>>7911156I visited Italy last summer and it was an awesome trip. We stayed in Florence, Rome, Venice, Milan, and stopped in Pisa for an hour. Rome was by far my favorite spot though, as there is so much to see in the ruins and the Colosseum.
The trip was pretty safe the entire time. I read online a lot about being careful if you see gypsies since they are pickpockets, but I didn't see even a single one and people were generally nice and friendly.
Go ahead and try the pizza and pasta, but I personally wasn't very impressed by either. Maybe it's because I live on the east coast with many Italians here, but I felt as if I could get the same pizza back home. The pasta was different in that it's doughier and a little bit harder to chew through, which I wasn't really a huge fan of.
If you're going to be driving long distances, be mindful of the traffic. I'm not sure if I got particularly bad luck, but both times we drove between cities we got stuck in ridiculous bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway, with seemingly no reason. We never passed any accident or road work or anything, but traffic would suddenly clear up for a stretch and then come to a standstill later on. Trains are very nice and quick though.
