A little help, so you can Do It Yourself, find your own way.
"You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own and you know what you know and only YOU are the one who will decide where to go." -Dr. Seuss
GETTING YOURSELF TO ITALY:
Online Travel Agencies:
Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Cheap tickets
Combination search:
Whichbudget, Skyscanner
Airfare Tracking, Alert Setting:
Kayak, Airfarewatchdog, Yapta
Aggregators:
Kayak, Skyscanner
Hotels:
TripAdvisor, Venere, Booking.com, Hotels.com
Alternative Accommodations:
Agriturismo (Farm houses),
Vacation Rentals, AirBnB,
Discount:
TravelZoo, Budget Travel
Travel reviews:
Rick Steve's Europe, Fodor's Travel, VirtualTourist, FlyerTalk
Travel tools:
SeatGuru, SlowTravel
Frequent Flyer:
WebFlyer, The Points Guy
ONCE YOU’RE IN ITALY:
Support for land transfers and excursions:
Flavio Gioia Agency Transfers and Excursions in regions of Campania, Lazio, Basilicata (Amalfi Coast, Positano, Ravello, Matera, Naples, Rome... )
SAT Sicilian Airbus Travel, Full service Agency for all of Sicily, entire island.
Dejan Prvulovic Transfers and Excursions in regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Liguria (Florence, Cortona, Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre...) - dejanprvi70@yahoo.it
Claudio Sancassani Transfers and Excursion in regions of Liguria, Lombardy, Veneto (Lake Como, Bellagio, Cinque Terre...)
Activity Research Opportunities:
Italian Driving and Mapping:
ACI Club
Michelin
Ferry Lines:
TraghettiOnline - a large selection of from-da/to-a routes, many ferry line links, for the beginning stages of your travel planning.
Money to go places:
EURO exchange
UNESCO site list
(“protected sites of outstanding universal value”)
Guides:
Venice areas: Sabrina
Rome areas: Kiron
Pompeii and Naples areas: Raffaelle
raffaeleattanasio@alice.it
Siena and Tuscany areas: Stella
Florence and Tuscan areas: Elizabeth
e_annbutler@hotmail.com
Florence and Tuscan areas: Paola
paola50122@gmail.com
Official Museum Sites:
Florence
Venice
Pompeii
Italy’s main airports and codes:
Venice(VCE)
Milan (LIN and MXP)
Florence (FLR)
Naples (NAP)
Bari (BRI)
Palermo, Sicily (PMO)
Catania, Sicily (CTA)
Trains in Italy:
TrenItalia
Slow trains, (regional stops, starting with slowest: Interegionale, Regionale, InterCity (IC), Eurostar) Italia (ES)
Fast train, starting with slowest
1. Freccia Bianca
2. Freccia Argento
3. Freccia Rossa
Approximate times for main train routes
- Venice - Rome = 3hr 20 min
- Venice - Florence = 2hrs
- Venice Milan = 2hrs 30 min
- Florence - Rome = 1 hr 40 min
- Florence - Pisa = 45 min
- Florence - Naples = 2 hrs 50 min
- Rome - Naples = 1hr 15 min
- Rome - Milan = 3 hrs 30 min
- Naples - Milan = 4 hrs 20 min