Hi-
We are doing the Heart of Italy tour in May. I am seeing on social media the large crowds in Rome and Florence. Has anyone who has travelled there recently had that experience? I went to Italy 14 years ago and walked up to the Trevi fountain and into the Pantheon with no lines. I know that won’t be my experience this time. I just want to be prepared. Thanks!
Hi, it looks like the Pantheon is included in your itinerary. If so, that's good. RS tours tries to visit the Pantheon in the evening or early to avoid the crowds.
Trevi? Laughs in Roman. I was there in April 2009 and again in March 2023. I'm glad I threw my coin in the first time. Just know it's not going to be like 14 years ago. Also no sitting on the Spanish Steps anymore.
Florence--I've only been once--that 2023 trip. To me, it felt more crowded than Venice and Rome but could be because it's more concentrated w/ relatively narrow streets. Being on a tour will help. Short answer to all this is that just about everything will be different than 2014. You'll still have a great time, though.
I go to Florence every year but in the last two I haven’t been downtown. I let my wife deal with the humongous crowds for her shopping. I stay at the pool.
Different people have different perceptions of what constitutes an intolerable crowd or an acceptable one. For sure in May you should expect a lot of people in line near the major sights, even with the possibility that airliners might run out of jet fuel in the next 5 weeks.
Roberto is not joking about running out of jet fuel. We are in Rome now and it has been all over the news here. Flights are being canceled left and right. We just received notice that our nonstop flight from FCO back to Dulles is canceled for tomorrow, Sunday, 4/19, with about 18 hours notice. The only option offered for rebooking was the next day, Monday, 4/20, with a 6 hour layover in Munich. That did not work for us, so we declined the rebooked flight and purchased one-way nonstop tickets on another airline, but again for a day later…Monday, 4/20.
Fingers crossed that flight does not get canceled too!
Thank you both- I’ll be happy just to get to Italy and then back home…but I had to be stuck somewhere, I’d choose Italy!
You can check live cameras of different attractions in various Italian cities. Make sure you look at them while it’s daytime in Italy to get a better feel for crowds.
Trevi: they're now charging a couple of euro to get up close and personal with the fountain (down to the basin level). The fee only applies during posted hours, which I believe are between 9:00 AM and 9:00 or 10:00 PM, and they clean the thing on Mondays so the basin area is closed until 2:00 PM. They also don't take cash onsite. If you can, go as early in the morning as possible to get close without the mob or the fee. Very late at night might work too.
We were in Rome in mid-March and the crowds were much more than we expected. The Colosseum was packed by 9:30 and lines were long at the Palatine Hill entrances. So much for "shoulder season". It was much the same in Amalfi town, although we were there on Easter Sunday which brings out many vacationers. Be ready.
jconsol- was your flight cancelled specifically because of a jet fuel issue?
Chuck H- the shoulder season in certain parts of Italy haven’t existed since 2022, at least. When we went to Puglia that year the crowds were, ok, depending on the city of course. In northern Italy, where my wife is from, areas like a lake Como see tourists pretty much year round. Yes, even in January tourists go to Bellagio.
OP- 14 years ago my wife and I, along with our dogs and a bunch of our belongings, relocated from NYC to Italy. The crowds, even back then, were horrendous in the large cities, such as Venice, which has had unsustainable tourism for decades. In the north, such as Como, Lecco, Cortina, didn’t have such a high concentration of tourists as it does now. For example, Bergamo, a small city of about 170,000 inhabitants, saw more than 3 millions tourists visit in 2023. We were there last June. To say it was packed would be an understatement. Yes, there were works going on which caused bottlenecks in the old town. Yes, it was mid June. But, I distinctly remember back in 2012 when we were in Bergamo and it was nothing like this. Not in June. Not in October and certainly not in January
Rome and Florence are both deservedly popular, but on multiple trips in the last 4 years, they weren’t overwhelming.
I can’t say the same for the Cinque Terre, especially Vernazza (Rick’s favorite off thee 5 towns). The mobs of visitors will make Rome and Florence seem tame by comparison. Your tour will help navigate through the unpleasantness.
kcdav…that is what we were told. Lufthansa seems to be the airline most affected right now and is canceling a large number of flights due to the fuel crisis. We were uncomfortable relying on their rebooked flight home for us through Munich, so we bought new one-way tickets home on United…keeping our fingers crossed that flight goes tomorrow morning.
SkyNews here in Rome is constantly reporting about the fuel crisis…only a 5 week supply left according to their reporting.
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/lufthansa-flights-grounded-planes-iran-war-fuel-crisis-b2959522.html#
