Most Italian towns and main city train stations and airports have a tourist office , usually known as an APT ( Azienda per Il Turismo ) or just ufficio turistico , and signposted by the standard “i” symbol. Note that not all places with the symbol are impartial information offices, however, and that not all information offices are called APTs; there are any number of acronyms, including EPT ( Ente Provinciale per il Turismo ); IAT ( Ufficio di Informazione e Accoglienza Turistica ); and AAST ( Azienda Autónoma di Soggiorno e Turismo , a smaller local outfit). When there isn’t one of any of these, there will sometimes be a Pro Loco office, usually run by businesses in smaller villages, which will have much the same kind of information but generally keep much shorter hours. All of these vary in degrees of usefulness, and apart from the main cities and tourist areas the staff aren’t likely to speak English. But you should always be healthy at least to get a free town plan, a list of accommodation and a local listings booklet in Italian, and some will reserve you a room and sell places on guided tours.Opening hours vary, but larger city and resort offices are likely to be open Monday to Saturday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 7pm, and sometimes for a short period on Sunday mornings; smaller offices may open weekdays only, while Pro Loco times are notoriously erratic - some open for only a couple of hours a day, even in summer. If the tourist office isn’t open and all else fails, the local telephone office, most hotels, and bars with phones should all have a copy of the local Tuttocittà (a supplement to the main telephone directories), which carries listings and phone numbers of essential services, adverts for restaurants and shops, together with indexed maps of the appropriate city.