Trips to Italy

credit: gennaro cicalese.it

Italy is found on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe It shares its northern Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.

The country is surrounded by the Ligurian Sea, the Sardinian Sea, and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, the Sicilian and Ionian Sea in the South, and Adraitic Sea in the East.

Italy has a very diverse landscape, but can be primarily described as mountainous including the Alpes and the Apennies mountain ranges that run through it.

How to Arrive in Italy by Air

• Milan - Malpensa (MXP) and Linate (LIN); The Malapensa Express train connects terminal one with the centre of Milan (journey time - 40 minutes). A free shuttle bus connects the airport terminals. Taxis are available.
• Bergamo (BGY - Orio al Serio)
• Rome - Fiumicino (FCO - Leonardo Da Vinci) and Ciampino (CIA). There is a direct rail link to Termini Station in central Rome and a bus service to the city centre and to Ciampino airport. Taxis are also available to the city.
• Bologna (BLQ – Guglielmo Marconi)
• Naples (NAP - Capodichino)
• Pisa (PSA - Galileo Galilei)
• Venice (VCE – Marco Polo)
• Turin (TRN – Sandro Pertini)

The national airline is Alitalia (AZ) (website: www.alitalia.com).

Getting There by Water

Main ports: Ancona (website: www.autoritaportuale.ancona.it), Brindisi (website: www.porto.br.it), Naples (website: www.porto.napoli.it) and Venice (website: www.port.venice.it).

Italian Freeway - credit: Marco DG

Getting Around

Given the excellent network of fairly cheap bus and train services in Italy, both are a great, stress-free way of seeing the country - and of being part of the great Italian travelling public. Bus travel is the less expensive of the two, but as there are many different operators it is less straightforward than train travel.

Your own wheels give you the most potential freedom and flexibility, although both fuel and autostrada (motorway) tolls are expensive. Domestic air travel can be costly and is worth it only if you are short of time.

By Road - Buses are fast and reliable, whether they are traversing local routes linking small villages or zooming along autostrade between cities.