italy

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

Italy is a country in Europe.

Table of contents [showhide]
1 Regions

2 Cities

3 Other destinations

4 Understand

5 Get in

5.1 By plane
5.2 By train
5.3 By boat

6 Get around

6.1 By train
6.2 By bus
6.3 By thumb

7 Talk

8 Buy

9 Eat

9.1 Cuisine
9.2 Restaurants

10 Drink

11 Sleep

12 Learn

13 Work

14 Stay safe

15 Stay healthy

16 Contact

17 External links

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)
Tuscany (Toscana)
Trentino-Alto Adige
Umbria
Valle d'Aosta
Veneto

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

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.

Understand

Get in

By plane
Major Airports:

Milan
Rome
Naples
Venice

By train
From France via Nice, Avignon, and Paris.
From Croatia
From Geneva and points Swiss

By boat

Get around

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] 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 ticket-checker ('il controllore') 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.

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 (il controllore) will ask you for your ticket and if you don't have it you get a fine.

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.

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.