Touring Italy during Easter

January 8, 2007 9:21 AM

Looking for advice on travelling in Italy during the Easter season. This is our frist trip there, and we'll be there the week before and after the holiday. Planning to fly into Rome, out of Venice with (hopefully) a stop in Florence in between. How does the holiday affect our ability to get around, find rooms, and places to eat? More detail inside.

We're mostly interested in travelling (within the country) by train. How much more complicated does the holiday make this? Is it better/ worse to travel on the holiday itself, or should we look into Good Friday/ Easter Monday as travel days?

Our current itinerary has us spending the holiday weekend in Florence. Any reason this is a bad idea?

Also, we'd like to spend some time visiting relatives at the end of our trip in Udine (northeast of Venice). If we budget 3 days for this, how much time should we plan to spend in each of the other cities? Are we trying to do too much?

Any must-see, stay, eat, etc. recommendations also welcome.

Thanks!

posted by schmordelia to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

Oh and in case it matters, there are four of us, ages 17, 24, 48, 49.
posted by schmordelia at 9:25 AM on January 8, 2007

How long is your entire stay in Italy going to be? From landing to departure?
posted by miss lynnster at 10:17 AM on January 8, 2007

Oh, sorry. Two weeks.
posted by schmordelia at 10:24 AM on January 8, 2007

You might like to book in advance at TrenItalia. That way you can reserve a seat. Note that, if you take the Pendolino (just 90 min from Rome to Florence), reservations are mandatory anyway.

I've never booked on-line to be honest but the railway is surprisingly efficient.

Re accommodation, I would start booking now - particularly for Venice!! Priceline can deliver some reasonable deals in Rome sometimes. What's tough... is to get in the center. This depends greatly on your budget. There's some fabulous places that are little out of town but four in a taxi -- providing you keep your eye on the meter! -- won't be that expensive.
posted by NailsTheCat at 11:45 AM on January 8, 2007

13 years ago I was in Milan over Christmas. Our hotel was open as normal, but the only open restaurant was Chinese.
While in Venice, try to get over to Murano. (more)
posted by Martin E. at 12:07 PM on January 8, 2007

I was in Florence and Rome before Xmas (part blog). No idea about the holiday service, but found the trains easy to use and efficient.

Florence is quite small, so as long as you're fairly near the centre you don't need to worry too much about the location. The Rome sights are quite widely-spaced though mostly walkable and transport's a bit tricky, so it's worth getting the most central location you can.

I booked the hotels through Expedia which was slightly cheaper than booking direct.

Florence hotel: stayed at the Montebello Splendid which I thought was excellent, but it's a 10-15 minute walk from the city centre so it won't suit you if you don't like walking.

Rome hotel: stayed at the Tiziano which was OK. Good points: excellent central location, helpful and friendly staff, zero traffic noise despite a busy street. Bad points: odd musty and cleaning-product smell in the room, faced a light-well so a bit dark, paper-thin walls so heard a lot of the neighbours. Restaurant was closed when I was there and no room service of food. Clean but a little shabby: scuff marks on the walls, some yellowing plastic. Seemed a bit pricey for what you get but that might just be normal for Rome.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:05 PM on January 8, 2007

I consider Residenza Farnese to be the best location in Rome (close to the Tiziano actually - another good location). Much preferrable to the Spanish Steps area. It's just off Campo dei Fiori / Piazza Farnese. It used to be reasonably priced but it's probably gone up a bit and the Easter price hike can suck. The web site has no English section but they do speak English if you call them.

I lived in Rome for 12 years... boy do I know some great restaurants. Here's some of my faves

Alle Fratte di Trastevere
Da Francesco
Il Convivio Troiani Cheap it ain't!

Time Out Rome is a very useful guide.

A word concerning guidebooks in general: A friend of mine wrote for several of the biggies (not in Italy). When reviewing restaurants and hotels it seemed that with Time Out he had a budget for each restaurant, proportional to its expense category, so he could eat a proper meal and he wasn't allowed to reveal who he was until afterwards. With Fodor's and the like there was minimal budget -- so he just had to go in and take a look around. They were supposed to show a letter from Fodor and "ask" the owner what sort of experience they expected the customer to have! So from now on I'm very skeptical of the major guide books. (I still trust Lonely Planet, Rough Guide etc.)
posted by NailsTheCat at 4:39 PM on January 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

If you want to take a walking tour of Rome, I recommend Daniella Hunt as your guide.
posted by Martin E. at 3:41 AM on January 10, 2007