool. We flew into Pisa and rented a car there. It was fun driving there on the highways but some of the small roads between the towns are CRAZY. The locals drive really fast. I highly recommend a GPS if we did not have one we would most likely still be driving in circles.