Me and a couple friends are talking about going to Italy in December. Well i'm new to this so i was wondering if anyone has advice on booking flights and hotel and all that. I was thinking of going to Milan for the first time. Any suggestions?

Not that I've ever been, but I hear that locals are encouraged to open their homes to tourists so I suggest looking into staying at someones house instead of a hotel.

My last trip to Ireland was to meet family and we went to the family dairy farm and did non-touristy things. We stayed in B&B's and went to out of the way places and it was one of the best trip I have ever been on.

Going to a foreign place (city or another country) and staying at a Holiday Inn just doesn't do it for me anymore.

I want to immerse myself in the country and the culture and you can't do that if your just hangin' with other tourists.

Even in the US we've all merge into the same strip malls and hotels and stuff...every where you go there is a Best Buy, a Target, a SuperWalmart and a Starbucks (we literally have 2 across the street from each other in Boston!)...so what's the point of traveling just to see the same stuff you have at home?

I think I'm way off topic at this point...but my point was to check into staying with locals.

I completely agree on your tangent. Now as for italy.... lol. I guess it would be nice to stay at someones home. I would have to check with my friends to see what they'd prefer with regards to that. Any other opinions?

Joe, I'm happy to see that you are ready to go to Italy. First make sure you have a passport. It takes longer to get one these days.You have a year anyway.
I will send you a PM on some web sites to look at and I'm sure you will get a lot of offers from some people on this forum (Mark?).
Why did you pick MIlano as your first visit? You can fly into Malpensa or Rome and go from there. You will probably want to rent a car, so make sure it is big enough to carry you and friends and luggage.

Good luck!

I already have my passport. I got it with the news that you needed it to go to Canada or Mexico now. Plus i wanted to go to Italy. I picked Milan because AirOne flies directly out of O'Hare into Milan, non-stop. I figured for my first time that might be easiest, plus i have a friend there im sure i can annoy! But i'm open to other ideas if anyone has them. I'll be sure to take your advice and look at your links.

Joe, Check out my thread on the route I plan to follow in Italy.
Stay at the youth hostels. Never stay in those expesive hotels.
Maybe my friend in Milano would let you stay with him.

At any rate you could do this: I will fly into Milano, stay for a week or so and then
go by train to Lago di Garda(the biggest lake in Italy), then Verona, Vicenza, Padova e Venezia.
North of Vicenza where I lived for two years are these incredible beautiful mountains. Looks
like exactly what you think the alps look like. 56 winter Olympics in Cortina. People there
sing German folk songs in Italian and visa versa. Do you have the DVD Visions of Italy Northern
style? If you don't I can loan you mine. It has Visions of Italy Northern style and Southern style on it.
This is a must have DVD for anybody who wants to visit Italy or likes Italy. There is also a Visions of
Italy Sicily DVD. When the Visions of Italy Northern Style starts out you think what the hell this is
so beautiful I gotta go there. Molta gente don't realize how beautiful those Italian mountains are.

Joe, You got to see Verona the city of Romeo and Julietta and my favorite city of Italy. Verona has an
intact arena like the colesseum in Rome but this one in Verona is more intact and still used today.
Verona has more Roman ruins than anyother city in Italy after Rome. And Verona is only 2 hours
from Milano by a very plesant fun and interesting train ride. Oh, Verona is right next to Lago di
Garda the biggest lake in all of Italy. I've been to Verona molte volte. It's the greatest!
Vicenza is great too. Only 45 minutes from Verona on the way to Venice. Everybody needs to
see Venice but Verona has less tourists and that arena and plenty of Roman ruins. It's a
nice little big city.

Verona Italy, virtourist.com info. Tourist Information ...Verona, italy, The city of the most famous lovers in history: Romeo and Juliet. Web Site info: history, tourism, hotels, culture and more.
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Verona Italy, Historic Verona Italy, Sightseeing In Verona Italy ...Verona Italy. Find information of Verona Italy, the setting for Shakespeare.
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Verona Italy - Travel and Tourism Information for VeronaVerona has a number of interesting attractions for the traveler, including the arena, the old marketplace and, of course, Juliet's balcony.
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Joe, Make sure you get a transformer for you electrical stuff. Italy uses 220 the U.S. 110.
You will fry your electrical stuff with out a transfomer. Don't leave home without it!

Oh, and travel light. The rule is never ever take more suit cases than you yourself can carry.
I always just take one small suit cases and a smaller carry on type suitcase or a backpack.
Take a camera and or a video camera and a small hand held recorder to record people speaking
Italian. I always do.

Never ever go to Italy in those group tours. You can take tours right there in each town in Italy you go to.

Hi Joe.

I second the advice to look for a room in a private home: affittacamere (room rentals) and bed & breakfast are cheap and well kept.

Check out the offical tourism portal of Milan for further informations:

http://www.turismo.comune.milano.it/...turismo?lang=2

You say you want to go on december, but we are already on January. Do you mean december 2009, one year from now?

Anyway, plan your trip carefully: in winter, expecially December, there are high chances that the Milano airports close down due to heavy fog or snow.
It happened twice the last December.

All the main cities and airports of the North (Torino, Milano, Verona, Venezia) are well connected and easy to reach by train, but still you will lose time and money if your flight is forced to land in a different airport because of the bad weather.

Anybody planning to flight to Milan in these days, be warned that there are lots of strikes going on.
Alitalia and AirOne have been fused in a single, privately held company, CAI - New Alitalia. Workers of the two Milan airports are afraid that the new company will move all the international flights on Roma's airport and that they will lose their jobs. For this reason, sudden worker strikes and demostrations are to be expected.

Read this: http://www.corriere.it/english/09_ge...4f02aabc.shtml

You'd be welcome Joe (Danno too) - if you get anywhere near here, just let me know

Thats a good point about the strikes! I didnt even think about that.

I was talking about December 2009, however; i may change that to spring after speaking with Danno. Plus it would be nice to have warmer weather. I'll look into it and talk with my friends to see what we're going to do. Thanks again for your help

Of course. I have to do my homework on it and see what we're actually going to do. I'll keep you updated