We decided to do a little bit of a whistle-stop tour of major Italian cities, rather than stay in one place for the week because neither I nor my partner have experienced much of Italy before, and we couldn't decide on just one place to go.
Tomorrow we will set off for Florence where we will stay for two nights and then finish our trip with three days in Rome.
Milan's very fancy train station
I am absolutely in love with the Italian railway system. The trains are beautifully comfortable and half the price of English trains, so they really are a cost effective way of travelling around the country. In hindsight, however, I would have opted for a student interrail pass, rather than buying the tickets at the station. When we originally looked at the prices, it seemed to work out about the same, but of course, we completely neglected the fact that the prices go up massively when you are buying tickets on the day. That said, it was still only €40 for the three-hour journey from Milan to Venice, and I think I would struggle to get the train from Southampton to Birmingham for that price!
Rialto bridge as seen from the bus!
The bus in Venice puts Unilink to shame! While it's quite a bit more costly than a Unilink return (€20 for the day), seeing Venice from the canals rather than walking around gives you an entirely different perspective, plus the ticket cost includes boats to Morano, which is around the same distance from the bus stop as the Isle of Wight from Southampton (and that trip alone would set you back £20)
Academia dome
The main method for keeping costs down this trip has been taking the time to choose the accommodation, to try and get the best price possible. In Venice, rather than staying on the island which would have cost upwards of £150 for two nights (?!) we are staying in a hostel on the mainland, which cost £49 for two people for two nights!
Of course, when you step down in price you lose some of the luxuries of hotels, such as insulation and soundproofing. We are staying in essentially a static caravan, however, it does have a private bathroom, a market on site and a pool, so on balance we made the right choice, but I wouldn't recommend it to light sleepers!
Travelling on a budget has been tricky. While we want to keep costs down, we don't want to let worrying about money spoil the trip and stop us doing things. We forwent a gondola ride (€80 for 35 minutes), or a water taxi (average €30 for a short city trip) in favour of getting the bus, but instead had dinner in a lovely restaurant and I treated myself to a Morano glass pen. James asked when I would ever use such a thing but I silenced him by pointing out that I thought it was beautiful, and that that was justification enough to buy it!
I can't wait to experience the artistic history of Florence and the majesty of Rome. I'm hoping that they live up to my imagination of them based on books and films.
For those of you travelling this summer, I hope you have a wonderful time and experience something worth writing home about!
Emma
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