Lake Maggiore

Isola Bella‚ Palazzo Borromeo & Gardens (Lake Maggiore)

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romeonfoot Sep 14

The Climb Most Milan Visitors Never Hear About 🇮🇹

Just outside Varese, there’s a 2 km uphill route lined with 14 chapels, leading all the way to the small borgo of Santa Maria del Monte.

This is the Sacro Monte di Varese, part of the UNESCO-listed Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.

The Via Sacra dates back to the early 1600s, and each chapel represents one of the Mysteries of the Rosary through frescoes, architecture and life-sized sculptures.

A few useful things to know before you go:

🥾 If you want the full experience, start at Prima Cappella. From there, you walk the historic route uphill to Santa Maria del Monte.

🚞 There’s also a funicular from Vellone if you prefer to reach the borgo without doing the entire climb. Check the timetable before you go.

✅ Walking the Sacro Monte route itself is free. Museums and other attractions at the top may have separate admission.

👟 Wear proper shoes. The route is paved with stone and cobbles and is steadily uphill.

And don’t leave as soon as you reach the sanctuary. Wander through Santa Maria del Monte too, tiny lanes, stairways, historic buildings and wide views over the area around Varese.

This isn’t just a viewpoint at the end of a climb. The route itself is the reason to come.

Save this if you’re looking for an easy escape from Milan that most visitors completely overlook.

#sacromonte #sacromontedivarese #varese #visitvarese #milandaytrip

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romeonfoot Sep 12

How to plan an Italy trip without overplanning 🇮🇹

The easiest way to make an Italy trip exhausting?

Start planning every morning, museum and restaurant before deciding whether the route itself makes sense.

I’d do it in the opposite order:

Explore the destinations you’re genuinely considering.
Compare the difficult choices instead of automatically adding both.
Set your dates, route and number of nights.
Save only the things you’d genuinely regret missing.
Run Trip Check and look for rushed days or unnecessary transfers.
Build the daily itinerary.
Use Ticket Timing to organize what needs booking.
Once you’re in Italy, use Today, Day Map and Concierge to adjust as reality inevitably interferes with your beautiful spreadsheet. 😅

Because a “2-hour train” is never just two hours.

There’s packing, hotel checkout, getting to the station, finding the platform, luggage, arrival and the next check-in.

And adding Bologna to a Rome–Florence–Venice trip doesn’t create extra holiday days. Those nights have to come from somewhere.

That’s the principle behind Italy on Foot: get the big decisions right first, then build the details around them.

You can explore destinations before committing to a trip, then use the planning tools when you’re ready to turn those ideas into an actual route.

And once you’re travelling, Concierge already has the context of your saved trip — so instead of asking “What should I do in Florence?” you can ask:

“It’s 16:30, we’re tired, and dinner is at 20:00. Which remaining stop is actually worth keeping?”

That’s a much more useful travel question.

→ app.italyonfoot.com

#italytravels #italytraveltips #italytrip #italytripplanning #italyvacation

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romeonfoot Sep 10

Public toilets in Italy: why the €1 coin matters 🚻

In Italy, don’t spend your last €1 coin.

Not because every toilet costs €1, they don’t. Some are free, some charge €1, some may charge €1.50, and payment methods vary by city and location.

The useful rule is to carry small euro change.

At train stations, you may find paid toilets with their own opening hours. Municipal toilets can be coin-operated. Café bathrooms are generally for customers, so buy something small and ask politely.

Museums usually have toilets once you’re inside, so use them before you exit. And if you’re driving, proper autostrada area di servizio facilities are the important free exception.

My simple Italy toilet kit:
🪙 2 × €1 coins
🪙 1 × 50-cent coin
💳 Contactless card as backup

Useful phrase to save:

Posso usare il bagno, per favore?
Can I use the bathroom, please?

And when searching Maps, try:
bagni pubblici · servizi igienici · WC

Save this before your Italy trip, because this is one travel tip you’ll be very glad you remembered. 😅

#italy2026 #italyonfoot #romeonfoot #italytripplanning #italytraveladvice

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romeonfoot Sep 8

Things tourists think are scams in Italy

You arrive in Italy and suddenly your hotel wants everyone’s ID, the city asks for another payment after you already paid for the room, your coffee costs more because you sat down, or a petrol station appears to have charged your card €100. 🇮🇹

Some of these things are completely normal.

But that does not mean every strange charge or request should be accepted with “well, that’s just Italy.”

The useful question is: is there a rule, published tariff, receipt, official operator or clear explanation behind it?

A few examples:

🎟️ Some transport tickets still need validation but not every ticket does.
☕ Table service can cost more than drinking at the counter.
💶 Tourist tax may be separate from your prepaid accommodation.
⛽ A €99–€101 petrol-station card alert can be a temporary preauthorisation, not your final bill.
🧾 Restaurant charges should not simply appear from nowhere.

And passport checks deserve their own explanation: accommodation providers do need to identify guests, but showing your ID and creating or retaining a full passport copy are not the same thing. I’ll cover that separately because it deserves more detail.

The rule I’d remember:

Unfamiliar isn’t evidence of fraud. But “normal in Italy” isn’t a blank cheque.

Save this before your trip and if you want practical help planning Italy, you can also use app.italyonfoot.com. 📍

#italytravel #italytraveltips #italytrip #italytravelguide #travelitaly

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romeonfoot Sep 6

A train strike in Italy does not automatically mean your train is cancelled. 🚆

Before you change your plans, check your exact operator, train number, route and travel date. Then check the official strike notice, your operator’s guaranteed-service list, and live departures before you leave your accommodation.

A few things travelers often get wrong:
• Regional “guaranteed hours” do not mean every train in that window will run.
• High-speed and Intercity trains use specific guaranteed-train lists.
• If your journey is seriously disrupted, check your rerouting options before cancelling your ticket.
• When the EU 100-minute rule applies, self-arranged alternatives are generally limited to reasonable rail, coach or bus transport, not automatically taxis, rental cars or flights. ⚠️
• Airport trains and every connecting leg need to be checked separately.

For official strike scope: scioperi.mit.gov.it
Then check Trenitalia, Italo, Trenord or your actual operator for your train.

And if a strike forces you to rethink the rest of your itinerary, use app.italyonfoot.com to keep your plans, map and trip details together. 📍

Save this before your Italy trip, because the worst time to learn how Italian train strikes work is while standing at the station with your suitcase.

#italytravel #italytraveltips #italytrip #italytravelguide #travelitaly

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romeonfoot Sep 4

Visiting the Egyptian Museum in Turin 🇮🇹

If you’re planning a trip to Turin, put the Museo Egizio on your list, but don’t schedule it as a quick one-hour stop.

The museum covers around 4,000 years of Egyptian history, and there is much more to see than you expect. The museum itself estimates an average visit at about 2 hours. I’d allow at least that, and longer if ancient Egypt is one of your main interests.

A few useful things to know before you go:

🎟️ Tickets: You can book online, but when I visited, tickets were also being sold at the museum ticket office. Interestingly, the museum website currently states tickets are online only, so this is one of those cases where the information online and the reality on site don’t completely match. Check before you go, especially if you’re visiting on a busy weekend or holiday.

🎧 Bring headphones. The museum has a free audio guide on your phone. Connect to the museum Wi-Fi and use the web app. There’s a 1-hour highlights route or a more complete 3-hour route.

🧳 Don’t arrive with luggage. The cloakroom is currently suspended because of renovation works. There are only a limited number of small lockers for backpack-sized bags.

📸 You can take photos inside, but without flash.

🕒 Current opening hours:
Monday: 9:00–14:00
Tuesday–Friday + Sunday: 9:00–18:30
Saturday: 9:00–20:00
Last entry is one hour before closing.

⚠️ Also worth knowing in 2026: the Historic Rooms on level -1 are temporarily closed because of renovation works.

📍 Museo Egizio
Via Accademia delle Scienze 6, Torino

And give yourself time for the Gallery of the Kings. This is not the room to speed-walk through because you’re already thinking about aperitivo.

Official website: museoegizio.it

Save this for Turin — especially the headphones and luggage tips. 🎟️

Have you been to the Museo Egizio, and how long did you actually spend inside?

@museoegizio

#museoegizio #museoegiziotorino #egyptianmuseum #turin #torino

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romeonfoot Sep 2

How to use regional buses in Italy

Regional buses in Italy are not one national system, and that is exactly why they confuse so many travelers.

Different regions use different operators, ticket apps, fare rules, timetable codes and stop conventions. A route can be perfectly usable, but you need to check the details before you leave.

The biggest mistakes I see:

🎟️ Assuming you can always buy a ticket from the driver. You often need to buy before boarding, and onboard sales can come with restrictions or a surcharge.

🕒 Reading feriale as Monday–Friday. Depending on the operator, Saturday may be included or shown separately. Sundays and public holidays usually follow festivo service.

🔄 Planning the outbound bus first. For day trips, check the return first. Regional services are often designed around schools, commuters and local needs, so the evening return you expect may simply not exist.

📍 Searching for a “bus station.” Your stop might actually be a roadside pole, a junction (bivio), a petrol station or another local landmark. The return stop may also be on a completely different street.

✋ Standing at the stop without signalling. On some networks, you need to clearly raise your hand for the bus to stop.

Before relying on a regional bus in Italy, check the operator’s official timetable, read the legend and footnotes, confirm the exact stop in both directions, and sort out your ticket before you go.

And if you’re travelling on a Sunday or public holiday: check the whole journey again. Don’t assume the weekday plan still works.

Save this before planning an Italy trip outside the main train network. 🚆

#italytravels #italytraveltips #italytrip #italyvacation #travelitaly

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romeonfoot Aug 31

Italy strike dates to watch in September 2026 🇮🇹🚆✈️🚌

Traveling around Italy this September? Save this.

Important: a strike listing does NOT mean every service is cancelled. It means delays, reduced service or timetable changes are possible, so check your exact operator and journey.

🚌 Sept 4: Genoa local transport
AMT Genova action during the middle of the day.

🚌 Sept 5: Venice-area ATVO buses
Services not guaranteed 16:00–20:00. Important for airport/coastal buses. ATVO is not ACTV, so this does not automatically mean vaporetti are affected.

🚆 Sept 7–8: biggest rail disruption window
Main national rail action runs about 21:18 Sept 7 to 21:17 Sept 8, with overlapping railway strikes. Avoid tight flight/cruise connections and check your exact train against guaranteed-service lists.

✈️ Sept 11: Olbia + Cagliari airport services

✈️ Sept 13: Rome, Florence, Pisa + Cagliari airports
Security, handling and airport-service strikes are listed. This is not “all airlines on strike,” but queues, baggage delays and flight disruption are possible.

🚌 Sept 15: biggest local transport day
Florence has the strongest concentration, with bus + tram action. Also watch Prato, Pisa, Naples, Ravenna and ATVO routes.

🚌 Sept 18: Florence buses

🚆 Sept 21: Bologna / Emilia-Romagna rail

🚌 Sept 22: Umbria regional buses

⚠️ Sept 26: re-check date
Official listings conflict, so do not treat this as a confirmed nationwide transport shutdown yet.

🚌 Sept 28: Air Campania / Naples area

✈️ Sept 30: nationwide air traffic control strike
ENAV + Techno Sky action is scheduled 13:00–17:00. This is the broadest aviation-risk date of the month.

Before travel, check the MIT strike calendar, Trenitalia/Italo/Trenord, ENAC + your airline, local transport operator and airport website.

Re-check everything 24–48h before departure. Strikes can change, be reduced or be cancelled.

#italytravel #italytraveltips #italy2026 #italytrains

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romeonfoot Aug 30

Last weekend of August🍃

#turin #torino #turin🇮🇹 #italyonfoot #bellaitalia

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