Planning a trip to Italy - help/advice

European trip destinations

That website you can book flight, hotels, travel, + experiences everything a travel agent can do and probably for cheaper. LINK

My wife and I are leaving on Friday for Florence and Venice. We are doing a couple of tours within the cities, but we mostly just picked and chose what sounded fun to us while leaving enough free time to explore anything else we think looks fun while we’re there.

We’re in the same situation as you and your wife, our last big trip before we start thinking about kids. I can definitely give you some feedback once I’m back if you’d like!

Some people like guided tours and others hate them. They have benefits and drawbacks. What I usually do is plan the trip on my own but leave a few days open for guided day tours.

You can definitely plan an Italy trip by yourself. The cities are walkable and well connected by trains. There's an abundance of information online providing information about the most popular tourist sites, nice hotels, great restaurants, etc.

Just figure out what cities you want to travel to, book your flight to and from, trains in between cities, and do VRBO or AirBnB for your rooms. We did this a couple years ago and it was fantastic and pretty cheap if you can get a good deal on flights.

You can book walking or riding tours with different tour group companies. We did the Vatican tour, Catacombs and Crypts tour, and a cooking class in Rome. We did an art and architecture tour through Florence.

We loved staying in actual residential areas instead of in a small hotel room. In all the places we stayed, it was a small one bed apartment with a little living area and kitchen, and our hosts were extremely nice and helpful to tell us where some good local restaurants and shops were and the best way to get around the city from there. We actually went grocery shopping at a local market and cooked our dinner or breakfast several times. Breakfast I would recommend doing yourself because Italians aren't big on breakfast other than a small cup of coffee and a pastry.

quote:

---

We’re in the same situation as you and your wife, our last big trip before we start thinking about kids. I can definitely give you some feedback once I’m back if you’d like!

---

Would definitely like to hear your thoughts and about your experience when you get back. Have a good trip

quote:

---

e were looking at tours that, for the same timeframe, would have come to around $7,000. I quickly used the Trip Master site and the total comes to around $2,800. Now granted, the tour includes some meals and some guided tours, which we would still want to book on our own. But that’s incredible savings and gives us the flexibility to go where we want, when we want, and do what we want to do

---

Flexibility is the joy of independent travel. I'm a longtime repeat visitor to Italy, and I'll be back there in 46 days. It is a very tourist friendly country, so you're not exactly visiting the outer reaches of the solar system.

Train travel within Italy, which is how you will get between cities, is pretty easy: frequent service between major cities. You can purchase train tickets at automated machines in most train stations, complete with instructions in English. Here's a nice illustrated guide to using the ticket machine, which will accept your US credit card: LINK

A few independent traveler tips for you to consider:
--budget for your international cell phone service; my provider charges $10/day for Euro activation. You will want to use your phone--and perhaps your spouse will want to as well, should you go off on your own. Yes, you can find cheaper ways (buy a local sim card to put into an unlocked phone, etc), but I'm lazy & just turn it on and pay the $10/day fee. Google Maps is the single best reason to turn on your phone.
--Google Maps is a traveler's best friend. As you do your research, create a "your places" saved map for the trip, dropping pins and making notes. This map can be shared, and the lovely Google "blue dot" will keep you from ever being lost. Adding lots of restaurants/cafes/attractions means that you can easily find a recommended place to eat or thing to do that's close to wherever you are. Think of it as a serendipity-enhancer: instead of micro planning your days, you're layering many, many options onto the map & will allow your feet & whims to take you through the day---yet won't be completely unprepared to find lunch/dinner/aperitivo as needed.
--don't overpack. Especially if you plan to travel between cities via train, you want to have luggage you can comfortably handle without assistance. Maybe it's a backpack and a roller, maybe it's a wheeled duffel and a tote....but huge suitcases are a nightmare. Remember that every place has laundromats, and some AirBnBs will have washer/dryers. Plan to do some laundry at the midpoint of your trip, whether in a machine or in a sink. If one of you is a chronic overpacker, work hard to create a capsule wardrobe that is mix&match.

I'll echo what hungryone said about packing. We only take a carry-on when we travel now. It makes those travel days during the trip so much easier to deal with.

we used Gate 1 around 7 years ago they were great, guided tour but did have a good amount of free time, not just old folks either

This was our AirBNB in Florence. For $100/night, it was unbelievable.

LINK

That's a great place!

We really enjoyed this place.

Very convenient. Full kitchen. Lovely terrace view of the city. Right on the Arno River.