montezumola Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 Nice account Carlos Italy is such a diverse country, I love it (although I would say that having Italian parents!). Aside from the major tourist cities, if you want a bit of an outdoor adventure, visit the Abruzzo National Park in Central Italy - only a few hours from Rome really. If you're really lucky you might spot a few Marsican Brown Bears in the forests Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-No-Knee Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 DoH! I cant believe I forgot to mention the trains. There are 2 rain networks in Italy, one is the national network and is very modern, with double decker trains, air conditioning and a very nice smooth ride, and the other is the provintial network leading from towns out to very small villages. When you ride this you see trains that were put in place by Mussolini and still work well! Better than over here. The one thing you can garentee Italians keeping exact is the train timetables! You can book trains online and collect the tickets at the station very easily just by putting in a code number into a machine at the station and then they are printed. BUT when you get onto the platform there are small yellow boxes mounted on walls and pillars. You must feed each ticket that you are using on that trip into it otherwise the tickets are not valid. The machine stamps a time and date stam on them and then you have something like 6 hours to start your journey. If you dont get them stamped you get fined on the spot by the ticket collectors. I useually fly to Roma or Pisa and hire a car for normal sight seeing but if I have to move from one city to the next say going from Pisa to Florence i would take the train. The views are fantastic. Also, Italy has a range of mountains running down its centre like a spin, so even though you may want to go from the east coast tot he west coast you may have to travel a few hundred km's to the north or south to manage it to find a pass or tunnel. Same with the trains. To get from Roma to Lucca I had to go via Florence, a real pian in the butt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I worked in Rome for a year, great place. Most of what to see has been covered already. My advice is learn a few words of Italian to avoid being ripped off by taxi drivers. Take the train from the airport, dead easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Charlotte, our 17 year old, got refused entry to the Vatican because her skirt was too short Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mas Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Went to Cittanova a few years ago. Very beautiful place. Not touristy at all. [ATTACH]43548[/ATTACH] Rosie's in Italy at the mo I think. no wonder we still havent received our calendars by the way, am I talking about the right Rosie here ?!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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