Italy Tourism - Travel to Italy
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| Quick Facts | |
| Capital | Rome |
| Government | republic |
| Currency | euro (EUR) |
| Area | total: 301,230 sq km note: includes Sardinia and Sicily water: 7,210 sq km land: 294,020 sq km |
| Population | 57,715,625 (July 2002 est.) |
| Language | Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area) |
| Religion | predominately Roman Catholic with mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community |
Italy is a country in Europe.
| Table of contents |
Regions in Italy
- Abruzzo
- Basilicata
- Calabria
- Campania
- Emilia-Romagna
- Friuli-Venezia Giulia
- Lazio
- Liguria
- Lombardy (Lombardia)
- Marche
- Molise
- Piedmont (Piemonte)
- Puglia
- Sardinia (Sardegna)
- Sicily (Sicilia)
- Tuscany (Toscana)
- Trentino-Alto Adige
- Umbria
- Valle d'Aosta
- Veneto
Cities in Italy
- Rome - (Roma): The capital, both of Italy and the historical Roman empire.
- Florence - (Firenze): History, art, architecture. Uffizzi's gallery, David of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Rinascimental city.
- Venice - (Venezia): History, art. S. Marc plaza. The city is built on a laguna, filled with canals, no roads for cars. Very poetic and romantic.
- Milan - (Milano): Shares with Paris the title of fashion capital of the world.
- Verona - Restored Roman coliseum is the stage for modern opera productions.
- Naples - (Napoli)
- Padova
- Rimini
- Siena: Mediaeval town in southern Tuscany
- Trento
- Turin - (Torino): The first capital of modern Italy. Host of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Other destinations - Travel to Italy
- Cinque Terre - Five tiny, scenic, towns strung along the steep vineyard-laced coast.
Understand Italy Tourism
Italy Talk
Not surprising, Italian is the language spoken by the vast majority of Italians. English is spoken fairly commonly on the well-travelled path, but you'll want a good phrasebook for anything remote.
See also: Italian phrasebook
Get into Italy
Travel to Italy By Plane
Major Airports:
Travel to Italy By Train
Travel to Italy By Boat
Get around in Italy
Italy Tourism By Train
The Italian rail system has three levels: Eurostar, Intercity, and Regular (Linee Urbane), Eurostar being the classiest. Generally speaking, for a given distance each tier costs twice as much as the one below it. The train cars used by the Eurostar service are far newer than those used by the other two, but are not necessarily more comfortable. In fact, the cars used by Intercity trains are split up into distinct, six-seater compartments, which is really nice when you're travelling in groups.
The main practical difference between tiers is reliability. Intercity trains are generally very reliable, but if you need to catch a flight, for example, it might be better to pay extra for the Eurostar. The Linee Urbane are less reliable. The other big difference between Eurostar and the other two tiers is that Eurostar seating is all by reservation, while seating on the others is not. On the Eurostar, every passenger is assigned a seat. This means that the train will never be packed with an impossible number of people, but it also means you will need to purchase tickets in advance. During commuter hours, on major north-south routes during the holidays, or before and after large political demonstrations, trains on the two lower tiers can become very, very full, to the point where it gets very uncomfortable.
The pricier tier is usually faster, but there isn't a consistent speed difference between tiers. On some routes, the Eurostar will cut the travel time in half, but on others routes all three trains go the same speed, and taking the Eurostar is simply a waste of money. Just check the [FS website] or the printed schedule, usually located near the entrance to each platform to see how long the trip will take.
On the train schedules, the Eurostar is listed in blue, Intercity in red, and Regular in green. The arrival times are listed in parentheses next to the names of each destination. One thing to watch out for: certain trains only operate seasonally, or for certain time periods (for example, during holidays).
The lines to buy tickets can be very long, and slow, so get to the station early. There are touch-screen ticket machines which are very useful, efficient, and multilingual, but there are never that many, and the lines for those can be very long too. Eurostar trains can fill up, so if you're on a tight schedule you should buy those tickets in advance. If you are running late and don't have time to buy a ticket, you can just jump on the train, but you will have to pay extra when the conductor ("il controllore") comes around (a flat fee, somewhere around 5-10 euro) and they don't take credit cards. Technically, if you don't have a ticket you are supposed to find the conductor yourself and buy one (otherwise you have to pay another fee--approx. 20 euro), but for foreigners it's enough to just stammer something about being late and they will almost never hassle you about this.
Also, the way the system works is that, unless you validate the ticket by inserting it into one of the yellow boxes on the platform, you could keep using it for months. The yellow box just stamps a date on the ticket, so the ticket-checker ('il controllore') knows you weren't planning on using that ticket again. Technically, a ticket that isn't validated is just like not having a ticket: you have to buy another.
Travel to Italy By Bus
Buy bus tickets before boarding from corner stores and other shops. The payment system for most mass transit in Italy (trains, city buses, subway) is based on voluntary payment combined with sporadic enforcement. Specifically, you buy a ticket which can be used at any time (for that level of service, anyway) and when you use it you "validate" the ticket by sticking it into a machine that stamps a date on it. Once in a while (with varying frequency depending on the mode of transportation) someone (il controllore) will ask you for your ticket and if you don't have it you get a fine.
By thumb
Italians are generally very friendly and open people, but they're less likely to pick up hitchhikers than anyone else in the world. It is easier to hitchhike out of the Bronx than it is to hitchhike in Italy. Hitchhiking in the summer in touristy areas works okay because you'll get rides from Northern European tourists, and it works okay in very rural areas as long as there is consistent traffic (because you're still playing the odds) but hitchhiking near large cities or along busy routes is extremely frustrating. Hitchhiking is not recommended for women travelling alone.
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Italy is part of the so-called Eurozone, the common currency of the European Union, the Euro, is legal tender in Italy.
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