Advice Needed on Trip to Italy

I would be very leery of paying for a night in advance, because if you can not use it, you can not get your money back. Travel in December should not be a problem with having to make reservations in advance and if you stick to the south of Italy like I did with Sicily, Palermo and Corleone, you should not have too much problem with the weather. Italy starts their Christmas decorations in early November, which was when I was there last year. You can even travel up to Venice and Verona, then Torino without too much bad weather. But, check your weather reports on the way. Most hotels are expensive by American standards with 100 Euros = $150 and up. Usually you get the breakfast included. I can recommend some places to stay, if you will let me know where you will be visiting...and some that you should not go near, too.

Watch out for low ball prices that change once you get there to get more money out of you. Maybe, you should have a back up hotel notified you will be interested in staying there, if you find out the first choice is not going to work for you. Most hotels can be contacted directly, bypassing the booking places on the intenet. Reply to this

August will give you plenty of tourists to battle with getting on and off tour buses, subways (metro) and regular busses. October/and early November would be better. December I was gone. Rome was a disappointment renting (Romerenting.com) don't go there. She tried to change the prices on us after we checked in. Try Hotel Acropoli near the train station at Via Principe Amedeo, 63-63-67 Attila is the night manager and you can probably book through but he is sometimes there during the day, too. Tel You can pick up a lot of cheap stuff around the railroad station (McDonald's of course, with a good Chinese restaurant neaby) and the tour buses leave from the nearby termini. We did the green bus, but I found all over Europe the red bus was usually better. Be sure to go to Trastevere, the old "Greenwich Village" of Rome, not far from the Vatican with great restaurants. Look for the "Roman Holiday" restaurant near the square at the foot bridge over the Tiber. Eat at Othello's and watch the cars, scooters and busses come right through your "dining room' while you are sitting across the street. Florence I bypassed this time, been there, done that, but it is very beautiful. Venice can have some good deals in November, otherwise you might have to stay in Verona for cheaper rates at the Hotel Verona. Worth two nights to see Juliett's balcony and the two gentlemen of Verona, around the arena, good night life. Palermo...what can I say. If you like to hear the sing song chant of the street vendors yelling out their latest prices on tomatoes, potatoes and turnips, spend a morning there buying your fruit at the Hotel Sausele, near the train station. Go to the tourist office and ask if you can get on the bus to Corleone at 4.5 Euro, and find out EXACTLY the name of the bus company. They have about 10 bus companies that leave from the same spot. Let the attendants know you have Corleone tickets and they will hold the bus for you if you happen to be back at McDonald's buying lunch in the train station nearby. There may be a tour bus that takes you around the mountain villages for the day, but I am not aware of it. The red tour bus that goes around Palermo, 2 separate routes, is great to see the best parts of Palermo. Otherwise, book the Hotel Belevedere in Corleone and tell them you want to stay in the room that Al Pacino or Andy Garcia or Diane Keaton stayed in. Be nice to Don Luciano Sapporito, he is the Godfather. Tell him, through Lila his niece who speaks Englilsh, that I am using his picture on the back of his menu as a dart board for his face. Make sure there is a pillow or two, where a horse's head might go in the bed beside you...have fun!

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If you decide to visit Milan, which I recomend you do, please check this site

http://www.apartments-stay.com/ Reply to this

Visited all the Rome places... If u need further information visit these webs. They have some better deals.choice is yours.
Roomsnet
Italy Traveler

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Hi, in my opinion a bunch of turists is a break dealer to make any trip, crowds can get you tired and distracted easily, so I will also reccomend december.

I will be there in july. I have already made reservations in Rome for a B&B called dommus anna that a friend reccomended, and they have been nice. check it out: www.domusanna.net the cost for a single person is 60 euros and for a double room with 2 persons is 90 euros. I suppose it could be a little higher in august.

If you plan to take tours, first check the option of getting there yourself. For example, I want to go to assisi, and tours prices for a one day tour range was 88 to 120 euros. If you take the train early in the morning (6 am) you will get there by 9 am and the cost for the round trip by train is less than 40 euros. Check all trains in: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/

If you want to stay in assisi and come back to rome next morning there are also many nice B&B for 35 to 50 euros per night.

I will stay 3 days in rome and then I will rent a car to go to Napoli, Salerno and all the way south to Reggio Calabria, visiting small towns and the sea side in Tropea and Capo Vaticano. I will drop the car in Reggio Calabria and then take a ferry to Messina. There I have been recomended to take the bus or train to Palermo, and also not miss the panoramic route to Corelone.

You can come back from Palermo to Napoli by a night ferry (trip is about 10 hours) check options in: http://www.tirrenia.it/ you can chose a cabin to sleep comfortably.

I understand you are not going to south italy, but it is a good option to visit napoli, the island of capri and travel to Palermo by Ferry and back. Then you can take the train from Napoli to your other destinations.

I hope this helps, as i am planning a trip myself, i will let you know my findings that could be helpful for you.

By the way, you can check low price B&B options in http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/

My brother and my parents traveled to Italy last year and they stayed in several B&B they are a lot chaeper than traditional hotels and you can check opinions for cleanliness, quietness, service, etc. My parents are very picky and they liked it. If you go in december, you can get good price deals per night.




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ilconsigliri:

So you're going to Corleone? Be sure to try to stop at the Al Giarra (sp) restaurant just above the Hotel Belvedere at the top of the mountain, to have lunch with the Godfather. Say hello to his sister Titi, his neice Leia, the grandfather Giovanni and of course, the Godfather himself, Don Luciano Sapporito for me.

Check the back of the restaurant menu with the picture of Sapporito shaking hands with Al Pacino, smiling up at Luciano, and adoring him, Andy Garcia looking the other way and probably did not want to be in the picture and Diane Keaton cut out of the picture, but there is another copy of the same picture hanging up in the bar, next to his fired brick oven pizza parlor. Al Pacino's grandfather came from Corleone. It's a man's world. The men do nothing and the women do all the work, because Sicily is not considered part of Italy by real Italians. It is totally influenced by the Northern African muslim culture.

Be sure to tell Sapporito that because he tried to EXTORT 150 Euro out of me to get me back to Palermo, when I only needed a short car ride down to the Corleone town to get the bus back to Palermo for 4 Euro, he is getting his "reward." The grandfather drove me down to town that morning, and a guy named Corleone drove me back up to the hotel. When I asked Titi for a taxi, as I was told to leave the hotel by "Jesus Christ" she replied "NO TAXI!" The bus driver for the last bus out of town that night told me he was related to Luciano as a brother of his father-in-law making Sapporito the bus driver's wife's Uncle. Most of the people in that town are named Corleone and instead of putting wallets in their back pockets, they carry guns because I thought I was going to get blasted with four bullets from four guns coming out to watch over their women, when I bought a little note book from the lady in the bookstore across the street from the cafe down in town. She had a beautiful looking daughter. I still have the Euritana (Ethopian) dollar the guy in the post office gave to me on Sunday morning last November.

Luciano's "reward" is that I cut him out of my copy of the menu, blew him up on my scanner and put him up on the wall...all alone. He receives about 150 darts a day thrown at him, one for each euro he tried to EXTORT out of me, in his business suit. Guess where most of the darts landed? :-)

Have fun. Luciano understands English, but he uses Leia and Titi to do the translating just for show.

Give them all my regards, but if you want to check into the hotel for an overnight stay in the Al Pacino suite, then bring the business card of the previous hotel with you.

Titi took the card and brought it in the office in the back to call down to the previous Hotel Sauselle in Palermo. I heard her murmur something about FBI, CIA etc., grazie, caio and then, and only then, was I allowed to check in to the Hotel Belvedere.

Keep a pillow beside you when sleeping at night, to thwart any ideas of severed heads of your favorite race horse being laid to rest beside you...(from the Godfather movie).

If you need any more information about visiting "Jesus Christ" on the Butte in the middle of town, respond back. Reply to this

Sapporito you will find in the Al Giarra restaurant next to the Hotel Belvedere at the top of Corleone mountain. If you look at the back of the menu you will see his picture with Pacino and Garcia. He is the dumpy looking guy behind the pizza counter, but he owns most of the town.

"Jesus Christ" is a little more difficult, but make your way down to the river on the more isolated part of town and the little church next to it. Then, look straight up at the Butte. That is reallly your landmark. Go around the right side, start climbing the steps to "Calvary" ring the bell by pulling on the chain, and most likely the Italian English speaking monk will open the door. Start rubbing your eyes, because you will think that 'Jesus' is welcoming you in to the 'house of the lord." He speaks some broken English. Mention that you are staying at the Belvedere and any Catholic connections you have (my brother is a priest, who is a pro-life minister in New York) and he will say "Wait here." He will run up the spiral staircase cut in to the stone, while you look around the little 6 Monks/6 Visitors mini-chapel in the next room.

When he comes back, he will hand you a nice pair of blue/green rosary. He will refuse all offers of financial assistance, but leave a few euros behind anyway, while he is upstairs retrieving your salvation rosary to keep you from harm with Sapporito.

I will leave the discription of "Jesus Christ" for you to enjoy. But, suffice it to say that the straggly beard, gray sackcloth with a white rope for a belt, and dirty feet will answer the question: "Why did he need to have his feet washed so often?"

Let us know how it goes for you, but don't insult the Godfather by refusing his offer of a sandwich or cheese like I did, after I finished the biggest plate of spaghetti carbonara and veal that I ever ate in my life. Don't forget to sing "Oh, my papa" and "When the sky hits your eye, likea bigga pizza pie" going out the door like I did. They get a kick out of that, too.

The next day the price of getting to Palermo went from 100 Euro to 150 Euro, when I really only wanted to go down to the village in town to get on the bus for 4 Euro back to Palermo. Caio! Reply to this

Hi, I live in Tuscany and hope to be of some help. As everybody told you August is not the best month to visit the major cities but can be a wonderful month to visit the countryside. You canvisit my web site to see what is available in Tuscan countryside.
I will suggest December for a major cities tour, can be cold but usually is not raining a lot. During the Xmas holidays the hotels can be booked so check before or you might find availability only at very expensive Hotels.

Ciao

Rossana

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Go to Rome, where most planes land, visit the Vatican and then the Trastevere area which is like Greenwich Village, NY. Go south to Palermo, Sicily. Then, take the bus to Corleone and spend the night at the Hotel Belvedere. Say hello to the "Godfather" and look at the back of his menu. He is shaking hands with Al Pacino, Andy Garcia and Diane Keaton. See above for more information. Reply to this

Hello,

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http://www.trustandtravel.com

You will find a lot of indication about your travel in tuscany and agritourism in italy

ciao a tutti Reply to this