Go in early Spring or late Fall. Rome is HOT! You will be outdoors for many of the attractions and at the very least walking around a good deal. In fact we probably should have done our trip in reverse: Rome, Venice, Paris.
Pre-print maps and know how you’re going to get from the airport to your hotel. In Paris, you can take the train but figure out which train station to get off from and how to walk from the station to the hotel. Same thing for Venice and Rome.
Bring a backpack to conveniently carry a jacket/long-sleeved shirt, bottle of water, tissues, Benadryl (for any emergency allergic reactions), and an umbrella.
In Paris, just by the day pass for all the trains and all the days you plan on being there, right off the bat at the airport. In Rome, you may just want to pay per trip because you will mostly walk everywhere (4 Euros for the daily pass, 1 Euro per trip. We rode about 2 trips a day if that.). Their train system isn’t as comprehensive but things are close enough to walk.
Also in Paris, take the RER as much as possible over the Metro from either airport or anytime carrying a lot of luggage.
Watch out for mosquitos in Venice but particularly in Rome. Bring Zyrtec to preemptively fight those itchy mosquito bites. I got attacked every night in our hotel room and even woke up in the middle of the night in fits of scratching. It was pretty torturous.
In any city you go, no matter how touristy it is, find a local grocery store to buy your waters. Don’t pay 3 Euros at a tourist stand. They’re really no more than 0.50 Euro a liter.
In Paris, water in restaurants can be tap (free) or bottled. We observed about 50/50 tap vs. bottled among the patrons in restaurants. In Italy don’t ask for tap or they’ll think you’re ridiculously cheap. (We learned this from our local Italian friend.) Or just get a bottle of house wine.
Get the house wine. It’s inexpensive and good.
Go a little off the beaten path to discover restaurants that the locals frequent. In Paris, try to go to at least one restaurant that does not translate the menu into English. Remember, carpaccio = raw, usually raw beef sliced paper thin. In Rome, we found a local restaurant by our hotel where they barely spoke English. We would speak English and the guy would reply in Italian. And yet we understood each other. We loved it so much we went back. In fact if they hadn’t been closed on Sunday we were planning dinner there a third time. Some places will offer you a limoncello gratis if you are a foreigner. I think they just like to see you pucker your face when you down it. We didn’t bring home a bottle of that stuff, if that tells you anything.
In predominately Catholic countries, eat dinner early on Sundays or you will be wandering a good deal looking for an open restaurant. In Paris we wound up eating at a Kosher restaurant on Sunday night and in Rome, we ate at an Italian place but the manager that night was Indian and the chef in the kitchen was another Asian.
IMPORTANT TIP!! For some tourist attractions, you can buy one ticket to see multiple places. Go to the least popular site of the package deal to buy the ticket because there will be little to no line. Then when you get to the popular attraction, you can bypass the chaos of the long lines. In Venice, the Correr Museum and the Doge’s Palace are one ticket. We went to the Correr first and got our ticket which was good for the day and also covered the Doge’s Palace which had long lines that morning. In Rome, we waited an hour at the Colosseum for a ticket which was in package with the Roman Forum and Palatino. Had we been savvier, we would’ve gone to the Palatino/Forum for our ticket and then headed to the Colosseum. Live and learn.
In Paris you might be able to purchase from your hotel, museum ticket package deals where one ticket will get you into Musee Louvre and d’Orsay and such. If you’re planning to go to them anyway, it’s worth it. In Rome, if you want to go into St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, you might consider joining a tour group when you book your trip or ask your hotel to arrange a tour group. Otherwise, you’re in for a long wait with a line that seems to wrap around the whole square. We wound up taking photos of the outside and being satisfied with that. Rome has so many beautiful sites to see, missing out on the Sistine Chapel was to us, not a big deal. Plus, given that we had only 4 days, we knew we wouldn’t get to everything anyway.
Be wary of all the knockoff/junk sellers. Things in Europe are generally pricey so if it’s cheap, it’s probably made in China. If you’re going to shop, splurge on something of quality that’s made there. Venice is known for Murano glass and it’s pretty, and not that expensive. I got a good amount of Murano items. In Rome, I bargained with a vendor for a wallet. He went from 15 to 10 to 8 to 5 Euros. I took a closer look at it and said no thanks. Later, we saw other vendors hawking similar wallets for 3 Euro. They were all probably cobbled together by some poor Chinese kids. So when you shop, just be careful. Even paintings, unless the artist himself is painting and selling his works, it’s probably painted by that same poor Chinese kid after he was through cobbling together the janky wallets. We wound up only buying art from one painter in Paris. He had his watercolor paints out, a little bio of himself printed from some website and all his works were unique and he could tell you which vantage point he painted from.
Italians don’t dip their bread in olive oil. However you can sop up the sauce from your dish with the bread. Some places will put a bread basket on your table some won’t unless you ask for it. Unlike in Paris though, bread baskets in Rome are not gratis.
Watch out for the subway beggars in Rome. They stand by some ticket kiosks with a cup and “help” as you buy your ticket. These machines all have language options for Italian, French, German, and English so you don’t need help. However after you get your ticket they will ask for a donation. You can bypass those kiosks and go to others or you can just ignore them. I don’t like to encourage such behavior because it just encourages them to keep doing that to other tourists.
Don’t be shy about asking for directions. They’re a friendly bunch in each of the three cities. I wonder what tourists think of us when they come visit?
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