Our one week Italy Travel Guide
2014 June- July

After some research and way too much time on Pinterest, we found the following places of interest for our first trip to Italy. Without a doubt, this doesn’t even touch on all the beautiful places to go and therefore our desperate need to return!

a) Venice – The most romantic city ever and a UNESCO Word Heritage Site.
b) Rome – The most stunning art, architecture and ruins. 
c) Milan – The global capital of fashion and design.
d) Pisa – Best known for its iconic leaning tower.
e) Naples – Italy’s oldest town and a UNESCO World Heritage Site for archaeological treasures.

The Travel Plan:

We caught a plane from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Milan early in the morning. On arrival in Milan we took a bus from the airport to the Milan main train station. We boarded the next available train to Venice (Venezia San Lucia station). It was much cheaper to fly to Milan and take a train to Venice then to fly directly to Venice. After two nights in Venice, we caught a train to Rome (Roma Termini). We stayed in Rome for 4 nights exploring the city and surrounding beaches. We boarded a train from Rome to Pisa early in the morning. When we arrived at the Pisa train station we took a local bus service to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Our flight back to London was late that evening, so we had the whole day to explore Pisa and the surrounding areas. If we had more time we would have gone to Florence too which was only a quick train trip away from Pisa.

Our Itinerary:

A) MILAN
Train: Milan to Venezia San Lucia – via Italiarail (2 hrs 35 min)
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B) VENICE
Hotel Airone  (2 nights)
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Train: Venezia San Lucia to Roma Termini – via Italiarail (3 hrs 45 min)
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C) ROME
C) Hotel Margeret Rome (3 nights)
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Train: Roma Termini to Pisa Centrale  – Italiarail (2 hrs 48 min)
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D) PISA

Travel Tips for Italy

Money:

There are ATM’s across Italy where you can withdraw Euro’s. There is also foreign exchange kiosks in the main cities where you can exchange your local currency to Euro’s.

Transport in Italy:

The local train service in Italy makes it easy to travel between the main cities. The train frequently departs from each main city and tickets can be purchased at the train stations. The flights directly to Venice can be quite expensive so definitely check out cheap flights to the nearby cities and then catch a train from there.

In Rome we bought tickets to the Hop-on-hop-off Bus as we wanted to make sure we saw all the beautiful sights and attractions. We often take this bus when visiting a major city as it guarantees that we will see everything in the short time we have. It also comes with an amazing map of all the sights in the city. It is completely flexible in that you can stay as long as you like at each stop and only go to the places of interest to you (therefore the name “hop-on-hop-off). There are no set itineraries or tour guides like that of organised tour companies. We much prefer to be independent and to walk the whole city, but when we only have limited time, this is our favourite option! You can buy tickets online before you leave or you can buy them from almost every kiosk in Rome.

Weather

The weather from the top to the bottom of the country will vary pretty dramatically throughout the year. The long coastlines and mountain ranges allow for the temperature to change in a matter of minutes as you go from town to town. The South is much warmer than the North but during the months of May to August you can experience nice sunny weather throughout Italy. In the other months, it will snow in the mountain areas and be cooler in the South. We went in summer which was so stunning, but walking around the ruins in Rome did get pretty hot.

Fun hashtags for your Italy snaps:
#italy_vacations #italy_landscapes #italygram #travelitaly #instarome #exploreitaly #italyiloveyou