Italy

Roman ruins: What to see first? The Colosseum and the Roman Forum, obviously. Tickets sell out weeks ahead, so book through the official site rather than turning up hopeful.
The Vatican: Worth the trip for St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The queues can be enormous, so arrive at opening time or buy a timed-entry slot.
The Trevi Fountain: From 2026 access to the basin itself costs 2 euros. You can still look at it for free from the square, but getting close enough to throw a coin now has a price tag.
The Uffizi: Florence's great museum and an essential stop for anyone who cares about art, with Botticelli and Leonardo in the collection. You cannot cover every room in a day, so choose your highlights in advance.
Venetian palaces: The Doge's Palace impresses with the opulence of its halls and the grimness of its prison. It is the thing to see if you want to understand how the richest maritime republic in Europe actually lived.
The Leaning Tower: If you have a spare day, go and take the obligatory photo in Pisa. Climbing it is expensive, but the Piazza dei Miracoli looks remarkable even from the grass.

Cards: Visa and Mastercard work almost everywhere and contactless is universal in the cities. Amex acceptance is thinner outside hotels and larger restaurants, so carry a backup card.
The DCC trap: When you pay by card, the terminal may offer to charge you in your home currency. Always choose euros. Letting the terminal do the conversion at its own "convenient" rate costs you five to ten percent every time.
Cash: Euros are still needed for markets, tips and the tourist tax at hotels. In small shops and provincial trattorias the card terminal has a habit of breaking, so keep 20 to 50 euros on you.
ATMs: For withdrawals look for BNL or Postamat machines, which do not add their own fee. Avoid the blue Euronet units in tourist areas, where the charges are punitive and the rate is worse again.

Item	Price (USD)
Espresso at the bar	1.5
Slice of pizza	4
Pasta in a trattoria	14
Dinner for two with wine	80
Train ticket booked ahead	22
Vaporetto ride	11
Trevi Fountain access	2.2
Colosseum ticket	20
Vatican Museums	22
Uffizi Gallery	27
Doge's Palace	31
eSIM for a week	4
Hotel tourist tax per night	6
Coperto cover charge	3
City bus ticket	1.8

Rail: The network reaches the whole country, split between state-owned Trenitalia and private Italo. High-speed services cover Rome to Milan in three hours.
Ticket prices: Fares behave like budget airline seats. Book two months out and you travel for 15 euros; buy on the day and it can be 100. Look for the Super Economy fare bracket.
Validation: If you hold a paper ticket for a regional train with no time printed on it, stamp it in the platform validator. Forgetting costs 50 euros. Online tickets need no validation.
Strikes: Transport strikes are practically a national sport and can freeze the network. Check the transport ministry site before a travel day; actions usually run four to eight hours and are announced in advance.
City transport: Metro and buses are the way to get around the big cities. A ticket costs 1.5 to 2 euros and stays valid for 100 minutes, and almost everywhere you can now tap a bank card straight at the gate.
Driving: Rent a car only for Tuscany or Sicily. Historic centres are ringed by ZTL zones you are not allowed to drive into, and the fines arrive by post six months later.
Getting in: Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa take the long-haul traffic, including direct flights from North America. From anywhere in Europe the low-cost carriers make Italy absurdly cheap to reach, often into secondary airports like Bergamo or Ciampino.

What to book: For value, look at B&Bs and guesthouses in residential neighbourhoods, often a comfortable room inside an old palazzo. Dead-centre locations are marked up and the street noise will keep you awake.
Tourist tax: Remember the city tax, paid in cash on arrival. In Rome it can reach 10 euros per person per night, and it is never included in the booking price.
Deposits: Hotels frequently block an amount on your card as a security hold. With a debit card that money is out of reach for several days, so a credit card is the better tool here.
Apartments: Airbnb listings with a kitchen pay for themselves. Shopping at the local market is a pleasure in its own right and a genuine part of the cultural experience.
Old buildings: Lifts can be tiny or coin-operated and air conditioning can be deafening. Read reviews carefully, especially about winter heating, which in Italy runs to a fixed seasonal schedule.
The Olympic factor: Milan hosts the Winter Games in 2026. Accommodation prices there in February go through the roof and the tourist tax is up across the whole region, so book half a year out.

Regions, not a cuisine: There is no generic Italian food; every city has its own dishes. In Rome try carbonara or cacio e pepe, in Naples the classic wood-fired pizza and nothing else.
Coffee etiquette: An espresso standing at the bar is always cheaper than the same coffee at a table. Cappuccino is a before-eleven drink; ordering one after lunch marks you out instantly and mildly startles the waiter.
Coperto: Nearly every restaurant adds one to four euros to the bill for the cover and bread. It is a legal charge that has to be printed on the menu, so there is no point arguing about it.
Street food: For a fast lunch look for pizza al taglio, sold by the slice and priced by weight. It is the cheapest way to eat and it buys you another hour of sightseeing.
Aperitivo: In Milan and Rome the drink-plus-buffet deal is a fixture. Ten to fifteen euros gets you a cocktail and access to a spread that often replaces dinner entirely.
Water: The public fountains in Rome run drinkable water. Carry a bottle and refill it for free, which saves both your budget and a lot of plastic in the summer heat.

Pickpockets: In Rome, Naples and Milan thieves work the stations and public transport hard. Wear your backpack on your front and never put a phone in a back pocket.
Street scams: Ignore the free bracelet or the single rose pressed into your hand. The moment you accept it, someone starts demanding money. A polite "No, grazie" and steady walking solves it.
Taxis: Use only the official white cars with a meter. Freelancers outside airports will quote several times the real fare. Insist the meter goes on before you set off.
Your bags: Do not hang a bag on the back of a chair at a pavement cafe. Snatch thefts are routine in the tourist quarters, and passports and serious cash belong in the room safe.
At night: The cities are broadly calm, but the areas immediately around the central railway stations are worth avoiding late. They attract the kind of company you do not need.
Getting help: Dial 112 if something happens, and operators generally speak English. Travel insurance is worth having on its own merits here, since it genuinely smooths out any visit to a doctor.

The afternoon pause: Life in smaller towns stops in the middle of the day. Shops and churches may close from one until four, so schedule errands and visits for the morning or the evening.
Dress code: Shoulders and knees must be covered to enter a cathedral. The Vatican and the Duomo enforce it strictly, so keep a light scarf in your bag.
Talking to people: Italians are expressive and enjoy a conversation. Even a couple of phrases in the local language, from the list below, will get you into the better family trattorias and a warmer welcome.
Pace: Do not expect fast service. Lunch stretching to two hours is normal, not a failure. Enjoy it rather than trying to cross three cities in a single day.
Children: Italians adore small travellers. Children are welcome everywhere, museums often discount them and someone will hand them a gelato, which makes family travel here unusually easy.
Taboos: Never ask for ketchup with pasta or pineapple on a pizza. Locals take it as a personal slight against their culinary tradition, and the bafflement is entirely sincere.

Getting online: The simplest route is buying an eSIM before you leave home. Airalo and similar providers have you connected the moment you land, with no airport queue and no shop to find.
Local SIMs: If you need serious data volume, go to a TIM or Vodafone shop with your passport. Packages start around 20 to 30 euros for a month.
EU roaming: If your phone contract is from another EU country, roaming in Italy is included at no extra cost. Everyone else should assume roaming is expensive and use an eSIM instead.
Free Wi-Fi: Hotels and larger restaurants have it, but public networks are unreliable and often demand a European phone number to register.
Navigation: Google Maps handles Italian transport routes and train times well. Download offline maps anyway, because GPS drops out among the narrow stone alleys of the old centres.
Plugs: Italy uses standard European plugs, plus an older type L socket with three pins in a row. Slim europlugs fit without an adapter; fat laptop plugs sometimes do not.

English	Italian	Pronunciation
Hi / bye	Ciao	CHOW
Thank you	Grazie	GRAHT-tsyeh
You're welcome	Prego	PREH-go
The bill, please	Il conto, per favore	eel KON-toh per fah-VOH-reh
How much is it?	Quanto costa?	KWAN-toh KOS-tah
Where is the toilet?	Dov'è il bagno?	doh-VEH eel BAHN-yoh
Excuse me	Scusi	SKOO-zee
Yes / no	Sì / No	see / noh
I don't understand	Non capisco	non kah-PEES-koh
Help	Aiuto	ah-YOO-toh
Wine / water	Vino / Acqua	VEE-noh / AH-kwah
Bread	Pane	PAH-neh
Cool (slang)	Figo	FEE-go
What the hell? (slang)	Che cavolo?	keh KAH-voh-loh
Come on! (slang)	Dai!	dye
Not at all	Di nulla	dee NOOL-lah
That works	Va bene	vah BEH-neh
Cheers!	Salute!	sah-LOO-teh
Good morning	Buongiorno	bwon-JOR-noh
Do you speak English?	Parla inglese?	PAR-lah een-GLEH-zeh

Toilets: Public ones are scarce and charge a fee. The move is to walk into any bar, order a one-euro espresso and use theirs; it costs less and feels better.
Pharmacies: Look for the flashing green cross. Plenty of medication here is prescription-only, so bring your own basic kit from home rather than assuming you can buy it.
Opening hours: Museums are frequently shut on Mondays, so check the official sites. Uffizi and Vatican tickets should only ever be bought online and in advance.
Tax free: On purchases over 70 euros in one shop you can reclaim part of the VAT. Ask in store for the form and process it at the airport before you fly; it comes back to around 12 percent.
Apps: Download Trenitalia and Italo for rail, and Free Now for taxis in Milan and Rome. These three make independent travel here noticeably less painful.
Sockets: Italian type L sockets have three holes in a line. Bring a universal adapter if you are coming from the UK, North America or Australia.