re: Italy Vacation November 2017 - May 2018 Timeframe

I absolutely agree with the "more Florence, less Rome" sentiment. Florence blew my expectations out of the water. Rome was exactly what I expected. We also stayed in a sleepy little Tuscan town/village for a few nights and have AMAZING, postcard-like pictures from that.

Everyone was pretty friendly, and most people can communicate in English. Service in shops and restaurants is very different than you are used to...don't be offended.

Traveling from city to city on the trains was very easy after studying how people use the ticket machines. The lines at the counter were very long, but the machines were the way to go once we watched people use them.

We went over New Year's. New Year's in Florence was a big deal, and there seemed to be no rules. Fireworks buzzing by your head and firework smoke so thick, you could barely see a block away. It was wild in the streets, but not really out of control. There were piles of broken wine and beer bottles about 30 ft wide and 6 feet tall all over the city the next morning. It was nuts.