Travel Tips

We left home with 2 carry-on suitcases and one medium-sized backpack.  Inside one of the suitcases, I had a smaller daypack we used during the trip, and then stuffed it full of souvenirs on the way home.  Rick Steves' website has many tips and this episode of Monday Night Travel was very helpful.  I followed the advice in these blogs on using  compression packing cubes  and pouches for bath/beauty products.  These 10ML dropper bottles worked great for liquid makeup and serums.  I did pack extra caps for the pouches, in case one broke, but they never did.  And, uh, as far as unmentionables go... these space-saving options (men / women) worked well!

Helpful apps included AVM Venezia, it was useful to find the vaporetto schedules.  I used Trenitalia for our train tickets from Rome to Naples.  We purchased travel insurance and I had the Travelex app just in case.  Google Translate helped us read  restaurant menus. On the flight to Italy, I listened to some interviews (gelato, coffee, art) on Rick Steves' Audio Europe.  I also used a packing-list app, but it's no longer available in the app store! 

You don't need to have euros in your pocket when you land in Venice, and to avoid high exchange rates at the airport, you can use your debit card.  We found information from Bank of America helpful and used the Bancomat (ATM) at BNL Bank in Venice.

We used our digital wallets (Apple Pay/Google Pay) wherever contactless payments were accepted and it worked really well.  Using a smart watch to pay was really convenient! 

You will have time to explore on your own, and if you need to purchase tickets for something, make sure you are using official websites.  There are tour operators who have very official looking websites! 

Because all our tickets were on my phone, I was worried my battery might be very low by the time we needed to use our tickets.  Thus, I purchased a magnetic battery compatible with my phone.

Marianna, our tour guide, shared great advice on how to avoid theft.  One tip she gave - be extra careful at busy metro stations.  Thieves will snatch a phone out of someone's hand just as the doors on the subway car close.  After our tour was over, we witnessed this happen to a man at the Rome Metro station.

Part of the Rick Steve's experience is having access to travel experts to help you plan any pre/post tour adventures.  I emailed them to ask for guidance in planning our post-tour trip to Amalfi and they were very helpful. They gave me advice on how to get to the train station after the tour ended and what train we needed to take.  The Travel Forum on Rick's website is also full of helpful information from fellow travelers. 

Before the trip, you will receive an email with the locations of your hotels.  Using Google maps, I saved them to my Google account.  I also saved locations of other places I knew I wanted to visit, including a Bank ATM and a few cicchetti bars in Venice!

I used the Babbel app to learn a few basic phrases and numbers before we left home.  Numbers were particularly useful when purchasing fresh strawberries at the market in Venice, quattro e venti! 

Throughout the trip, our Rick Steves guide, Marianna, taught us how to navigate.  She showed us how to cross a busy street in Rome, and how to ride the Metro.  This was really useful when the tour ended and we used the Metro to travel to the Roma Termini station.  From there we boarded a Frecciarossa high-speed train to Naples.  I purchased the train tickets about 6 weeks before our trip, and selected Business class with assigned seats.

The Colosseum is an extremely popular site, and tickets sell out quickly.  Make sure you are using the official site, and create an account ahead of time.  We visited the Colosseum in Spring of 2025, and at that time, tickets were released for sale 30 days in advance.  Tickets were released throughout the day, based on the ticket entry time - Central European Standard Time.  We wanted 3:00pm tickets, so I made sure to be at my computer at 8:00am, logged in and ready to buy!

I used Verizon's international plan on my phone and had no issues with data.  Also, before leaving home I made sure to install the apps I wanted to use, and downloaded things so I could use them offline, like the interviews and tours on the Rick Steves' Audio Europe app.