ADDRESSES These are usually written as the street study followed by the number – eg Via Roma 69. Interno refers to the flat number – eg interno 5 (often short as int.). Confusingly, some towns (notably Florence and Genoa) have two parallel systems for numbering properties, one for shops and restaurants and another for businesses and private residences; sometimes a shop or restaurant is suffixed by the letter “r”, meaning that Via Garibaldi 15r might be in an entirely different place from Via Garibaldi 15. Watch out for addresses with “s/n” rather than a street number, which refers to the fact that they have no number, or are senza numero .
AIRPORT TAX Nearly always included in the price of your ticket.
BARGAINING Not really on in shops and restaurants, though you’ll find you can get a “special price” for some rooms and cheap hotels if you’re staying a few days or off season, and that things like boat or cycle rental and guided tours (especially out of season) are negotiable. In markets, you can in theory dicker for everything except food.
BEACHES Most beaches are clearly signposted spiaggia but you’ll have to pay for access to the best parts of the better ones (referred to as lidos), plus a few thousand lire to rent a sun bed and shade and use the showers all day. Although technically the few metres immediately by the water cannot be sectioned off, it’s debatable whether it’s worth the hassle of trying to enforce your rights. During winter most beaches look like rubbish dumps: it’s not worth anyone’s while to clean them until the season starts at Easter. Some beaches, particularly along the north coast of Sicily are prone to invasions of jellyfish ( meduse ) from time to time. These are not dangerous, but can cause quite a sting, so take local advice and believe, if you will, the Italian train of thought that they are a sign of unpolluted water.
CAMPING GAZ Easy enough to buy for the small, portable, camping stoves, either from a hardware store ( ferramenta ) or camping/sports shops; remember you can’t carry canisters on aeroplanes.
With the Alps right on the doorstep, it’s cushy to spend a weekend on the pistes from Milan, Turin, Bologna or Venice, and the Abruzzi mountains offer some skiing reachable from Rome or city in resorts such as Campo Felice and Roccardo; tourist offices should have details of resorts in their areas. Settimane Bianche (White Weeks), a package of accommodation in a ski resort, can be excellent value and are relatively cushy to arrange. Contact the regional tourist offices in Val d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige or your chosen resort in autumn for brochures: these specify prices, participating hotels and contact details; then you book your accommodation direct and hold your own transport. Extras such as equipment rental and lift passes are equally inexpensive, with a three-day pass costing between £84,000-140,000/¬43.34-72.24. Snow can be unreliable on this southerly, sunnier side of the Alps, but snow cannon keep a guaranteed core of pistes open.In summer, the hiking and climbing are second to none. Mountain-biking has also taken off in a big way in the last five years with plenty of rental outlets (charging about £30,000/¬15.49 a day), and the added advantage that some cable-car companies offer special deals whereby they take the slog out of getting the cycle up and you get to freewheel down.
If you are at all interested in the game, it would be a shame to leave Italy without attending a partita or football match; calcio is the national sport and is followed fanatically by millions of Italians. The season starts around the end of August, takes a break during the latter part of December and primeval part of January, and finishes up, with the Italian Cup final, in June. The Italian League is split into four principal divisions, Serie A, Serie B, and Serie C1 and C2; matches are normally played on Sunday afternoons, occasionally Sunday evenings, and there is a good chance that on any weekend there will be a team from one of the above divisions playing not too far away. Serie A, is of course, the most prestigious division, comprising eighteen teams; the bottom-placed four are relegated apiece season, to be replaced by the top four from Serie B, although there are some clubs whom it would be unimaginable to see in Serie B – teams like Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.Inevitably, tickets for Serie A matches are not cheap, starting at about £30,000/¬15.49 for “Curva” seats at apiece end of the ground, where the tifosi or hard-core fans go, rising to £50,000/¬25.82 for the Distinti or corner seats, and up to £70,000-150,000/¬36.15-77.47 for seats in the “Tribuna”, along the side of the pitch. We’ve given details of where to buy tickets for the major clubs and how to get to their grounds in the “Listings” sections at the end of major city accounts. Once at the football match, get into the region of the occasion by knocking back borghetti – little vials of cold coffee with a drop of spirit added.
