What have you learned on your trips to Italy???

Paul, a couple of former, related threads on this subject!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/what-do-you-wish-you-d-known-before-your-first-trip-to-italy

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/i-wish-i-had-known

That although I am 7-8 inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than the average Italian, I cannot begin to eat nearly as much as they do in a restaurant on Saturday night.

I've also changed a lot of my travel style in Italy. I try to spend more time in smaller towns, I eat dinner out most evenings (I used to stock up at the supermarket and eat in my room), and I nearly always pay for a double room, because the single beds are narrow.

I learned that Italy is spectacular... Currently planning trip #3..

I love shopping the local outdoor markets and the local supermarket. Local drinks, snacks, fruit, cheese, bread all are wonderful..

Also, comfortable shoes are a priority. I wear Nike running shoes. I don't care, any longer, if I look like an American tourist. I am an American tourist (not the obnoxious type of course), and I need my feet to be comfortable as I walk across Italy!!!

I learned that I wish I could live there.

My sentiments exactly.

I learned that when a shop in laid-back Italy is closed and its sign says, "Back at three" I should ignore it.

I learned that I should regularly drink water with my meals when I return home, (but I always forget.)

I learned that Italians in restaurants seem to take great food for granted and rarely compliment the waiter, but that if I tell my waiter how wonderful it is he's so appreciative that I can often get an after-dinner drink (grappa is a favorite) for free. (More than once a waiter has simply left the bottle on my table.)

I learned that if I know how to order at a restaurant because I've learned something about the local cuisine beforehand, the waiter is grateful and those little extras can also come my way.

I learned that while walking in hilly, winding and heavily cobblestoned Italy, can be a challenge, it's great aerobic exercise.

I learned that I enjoy religious art more than I ever thought I would.

I learned that shipping wine from Italy (in my case, Florence) is VERY expensive, and I look back fondly at the pre-9/11 days when I could bring back a case of wine on the plane.

I learned that Italy is more than worth the pains (tedious airport security, on-plane restrictions, idiots who pull their seat back as soon as we taxi before takeoff and cram the overhead racks, little legroom) I sometimes experience getting there and back.

I’ve made 10 trips to Italy 🇮🇹! I’ve learned that I MUST go back for more.

On my first trip to Italy right now:

• Fiumicino Express is a convenient bus that provides transport for passengers and their luggage from Rome Fiumicino --> Rome Ciampino --> Caserta --> Naples (and vice versa), but their wifi doesn't work
• Pickpockets and chaotic traffic are a real problem in Naples - as in more pickpockets than Paris (and far more than Rome or Florence), and more chaotic traffic than Rome
• Despite that, it's still worthwhile to go to Naples for Neapolitan Pizza (a.k.a. pizza vera)
• ItaloTreno high-speed train fares are almost always cheaper than TrenItalia high-speed train fares, especially if you book a non-flexible ticket - they both have wifi, use your booking number to log in
• Around the Vatican, restaurants can be expensive and slow, but Bistro Ave (corner Via della Conciliazone and Via della Transpontina) is cheap and fast if you order in the standing area
• The Bocca della Verita has a wall right behind it - if you put your hand in too fast you might break a fingernail
• It might seem expensive to eat near the exit of the Roman Forum but it isn't - Cafe Normale on Via di S. Giovanni Decollato is decently priced and surrounded by other restaurants charging twice the price
• When doing AirBnB or renting an apartment, they expect you to sort the trash yourself and place it into the public waste bins on the street (not sure how this works in Pisa because the public waste bins are only usable by locals with a key)
• McDonalds salads in Italy are poor quality - the worst I've gotten had mouldy tomatoes and rancid vinaigrette, so I asked for a refund, or "rimborso"
• Trains are assigned platforms on an as-available basis, and if your platform is number-suffix, you've drawn a short straw because you have to walk really far to a remote platform
• Buy bus/metro tickets from machines or "tabbachi" because it's cheaper than on the bus
• Florence's streets are shared with pedestrians, and many are one-way, making it a very impractical place to use a taxi (because driving will take forever and cost a lot)
• Get an online reservation for the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence, even in the low season
• One of the best places to eat in Florence is the Mercato San Lorenzo, another cheap but good eating place I recommend is on Borgo dei Greci between Via dei Leoni and Via dei Bentacordi - for gelato, I recommend one on the Via del Corso about 1-3 blocks East of Piazza della Republicca
• Don't eat within 1 block of the Campo dei Miracoli in Pisa, and ignore the restaurant touts, there are plenty of well-priced restaurants along the 1.5 km walk back to Pisa Centrale station

I've learned that walking around 'un-touristy' parts of town yields unexpected delights. I'm in Siena currently - after spending the morning doing usual tourist stuff, I walked down to the south end of town and found a small park with terraced paths on a steep hillside, and incredible views. After leaving the park, I was walking up towards the Campo, and stumbled upon a Contrada museum. Two volunteer guides were in front, saw me photographing the Contrada flags over the door, and invited me in for a fascinating (and free) tour.

1) Take the train if there is regular train service to where you want to go.
Obviously there will be areas, such as the Hill Country of Tuscany, where there is not regular train service to some/many of the villages--for areas like that, a rental car makes sense.

2) Parking is difficult in the historic center of Florence and other historic centers.

Some of the finest Greek ruins anywhere are in Italy, not Greece, especially Paestum (Campania) and various in Sicily.

Also, parking is difficult In the historic center of almost everywhere in Italy.

• To slow down and spend more time in fewer places.
• To eat and drink like an Italian, slowly and purposefully.
• Trains are the best and Pullman buses (I.e., intercity) are quite nice compared to the U.S. We have more fun when we do not drive.
• When you do not have a car, you amortize your food better 😁
• Walking yields many delights and it is usually worth while to explore far from the main streets.
• It is not mandatory to go into every church and museum.
• That I can only go without creature comforts (that comfy chair, Paul!) so long and our future apartment rentals must have washer, dishwasher, and A/C even in October. ( I love cooking but I hate the washing up! )

Seems to me these lessons apply to other European countries as well.

Trains are assigned platforms on an as-available basis

They are not, but they may change. There are billboards with the intended platforms for all trains in that station, listed by departure/arrival hour. If I'm not wrong, the billboards listing departing trains are yellow, those for the arriving trains are white. RFI uploaded all the billboards on-line, unfortunately the site is only in Italian.

if your platform is number-suffix, you've drawn a short straw because you have to walk really far

In Bologna the 2 satellite sets of tracks (the suffix means East and West) are not far at all. They are way closer to the main entrance than the underground tracks (numbered 16 to 19) that are used only by high speed trains.