Haven't found any mention of bugs in general in Italy, only the story of the mosquitos that ran the early Greeks out of Paestum! Anyone care to comment, and please be honest! (I can't find many people who'll tell me the truth about how awful it is in Alaska for instance! That's why I haven't traveled there yet!) Thx all

This will be my first summertime trip to Italy. The reviews for my hotel in Florence mention lots of mosquitos out at night. I went onto a website to check the Florence weather, and it had a place to check for mosquito levels! I'll be bringing the repellant!

Thx arewethereyet.
I should have mentioned my dates of travel: Sept 28-Oct 17, 2005. We'll be all over from Rome to Amalfi Coast, to Tuscany then Florence then up to Cinque Terre and back to Rome. Whew!

Katerbug, we were in Italy (Rome, Umbria, Amalfi Coast) in the earlier part of September and weren't bothered by any bugs. Not in the morning or evening or while hiking in the country. Now, if you want to ask me about the mosquitoes that bit us mercilessly in the Camargue of France, that's a whole 'nuther story.

There have been previous posts on the board about this. Buy a good repellant in a pharmacy when you get there, preferably one that contains Autan, which is used in Europe, but not in the US. We definitely needed it in Florence in October 2001, when were were nearly eaten alive by mosquitos. We learned to keep the windows closed until we turned off the lights at night in our unairconditioned, screenless hotel room. By the way, all hotels may have turned off their AC in Italy by Sept/Oct no matter how hot it is.

There will probably be a little gadget in your room called a vape (vah-pay), in which you insert a pellet of repellant, plug it in, and the heat warms the repellant enought to waft poisonous vapors throughout the room, supposedly gassing the little beasts.

If you type "mosquitos" into the search box, some posts from the archives will probably appear on the left-hand side of your screen.

How's that for the truth?

Topped a couple of previous threads for you. Now where's that calamine lotion?

We never experienced any bug problems in either Florence or Venice in July. We'd been told that there would be a problem with mosquitoes in Venice, but there wasn't.

we found mosquitoes to be rather nasty in Sicily/Calabria, but not so bad in Tuscany.
The word for mosquito in Italian is "zanzare" in case you want to look for a repellant.

You were right, I found the earlier posts the next morning when I was more alert! I gotta stay off the web when it gets too late and my eyes are "buggy"-no pun intended! Molte Grazie for all for the tips; I'll be prepared.