italy

Early is not early enough

You can never book anything too far in advance. Things sell out so fast in Italy, and the last thing you want to do is pay 70 euros for the same thing someone more prepared paid only 15 euros for. It’ll ruin the experience. If you have anything specific you’re looking to see/book, do it NOW (arguably even before hotels). High season is May–August, but it’s relatively better early May—when we went—and end of August—when you’ll go. ALWAYS look for skip-the-line tickets, and if you can’t find any it might be worth booking with a tour guide for some places because of how busy it gets.

Also something worth noting: free entrance days. Some historical sites, museums, and churches will be free the first Sunday of the month. Not worth it. It will be so crowded you won’t be able to enjoy the attraction at all. Just book in advance and you should be ok.

Rick Steves! The homie wallah

Make sure you download Rick Steves’ guidebook in your Books app while you travel. We loved using his guidebook as our own personal guide, and his writing is phenomenal. He has a lot of important information included there in amazing detail, and it helps to even read the planning sections before you book/plan. Once you’re there, I highly recommend designating someone in your travel group as “tour guide,” flipping to the section of the book you’re in, and starting to read out loud as you walk. We loved any of his “self-guided walking tours.” Wherever you are, he’s probably written about it, and you’ll want to read it.

Hotels—because you need to sleep

When looking for hotels, don’t rely only on websites like Expedia or Booking.com. They usually don’t have all of the local hotels listed. For example, we had to stay in a 3-star hotel in Florence because we quite literally could not find ANYTHING online, but while we were walking the streets we saw so so so many local 4-star hotels that looked lovely. These usually aren’t listed on the same sites. Try even changing your Google location to Italy and just translating the webpages, you might get more results. (If you want to know where I stayed lmk and I can send you the links. My mom was adamant on sleeping on white sheets, which limited our options and increased our budget lol.)

Food—how much pizza and pasta can you possibly eat?

Maybe less than you think. Me personally, I need a 6 month hiatus before I can eat pizza or pasta again. It was good, don’t get me wrong… but that is literally their entire diet. Habibna Ricky has some good recommendations, but usually the ones he lists are on the more expensive side. Google Reviews never failed us while we were in Italy. Go to Google Maps, and just search “restaurants.” If you’re hungry at the moment, filter by “Distance,” click “Open Now,” and “Top Rated.” Scroll through the pictures and choose what you like best. Don’t be surprised if there are nearly 40,000 reviews for a restaurant—that’s usually a good sign, but expect it to be busy. We usually beat the dinner rush hour given that people in Italy eat dinner anywhere between 7–9pm. We’d be starving by then, and we’d typically find our seats just as the line outside began to grow.

Okay. I have a bit of a problem with Rome. It’s beautiful and PACKED with history. But oh my god is it the biggest money grab I have ever experienced in my life. People everywhere are determined to get you to spend as much money as you possibly can. This includes websites reselling you tickets at double, even triple the price (see above note on booking early). Other than that, there are lots of amazing things to see.

Attractions

• Colosseum (although according to my mom, Mudarraj Bosra in Syria is nicer—it is, search it up lol). Usually a Colosseum ticket visit will include:
• Roman Forum. More ancient stuff.
• Palatine Hill. Again more ancient stuff.
• Victor Emmanuel Monument. It goes by a couple names but it’s the really big white building. Take the stairs to the top where you’ll find a very cute—albeit overpriced—café where you can enjoy Rome’s landscape from the top.
• Vatican City
  • Vatican Museums. This is where the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo is.
  • St. Peter’s Basilica. The largest church in the world. And free to enter!
• Trevi Fountain. Make sure you see it at night! If you throw a couple coins in, legend says you’ll fall in love or whatever.
• Pantheon. I don’t know how you could possibly plan for this, but try to go when it’s raining. It is SO cool seeing the water come in through the dome’s hole. Otherwise, try to come right around noon when the sun is directly above.
• The streets. All of Rome is an attraction. We had lots of fun wandering random streets and popping into boutiques, trying clothes on, looking at their jewelry, etc. If you want to buy souvenirs, buy from Rome; we found other cities to be more expensive.

Restaurants

• Pasta e Vino is a cool restaurant where they make the pasta right in front of you. It is a bit touristy, but their pasta is very fresh. I actually think it’s Egyptian-owned, since most of the waiters were Egyptian lol.
• I can’t really remember any other ones. I’ll be sure to update you or look through the pictures we took. Again, Google Maps always came through for us.

Getting around

We bought 24-hour transportation tickets that let us take any buses, trains, or metros that we wanted. Our hotel was kind of far so we needed it, but it might not be necessary if you’re staying downtown.

I loooooved Florence. It’s beautiful, small, quaint, cute. If you’re up for it, I’d recommend walking everywhere. We never needed more than 35 minutes from one location to the other. It’s the best way to see the entire city.

Attractions

• Duomo. Incredible marble cathedral. It’s so beautiful and worth seeing twice: once in the day, and once at night. Enjoy the street musicians while you stroll, sit down somewhere, or read from Ricky. We weren’t able to climb the Duomo, but try to get tickets to this as fast as you can.
• Accademia Gallery. If you love sculptures (!) this is where you’ll find 3amo David.
• Uffizi Gallery. Again if you’re a lover of art, you’ll enjoy it here.
• Church of Santa Maria Novella. Right next to the train station.
• Pitti Palace.
• Piazzale Michelangelo. Go here at sunset. It’s a bit of a hike, but so worth the view. You’ll see all of Florence from the top, and there’s a café too.
• More that I might have missed but will definitely be in the guidebook.

Restaurants

• Trattoria ZaZa. Reasonably priced but gets super busy! If you want to splurge, try the famous Florentine Bistecca. Otherwise their Tagliata (just normal steak) is really good too.
• Mercato Centrale Firenze. A marketplace with a lot of food options.

We did Pisa as a spontaneous day trip. From Florence, it’s only a 1h regional train ride, and costs about 9 euros per person. We booked the morning of using Omio, and came back that evening.

There isn’t a huge amount to see in Pisa, which is why we thought the day trip was perfect. There’s the leaning tower, cathedral and baptistery. We booked all of those when we arrived, too, but that was a risky move on our part since the cathedral has timed entry slots. Check online before you go.

We did Ricky’s self-guided tour and absolutely loved it. It’s a small city that used to be a powerhouse of Italy, and is now home to one of the most prestigious Italian universities and subsequently its students. We shopped along the main street and took our time the whole day. Plus, did you really go to Italy if you don’t have a leaning tower picture?

If you only have 6 days, I think you can fit these three cities in comfortably. An entirely different approach would be to book it straight to Lake Como—which was a slice of heaven, no exaggeration. Or, save that for a different trip when you plan on going to Switzerland, too.

If I could do it all over again, I would honestly plan better and start planning earlier. You’re already on the right track!

I hope you have lots of fun!!!! Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with. AND TAKE SO MANY PICTURES YOUR PHONE EXPLODES!!!