You are going to Italy and I hope you are excited. You should be there is no place quite like it.
The moment you land in Rome, Milan or any place in Italy, every sense wakes up at once. The light is different. The sounds are different. A waft of espresso drifts from a bar you have not even found yet. And somewhere out there is your first gelato, a piazza to wander into, and a version of Italy that is entirely yours.
You have the flights and accommodation. You have probably been dreaming about this longer than you care to admit. Now it is almost time.
Before you go, there is a short list of things worth sorting in these final weeks. Not to add stress, but to remove it. Work through these now and you will arrive ready to do exactly what you came for: wander, eat, discover, and let Italy do what Italy does best – make you fall in love with her.
1. Confirm your travel insurance, and read what it covers
Travel insurance is one of those things that sits quietly in the background of a great trip. Sort it properly and you will never think about it again. That is exactly how it should work.
Before you leave, dig out the policy and read it. Not all of it, but the parts that matter for Italy specifically: medical coverage and evacuation, trip cancellation terms, what counts as a covered reason for cancellation, and whether your pre-existing conditions are included. If you have not yet purchased a policy, now is the time.
We had a tour guest whose mother became seriously ill while traveling in Italy and had to fly home urgently. She was covered by her insurance. In a situation like that, money is the last thing you want to be thinking about, and she did not have to. That is what a good policy does.
Italy has excellent healthcare, but out-of-pocket costs for foreign visitors can be significant. Medical evacuation alone can run into tens of thousands of dollars. A good policy costs a fraction of that and costs nothing if you never use it.
Read our full guide to travel insurance for Italy before you buy, including what the key terms mean and what to check before signing off on a policy.
2. Book your timed-entry tickets before they sell out
Some of Italy's most extraordinary experiences require timed-entry tickets booked well in advance, and the earlier you sort this the better your options will be.
Every year we hear from travelers who missed Rome's Borghese Gallery or Da Vinci's Last Supper in Milan because they left booking too late. Both are worth the forward planning. And with the Vatican Museums and Colosseum, booking early means you get to choose your slot. Leave it late and you are often left with midday entry when the heat and the crowds are at their peak. Neither is ideal.
Book the first slot of the day where you can, and lock these in now.
The Colosseum [Rome] Add the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill to your ticket if you want them. It is one combined ticket and they work well together as a half-day experience. Full details in our guide to buying Colosseum tickets.
Vatican Museums [Rome] Book the earliest slot you can get. The Sistine Chapel at 8am is a different experience from the Sistine Chapel at noon. Our Vatican Museums ticket guide covers the options, including skip-the-line tours worth considering. We also have a guide to the best Vatican tours if you want a hosted experience rather than going independently.
The Borghese Gallery [Rome] Strictly limited to 360 visitors per entry window, and they will not let you in outside your slot. Our guide to Borghese Gallery tickets has everything you need.
The Uffizi Gallery [Florence] Even in quieter months, same-day entry is rare. Give yourself at least two weeks lead time, more in summer. See our Uffizi ticket guide for what to book and what to expect.
Da Vinci's Last Supper [Milan] The viewing windows are 15 minutes long and book out months in advance. If Milan is on your itinerary, read our Last Supper ticket guide and check availability today.
Also worth booking in advance: the Accademia Gallery in Florence (home of Michelangelo's David), the Pantheon in Rome, Pompeii, and the Doge's Palace in Venice.
3. Sort your transport between cities
Italy's train network is one of the great pleasures of traveling there, and also one of the easiest things to leave too late.
High-speed Trenitalia and Italo services between major cities (Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, Milan to Bologna) need to be booked in advance if you want good prices and your preferred departure times. The trains run, but the cheaper tickets go fast and popular times fill up.
A few things to check before you consider this done:
Are your intercity trains booked, or are you planning to buy at the station? Buying at the station works, but you pay significantly more and have less flexibility on timing. Our guide to traveling by train in Italy covers how to book, which services to use, and what to know before you go.
If you are renting a car, do you have your booking confirmed and do you understand the ZTL rules for the cities on your route? The ZTL, or Zona Traffico Limitato, is the restricted traffic zone in most Italian city centres. Driving into one without authorisation will result in a fine that arrives home after you do. Our car rental guide covers this and more.
And if you are heading to the Amalfi Coast or the islands, ferry routes fill up fast in peak season. We have a guide to ferries to Capri and the Amalfi Coast if that is on your route.
Our full Transportation in Italy guide covers everything in one place if you are still working through the options.
4. Make restaurant reservations for the meals that matter
Italy does not require reservations everywhere. A casual lunch at a trattoria, a pizza at a neighbourhood place, aperitivo in a gorgeous piazza. None of that needs advance planning.
But if there is a specific restaurant on your list, somewhere you have been wanting to go for years, a special dinner, a place with a reputation that precedes it, book it now. Not the week before. Now.
One of my favorite places, Roscioli in Rome, is a good example. It is one of the city's most loved restaurants, a salumeria and wine bar that does extraordinary things with simple ingredients, and you need to book months ahead if you want a table at a reasonable hour. Miss it and there are plenty of other wonderful options in Rome, but it is worth the forward planning if it is on your radar.
Some of Italy's most worthwhile restaurants are small. Sometimes eight tables or fewer. Open four nights a week and run by one family. These places are not listed on every travel site and they do not need to be. Their regulars come back, their word-of-mouth keeps them full, and they have no obligation to hold a table for someone who did not call ahead.
A simple Whatsapp message or email in Italian, or even in English with an apology for not speaking the language, goes a long way. Most restaurants respond. The ones that do not were probably already full.
The Untold Italy app has restaurant suggestions by city and in every Italian region that go well beyond the standard recommendations, including places that do not have a significant online presence but are worth knowing about.
5. Tell your accommodation about dietary requirements now
If you have food allergies, intolerances, or dietary restrictions that could affect your meals (gluten, shellfish, nuts, dairy, vegetarian, vegan), contact your accommodation before you arrive and let them know.
This is especially worth doing if you are staying somewhere smaller: an agriturismo, a family-run hotel, a farmhouse where breakfast and dinner are included. These places cook from their own gardens and local markets. They want to feed you well. But they need time to plan, and springing a complex dietary requirement on them at dinner is not fair to anyone.
Our guide to traveling to Italy with food allergies has practical Italian phrases and advice for navigating menus and conversations with restaurant staff once you are there.
6. Stay connected – Mobile access in Italy
Your phone in Italy is your map, your translator, your train ticket, your restaurant finder, and your way of sharing all of it with people back home. It is worth spending ten minutes sorting this before you go rather than troubleshooting at the airport.
Check whether your current plan includes international roaming and what it costs. For many travelers, buying a local Italian SIM on arrival or setting up an eSIM before you leave is a better and cheaper option than paying roaming charges for two weeks. Portable wifi devices are worth considering if you are traveling as a couple or small group and want one shared connection.
Our guide to using your cellphone in Italy covers all the options, including which SIM providers work well, how to set up an eSIM, and what to expect from connectivity across different parts of the country.
7. Download the Untold Italy app and build your personal guide
The Untold Italy app puts 300-plus episodes of Italy travel knowledge in your pocket, searchable by destination, topic, and experience type. It also lets you save places, build your own Italy guide, and access recommendations that will not appear on TripAdvisor.
The time to download and set it up is before you leave, not standing outside a restaurant in Rome trying to remember which neighbourhood you were meant to be in. Save your key destinations, browse the restaurant suggestions for the cities on your route, and arrive excited to explore some of our favorite hidden spots.
8. Learn some Italian words and phrases
You do not need to be fluent. You do not need a language course. What you need is fifteen words that show the people you meet that you made an effort.
Buongiorno. Grazie mille. Per favore. Un caffè, per favore. Il conto, per favore. Parla inglese? Mi scusi. Dov'è? Prego. Salute.
Start with buongiorno. Say it when you walk into a shop or a restaurant. It costs nothing and opens everything. We have been helped to find the juiciest cherries at a market in Modena and talked through a wrong turn in Sicily, all because a simple greeting turned a transaction into a conversation. The Italians will love you for trying. That much is true.
Our guide to 101 basic Italian phrases for travel has everything you need, with pronunciation guidance included.
9. Organize your packing
The good news about packing for Italy is that it needs less than you think. A lighter bag means faster airport exits, easier train journeys, and no wrestling with a large suitcase up a medieval staircase at midnight.
One thing we say to every traveler: leave the heels at home, or save them for one specific dinner at a restaurant with smooth floors. You need a PhD in walking in heels to manage Italian stone streets without incident, and a twisted ankle on day two is not how anyone wants to spend their trip. Comfortable, worn-in shoes will serve you far better.
We have a full Italy packing guide that covers clothing by season, the church dress code, what to leave behind, and carry-on versus checked luggage. It is worth a read before you start filling a bag.
10. Check your documents are in order
This one sounds obvious and is still the thing people forget to look at until they are at the airport.
Confirm your passport is valid for at least three months (ideally six) beyond your return date, as some airlines and border officials require this even when Italy itself does not. Check whether you need a visa for your nationality. Make sure travel documents, hotel confirmations, and transport bookings are accessible offline or printed, because Italian Wi-Fi is not always where you need it to be.
Our Italy travel documents guide covers everything including the upcoming ETIAS travel authorisation for visitors from the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, expected from late 2026.
One more thing: if your itinerary still has gaps
If you are four to twelve weeks out and there are still parts of your trip that feel unresolved, a city you are not sure how to navigate, a section of the itinerary that feels thin, a restaurant district you cannot get a straight answer on, a Quick Fix Chat might be exactly what you need.
It is a 30-minute Zoom call with one of our Italy experts. You bring the questions. We bring the answers. You leave with a clear direction and a follow-up email with key links and resources. This is not a full trip planning session. It is a targeted conversation for people who are mostly sorted and need someone to fill in the gaps before they go.
Andiamo! Time for Italy
Work through this list, tick it off, and then close the laptop. The planning phase is almost done. What comes next is the part you have been waiting for. Italy is yours. Go and find it. And on your way home, drop me a line and let me know when you're going back. Ciao for now!
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