Italy travel with Ukraine war

Gas costs even more than usual. After the plague, the war and the ongoing drought you could arrive here just in time for the locust. We are all paying for Silvio's sins

Weve booked lodging for our September/October Italy trip. Wonder whether prices will be climbing and availability dropping as summer approaches, as usual, Ukraine situation notwithstanding?

Dario, sei divertente!

I am going in April. Will post back after April 14th

I just booked a car for our trip in July. Probably more pandemic-related but ouch! Triple the price we paid five years ago. Book now if you haven’t already!

@ksinclair, do you mind sharing what agency you rented your car from? Did they require an International Drivers Permit in order to make the reservation? Thanks!

@rebcoco, I booked through AutoEurope...it's a Hertz rental. They didn't require the IDL for booking, but as I recall we had to show one when we picked up the car.

I'm in Venice now (yay !!! ), been here for 3 days. Lots of tourists, mostly Europeans, and it seems lots of Italian tourists. I am guessing because I don't speak Italian but a lot of people speaking it are doing tourist things :-) I've met people from Czechia, France, Spain, Albania, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Austria.

The only time Ukraine has come up is in a serious conversation with my B&B hosts. As far as I know, Italy hasn't received any (or many?) Ukrainians yet. The country is struggling with all the refugees from the Middle East and Africa, but that's hardly a new story.

Right now Italy says they're removing a lot of the restrictions at the end of the month. Like everywhere else, it all depends on what happens next with the virus. In Venice masks are required on all public transport and everywhere indoors, unless you are eating/drinking, of course. And green passes are checked in every restaurant and sight I've been to. One museum refused to let me in - I have a green pass from Israel with a QR code, but the Italian system doesn't read it so when it's scanned a big red X pops up. My card clearly shows the dates of my shots (all 4 of them), and everywhere else, that's been good enough. So far no one's asked to see my passport to validate my identity (my pass has my passport number on it, along with full name and DOB).

How's the weather, Chani? I'll be there soon.

rebcoco-
You might want to read this thread
IDP is required by law

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/doesn't-driving-license-6e239947-4164-465e-9b88-18a8d13d6f66

AutoEurope doesn't require to make a reservation but your contract will indicate that it IS REQUIRED at time of rental pick up

Thanks! Yes I remembered that you need one at pickup, I just couldn’t find definitive info if it was required go reserve.

As for prices, yesterday I set a price alert & today got a notice that they’ve gone up 25% overnight! I need to clear my cookies & take another look.

mlw5000 Lots of sunshine and it's warming up nicely. But there is rain in the forecast by the weekend.