I get it. You’ve obtained perhaps one huge trip a yr, and that you must make it rely. In the event you’re coming to Italy, particularly if it’s your first go to to the nation, the temptation is to attempt to see as a lot as attainable within the restricted time you may have. The Colosseum, the Vatican, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, the inside of Basilica San Marco in Venice, the Amalfi Coast … these locations are all thought-about must-visits for a cause.
However right here’s the No. 1 mistake I’ve seen numerous vacationers make in my 16 years of dwelling in Italy, and the most effective piece of recommendation I may give to any traveler: don’t let your jam-packed itinerary get in the best way of an excellent time.
In the event you make your trip—and bear in mind, it’s a trip—all about ticking off sights seen and landmarks photographed, shuffling by crowded museums, after which catching a practice to your subsequent metropolis, you’re more likely to return residence extra exhausted than while you left. And when you might depart with the satisfaction of getting seen a protracted record of locations, chances are you’ll by no means decelerate lengthy sufficient to actually expertise and recognize the slower, sweeter tempo of life for which Italy is so well-known and liked.
So my recommendation to first-timers and repeat guests alike? Do much less. See much less. Decelerate. Savor extra.
In case your record of must-see locations is 10 gadgets lengthy, minimize it in half and spend extra time in every vacation spot. For instance, for those who’ve budgeted two full days in Rome, make it three (on the very least!). Preserve your schedule open on at the least a kind of days, to permit time to get misplaced strolling round, wander into random church buildings and cute boutiques, get pleasure from a protracted lunch, and sit in a piazza sipping a chilly drink and watching the world go by. That very same recommendation holds true for Venice, Florence, and every other main metropolis you go to.
Italy isn’t going anyplace. Its centuries-old sights, scrumptious meals and wine, idyllic landscapes, and cobbled lanes will nonetheless be there the following time you go to. And for those who’re like most vacationers, when you get that first true style of la dolce vita, you’ll undoubtedly be planning a return journey.