Italy

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Quick Facts
Capital	Rome
Government	republic
Currency	euro (EUR)
Area	total: 301,230 sq km note: includes Sardinia and Sicily water: 7,210 sq km land: 294,020 sq km
Population	57,715,625 (July 2002 est.)
Language	Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)
Religion	predominately Roman Catholic with mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community
Calling Code	39
Internet TLD	.it
Time Zone	UTC +1

Italy is large country in Western Europe, probably the second most popular tourist destination in Continental Europe after its western neighbour France.

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Regions

Abruzzo
Alta Badia
Basilicata
Calabria
Campania
Emilia-Romagna
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lazio
Liguria
Lombardy (Lombardia)
Marche
Molise
Piedmont (Piemonte)
Puglia
Sardinia (Sardegna)
Sicily (Sicilia) - the large island located to the south of the Italian peninsula (the "ball" to Italy's "boot")
Tuscany (Toscana)
Trentino-Alto Adige
Umbria
Valle d'Aosta
Veneto

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Cities

Rome - (Roma): the capital, both of Italy and of the ancient Roman empire; centre of the Roman Catholic Church (the Vatican)

Bologna - (Bologna): A major trade fair city.
Florence - (Firenze): History, art, architecture. Uffizzi's gallery, David of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Genoa - a vibrant and historical port city, birth place of Columbus
Milan - (Milano) - shares with Paris the title of fashion capital of the world
Naples - (Napoli) (including Herculaneum and Pompeii)
Padua (Padova)
Pisa
Rimini
Siena - a mediaeval town in southern Tuscany
Trento
Turin - (Torino): The first capital of modern Italy. Host of the 2006 Winter Olympics
Venice - (Venezia): History, art. S. Marc plaza. The city is built on a lagoon, filled with canals, with no roads for cars. Very poetic and romantic
Verona - a restored Roman coliseum is the stage for modern opera productions

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Other destinations

Cinque Terre - Five tiny, scenic, towns strung along the steep vineyard-laced coast.
Vatican City - the seat of the Pope, head of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church.

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Understand

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Get in

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By plane

Major Airports:

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By train

From France via Nice, Avignon, and Paris
From Croatia
From Geneva and other Swiss cities

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By boat

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Get around

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By train

The Italian rail system has three levels: Eurostar, Intercity, and Regular (Linee Urbane), Eurostar being the classiest. Generally speaking, for a given distance each tier costs twice as much as the one below it. The train cars used by the Eurostar service are far newer than those used by the other two, but are not necessarily more comfortable. In fact, the cars used by Intercity trains are split up into distinct, six-seater compartments, which is really nice when you're travelling in groups.

The main practical difference between tiers is reliability. Intercity trains are generally very reliable, but if you need to catch a flight, for example, it might be better to pay extra for the Eurostar. The Linee Urbane are less reliable. The other big difference between Eurostar and the other two tiers is that Eurostar seating is all by reservation, while seating on the others is not. On the Eurostar, every passenger is assigned a seat. This means that the train will never be packed with an impossible number of people, but it also means you will need to purchase tickets in advance. During commuter hours, on major north-south routes during the holidays, or before and after large political demonstrations, trains on the two lower tiers can become very, very full, to the point where it gets very uncomfortable.

The pricier tier is usually faster, but there isn't a consistent speed difference between tiers. On some routes, the Eurostar will cut the travel time in half, but on others routes all three trains go the same speed, and taking the Eurostar is simply a waste of money. Just check the FS website (http://trenitalia.com/) or the printed schedule, usually located near the entrance to each platform, to see how long the trip will take.

On the train schedules, the Eurostar is listed in blue, Intercity in red, and Regular in green. The arrival times are listed in parentheses next to the names of each destination. One thing to watch out for: certain trains only operate seasonally, or for certain time periods (for example, during holidays).

The lines to buy tickets can be very long, and slow, so get to the station early. There are touch-screen ticket machines which are very useful, efficient, and multilingual, but there are never that many, and the lines for those can be very long too. Eurostar trains can fill up, so if you're on a tight schedule you should buy those tickets in advance. If you are running late and don't have time to buy a ticket, you can just jump on the train, but you will have to pay extra when the conductor (il controllore) comes around (a flat fee, somewhere around 5-10 euro) and they don't take credit cards. Technically, if you don't have a ticket you are supposed to find the conductor yourself and buy one (otherwise you have to pay another fee - approx. 20 euro), but for foreigners it's enough to just stammer something about being late and they will almost never hassle you about this.

Also, the way the system works is that unless you validate the ticket by inserting it into one of the yellow boxes on the platform, you could keep using it for months. The yellow box just stamps a date on the ticket, so the conductor knows you weren't planning on using that ticket again. Technically, a ticket that isn't validated is just like not having a ticket: you have to buy another.

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By bus

Buy bus tickets before boarding from corner stores and other shops. The payment system for most mass transit in Italy (trains, city buses, subway) is based on voluntary payment combined with sporadic enforcement. Specifically, you buy a ticket which can be used at any time (for that level of service, anyway) and when you use it you validate the ticket by sticking it into a machine that stamps a date on it. Once in a while (with varying frequency depending on the mode of transportation) someone will ask you for your ticket and if you don't have one you get a fine.

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By thumb

Italians are generally very friendly and open people, but they're less likely to pick up hitchhikers than anyone else in the world. It is easier to hitchhike out of the Bronx than it is to hitchhike in Italy. Hitchhiking in the summer in touristy areas works okay because you'll get rides from Northern European tourists, and it works okay in very rural areas as long as there is consistent traffic (because you're still playing the odds) but hitchhiking near large cities or along busy routes is extremely frustrating. Hitchhiking is not recommended for women travelling alone.

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Talk

Not surprising, Italian is the language spoken by the vast majority of Italians. English is spoken fairly commonly on the well-travelled path, but you'll want a good phrasebook for anything remote.

Buy

Italy is part of the so-called Eurozone, so the common currency of the European Union, the Euro, is legal tender in Italy.

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Eat

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Cuisine

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Restaurants

Italian restaurants and bars charge more (typically double) if you eat seated at a table rather than standing at the bar or taking your order to go. There is usually small, very small print on the menus to tell you this. Some menus may also indicate a coperto (cover charge) or servizio (service charge).

Agree whether you want primi (pasta or rice dishes) or secondi (meat dishes - if you want vegetables too look under contorni and order them as sides). If you order a pasta/pizza and your friend has a steak you will get your pasta dish, and probably when you've finished eating the steak will arrive. It's slightly frowned upon to ask them to bring primi and secondi dishes at the same time. They may well say yes...and then not do it. Bad luck if you're doing the Atkins diet...

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