Italy (mainly the “main cities” as Venice, Florence and Rome) was on my list for a long time even though I have already visited Milan and Turin.
After speaking with a friend that did Erasmus in Bologna, I decided to add Bologna in the itinerary mainly because I am a foodie and I heard that Bologna’s food makes a visit worth it. Adding the fact that the city is between Venice and Florence, let us give an opportunity to Bologna.
Below you will find my 9 days itinerary in Italy.
Venice – 1 full day and 1 night
Venice was our first stop. We arrived at lunchtime, left the things in the hotel and started our walking exploration through the island.
We had only one day so we do not manage to get inside of many sights but we managed to see all the main sights from the outside. I was not with high expectations about the city because I heard many bad comments about it like: it’s a dirty city, the canal was smelly and the roads are full of tourists.
Well, the only one that was true was the huge amount of tourists and actually, all the cities that we visited in Italy had a huge amount of tourists. Despite that, Venice is just an amazing and romantic city, the canals and the tiny roads are a magic maze.
While there, you cannot miss taking a glance of all its bridges, especially Rialto Bridge, Constitution Bridge, Bridge of Sighs and Academia Bridge.
I will suggest you as well to Take a picture in Saint Mark’s Square, visit the Saint Mark’s Basilica (the entry is free but prepare yourself to spend 1 or 2 hours in the queue – we skipped the visit into the inside, but even just the outside is quite impressive), Doge’s Palace (if you have time I read that worth the visit, we have not visited) and climb the campanile to have a panoramic view of Venice (the ticket cost 8 euros for an adult and the queue is usually fast and, in my opinion, the view worth the money. In order to get to the top, all the visitors will use an elevator).
If you dare, walk to Santa Maria Novella Church situated at the opposite side of Saint Mark’s Square. From there you will have a great view of the square and surroundings. The entry in the church is free and is not crowded so is also possible to take a glance of gothic and renaissance art inside.
To see the gondolier in their daily life avoiding the crowds, go to the dock behind the hotel “Hotel San Moise”. Is a quiet and silent place where you can sit and enjoy the canal and the gondolas floating by.
For book lovers, I recommend a visit to the Acqua Alta Book Shop, is also a good place to buy unique souvenirs from Venice.
Where to eat: Dal Moro’s is a take away spot with delicious boxes of fresh pasta mixed with made to order sauces (8 euros per person).
Where to stay: Venice island is expensive, however, if you have limited time to explore it, it worth stay on the island. We had only one day (and one night) therefore we decide to stay on the island at Hotel Cannaregio 2357. Is a tiny hotel really well located, clean and with helpful staff, one night cost 150 euros (for two persons including breakfast) they charge an extra 3.5 per person\night for city taxes.
Bologna – 1 full day and 1 night
In my opinion, Bologna is the foodies’ paradise and that was what came first into my attention. Furthermore, Bologna is also home of the European oldest University and the academic spirit have a lot of influence in the city life. You can notice that by getting a drink at Piazza Giuseppe Verdi or any other place near the University.
The power in Italy, in the past, was represented with art/architecture and the Two Towers present in Bologna are an example of that. Those towers were built by important families and carried out important military functions but mostly they represented the families nobility (as high the tower was, more powerful and rich the family was). If you want, you can climb one of the towers but there isn’t any elevator, so please keep that in mind.
Another option to have a glance of all the city is climbing to the tower of Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca (pay attention to the dress code and keep your shoulders and knees hidden. I didn’t know that and my entry was refused) the sanctuary is placed at the Piazza Maggiore.
Other places worth to see are the Piazza Santo Steffano and the Sanctuary with the same name (is free to visit). If you want to see one of the secrets of the city go to La Piccola Venezia, where you can have a glance of the old canals.
Where to eat: Now, for eat I recommend the following places (they were recommended to me by a friend that lived in Bologna one year and they didn’t disappointed):
The best pasta ragu at Osteria dell’Orsa (is really cheap for 2 meals including wine and dessert, we paid around 30 euros) – A tip from the locals that you should consider: if in the menu is wroten Pasta Bolonhesa RUN because is probably a tourist trap.
Best and cheapest pizza (the place is take away and well known between students, but the pizza is really good and one pizza cost around 4/5 euros) at Pizza Casa.
Best tortellini at Pasta Fresca Naldi (be aware of the schedule because some days is only open for lunch)
For a good ice cream try Gelateria Galliera 49
Where to stay: Ac Hotel, one night cost 100 euros (for two persons without breakfast) they charge an extra 2 euros person\night for city taxes
Florence – 3 full days and 3 night
Florence is the home of Renaissance art well known by its museums and open-air galleries. The city has something that I cannot explain but has the power of keeping you amazed.
We heard sometimes a sentence saying that “All the roads lead to Rome” but well, in Florence, “All the roads lead to the Piazza del Duomo” where the huge cathedral complex can be seen.
The complex includes the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery (and the Gates of Paradise) and Giotto’s Campanile. The entry in the cathedral is free of charge but, as in Venice, you will take a few hours in the queue in order to get inside. It is possible to buy a ticket to climb the Giotto campanile and enter the Baptistery but we decided that the amazing view of the outside was enough.
Florence is known as well by the art museums and among them, the most well-known are the Uffizi gallery and the Galleria dell’Accademia. We decided to visit Galleria dell’Accademia inside (the online ticket with the skip the line cost 20 euros per person) to see the David masterpiece done by Michelangelo (detailed sculpture, that took more than 2 years to be created). The museum has a lot of beautiful paintings and sculptures and we saw an exhibition related to music (that one I don’t know if is a permanent exhibition or not).
One of the most well-known figures of the Renaissance was Leonardo Da Vinci. My boyfriend and I have a fascination for Da Vinci and due to that, we decided to visit the Leonardo Museum (ticket purchased at the museum cost 7 euros per person). The museum is not big but is interesting because you can interact with Da Vinci’s inventions, replicas of his Codex are also in the exhibition as well as a further explanation regarding the machines. The museum is split according to the machine’s environment: air, earth and water.
Another worthy visit is Palacio Vecchio. We bought the secret passages tour that includes both the palace entry as a guided tour through the secret passages built by the Medici family and the architects that built the different modules of the palace (the ticket cost 18.20 euros per person). Outside the Palace, there are also worthy things to see like the Piazza Della Signoria, an open-air sculpture gallery near Palacio Vecchio, Uffizi gallery and Fountain of Neptune.
A visit to Florence can’t be concluded without crossing the Ponte Vecchio and admire the many jewellery stores, a foodie tour to Mercato Central and a visit to Fontana Del Porcellino the Pig Fountain.
To have a good view of the city I recommend either the Bardini Gardens (entrance fee of 5 euros) or Piazzale Michelangelo (free entry) or both. Please keep in mind that if you want to visit both you need to like walking, considering that to get there from Florence centre you will have a good hill to climb. In the end, the view that you will have will compensate for your effort.
Florence is the heart of the Tuscany region, but there is much more to see in Tuscany. In order to have a better understanding and taste of the region we went on a day tour around the Tuscany region. We have visited Siena and its black and white cathedral (Siena was founded by the two Remus sons that have run from Rome hiding from their uncle Romulus after he killed their father, supposedly they rode white and black horses and those colours are still the colours of the city).
We have visited a villa called San Giminiano (Manhattan of Tuscany because of its ancient towers) and we went to a wine cellar in Chianti where we did have lunch and a wine tasting experience. By the end of the day, we went to Pisa to see the complex where the Tour of pizza was built.
It was a good experience, but obviously, you don’t have enough time to see and enter in all the museums and attractions but it was enough to understand and have a taste of Tuscany (the tour cost 76 euros per person).
Where to eat: Osteria All’antico Vinaio (really big sandwichs with smoked ham, each sandwichs cost 5 euros); Nerbone (local restaurant at Mercato central it cost 8 euros); At the Mercato Central you have many options from the traditional pizza and bisteca Florentina to Asian food, is a good option to go for lunch/dinner in Florence
Where to stay: We stayed in Airbnb in a house 10 minutes far from Vecchio Palace (3 nights cost 230 euros without breakfast and was only a room, for the same price I think better options can be found but you need to book with, at least, 2 months of advance)
Rome – 4 full days and 4 nights
To finish our Italy itinerary and once “All the roads lead to Rome” we went to the capital.
Rome is much bigger than the cities we have visited before, and with more tourists. Due to that I strongly recommend you to book all the museum and sites you want to visit in advance because there are so many persons that even when you stay in queues for hours and hours you will pay more to visit the attractions. If you plan our visit to Rome early in time, you can buy the tickets directly from the museums saving time and money.
For example, our first tour was to the Vatican, including the museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter Cathedral, If we have planned ahead we could buy a guided tour directly on the museum website and pay 38 euros. Considering that we didn’t think about that when planning this trip we paid 56 euros for exactly the same thing but in a private tour company (the entry in the cathedral is free but the queues are so long that we preferred to pay an extra for having that included in our guided tour. There are other ways to skip the line like buying the audio guide or the ticket to climb to St Peter Basilica Duomo).
Talking a little bit about the tour, I did like a lot our guide and his explanations but I need to point that Vatican museum and Sistine chapel were crowded and sometimes was difficult to stop in front of any painting or sculpture because of the people would push us and make us move. In the Basilica, because of its huge size, I haven’t notice that.
In my opinion, this is a must-have tour to add in your trip and I recommend always having a guide with you to make it even more interesting. Note that the tour last 3 hours, more or less.
The best way to move in Rome is by your own feet. In that way, you will be able to appreciate all the buildings and all the squares that are so pretty and so interest on an architectural point of view. Also, most of the main sites are in a walking distance from one to another. Not far from the Vatican you can find The Spanish steps and the square below them.
If you want to have a good view of the city you can go to the Terrazza del Pincio (situated and 15 minutes away from the Spanish Steps) and continue then to Villa Borghese, where you will find a green space in the city heart that you give you the opportunity to rest your feet.
The Pantheon (the entry is free and the queues are not big. You will wait around 5 minutes to enter), Piazza Navona (enjoy an Aperol in one of the many terraces) and Trevi Fountain (good luck taking a picture in this lovely fountain) are all places nearby and are must see in Rome.
Piazza Venezia surroundings manage to have an equilibrated open-air museum with artefacts from Roman history until more recent events.
You can see Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Altar of the Fatherland, part of the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (former king of a united Italy), the Capitoline Hill and Roman Forum and, at the end of the road, you will find the Colosseum (we did not manage to enter because the tickets were sold out in the official website and we did not want to pay twice the price to buy them from a private tour company).
Trastevere is a colourful neighbourhood that worth a visit. It’s a bohemian area known for its beautiful and narrow roads, traditional and innovative trattorias, pubs and shops.
When in Italy is mandatory to have a cooking class either to learn how to cook the perfect pizza or the perfect pasta. We have booked a cooking class to learn how to do pasta (tortellini and ravioli). During the morning we were at Pastificio Faini with Emanuele that has taught us the tricks of kneading and tending the dough as a “nonna” does. The result was an instructive morning and a tasty lunch. It was one of the most interesting things I did in Italy (the cooking class and lunch cost 54 euros per person).
Where to eat: Grazia and Graziella (Placed in Trastevere a meal for two costs on average 35 euros)
Pastificio Guerra (near the Spanish steps, this is not a restaurant is a place that produces fresh pasta and they simply sell the cooked pasta. Yet, it’s a super tasty pasta that you can take away or eat there on the store shelves the pasta costs 4 euros)
Trattoria Luzzi (near the Coliseum, this restaurant has pasta and pizza options on the menu and really nice staff. The meal for two costs on average 25 euros)
Where to stay: We booked a local accommodation on booking, Mecenate Rooms, one night cost 88 euros (for two persons without breakfast) they charge an extra 3,5 euros person\night for city taxes.
Breakfasts in Italy
In Italy, the typical breakfast is a croissant and a cappuccino. Usually, they cost 2,50/3 euros. Considering that in most of the places we stayed we didn’t have breakfast included going to a cafeteria and ask for a croissant and a cappucino by that price was a really good and tasting option. Eating in the balcony or on a terrace was really nice and made me feel a real Italian.
How to get around in ITALY?
TRAIN is the answer.
The railway in Italy is really good and covered a lot of places for us. Considering the itinerary, this was the best and cheapest way to move.
Keep in mind that as soon you buy the tickets the cheapest they are.
We paid 64.80 euros each for our trips (Venice-Bologna, Bolonha-Florence (in a high-speed train) and Florence-Rome (in a high-speed train).
We also paid transfers from and for the airport.
In Venice, we got a bus transfer for 8 euros each, that left us on Venice Island. The ticket can be easily purchased at the airport in the arrival.
In Rome we bought a train ticket (Leonardo express) straight to the airport terminal 3, it cost 14 euros each. There are less expensive options like bus transfer but by train, we avoid traffic and therefore is the safest option.
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