Italian Vacation

There may be a combined rail / bus pass, but not that I am aware of. Even 10 years ago, you just walked up to a kiosk and used your cc to buy your train ticket with the option to select English as the preferred language. We just bought individual tickets, not a rail pass because it was cheaper that way. Which way is cheaper for you will all depend on where you want to go. As far as getting to other locations not on a rail line, you can use a city or tourist town as a base and get day tours (in English) to see surrounding towns and sights. We had a lovely van tour out of Florence that stopped in San Gimignano, Sienna and another small town. We would have liked more time in Sienna, but the train runs to there, so if we had time we could have done that.

 

Take the hovercraft from Naples to Capri and then stay at a villa on Capri for a night. I did when I was 16 and it's a memory I'll treasure the rest of my life.

 

I haven't figured that out 100% yet, so I'd love to hear from others. Mostly though, I've booked rooms close to the stations, so I think we'll just walk to & from. I know there is a train from the airport that will get us very close to our first stay. I can only imagine buses will be plentiful at the train station, to get us where we need to go. I need to see if there's an app or something that can help decipher that system while we're there. But also, we just plan to do a lot of walking.

Do the math with the EUrail pass. If you're just doing local travel in Italy, it may not make sense to purchase. Most of the local trains don't need reservations, and aren't that expensive for a short city-to-city trip. Because we are going to Paris, the pass automatically made sense, though. I'm fairly certain the EUrail pass only covers trains, and I've read that it covers less in Italy than other countries. There are some rail lines that it doesn't cover. Also, the pass only covers the base ticket price - You still have to pay reservation costs. I've found www.italiarail.com to be the easiest to use / understand site for getting train tickets.

 

As for where the trains don't go, I walked, a lot! Some of my best memories were walking through different cities, away from the tourist stuff. I stayed in "traditional" hotels, which are much different than US hotels, because it was easy and there is always someone who speaks English.

 

Rome is full of history and gorgeous architecture. It is at least worth a visit.

 

I have used Air BNB to find cool places around Europe but as always with them, do your research and ask questions about location and whether or not it is a private room or whole apt ect.

I also use Venere.com for booking hotels over there. Easy to look up places on maps and lots of reviews.

One way that I pick places to stay in Spain and Italy is to find the main Plaza/Piazza in the center of town and find a hotel that overlooks it. Usually a good place to start. The big cities are another story but lets be honest, its just a place to sleep. if you're spending a lot of time in your room you're doing it wrong.

Like Mongloid said, play around on the Eurorail site and see about prices. I've always just rented cars through Autoeurope.com and had great experiences (although i'm pretty sure spain might have something to say if I get stopped there. Apparently they have speed cameras over there!)

You can use taxi, sometimes Uber, there are city bikes in a lot of places that are affordable and the city trains are pretty reliable in most places. Be alert because the train/station is where you may be a target for thieves, but I've never had a problem with it. Just don't wear white socks with sandals and a camera hanging from your neck. You'll be alright.

 

Never been to Rome, but this thread reminds me of the 'things to do in Chicago' thread. There are some dudes in here that think you get murdered 3 times as soon as you set foot inside any city limits.