Italy is the country people plan worst. The standard first trip is Rome, Florence and Venice in seven days, which is three cities, two travel days and roughly eleven hours on trains. It works, and almost everyone who does it says afterwards that they should have picked two. This guide is written on the assumption that you would rather know the annoying parts in advance.
Visas and the new border system
Italy is in the Schengen area, so the rules are Schengen rules and not Italian ones.
| Passport | What you need | | --- | --- | | Armenia | Schengen visa, applied for in advance. | | Georgia | Nothing. 90 days within any 180 across the whole Schengen area. | | Russia | Schengen visa, applied for in advance. | | EU and Schengen | Nothing. | | United States | Nothing for 90 days in 180. |
If you hold an Armenian passport, you apply at the Italian visa centre in Yerevan. Book the appointment first, because the slot is the bottleneck, not the paperwork. You need travel insurance covering 30,000 euros, proof of accommodation for every night, a bank statement showing roughly 100 euros a day, and a return ticket. Apply to the country where you will spend the most nights: applying to Italy and then spending six of eight nights in France is technically a violation and consulates do notice patterns.
What changed in 2026 matters for everyone from outside the EU. The Entry/Exit System went fully live across Schengen on 10 April 2026. Passports are no longer stamped. Instead, on your first entry your fingerprints and a facial image are registered, and every subsequent entry and exit is recorded automatically. Two practical consequences: the first crossing takes longer than you remember, particularly at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa in summer, and the 90 in 180 day count is now tracked by a computer rather than by a border officer squinting at ink. Overstaying used to be survivable. It no longer is.
ETIAS, the travel authorisation for visa-free nationalities including Georgians, is expected in the final quarter of 2026 and is not in force yet. When it arrives it will be an online form and a small fee, not a visa.
When to go
May, June, September and early October. April and late October also work and cost less.
July and August are the problem months and it is worth being blunt about why. Southern Italy regularly passes 38 degrees, Rome and Florence hold heat in stone, and the queues at the Uffizi and the Vatican are at their annual worst. Italians themselves leave the cities in August, so a lot of the good neighbourhood restaurants are closed for ferie, and what stays open is what serves tourists.
Winter is genuinely good for the art cities. Rome in January has short queues and clear light. Venice in February is either Carnival, which is chaos, or empty and beautiful. The coast and the islands, though, shut down almost entirely.
Getting around
The train is the answer for almost everything. Trenitalia's Frecciarossa and the private Italo compete on the same high-speed line, which keeps prices honest. Rome to Florence is 90 minutes, Florence to Milan under two hours, Rome to Naples just over an hour.
Book high-speed tickets in advance. The difference between an advance fare and a walk-up fare is frequently three to one. Regional trains are the opposite: fixed price, 5 to 12 euros, no reason to book ahead, and no seat reservations.
Validate regional tickets before boarding if you have a paper one. The fine is real and the inspectors are not sympathetic.
Rent a car only for Tuscany, Puglia, Sicily or the Dolomites. Do not rent a car for the cities. Almost every Italian historic centre is a ZTL, a limited traffic zone, monitored by cameras that will post you a fine months later through the rental company with an administrative charge on top. This is the single most common expensive mistake visitors make in Italy.
What things cost
- Budget day: 60 to 90 euros
- Mid-range day: 140 to 230 euros
- Espresso standing at the bar: around 1.50 euros
- The same coffee sitting at a table on a main piazza: up to 15 euros
- Regional train ticket: 5 to 12 euros
- Dinner at a proper restaurant: 35 to 50 euros a person in Rome, 40 to 60 in Venice
- Tourist tax: 1 to 7 euros per person per night, usually not in the room rate
- Trevi Fountain lower basin access: 2 euros, introduced February 2026
The coffee line above is not a joke and it is the clearest illustration of how Italian pricing works. Standing at the bar is one price, sitting down is another, and sitting down on a famous square is a third. None of this is a scam, it is printed on the wall, and nobody will warn you.
Coperto, the cover charge, is normal and legal, usually 2 to 3 euros a head. Servizio, service, is sometimes added on top. If both appear, you do not tip further.
Water is charged for and comes bottled by default. Ask for acqua del rubinetto if you want tap, though some places will refuse.
Culture and small rules
The cappuccino rule is real, though nobody will stop you. Milk-based coffee is a morning drink, and ordering one after a meal marks you instantly. An espresso after dinner is the local move.
Lunch runs roughly 13:00 to 14:30 and dinner starts at 20:00 in the north and later in the south. Restaurants that serve continuously through the afternoon in a tourist centre are, with rare exceptions, tourist restaurants.
Churches expect covered shoulders and knees. St Peter's and the Duomo in Florence enforce this at the door and will turn you away. A scarf in a bag solves it.
Tipping is not expected. Rounding up or leaving a couple of euros for good service is plenty. The 20 percent habit is an import.
Book the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Vatican Museums, the Last Supper and the Borghese Gallery online, weeks ahead. The Last Supper in particular sells out months in advance and there is no walk-up option worth the name.
Safety
Italy is safe and the risk is almost entirely pickpocketing, concentrated in specific and predictable places: Termini station in Rome, the 64 bus to the Vatican, the area around the Duomo in Milan, and the vaporetto stops in Venice.
The methods are consistent. Someone bumps into you on a crowded bus. Someone offers you a friendship bracelet and ties it to your wrist. Someone spills something on your jacket and helps you clean it. A front pocket and a bag worn across the body remove most of this.
The other real irritation is the fake ticket seller and the fast track tour tout outside major sites. Buy from the official site or the official window, never from someone approaching you in the queue.
Tap water in cities is excellent, and Rome's street fountains, the nasoni, are drinkable and free.
Staying connected
Coverage is good everywhere except deep in the Apennines and parts of Sardinia's interior. Speeds in the cities are fine.
Since 2017 there are no roaming charges within the EU, which matters only if you already have an EU SIM. Coming from Armenia, Georgia or Russia, your home carrier's roaming rate applies and it is usually painful over a week or more.
A physical Italian SIM from TIM, Vodafone or WindTre needs your passport and a tax code, or at least a shop assistant willing to work around one, which is more friction than a two week trip justifies. An eSIM installed before you fly avoids the shop, works the moment you land, and keeps your home number live for the bank codes you will need when you pay for things.
Where to go, honestly
Rome needs four days minimum. The Forum, the Vatican and one neighbourhood that is not either of those, ideally Trastevere or Testaccio for the food.
Florence is two days as a city and a base for a week of Tuscany. The city itself is small and gets fully saturated by lunchtime.
Venice is best at 7am and after 6pm, when the day-trippers are gone. Stay the night or you will only ever see the version everyone complains about. Day visitors pay an access fee on peak dates, so check before you plan a day trip.
Naples is the food capital and the most alive city in the country. It is also the one that requires the most attention to your bag.
Puglia, Sicily and the Dolomites are where second and third trips go, and all three are better than a third art city.
If Italy is part of a wider European route, the France guide and the Greece guide cover the two neighbours most often added to it, and both sit inside the same Schengen 90 day count.
Questions people actually ask
Do Armenian citizens need a visa for Italy? Yes, a Schengen visa applied for in advance in Yerevan. Book the appointment early, that is the slow part.
Is my passport still stamped? No. Since 10 April 2026 the Entry/Exit System registers fingerprints and a facial image instead. Expect the first crossing to take longer.
Do I need ETIAS? Not yet. It is expected in late 2026 and will apply to visa-free travellers such as Georgian citizens, not to people who already hold a Schengen visa.
Rome, Florence and Venice in a week? Possible, not advisable. Two of the three, with the saved days spent properly, is a better trip.
Is a car worth it? Only outside cities. Historic centres are camera-enforced restricted zones and the fines arrive months later with a handling fee attached.
Why was my coffee 15 euros? You sat down on a main square. Standing at the bar the same coffee is about 1.50.
