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Are you ready for all the Italian pasta, wine, and gelato? Your Italy Guide for Beginners is here! If you’re planning to visit either Rome, Venice, or Florence, this is a great place to start! 

I recently planned and completed a nine day trip through Italy with some girlfriends. 

And as my first trip to Italy, there was a huge learning curve to how to plan transportation, places to stay, and places to see in a limited amount of time.

So, I have included all the links possible to make it extremely easy for you to book and vacation with ease!

Keep in mind that this is a good starting point and by no means an exhaustive and unlimited list! This is just the list of things that I personally booked and experienced, plus a short wishlist of excursions I wish we had time for. 

In addition, it was also a Jubilee year (2025) and therefore much busier than usual, so hopefully it’ll be easier and cheaper to book for you than in my experience.

🇮🇹Transportation:

Transportation proved to be daunting especially in a different country and especially as women. However, it was MUCH easier than expected. 

Rome: From the airport, use the WHITE TAXI ONLY. This is the official taxis. There is usually a line waiting outside the airport, and it is a flat fee of 50 euro. There will be people hustling to get you to use their taxi service, however, but just be careful it’s not a scam. And if you are traveling solo, the white taxis make it very convenient and always made me feel safe.

Venice: From the train station, we walked to our hotel, but on return, we used the water taxi. I recommend the water taxi if you have a lot of luggage because there are A LOT of bridges with stairs and the streets are cobbled.

Florence:  I looked up their taxi number to call from our airbnb in Santa Croce: 052 4242. It was an answering service where I just requested a taxi and gave my address. They then would tell me the ETA for the driver–it was never more than 5 minutes. Make sure you specify how much luggage and people are in your party in case you need two cars.

Finally, if you stay at the hotel, you can always request the hotel desk receptionist to call a taxi for you as well. We did that for our last night and it was super convenient.

Apps that I used: 

• Trenitalia (high speed trains)
  • This got us easily from city to city
  • The exact directions I used were from TikTok.
  • The sooner you book, the cheaper. Trust me…you can get business seats for cheap if booked ahead of time!!
• Wetaxi (taxi app) – like uber. Used only in Rome, did not work elsewhere for me. But very easy to use.

🇮🇹Rome:

Places We Stayed:

Hotel: Little Queen Relaise 

• Hotel location was ideal–we walked everywhere, didn’t wait long for cab rides, and places to eat next door.
• Surprisingly, the bedroom was spacious, a sofa bed for third person available, and there was a small fridge.
• We personally could not check in early, but they held our luggage while we went for some lunch.
• There was an elevator available as well after one small flight of stairs.

Hotel: Hotel Caravita

• I would stay here again!
• The room was very spacious, on the corner of the building, with lots of windows, with a sofa bed available, a rooftop patio, a spa, and a restaurant. They also had an elevator.
• The staff was exceptionally helpful staff and would remember our names and details of our stay.
• The location was wonderful. Off of Via Del Corso, and just a 4 minute walk from the Pantheon or the Trevi Fountain.

Tourist Attractions:

St Peter’s Basicila + Piazza (with dome access)

• We booked it with Dome access via elevator and highly recommend that option! 
• I would avoid a weekend visit around 1pm (which was our scheduled time) because they had mass at that time and it was so chaotic getting into the entrance on time. However, we also minimal people with us, and with the stairs in the dome being so narrow, having no people around made it enjoyable.

Vatican City & Sistine Chapel

• Tour Duration: about 3 hours  
• Includes the Vatican Museums first and then the Sistine Chapel. 
• We did a group tour which was informative and I enjoyed it. It is rather long but because you pass through the museums first before going to the Sistine Chapel, they did give you the option to skip straight to it if you preferred. 

Colosseum 

• Includes access to the Roman Forum & Palatine Hill 
• Book early! I wanted to book a tour guide experience, but they sold out quickly!
• Between the three locations, there is SO MUCH to see! So many ruins! It can easily be a whole day event so just make sure you plan for enough time here. 

Group Tours I would book (links):

• Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum
• Underground Tour of Colosseum
• St. Peter’s Basilica

Recommend going at 5am:

Waking up early could potentially change your entire trip because of how crowded Rome can get! Additionally, if you are looking to take photos in scenic spots without many people, I highly recommended starting your day in Italy at 5am.

These are examples of places I would visit again at 5am. I also included the order in which I would visit them due to geographical location:

• Pantheon 
• Trevi Fountain 
• Spanish Steps 
• Piazza Del Poppolo
• Monument to Victor Emmanuel 
• Chiesa Di Sant’Ignazio

At 6am, the Pantheon was completely empty. Although closed, it was absolutely worth seeing at this hour.

By 7am there were larger clumps of people at the Trevi Fountain. But just before, we were able to get disrupted photos with it in the back. In addition, the Spanish Steps were surprisingly empty as well.

 Wishlist: 

This is a shortlist of places I wish we had more time to visit. We were only in Rome for two nights, so the places to see were quite limited.

• Villa Borghese
• Aventine Keyhole
• Pontificio Santuario della Scala Santa
• Trastevere

🇮🇹Venice:

Place We Stayed:

Hotel: Ca’Riza

• I genuinely enjoyed this spot! It was a little crowded for three people—but I definitely recommend it for just two adults. 
• However, it was very cozy, with breakfast included cooked to order and delicious. Staff was friendly and helpful, and additionally, the location was near enough to get a water taxi back to the train, and close enough to walk everywhere. 

Attractions & Activities:

Basilica Santa Maria della Salute

• Take a ferry over or walk across Ponte dell’Accademia
• Free; Hours: 9am-12pm, 3pm-530pm

Rialto Bridge

• One of the oldest bridges
• Two rows of shops and a beautiful view of the canal
• Free; open air bridge

Doge’s Palace & Bridge of Sighs

• Hours: 9-7pm
• €40 each
• Other ticket option
• Access to Bridge of Sighs where prisoners walked to their imprisonment

St Mark’s Basilica 

• €10 each 
• Hours: 930-515pm
• St. Mark’s Basilica + Doge’s Palace : Guided Tour I would Book

Gondola Ride

• I feel like this is a must for a new time tourist! May be cheesy or overdone, but I loved it, and thought it was really cool to be on a gondola on the Grand Canal

Wishlist:

• Gallerie dell’Accademia
• Murano
• San Giorgio Maggiore Church

🇮🇹Florence

Place We Stayed:

Airbnb: apartment Florence Santa Croce

Link: https://www.airbnb.com/l/SgQHi75d

Attractions & Activities:

Duomo & Dome Climb 

• Tickets: FREE @1015-1545 
• Closed Sundays 
• Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Academia Gallery (statue of David) 

• Tickets: €16 
• Hours: 615am – 1850pm

Uffizi Gallery (Botticelli’s birth of Venice)

• Tickets: €25
• Hours: 815-1830

Cooking Class w/ 360 Florence View 

• $118 each
• ***highly recommend***

Other highly rated cooking classes I Would Book :

• Florence: Pasta with unlimited wine
• Florence: Pasta, Tiramisu, & unlimited wine

Ticket Packages & Tour Options I Would Book:

• Dome, Baptistry, Museum, & Bell Tower
• Walking Tour with Dome/Baptistry/Museum Entry

Small Group Tours I would Book:

Tuscany Day Trip

• Includes Siena + walking tour, Tuscany vineyard with lunch, quick pit stop at San Gimignano and Tower of Pisa.
• $200 per person 

Uffizi Small Group Tour

Tour of City Center, Uffizi, Accademia

Wishlist:

• Basilica di San Lorenzo & Medici Chapels: tickets bought at booth
• Palazzo Pitti & Boboli Gardens
• Capella Brancacci
• Ponte Vecchio
• Piazzale Michelangelo
• Giardino Bardini

Final Thoughts + Tips

Traveling through Rome, Florence, and Venice is incredibly rewarding, but I can fully understand how overwhelming it can be! A little planning goes a long way, so I hope the above list help. However, here are some final tips to make sure your Italy trip goes smoothly!

• Book everything as early as possible due to crowds and availability! Rule of thumb, book a month in advance.
• Schedule time for spontaneous adventure where you can just casually explore the town with no agenda.
• Pay extra to book your hotel in a central location! What you’ll save in transport can get you a better location.
• Always plan for travel time.. Figure out your different transit options ahead of time and plan for delays.
• Pack comfortable walking clothes and have fun!

Hopefully these tips help you travel smarter, avoid the stress of planning, and help you truly enjoy each Italian city for what it offers without feeling rushed.