Top Eight Tips For Getting Around
Easily In Big Italian Cities
From Mama Margaret’s Italy Travel & Food E-newsletter, March 7, 2012
Planning on visiting Turin, Rome or Palermo? In big Italian cities, plan on using public buses, subways or taxis or walk. They say the best way to see a country is on foot and that’s certainly true in the historic centre of man y Italian cities.
Avoid driving a car. Driving a car in big cities like Naples will either terrify you so you have recurring nightmares or thrill you if you have a secret desire to drive fast in chaotic obstacle courses. I still close my eyes at times when I’m with my friend Lucia in her car in Rome and she’s an excellent driver!
Cities like Florence have a labyrinth of one way streets off the main thoroughfares so you’ll circle around and around, with ever more colourful swear words coming out of your mouth each time you circle back or go too far. Why put yourself through that?
Parking is very expensive. Many hotels in historic centres have parking garages.
However, many side streets are too narrow to accommodate cars easily and have narrow sidewalks so pedestrians almost flatten themselves against building walls when a car passes by. No fun driving that way!
Taxis abound. Check that the meter is running and before you get going, ask for an estimate of the fare. Adopt a friendly, but confident “I know where I’m going” air so the driver may be less tempted to drive the long way to your hotel.
Before boarding public buses, you need to buy tickets which aren’t sold on city buses. Buy them at news vendor stands on the streets, train stations or at some tobacco shops. For example in Rome, I often buy mine at the news vendor in the main train station or in the subway stations.
On the bus, you must get your ticket stamped in the validating machine since tickets are valid for 90 minutes or so. Ticket controllers do board the buses sometimes to check if tickets are validated, so avoid embarrassment and fines by using the machine. Same system for subways in cities like Rome where you must validate your ticket at the turnstile before walking down to the train platform.
Many cities like Naples, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Verona and Turin have “hop on hop off” buses that let you get off and on as you wish at major tourist sites in a 24 or 48 hour period for a reasonable price like $25 for 48 hours in Rome. A great way to get oriented quickly to a new city!
Thank you to Alice Lawless of Vancouver whose ideas inspired this article.