Clara Jackson Italy is a beautiful place, and you can’t help but fall in love with it. But, like most places on earth, it can also be a frustrating place when you’re traveling. From the wonderful locations to the incredible food, Italy is an amazing place to explore, but there are also things you just shouldn’t do.
It’s pretty obvious that it is very difficult to visit a new country without making a mistake or two. In fact, there is a very popular saying in Italy that everyone should adopt: “Per fare un errore (to make a mistake) si impara.” (In order to make a mistake, you must learn from it.)
Here are the following mistakes travelers make in Italy(that you should avoid):
- Forgetting to ask the hotel reception for directions to our destination. Traveling to Italy means you’re going to get lost. It’s an easy thing to do, especially if you’re traveling on the main tourist routes, and you’ll get lost no matter what you do. Luckily, you’ll be able to find your way out of any situation with a bit of positive thinking and a little bit of help from locals.
- Wrong choice of dress. What happens to travelers when they don’t consider the cultural norms of their destination? They get looked at as if they’re weird, or worse, disrespectful. In Italy, a special style of dress is appropriate for different occasions, and travelers might be surprised to learn what’s considered normal and what’s not.
- Showing up in Italy with a bunch of suitcases and expect to find a place to stay. One of the biggest mistakes travelers makes is thinking that they will arrive in Italy with all their suitcases, thinking they will find a place to stay. Some may even think they will find a place to stay within the first 24 hours they are in Italy. However, this is not the case, and the road will be long if you don’t prepare ahead of time.
- Don’t consider the weather. You see it all the time, the clueless tourist who dithers over every decision, forgetting that Italy is a country of many climates. Weather in Italy can be a big factor in how you enjoy your stay.
- Not wearing sunscreen. The Mediterranean is sunny, and the water is warm, so it’s easy to burn.
- Tipping. Tipping has always been a controversial subject in Italy. With the prices of food, transport, and accommodation skyrocketing at the same time as wages for the local population have fallen, the feeling is growing that the country has reached a tipping point when poor people start not paying their bills or using their purchases as a means to gain a reputation with the waiters, and worse, the locals, as a “tipping queen” or “tipping king.”
- Forgets to validate their Train tickets. We’ve all forgotten our train ticket while traveling in Italy. It’s happened to us, and it’s happened to you. But your ticket gets a bit of a bad wrap, and sometimes people get a bit defensive when you remind them of the ticket. So, let’s be real: mistakes happen. Remember, you are not alone.
- Bringing no cash. Even if you’re just heading to a local grocery store, it’s nice to have some euros or pesos on hand.
- Not bringing a camera. The people of Italy are friendly and fun but can be very shy- revealing themselves only to the photogenic.
- Not speaking Italian(even just a bit). Italian is the official language of the country, so you can’t assume that every place in the country will speak fluent English to you. But luckily, in many towns and cities, you’ll still have to resort to English to be able to communicate to the locals.
We’ve met a lot of travelers who come to Italy and make the same mistakes. They lose their luggage; they get lost, they don’t give themselves enough time to explore, they don’t eat enough, they don’t stay in touch with their friends, they forgo booking the right tours, they don’t see the sights. And the results are varied but usually not good.
The old adage of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” applies at the airport as it does everywhere else in life. If you follow a few simple rules, you should be able to travel safely and comfortably in Italy.
