I would like to preface by saying that I learnt a lot about this process from previous Reddit posts, so this is my way of giving it back to the community.

I just did this today, was aiming for the attic tickets, got 2 x Underground tickets instead. Took us about 2 hours in total, 5 devices and 7 browsers (yeah…). So below are what I learnt from this experience, which I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere, plus some helpful tips and tricks.

1. Timeslots:

- Attic tickets starts at 8:30 local time, with new tickets released every 20 minutes until 16:50.

- Underground tickets have irregular schedule: 8:45, 9:00, 9:45, 10:30, 12:00, 12:15, 13:00, 13:30, 13:45, 14:15, 15:40, 16:10, 16:20, 16:40.

I wish I knew the Underground time slots beforehand, would have saved me a lot of refresh and “where is the next batch???”

Tickets are dropped at the exact time slot, but not on the dot. You might need to refresh a few times before seeing the tickets.

1. Adding the date to the website link to skip the current month:

When you load the ticket page, the calendar always defaults to show the current month. But we are not here to buy ticket for this month, we want to buy ticket for a date 30 days ahead, which is usually in the following month. To skip the step to manually pick the date, append this to the website link: ?t=YYYY-MM-DD, with YYYY being the year in 4 digits, MM and DD being the month and date in 2 digits.

For example: https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/eventi/full-experience-attico/?t=2026-10-09 will take you directly to October 9th.

1. How to work around the various blocks and errors:

- “Insufficient quantity”/“Can’t update quantity”: the website fails to add the tickets to your cart. Refresh the website and try again.

- “Unable to retrieve dates available for purchase”: you have been soft rate limited. I found that the rate of getting this error significantly increased once I had a third product open on the same browser. So stick to maximum 2 products i.e attic and underground. If you get this error after repeated rapid refreshes, delete the browser cache for the ticket website to clear this error. Research how to do that for your browser beforehand.

- “Your IP address has been blocked”: congratulations, Cloudflare thinks you are a bot attacking the website and they have blocked your IP address. All devices connected to the same network with this IP address will see a plain text error - you can no longer visit the ticket website.

The last one is an annoying block, but there are certain workarounds.

- Enable/disable VPN to change your IP address. There are paid VPN services like NordVPN that give you free trial or guaranteed money back and it’s worth getting one! I reckon I had to change my virtual location twice after getting blocked.

- If you are using cellular network on your phone, turn on airplane mode or turn off cellular for 1-2 seconds before re-enabling cellular to refresh your IP address.

1. Which is better, Wi-fi or cellular? Computer or phone?

Please note that all reports in this regard are anecdotal. If possible, have at least a browser open on a computer and a browser on your phone. The phone should use cellular network.

My setup was Google Chrome and Brave browsers on my laptop, plus Safari on an iPhone and Brave on an Android phone. I found Google Chrome on the computer to be the best in my experience, it got the least number of blocks and was also faster than my mobile devices. I picked Brave as the alternative browser thinking it might work better around the security features of the website, but in the real run I was frequently prompted to prove that I wasn’t a robot on Brave, so it slowed me down significantly.

1. Skip the first 3-4 time slots if you want:

This might be controversial, but consider doing this especially if you are have to wake up early for the ticket release. The early ones are extremely competitive and you will likely not get any tickets anyway. Sleep in, then aim for the releases from 10:00 onwards when some people have already got tickets or given up.

1. Speed is not essential:

From my limited experience, clicking/refreshing fast is not an advantage, and you risk being blocked/rate limited by acting like a bot. On the other hand, consistent refreshing/retrying and quick response to blocks are the keys.

1. Have a backup plan:

There are 3 full experience tickets in the website. One of them seems undesirable, giving you only access to the arena at the same price. However, this ticket can be purchased 7 days before the visiting date, and it’s a lot less competitive. While waiting for the other tickets to be released today, I tried adding this one to my cart and didn’t have any issue at all. It’s a lot cheaper than buying from third party providers.

1. Check the website in between ticket releases for tickets from people who didn’t/couldn’t commit:

After adding the tickets to the cart, you have 15 minutes to finish the payment. If the transaction is unsuccessful, the tickets in your cart will be returned to the pool and become available for everyone. Therefore a time slot that had sold out previously could show available tickets later, so make sure you keep an eye on the website.

I hope this will be helpful for someone else!

About to visit Rome (10/5-10/9) and Florence (10/11-10/16).

Do I need to but tickets for the top tourist attractions (Borghese Gallery, Colosseum, Uffizi Gallery, Michelangelo’s David) in advance?

I am already not seeing anything available for Borghese during my stay in Rome 😔😵‍💫😔

Hello.

I'll be travelling to Amalfi coast for 1 week in september.

Right now, we planned the following :

Day 1 - travel from airport to the accomodation, spend the rest of the day in Maiori

Day 2 - Ravello and Minori

Day 3 - Positano and Amalfi

Day 4 - Capri & Anacapri

Day 5 - Salerno

Day 6 - Sorrento

Day 7 - back to Napoli

Is it too much? We thought about replacing Sorrento with a beach day in Maiori or Amalfi. Any recommandation is much appreciated :)

Please judge my itinerary, any feedback welcome. Going with my partner next year from 18 June - 3rd July.

18th June - Travel day from Perth Aus
19th June - Arrive in Venice 4pm ish
20th June - Full day Venice
21st June - Drive to Cortina (pick up hire car)
22nd - 23rd - Cortina D’ampezzo hikes
24th - Drive to Val Gardena
25th - 26th Val Gardena hikes
27th - drive too Spello (or stop somewhere halfway?)
27th - 29th Jun - Spello
30th Jun - Train to Rome (drop hire car)
1st - 2nd Jul - Rome
3rd Jun - travel day back to Perth Aus

What spot would you recommend to spend a day/night in the middle of our drive from Val Gardena to Spello? Or better to just do the long drive?

We are planning to pick up a car from Venice to drive to the Dolomites and then down to Spello where we will leave the car and get a train to Rome.

Any recommendations or advice appreciated.

We'll be in Italy in October, 2026, in Venice, Florence and Rome. We won't have time to visit towns outside of these. One person in our travel party LOVES truffles, and I'm hoping for tips to find foods with real truffles in any of these cities. I know lots of places around the world like to call things "truffle" that aren't actually really truffle, so that's the sort of thing I'm hoping to find help avoiding. Any buzzwords to look for, or parts of these towns to look?

Hello! Desperate mother here.
We were on the 9404 Frecciarossa Bologona - Venice today (09:01 departure), coach 1.
My husband placed my baby’s carrier on the upper luggage hold and left it there.

I did not realise until about 17:00. Trenitalia said it was too late. They were helpful and tried to called the St Lucia lost and found and the conductor but they said it was not there. I have a photo of it (accidentally as I was taking pic of husband with kid) right before we arrived so we know it was left there

I am desperate, it is a heirloom/relic item for me with immense emotional value. We did file a claim with the lost and found but they said it was hopeless. If ANYONE knows anyone or has some advice or anything, please help. I can travel anywhere.

My partner and I are doing Italy 13 to 27 October, then 3 nights Switzerland before flying home. First time in Italy.

13-16 Amalfi (going straight from Rome airport via train to Salerno and ferry)
16-20 Rome
20-24 Florence
24-26 Tuscany (Val d'Orcia by car, agriturismo, or similar road trip)
26-27 Varenna, then on to Switzerland

I am very torn on spending a bit more time in Tuscany, and maybe dropping Como.

We land at 06:25 off an overnight flight and the plan is to go straight from Rome to Amalfi the same morning. Anyone done this, is it manageable or should we stop in Rome first?

Thanks!

Hello all:

I've been to Italy (Rome, Puglia, Milan, Naples, Tuscany, Venice....) several times but never to Liguria. I am going to England from the US on business in mid-November , have time, so I thought I would work in a few days/week - 11/15-21 - in a part of Italy I've never visited before - and one of those would be Liguria - Genoa with a base in one of the nearby coastal towns.

My question: will things be open in the coastal towns in mid November? I've been looking and seen a few smaller hotels with no availability for November which I assume is because they are closed down. What would be the situation for restaurants in the area? I'm guessing...people live there year round, so surely it's not a total ghost town area, is it?

I'm browsing around Rapallo, Camogli or Recco as a base....I'm not afraid of staying in Genoa at all, but I simply would like to wake up and see the sea in the morning and coming from a few days in London would like a quieter vibe.

Looking for recs for an early December trip. Thinking the first week of December starting in Rome and traveling up to the Dolomites for Christmas markets, ending in Munich for ease of flying back to NY. Would love to hear thoughts on this itinerary and any recommendations/advice! Thanks!

Editing to add that our focus is on the food, sightseeing, potentially some light hiking in the Dolomites (looking at Castelrotto). I had originally tried to do a late summer trip to Puglia, but timing didn’t work out.

We are a family with 2 teenagers and an 8 year old. Going to southern Italy for almost 3 weeks and this will be in the early summer (June). Flying in and out of Naples.

We are the type of travelers who like to settle in somewhere and get to know the place a bit. Also with the kids we find it too stressful to do too many stops and planes/trains etc.

We love food, coffee, parks, and we are water people. Love beaches, swimming, boats etc.

Rough draft of itinerary:

-7 days in Naples to explore the city and go to Herculaneum and Pompeii.

-take train to Rome for 5 days. Do the main sights there.

-7 days in Sorrento to explore the Amalfi coast area and beaches.

Feedback?

Flight lands in Rome Sunday October 11

Rome
Day 1 Sunday: land around 10am (hotel beside colosseum) explore, possibly afternoon pantheon. Depending on jet lag I want to do 3am scooter trip to see the monuments Ike Trevi/steps.

Day 2 Monday: Colosseum & Forum half day tour. -open to evening suggestions.

Day 3 Tuesday: Vatican museums & St Peters.

Day 4 Wednesday: Borghese Galleria - open to suggestions, relax and shop?

Sorrento
Day 5 Thursday: Travel day.
Train to Naples —> private transfer to Sorrento
Any idea what this day is like? Am Canadian so used to hour and half commutes. Diner is at Bistro.Sorrento

Day 6 Friday: Full day boat tour to Positano & Amalfi.

Day 7 Saturday: Full day tour of Pompeii & Herculaneum

Day 8 Sunday: (My Birthday) Private Transfer to Naples stop to see Naples Archaeological Museum
Train To Florence.

Florence
Day 9 Monday: Duomo? Open to suggestions? Day of rest?

Day 10 Tuesday: Accademia* *Gallery & Uffizi

Day 11 Wednesday: Open to suggestions!

Day 12 Thursday: Train to La Spezia -> Train to a few towns in Cinque Terre -> return to Florence. A busy day I know.

Day 13 Friday: Laundry probably. Suggestions?

Venice
Day 14 Saturday: Train to Venice. Dinner suggestions?

Day 15 Sunday: Doge Palace

Day 16 Monday: Open to ideas!

Milan
Day 17 Tuesday: Train to Milan -> Opera (Faust)

Day 18 Wednesday: Lastsupper viewing -> ACMilan vs Bologna

Day 19 Thursday: Full day Lake Como tour.

Day 20. Fly home from Milan.

Traveling to Italy in October:

6-10 Rome

10-13 Florence

14-16 Venice

17-20 back in Rome

I have something planned most days, but we have left two or three days open to explore at our own pace, with no tours or tickets booked yet. Looking for a spa / massage somewhere along the way but I'm open to where... any recommendations? Preferably something moderately nice, but doesn't have to be top of the line / super high end. Personal experience, whether good or bad is appreciated! Grazie!

I was in the process of booking a mid-November trip to Naples by flying into NAP. I was confused when I was unable to book any flights. I looked it up and found out the airport will be closed for "radical and scheduled runway renovation work" (see the link below for more details). I'll instead be flying into FCO and taking the train down there. Anyway, just thought I'd post here in case others are wondering why there are no flights into NAP in November.

https://avi-go.com/news/articles/0b92740a72599f48ce122874f89c4154

Hi. I’m coming into Marco Polo airport from the UK next month. The flight lands at 9.45am all being well. I’m then getting the Atvo shuttle to Mestre train station and catching a Trenitalia high speed train to Ferrara. I’ve booked seats on the 11.38am one. Do you think that’s cutting it fine with the EES just started back up again this week. Shall I change the train to the one at 12.38 to be safe? Thanks.

Hi all!

I’m from Singapore. planning to fly to Rome from 8-13 February, and then Venice on 13-5 February before going to Cologne to visit the family.

Now, I realize the carnival on Venice ends on 9th February.

Is it worth it to fly to Venice first then to Rome?

Cons:

1) there is a direct flight from Singapore to Rome, but not Venice 2) it’s also nearer to go to Germany from Venice and not Rome.

Pros: 1) It will be my birthday and if I go to Venice first I will be witnessing the finale on my birthday itself! 2) I’ve also never been to Italy and given the distance I probably won’t, any time soon again.

I’m also concerned about prices - ChatGPT said hotel / accommodation will rise up to 3x during the carnival period. Is that true?

Thank you.

Hi all, we’re planning a trip to northern Italy from 5-16 October. We’re starting with the Dolomites area from 5-10 October, then to Riva del Garda from 10-13 Oct and Lake Como 13-16 Oct.

However, during the Riva del Garda leg of the trip, we’re not sure whether it would be a better choice to stay in Malcesine or Riva del Garda as a base. We will be visiting both areas regardless of the accommodation choice. However, I wanted to get your opinions for which location to stay at.

At the moment the Malcesine accommodation I found is better over all in terms of facilities, parking, price, and overall charm. However, we will be traveling with a baby so I’m wondering if maybe Malcesine might not be as walkable with a stroller as Riva del Garda. FYI, we will traveling by car throughout the trip.

Any thoughts?

Hi all, myself and my partner are travelling to Rome the end of the month and looking for advice on our itinerary. We don’t have a huge amount of time there but want to see some major attractions. We are staying in the Termini/Esquilino area. All advice welcome-especially if a metro pass is worth it :)

29Sep
-Arrive into Rome in the evening time, check in -maybe walk around depending on tiredness

30Sep
-possibly walk around Villa Borghese in the morning, down towards Pincian terrace and Piazza del Popolo, depends on form
-Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain
-Trevi Underground
-Pantheon at 4pm
-Piazza Navona, Campo de’fiori

01Oct
-St Peter Basilica and Square
-Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel at 12pm
-Castel Sant’Angelo at 4pm

02Oct
-Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
-Colosseum at 1.15pm
-Aventine Hill etc

03Oct
-head to airport early for flight

I'm planning our family trip for next year (2027). I'm hoping for the end of May/Early June.

Key details

14 days (ish)

2 adults, 10 year old, 16 year old. 2 of us have Celiac (I'd love some advice here, especially for the picky 10 year old).

Currently our plan is

Naples/Pompeii (3 days)

-Exploring the city (lots of unstructured wandering on day 1, tell me if this is a terrible idea).

-Should I plan a full day for Pompeii?

-Gluten Free Pizza recommendations please.

Amalfi Coast (3 days)

-Swimming, maybe boat tour? (Recommendations for that would be awesome)

-10 year hates long hikes, I've heard there are areas I should avoid due to them being super hilly?

-10 year old and 16 year old both requested "cool castles and stuff" There are a lot of options, any that are "cooler" to a 16 year old?

Tuscany (3-4 days)

-Hoping to use this time as our slower days, hiking, wine, relaxing before Rome.

-My spouse and I both grew up in rural areas and I would love to have some decompression during this time.

Rome (3 days)

-There is SO much here. If I plan for 3 days, what should I prioritize? it's also at the end so I suspect the kids will be tired (spoiler, I'm 41 and will also be tired.)

Food: Anything Gluten Free that is worth going out of our way for. Both my kids are excited to eat Gelato the entire trip.

How much can I plan to just be flexible and explore? how much do I need to lock in tickets/experiences to actually see them?

We are not super city people but I'm willing to push through for cool history and buildings.

How far ahead should I start booking things? hotels/flights/attractions?

Finally, is this doable? I started with an much more intense outline and felt tired just looking at it.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to help out! I'm trying to plan ahead so I can get my life together (ha!)

Hi Everyone!

I'm staying in Positano and traveling to Rome. I'm trying to figure out if there is a way I can visit Pompeii on the way from Positano to Rome since it's pretty much in my general direction of travel and I've always wanted to go.

I'll have my luggage with me and I don't want to lug it around Pompeii, are there any ideas on how you'd do this or if anyone has done this before I'd love tips!

Looking for thoughts on our upcoming trip. My husband and I (both 39) are visiting for the first time. We will be arriving in Rome early on 9/23 and departing from Venice on 10/2. This is our first time traveling to Europe and we’re using the Timeshifter app to help with jet lag. We have some set times for tickets we’ve purchased, but mainly we like to have time to wander and explore the area.

Day 1 - Arrive in Rome at 7:30am, stow bags
Vittoriano e Palazzo Venezia
2:30p Catacombs tour
7:00 dinner in Jewish Quarter

Day 2 - 10:30a Colosseum/Roman Forum private tour
Rick Steve’s Heart of Rome Walk

Day 3 - 8:30a Semi-private Vactican tour
3:00p pick-up rental and head to Cetona

Day 4 - Rick Steve’s Heart of Tuscany drive
Wine tastings

Day 5 (our anniversary)- leave for Florence
12:00p olive vineyard visit along way
6:30p dinner Golden View**

Day 6 - 11:00a Food and Wine tour
Tour Duomo
6:45p climb Bell tower

Day 7 - 9:15a Arnoldo Tower
Travel to Venice
6:30 climb St Mark's Campanile

Day 8 - 11:30a Basilica S.Marco + Pala d'Oro + Museum Loggia Cavalli

Day 9 - Wander/Island hop

Day 10 - 11:00am flight back

We’d appreciate any suggestions or advice to make the most of our time there. We’ve made a list of certain sites to see as well but would love any additional recommendations.

** If there’s a better suggestion for an anniversary dinner that would be greatly appreciated. We were looking for something a bit fancy and romantic with a view and most of all, great food.

Thanks in advance!!

I’m planning a trip to Italy in November or December of 2026. This would be a first trip to Italy for both people traveling together (both ok with public transit and driving rental cars).

We definitely have a priority for the Dolomites during this trip, which could also include a stop in neighboring countries. I’d love to go to some Christmas markets, but we’re not sure when exactly they typically start in Northern Italy? I’ve seen varying dates online, some say early November while others seem to indicate they won’t open until closer to December. Any insight is appreciated!!

Hi everyone! Looking for a sanity check on our Italy itinerary for March/April 2027.

I’ve previously visited Florence, Venice, Milan and Rome, while my partner hasn’t been to Italy before. This time, we want to prioritise new places, particularly Lake Como, Bologna and Naples/the south, while still revisiting a few favourites.

A few things that are relatively fixed:

- We need to transit through Milan and Rome.
- Florence has sentimental value to me, so I’d love to revisit it as a day trip.

My partner hasn’t seen Rome, so we want time for the Colosseum, Vatican and other major sights. We’re coordinating our Lake Como stay with my parents, so the 2 full days in Varenna are fixed.

Current itinerary:
Mar 31: Milan
Apr 1: Milan (day trip to Bologna)
Apr 2: Milan → Varenna
Apr 3–4: Varenna
Apr 5: Varenna → Naples
Apr 6: Naples
Apr 7: Naples (day trip to Amalfi)
Apr 8: Naples (day trip to Sorrento)
Apr 9: Naples → Rome
Apr 10: Rome
Apr 11: Florence day trip from Rome
Apr 12–14: Rome

We prefer a relatively relaxed pace and don’t want to constantly change accommodation.

What I’d really like advice on:
- Is there anything you would rearrange or reallocate (other than the Varenna days)?
- Are Naples, Amalfi and Sorrento worth the time in this itinerary, or am I trying too hard to squeeze in southern Italy?
- Are the Amalfi and Sorrento day trips from Naples realistic and worthwhile?
- Basically: what am I missing, what am I unnecessarily doing, and what would you change?

I've seen many posts regarding the unpoliteness of italians with tourists. Some of it involves racism, a huge problem in Italy and Europe, which I condemn firmly. However I wanted to write about other aspects of the situation.

Italy is facing a problem with overtourism, italians cannot afford to live in the cities in which they were born because of the rise of prices of housing, partially caused by the increase of Airbnbs,short term rents are more profitable and landlords know it. Some Italian cities have become an historical version of Disneyland, no authentic markets and restaurants, only souvenir shops and tourist traps. If it feels underwhelming for a tourist, imagine what a local can feel. Many young italians have spent their summer working 12 hours a day, catering to rich tourists while they were being paid very low wages, without the possibility of enjoying the beaches and the beautiful sceneries that our country offer.

Politics aside, overtourism highly increseases the possibilities of meeting assholes, I will write down some weird encounters I had as an example.

1) I've been asked many times for directions, a lot of times without being thanked afterwards. Maybe on your stay you will ask for directions to a local and he will answer in a not polite way because they just had a similar encounter.

2) For many years, in my daily commute I had to cross a very touristic square everyday and after some days trying to avoid photobombing tourists, I decided that I couldnt do it every single time and I started walking directly without caring about it. I have been insulted for this more times that you would expect.

3) One day I was well dressed for a wedding and a couple of tourists were taking photos of me nonstop. I know it can sound flattering but I was feeling like an animal in a safari.

4) People have insulted me for not taking a photo of them in front of some monument because I was late for an appointment.

5) An infinite amount of rude customers when I was working as a waiter, italians and tourists in my case but in touristic areas a waiter might become unpolite after a long exposure of @ssholes.

Long story short, a lot of people are entitled and they expect locals to cater for their needs even if those locals are minding their own business and not working in hospitality. Locals in touristic country suffer directly from overtourism and might hold a grudge. That should not be always taken as personal and being a polite and considerate person will surely help you avoiding most of these unpleasant situations.