Hi All,

My husband and I will be travelling to Italy from 18 April to 01st May.
We will be spending 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Naples, 1 night in Capri, 3 nights in Florence and 3 nights in Venice.

Please can we get some advice on the temperatures around this time of the year in April, this is our first time in Italy and we would really like to know how to plan and prep as well as pack for our trip.

Also if there is any advice on how much of money one should budget per day, we are travelling from South Africa where the Rand to Euro rate is very high and every cent counts for us, we do not want to enter any tourist trap shops or restaurants.

If there is any other feedback regarding my trip please do comment, any comments will help a great day.

Thank you

To avoid bad food a thigh prices ignore any place that:

1) has a tout outside trying to pull you in
2) has menus in 9 languages - or worse - pictures
3) places in immediate proximity to a major tourist site - even 2 or 3 blocks away can make a huge difference

Can't help with specific amounts - since we are short of time, not money.

I would add at least one day to Rome (subtracting from either Florence or Venice), especially if that is your first stop after a long flight.

I would suggest that you try to spend one more night in Rome; it's a big city, with many interesting things to see. I can't tell you where you should remove a day in order to give an extra day to Rome; it would depend on your interests.

The temperatures can be very different passing from Naples to Venice. I will just say that, with the many different places you plan to visit, you must be prepared both for warm weather and for chilly weather, and also for rain.

Many hotels offer a breakfast, but in low-budget hotels, it may be a very skimpy breakfast of coffee, a pastry, and a fruit juice. You can get a meal in a modest but satisfactory restaurant for about 15-20 euros each. A single-sized pizza plus water, wine, or a soft drink, can cost as little as 12-15 euros each. It's also possible to have a sandwich or salad at a bar for less than that. Usually it costs more, especially in tourist areas, to sit at a table than to eat standing at the bar. Another way to save money is to buy some cheese, bread, cured meats (such as salami or prosciutto) and fruit, at a grocery shop and eat them in your hotel room.

You can usually save a considerable amount on train fares by buying the tickets online up to four months in advance. It is already a little late to look for discounted tickets for April and May. Try looking for very early or midday trains. The discounted tickets bought in advance are not refundable, and if you need to change the time or date, you would have to pay full price for the replacement ticket.

You might want to search for hotels on www.booking.com . You can enter the destination as "Rome centre city", "Florence center city", in order to avoid hotels far from the center. You can then sort the list by price. Pay close attention to the guest rating, which is quite reliable on this site. I would avoid hotels with a guest rating below 7.0. Read the guest reviews before making a final decision.

One way you could save money is to visit fewer places. You're really trying to do a lot in a short time.

Trains are by far the best way to get around Italy if going mainly to cities (well ferry to Capri of course) - cars are a liability in many Italian cities whose city centres often are now off-limits to private vehicles - so go to www.trenitalia.com and get all the schedules and the chance to nab nifty discounts on tickets if you book far in advance.

But those tickets are train-specific and since they are sold in limited numbers must be booked weeks or months early to guarantee the fare. If you want flexibility to chose which trains to take once there then look at the Italy Railpass which on your itinerary compared to full fare and fully flexible tickets may well save you some money.

But most are satisfied with advance booked tickets even though they are set in stone - the cheapest way and you just have to show up for the train.

For lots of great ideas on Italian trains check out www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteurpetravel.com.

I would try to spend at least three full days in Rome - add another day if you can. the city is big and its sights spread out over a larger area than Florence or Venice.

In Italy, meals are served in separate courses. The menu will show "antipasti", which are appetizers, but they may be fairly large. Next is the "primi piatti", which is a first course of rice, pasta, or soup, prepared in different ways. Then you will see "secondi piatti", which are meat or fish courses. Finally, there are "contorni", which are usually served along with the secondo, and which are vegetable dishes.

Ordering all four courses can really raise the cost of a meal, and for most people, it would also be too much food. In all restaurants except the most elegant and expensive, it's perfectly acceptable to share some of the plates. My husband and I often order two primi (or one antipasto and one primo). Then we order one secondo to be shared between us, and one contorno, likewise. There's also nothing wrong with skipping one course altogether. You could each order a primo and a sald, for example.

Most Italians have water with their meals, and often wine as well. You can order a half litre or quarter litre of house wine, either white or red, to save buying a whole bottle. This is what most Italians do when eating out. Beer and soft drinks cost more than wine. Italians don't drink coffee or tea with their meals, but after the meal. If you want coffee, it's usually cheaper to buy it at a bar after dinner, standing at the bar to drink it.

Most restaurants, except in Rome, have an automatic charge for "pane e coperto", which should be shown on the menu. This is literally "bread and cover", where "cover" means the tablecloth and place settings. There may also be a service charge, "servizio", which must also be shown on the menu. In Rome (and in the rest of the Lazio region), the "pane e coperto" charge is illegal. However, they will always bring you a basket of bread, which you will be charged for unless you tell them immediately that you don't want bread.

Never order anything that's not shown on the menu. If the waiter brings a bottle of water before you've seen the menu, ask how much the water costs. I was once charged more for a bottle of water than I was for the second course I ordered. If the waiter offers to bring you a special, tell him you'd rather order from the menu, or at least ask how much it costs. In restaurants I don't know, and especially in touristic areas, I don't like to order any specials unless I see the price in writing.

I don't totally agree with NYTraveler about the touts outside of restaurants. It's often true that these are tourist traps, but I've had some excellent and reasonably priced meals in restaurants with touts. Times are tough, and even a decent restaurant will do whatever's necessary to increase business. All restaurants are supposed to have a menu with prices posted outside, so make sure you check this menu before going in. I recommend also checking the prices of beverages, bread, servizio, and all the rest, because restaurants often make up for low prices by increasing these.

One trick I've often seen is putting a sign outside that says, "Menu €12", with a first course, second course, dessert and beverage. However, once you're inside, this special offer vanishes and there is an entirely different offer, at a higher price, on the menu. Feel free to say that you want the special you saw on the sign outside, and to leave if they tell you that, for some reason, it's not available. A restaurant like this is one I'd rather not eat at. Just make sure they don't bring anything to your table before you've seen the menu.

Last time we were in Venice, it was in May and we noticed a group of workmen approaching a restaurant. We reckoned that they would be going for somewhere with decent food and not too expensive. A waiter tried to seat us outside where there were menus in English, Italian and German.
We asked to go inside. There was a printed set menu in Italian, three courses with about two choices for each. We ate with the locals for a fraction of the "outside" price

Palenq is certainly enamoured of rail passes, but suggesting them to a couple whose main objective is to save money is a bit much.

No rail pass will save you money in Italy. The cheapest pass you could get for the trip you're planning would be the three-day second-class saver pass, for two people traveling together, which would cost the equivalent of €309. This would not include mandatory seat reservations, which would add another €80 (€10 per person per train). (The trip from Naples to Rome involves two trains, each with separate seat reservations.)

Deducing your travel dates from the itinerary, even this late, I can find discounted tickets for €154 (€77 per person) for your itinerary. If you're trying to save money, I wouldn't think you'd want to pay more than double for flexibility. However, even if you were to buy full-price second-class tickets on the most expensive high-speed trains, at the last minute, the cost would be €348, still considerably cheaper than the pass. These ticket prices include the reservations, which are not included with the rail pass.

Another way to save money on trains is to take the slower trains, which cost less. In my example I chose the fastest and most expensive trains, which is why I say a rail pass would never save you money. It's also more inconvenient, because of the need to buy the seat reservations separately, and there's not much flexibility, because once you've reserved the seat, you would lose the cost of the reservation if you had to change it.

You can see all of your options for Trenitalia here:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...005817f90aRCRD

You have to use the Italian names for the cities; the stations you would usually choose would be Roma Termini, Napoli Centrale, Firenze Santa Maria Novella, and Venezia Santa Lucia.

There is another train service that has similar prices, whose web site is http://www.italotreno.it/EN/Pages/default.aspx . Sometimes you can find better fares on their trains, but the stations they use in Rome are not very central, so you might spend extra money on getting to the stations. In the other cities they use the same stations that Trenitalia uses.

It's easier to find discounted tickets if you're willing to travel very early in the day, or at midday. Second class is perfectly fine, so there's no reason to spend more for first class, which is mostly used by tourists with rail passes or businessmen with expense accounts.

There is a

I meant to say above that the trip from Naples to FLORENCE (not Rome) involves two trains.

MissPrism, we were once in a small town (Sovana, in Tuscany) where there was some kind of ecclesiastical conference going on. Around lunchtime, we saw a gaggle of bishops heading to lunch. I said to my husband, "If anyone knows the best restaurants in town, it would be a bishop!" So we followed them to lunch, and ate very well indeed.

Good advice above,
Miss Prism has it exactly rght, sometimes you even find large rooms out the back of bars where whole legions of workers are filling up, the 12Euro meal of the day (lunch time) which normally includes wine will often be at shared tables and can be spotted by following workers at 12 or 12:30 as they head out for lunch, normally a couple of streets back from the main drag. Dishes tend to be of the more interesting parts of animals but I've only once been let down eating these sort of meals after a life time of Mediterranean holiday eating.

Tipping is not part of this environment but if paying by cash round up to nearest euro or, if very enjoyable, to nearest 5. If tipping is expected then you have stumbled into tourist tout heaven. This may be an issue in say Capri.

Generally vegeterian food will be cheaper than meat and fish based food. There is a fine tradition for meat-less eating in much of Italy (traditionally due to poverty but now fashionable). Another good value clue for evening meals is that the noisiest restaurant often has the best food.

I'm not sure it's worth it to head south ( Naples, Capri) at that time of year for only three nights. But if you have your heart set on it, I would recommend staying in one place or the other, not both. You can easily day trip to Capri from Naples.

It might make more sense to spend the three extra days in Tuscany, since you have Florence on your itinerary.

Looking back at pictures from last year, April had plenty of sunny days, but we still were wearing jackets most of the time. Florence usually is a degree or two warmer than in the countryside. Naples & Capri area will definitely be warmer than Florence, but even if nice weather, the water won't be warm enough for swimming yet for most people.

This year has been exceptionally rainy and so far not particularly warm so I would plan on a layered wardrobe. On the bright side, everything is greening up nicely and the first crops are being planted!

Don't forget May 1 is a National Holiday so bus/trains and other services might be working on another schedule, if at all, so plan accordingly if that's your travel date.

Happy Travels!

generally, IME the south is cheaper than the north - for example we had 3 huge pizzas and large beers in a pizzeria near the National Archeological Museum in Naples for €33 - €11 each. [he tried it on with the tip as we'd given him 2 €20 euro notes - but laughingly handed over the change when we requested it - when we duly tipped him €3. A good way to avoid this is to make sure that you have the right money].

Venice can be ++ expensive, but there are still good places to eat in the back streets if you look hard enough. places that call themselves a "trattoria" or a "rosticceria" are usually cheaper than ristorante.

In April, I would also incline to staying in Naples and taking a day trip to Capri - the boats are very quick. and to make the train journeys easier, i think that I would change the itinerary a bit - assuming you are landing in Rome and going home from Venice, I would do this:

18 April - land Rome. Get train to Naples. Stay 4 nights.
22 April - train to Rome. stay 4 nights.
26 April - train to Florence. Stay 2 nights
28 April - train to Venice - stay 3 nights

[By working out the nights like this, it appears that you have more nights than you thought!]

I have given Naples and Rome longer than Florence and Venice because you want to do a day trip to Capri, and Rome deserves 3 whole days. I also favour Venice over Florence but that's my personal choice - the train to Florence from Rome doesn't take very long so if you get an early train, you'll have at least 1 1/2 days there even if you only stay 2 nights.

As an overall money-saver: Your itinerary shows at least 3 nts in 3 locations. Maybe you should consider apartments in those locations. You often can find decent 1-bdrm apartments for less than the cost of a hotel, and you can save by preparing some of your own meals.

The downsides: You have to do some of your own housekeeping and you don't get some of the guidance you might receive from a hotel staff, meaning you'll have to do more planning on your own (but that's why you're here).

Bkmark

Wow what brilliant feedback and advice, Thank you to every single one of you that took the time to write up a response for my husband and I. We will be noting every single comment and making sure we use this on our trip.

Once again, thank you.