Boutique Hotels in Italy

BY AIR

From the UK and Europe

For flights from the UK and mainland Europe, please see the relevant section for details of Getting There:

Getting to Bari & Brindisi (for Puglia)
Getting to Genoa (for Liguria)
Getting to Milan & Verona (for the Lakes & Alps)
Getting to Naples & Amalfi
Getting to Rome
Getting to Milan
Getting to Sicily & Aeolian Islands
Getting to Turin (for Piedmont)
Getting to Tuscany (and Florence)
Getting to Umbria
Getting to Venice

From the rest of the world

From North America you will need to fly to Rome or Milan. Rome is more convenient for Tuscany and Umbria (closer, with better public transport links); Milan is better for Venice, Piedmont and the Lakes. For Puglia, Naples and the Amalfi coast you'll probably need to take an internal flight. Options include Air Canada, Air France, Alitalia, Delta, Continental, KLM and Lufthansa.

From Australasia there are no direct flights to Italy, and a stopover in London is probably your best bet.

BY TRAIN FROM THE UK

Don't rule out travelling by train: it is less polluting, less stressful, and you can get a double-holiday by stopping over in France if you want. Journey times have got shorter, and UK-northern Italy is only a few hours longer by train than by plane (depending on where you live, of course). London-Milan is 11 hours (e.g. dep 9am, arr 9pm). London-Florence and London-Rome are 16 / 18 hours respectively, but conveniently timed so you can sleep while travelling and awake in the heart of the city (e.g. dep 2pm, arr 7am / 9am next day). Check out Rail Europe or Seat 61 for European tickets and rail passes.

back to topGetting Around

BY CAR

For most holidays in Tuscany and Umbria, you’re best off hiring a car. Most of the best hotels and guesthouses are in the countryside and taxis are quite pricey. There are car hire offices at all international airports, and also in larger towns (Florence, Siena, Perugia, Pisa, Assisi etc).

We have found Holiday Autos the most competitive UK consolidator price-wise, and they offices in all major locations.

Driving in the cities is hard work, with narrow streets, one-way systems, limited / expensive parking and lots of zipping mopeds. If you're flying into Rome, Florence or Naples, visit them without a car (airport connections are good) and then pick up your hire car from the downtown office on the day you move on. If visiting Siena, Assisi or various other medieval towns, you will need to park at the edge of town and walk / bus in. If you're just going to Venice, you won't need a hire car as all transport is by boat and foot.

Some tips:

• When wine-tasting, remember that the limit is 0.5mg, which is about 2 glasses of wine
  
• Don’t use your mobile phone when driving unless you have a headset (auricolare)
  
• If using the autostrada, you must pick up a ticket from the toll-booth on entering, and pay on exit; don’t go through the blue ‘auto-pay’ lane
  
• Motorway signs are green, other signs are blue
  
• Country lanes can be very windy, so allow plenty of time
  
• White lines on the roadside indicate free parking, though you may need a disco orario to show when you arrived
  
• You should always have your licence and some ID on you when driving
  
  BY TRAIN
  
  Trains in Italy are incredibly cheap, and the network is still extensive, although many stations are a few miles outside town – in this case a navetta shuttles between station and town centre.
  
  There are various types of train within Italy:
  Eurostar (ES or Treni Eurostar Italia) is Italy's premier train, travelling quickly between major cities, not to be confused with the Eurostar that plies the English channel. Seat reservations on Eurostar Italia are mandatory.
  Intercity and Intercity Plus are relatively fast trains that run the length of Italy, stopping at large cities, with first and second class seats.
  Direct and Inter-Regional Trains (diretto and interregionali) are local trains, the interregionali the faster of the two types. Cheap and usually reliable, but seats can be hard to find on major routes, especially in August or holiday periods. Consider first class, asking for Prima Classe, per favore - it's less likely to be full.
  
  For schedules and booking, see Trenitalia.
  
  BY BUS
  
  Buses are often a quicker way of getting around, though less romantic; they usually stop right in the town centre. For inter-city journeys you should buy in advance – easiest from the bus station (autostazione) itself. For local journeys you can usually jump on and pay.
  
  BY BOAT AROUND VENICE
  
  In venice there is no point having a car at all. Stick to the gondolas, motorboats and water-taxis. Gondolas are slow, gentle, romantic and cliched. Waterbuses are efficient, relatively quick & cheap, with a small outdoor seating area at the back. Private water taxis are luxurious, lazy and expensive (E50 upwards), built to carry up to 12-14, with most seats under glass but a small bench outside at the back; it's fun when the driver guns the engine and pulls the nose right up out of the water.
  From the airport there are regular Alilaguna boats straight to the centre. The red motorboat line serves Murano – Lido – Arsenale – San Marco – Zattere and the blue line Murano – Fondamente Nove – Lido – San Zaecaria – San Marco. A standard single journey costs from €10 and takes 40 minutes to 1 hour.

When To Go

Like most of Mediterranean Europe, Italy is busiest in summer (July-August), and gorgeous in spring (April-June) and autumn (September-October) if you can travel then. There are lots of festivals (see below), but you’ll have to book well ahead.

For city visits - Venice, Florence and Rome - consider going in winter to avoid the queues and enjoy cheaper hotel rates. It can be bitterly cold in Venice, but you’ll be spending most of your time indoors. Venice periodically suffers from acqua alta (high tides) in winter, turning some of its squares and streets into shallow canals with duck-boards to walk on. Or, if you don't mind the heat, consider midsummer, when business drops off and prices fall to mid-season rates.

FESTIVALS

There are hundreds of local and national festivals throughout Italy. These can involve dressing up, folk-dancing, music-making, horse-racing, wine-tasting, meat-eating, boat-carrying, crossbow-shooting, opera-singing, football-playing and a special feast day for any vegetable you can think of. Minor local events are listed in our hotel reviews (under 'Essentials'); larger festivals are below (with best places in brackets):

Jan 6: Epiphany - church services
Jan 20: Feast Day of San Sebastiano (Sicily, esp. Acireale)
Late Jan – early Feb Carnival processions (Venice, Viareggio, Acireale in Sicily)
Feb 4: Saint Agatha's Feast Day (Catania, Sicily)
Feb 5: Olive and bruschetta festival (Spello, Umbria)
Feb (2nd week): Almond Blossom Festival (Agrigento, Sicily)
Feb 14: torchlit parade for St. Valentino (Terni, Umbria)
March: 1st two weekends: Turin Chocolate Fair (Eurochocolate Torino)
March 19: Palio dei Somari, a donkey race (Torrita di Siena, Tuscany)
March (3rd Sunday): Rome Marathon
March 21: Spring equinox festival, with dancing / music/ speeches (Assisi)
March – April: Holy Week festivities and processions (Enna in Sicily & Chieti in Abruzzo); Easter Sunday mass (St. Peter's, Rome) and 'cart explosion' (Florence)
April: asparagus and artichoke festivals across the country
Mid April: Festa della Fontana - fountains flow with wine (Panicale & Citta della Pieve in Umbria)
April 16: Oil and garlic festival (Montecatini Terme in Tuscany)
April 25: Liberation Day - national holiday
May 1: Labour Day - collecting flowers in the countryside
Early May: Calendimaggio festival (Assisi)
May (various dates): music festivals in Lucca and Florence, Palio (medieval parade with horse races) in Asti, Piedmont
May 11: La Palombella festival in Orvieto
May 15: Corsa dei Ceri candle race in Gubbio, medieval joust in Foligno
May: huge infiorata (flower-petal) artworks across Italy, esp. in Noto, Sicily (3rd weekend)
Last Sun in May: Crossbow matches in Gubbio / Sansepolcro; wine festival at Montespertoli
Early June: Corpus Domini procession (Orvieto)
Mid June: Wine festival in Orvieto, Medieval Soccer Match in Florence
June 15-17: Luminaria (torchlit procession) and boat race in Pisa
June (w/e nearest 24th): Sagra di Saint Giovanni on Lake Como (floating lamps, fireworks)
June 24-30: Festa di San Giovanni in Florence, including ‘historical football’ game
June 29-July 2: Palio horse race through Siena (main event is on July 2)
July 2: secondary Palio horse race through Siena (main event is on Aug 16); also Festa della Madonna Bruna (Matera, Puglia)
July and Aug: Music and art festival in San Gimignano and in Fiesole; jazz festival in Perugia; Puccini opera festival in Torre del Lago; open-air classical plays in Gubbio; various musical events in Siena
8-25 July: Summer music festival in Lucca
3rd Sun of July: Festa di San Paolino in Lucca, with torchlit procession and crossbow contest
Late July: Opera and theatre festival in Barga
Aug 14: Luminaria di Santa Croce (torchlit procession) in Lucca
Aug 14-16: Original Palio horse race through Siena
Aug 15: Ferragosto (Assumption of Our Lady) National Holiday, with a fair in Florence’s Cascine Park, a horse race (Palombella) in Orvieto, a beef-eating jamboree in Cortona
Aug 17: Boat races in Livorno
Late Aug: Choral concerts in Arezzo, chamber music in Citta di Castello
2nd Sun in Aug: Food and wine fair in Montepulciano
Last Sun in Aug: Bravio delle Botti (barrel race) in Montepulciano
1st Sun in Sep: Giostro del Saraceno (armoured jousting) in Arezzo
Sep 7: Festa della Rificolone (torchlit procession) in Florence
Sep 8: Costumed procession in Prato
Sep 10-20: St. Gennaro Feast, Naples
Sep 14: Festa della Santa Croce (sacred procession) in Lucca
2nd Sun in Sep: Crossbow matches in Gubbio / Sansepolcro; Chianti Classico festival in Greve
Late Sep: Classical music in Perugia
Oct 3-4: Festa di San Francesco festivities in Assisi
Mid Oct: Food and wine fair in Castiglione del Lago
Nov 1: Ognissanti (All Saints) Day
Nov 1-5: All Saints’ Fair in Perugia
Dec 8: Immaculate conception of Our Lady
Dec 13: Pottery fair in Siena
Dec: Nativity Crib (Naples) - also bagpipe- and flute players; Christmas Lights (Turin)
Dec 24: Father Christmas arrives (by canoe in Citta di Castello, Umbria!)
Dec 25, 26: Christmas – family affair with parties, public mass (St Peter's, Rome)
Dec 31, Jan 1: New Year (San Silvestro) – fireworks and dancing in major cities

In Florence, the main fashion shows are the Pitti Fairs in January and June, and the Modaprima Womenswear in late November.

In Venice the famous Carnival takes place in February / early March, during the 10 days preceding Ash Wednesday. It opens with the mind-boggling (and wallet-busting) Doge's ball in the 15th-century Palazzo Pisani Moretta, and continues with street parties, costumed parades and all kinds of (mostly free) musical gigs, from chamber to reggae. It was once a largely spontaneous, masked and costumed street festival to chase away the winter blues with music and dancing in the squares. But locals reckon it has gone downhill in the past 5-6 years, as crowds of drunken tourists have led to it being tightly controlled, with one-way pedestrian flows ordered through the narrow alleyways. Certainly it draws the crowds: more than 100,000 visitors can arrive in one day, doubling the population of the city. You'll need to book your hotel 6 months ahead or more.

There is also the Biennale cultural festival in June, a film festival in late August, a historic regatta on the 1st Sunday in Sept, the Venice Marathon in Oct, and the Festa della Salute on 21st Nov.

Visas/Entry Requirements

Citizens of EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who hold valid passports do not require a visa to visit Italy for periods of less than 90 days.

back to topOther Essentials

No vaccinations are required. EU citizens are entitled to reciprocal state medical care in Italy (take a recently-stamped E111 form), but additional medical insurance is strongly recommended. There are good, English-speaking private doctors and dentists throughout Italy. In a medical emergency, dial 118.

In summer, take mosquito repellent and use strong suntan cream. Avoid the midday sun (when you are in or by the sea, its effects are not so apparent) and drink plenty of water. Tap water is generally safe but in coastal areas is heavily chlorinated. Cheap bottled mineral water is widely available.

back to topNeed more Info

ENIT - Official Italian Tourist Board.
ENIT USA - similar site for North American users

Turismo Toscana - Tuscany regional tourist board

Umbria - Umbria regional tourist board

ANTOR - links to other regional tourist boards