Things to know before travelling to Italy for students and tourists

I mean sooner or later you were gonna need to this guide, good things to know before traveling to Italy guide! Cause you can read all the guides in the world, but what better place to find the info you need than where you can also find the best apartment in the country you’re visiting. Yep, here at StudentsVille, really let’s be honest I mean you already have a huge selection of local and regional guides to go through, maps that can help you get around, I mean even a flying to Italy tips and flying from Italy article, a selection of ebooks you can download so you don’t have to use all that data when you’re on the road (cause we thought about everything really), and last but in no way least the best selection of apartments in Italy (party sounds). Enjoy our tips for american and tourists traveling to Italy.

Study abroad in Italy the 2019 complete guide

So let’s do less of the self-advertisement and more of the nitty-gritty guide part.

No Cappuccino after 10

So, let’s start as if it was morning for real, you’re a student or an American tourist in Italy, and you just had a good Italian lunch, maybe it lasted a good 3/4 hours and you’re so food tired that you can’t live another moment without some caffeine in you. The first choice would be a Cappuccino right? Wrong, see in Italy everyone is pretty against cappuccinos after breakfast, I still don’t know why but it’s a huge taboo. I mean I still get the dirty looks when I do it, but it’s too good.

Always download maps

You’re in a new country and no doubt you don’t have the best plan to use all the data in the world so some good things to know when traveling to Italy are finding ways to get places, and that’s why you need to download maps offline. Don’t worry we got you covered for that, but you also can do it off of google maps if you need directions, cause getting lost isn’t that hard when in Italy, I mean if you’re not in big cities you might not find many people that speak English.

The Law

One thing you don’t want to do when in a country that isn’t yours is breaking laws, so if you’re here as a tourist just don’t do anything you wouldn’t back home, cause laws are pretty similar all over, but you have to keep in mind that you shouldn’t buy counterfeit items off the street cause that is a huge nono in the country. But if you’re here as a student, you’re gonna have to check more things and we’ve got a full list of what to do for visas and stuff like that in our Italian laws you should know section.

Gelato

Gelato, ooooh Gelato (imagine this sung in whatever rhythm you want). Nothing beats gelato in Italy, I mean I’m 100% sure you’re here also just for that, more than for your studies. So, keep in mind that because this is such a huge thing here and such a foreign pleaser, there are a fair amount of crappy gelato places, so if you do want to know some good ones for the main cities we’ve got some guides for you. We got Florence, Rome, and Milan.

Explore out of the cities

Another thing that I want to leave you with is the concept that Italy isn’t just about the cities, so if you’re studying in Milan, explore what is around it, like Lake Como, or the beautiful borgos that are out of the city. This goes for Florence and Rome as well. You probably know about areas around Florence more than the rest cause Tuscany has a really strong advertisement, but also Rome has a great number of ruins and villas to see in the outskirts. How to get there? Well, the best way is definitely by train, cause the train system is actually really well connected, for sure you’ll incur in some lateness, but you’ll always get where you have to. 

Even though I said we were done with the last paragraph, I lied.

We wanna leave you just some final extra pointers on what to do for the more logistic side of traveling, like what you need the most like travel insurance or maybe rent a car.

Travel Insurance

Really important if you’re visiting you should definitely buy travel insurance, cause if you incur in any problems like theft, medical expenses or even some delays on your flights, this way you’ll be covered. So personally this is the top of the tips for Americans traveling to Italy, cause, first of all, you’re away from home and really far from it as well. Now if you’re a student you should check into it as well, but remember, as stated before, you need to know your visa permits, so if you need to go through that again here’s our page on the topic.

Rent a car

Renting cars is a must if you want to travel around on your on in Italy, cause maybe you want to explore the country in depth and not just rely on transportation. So don’t worry about where to rent cause Italy has all the major companies that rent like Hertz, Maggiore, and Avis. Plus Italian companies like Maxirent Car Rental that offers all of the services that the major ones do. So no worries if you want to rent one-way cause that’s defo an opportunity. Keep in mind that it’s easier to find locations in Major cities, rather than smaller localities.

Emergencies

Another very important topic is what to do in case of an emergency, cause you can’t dial 911 here. You do have a selection of numbers you can use though and we’ll leave them here for you to have and save, but we hope that you don’t ever need to call them.

ACI (car breakdown service) 116

Carabinieri 112

Police 113

Fire Department 115

Ambulance 118