Leave in 4 days! Last minute Italy Qs
 

So I am starting to freak out. After weeks of being apathetic about our trip, now I am getting worried.

You will probably find my questions quite silly, but, I need to get some sleep at night!

1. Is it easy to make reservations at restaurants the day we want to go? If we walk by a restaurant that looks enticing, can we call, or stop in, and make a reservation for that night?

2. We are staying at a 3 room B&B in Rome. Francesco has already been so wonderful in dealing with my neurotic ways, is it customary to bring a gift to a B&B owner? I feel like we should give him a small token from our home town or something. But if it isn't customary, I don't want to make things uncomfortable. I know he is the one that runs everything at his B&B.

3. Train tickets. Can we simply go to the AmEx near the Spanish Steps and purchase all train tickets for trips such as Rome-Perugia, Perugia-Assisi, Perugia-Florence, etc? I am worried we will not get the trains that we want.

4. And finally! Our flight leaves Florence at 7:30 am. What time should we arrive at the airport? Our flight goes: Florence-Milan-Newark-St. Louis. I am obsessively early to everything. I don't want to be late in any way.

Ok, either way we will have a fun trip, I know. I just want these few things cleared up!

Also, you can follow our travels (if you like) on our blog: seange.blogspot.com

If you go back to last year you can see our pics from Greece. Two years ago and there are pics from Germany.

Thanks for all your help!

Hi S,

Calm down. You are going to Italy, where nothing ever happens on schedule. :)

1. Yes, Yes

2. No. You do not bring gifts to someone with whom you have only a business relationship.

It is Francesco's job to make you happy. If you wish to leave a gift upon leaving, that is something else.

3. You can buy all of your train tickets at any travel agent that has a Trenitalia sign, or at any train station, including the one at FCO.

4. About 06:15

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

Agree with ira on all counts, although we did find a couple of small restaurants in Florence that did not take reservations. Just show up on the early side.

We also had an early morning flight from FIR and took about 20 min to get to the airport. FIR is small and very easy to navigate - you shouldn't have any problems at all.

Most of your train trips will be on R trains which don't offer reserved seats, so your ticket will be for ANY train between the two places, not a particular train.

You just get on and look for a seat.

There seem to be hourly departures.

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

Thanks for answering my questions. And not calling me silly!

I actually wrote down the trains that we are hoping to take while we are over there. I was going to take the sheet with me to wherever we purchase the tickets from. I hope that made sense.

Thanks again!

Hi there --

1. I have always just walked up the day of. Also, ask your helpful B&B owner if he'll make the reservations for you. They often will.

2. I agree with Ira about the B&B gift... it's not necessary. That's part of their job. Just be polite and thank him when you are there.

3. I'd definitely say to just get your train tickets at the station. They have self-service machines or people that you can talk to. It's not hard to learn the Italian for doing so either.

4. Be at the airport 2 hours prior to departure.

Good luck and enjoy!

You cannot buy train tickets from the Amex office in Rome for any travel that doesn't include a Rome departure. But travel agents can issue the tickets and, as has been said, it's easy to buy them from the machines (which do offer English at the train station right before you depart.

Thanks plafield. I guess I'm just a little nervous about purchasing tickets at the station. But that's just me being me!

Thank you to everyone for all your help! I've read through so many trip reports...I should feel more prepared!