Help with Learning About Our First Trip to Italy

Start with a guide book. Rick Steves Italy guide has info on many things you are asking about. For flight prices, use Google Flights or Kayak fro research. Do remove your email or risk being spammed to death.

You can also pay for a consultant with RS to help you. We did and it was well worth the cost.

When is your trip? If summer, see my post in Transportation about British Airways' new service from Portland to London, where you can connect to BA flights to many Italian cities. Introductory prices are good for summer travel.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/good-news-for-oregonians-ba-to-start-service-to-portland

You don’t say when you are going, how many are there, what your interests are. Italy has something for everyone but for anyone on this forum to get specific it’s important you expand a bit. As for flights, you’ve gotten good advice to use Kayak, or Google Flights. But, until you know where you want to go and so on it’s a bit premature to look at flights. For example, do you want to split your time in Rome, ending and beginning there and focus on RT flights? Or, fly into Rome, do a circuit by train, wind up in Florence or Milan. In that case you’d be looking at an open jaw flight. Get the RS Italy book and read it cover to cover, even those areas you have not specified. It might lead you to change your plans and will certainly help you focus on what you want to do. Look at the RS tours, particularly Best of Italy, Heart of Italy, Best of Tuscany. You might consider one of those, possible combined with some independent travel on your own. From my experience you will see a lot more on such a tour with expert guidance than you will manage on your own, particularly for your first Italian adventure. Avoid driving. See https://www.lifeinitaly.com/humor/italians-europeans-video-by-bruno-bozzetto

Agreed that Rick's guidebook is the most efficient place to start your research. Italy 2020 is in stores now. See also https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy.

When searching and booking flights, enter the whole route you're considering. It may be a "multi-city" route such as Portland-Florence and Rome-Portland. Florence doesn't have a lot of flights, so also consider other northern cities like Milan, Pisa, or Bologna. Whether the flight plan includes a connection in Europe (which is shorter flight time and I prefer it) or in a US hub, it's still best to have the whole route on one ticket, so you can check through luggage and be protected against having to buy another ticket if you miss an connecting flight. See also https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/booking-flights.

Cheri,

I definitely agree with the others, start by having a look at the Rick Steves Italy guidebook. That has an enormous amount of information that will help you plan a wonderful trip. Is this your first trip to Europe, or just your first trip to Italy?

It would help to have some idea on where in Oregon you're located? You may find it helpful to attend one (or more) of the meetings of the Portland area Rick Steves group - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/portland-sw-washington-group-meeting-saturday-11-23 . They have some very knowledgeable and well travelled members, and I'm sure they'd be able to provide lots of good information to help plan your trip. That might be better than a pen pal as you'd be able to meet face-to-face.

You may also find this helpful - https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning . There's a link on that page if you'd like to consult a professional planner, although there's a small fee for that service.

Another option you might consider is a guided tour, along with some time before and/or after for self guided travel. As you're really interested in the culture, you'll learn far more about that with an expert guide than on your own - https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy .

When will this trip be taking place?

Good luck with your planning!

As Laura said, you'll save time if you fly from North America to a hub in Europe and make your connections there. Flying from the west coast to somewhere east and then flying to Europe will add hours to your trip.

When you say "flying from Oregon" do you mean PDX? If so, your best bets for flights are Delta PDX-Amsterdam-city in Italy or British Airways (starting June 2020) PDX-London-city in Italy. I've connected to Europe through Chicago and New York-before I learned better!- and will always book the first "leg" of my flight into an airport in Europe. It saves time, plus if there's a problem with a connection you are already in Europe and there are more options to get to your European destination than if you are stuck somewhere on the east coast of the US.

Three weeks is a great amount of time to spend in Italy! As you start to research and plan, make a list of the major cities/towns/places you want to visit. Get out a map and look at distances. You mentioned you would rather stay in "rural peaceful areas". Be careful here--if you don't have a rental car you will likely have to depend on bus service. Bus service in rural areas is scheduled around work and school, so there are often fewer options in summer and on weekends. Driving a car is an adventure in itself--it can work for you, but you have to be sure to read up on traffic laws. Trains are frequent and inexpensive. You can learn more about Italian trains on the website seat61.com.

Be honest with yourself about your travel style. Every time you move to a new location you lose part of a day to travel/check-in/getting oriented. Also build in some downtime midway through your travels! Withation for several days or even a week. For my husband and I, we find 3-5 locations in a three week trip work well for us. That's usually a mix of longer stays in larger cities or a central point in a more "rural" area (such as Tuscany) and three-night stays in smaller towns.

Rick Steves travel books are a great place to begin your research. Once you have an itinerary penciled out, come back to this Forum with questions. You will get some great advice! If you find the planning too overwhelming, you can take a RS tour for the first part of your trip and travel on your own for the rest of your three weeks.

O.K. someone has to say it:

Florence and Siena are both in Tuscany.

Happy Travels!

If this is your first trip to Europe, and even if it isn't, you should also get RS Europe Through the Back Door which is a general approach to travel in Europe with a lot of practical information on what to expect and how to avoid problems.

I agree with everything said so far, but I just want to remind you that for this stage of your planning you don't need the latest version of the guide books. Go to your local library and get (ALL - not just RS) guide books on Italy - no matter how old they are.

I am just really interested in the culture and want to stay not so
much in the cities but in rural peaceful areas.

Hi Cheri and welcome to the forum! Penpals? You've found oodles of them right here as the Italian forum is, along with France's, probably the most active of the RS European Q and A spaces.

"Culture" is sort of a nebulous term but you will find Italians living their various versions of Italian lifestyles anywhere that they live, including the cities. The cities - and you did mention interest in Rome, Florence and Siena - also tend to have concentrated areas that are especially rich in cultural/historic art and architecture. I would caution you not to try and stay outside of them and travel in every day as the historic centers, while busy, are where you're going to want to locate for most efficient and enjoyable sightseeing.

You didn't mention what time of year you're thinking about taking this trip? Keep in mind that "peaceful" is also a bit of a nebulous term and may be a challenge regarding most-visited locations during high and shoulder seasons. Staying in those places versus day-tripping them from outside is a good work-around; it allows for some golden hours before those day-trippers arrive and after they leave in the late afternoon.

You'll also want to consider how you intend to get around? Staying in the countryside often involves renting a car, and driving/parking in Italy comes with its own set of challenges. You certainly don't want a car for the cities or for the coast, depending on where along the coast you want to go. Some folks rent just for a few days to bop around rural Tuscany or Umbria but that doesn't mean they're allowed to drive right into every old, picturesque village so some homework is involved there.

A combo of guidebooks + info gleaned from the folks here will be a great start for your research. :O)