Uffizi & Academia Advance Bookings

These are few essentials to plan your Florence,Italy trip.

Advance Ticket Booking for Academia

Advance Ticket Booking for Uffizi

How to book them?

This can be done though some local travel company in Florence. You can either book them through internet or by calling them.

Time Slots

You need to provide them with suitable timeslots. On confirmation they will send you vouchers. You need to carry printout of those vouchers with you. The timings quoted on your voucher should be strictly followed else you will not be granted entry to the attraction.

Vouchers Exchanged for Tickets at enterance

These vouchers will be exchanged for tickets on arrival. Otherwise you will waste couple of hours standing in queue at each attraction.
Having done this you are all set for day trip to Florence.

Essentials: things to know before you go to Italy

Essentials:
1) Cash: Most important one. We travelled italy while residing in UK and had British bank debit cards. Last year we had been to swizzterland and had used the HSBC UK
debit card to withdraw money. Since there were no issues we were relectant to carry any cash. The ATM or the Bankomat machine allowed us to sucessfully withdraw 100 Euros at the Ciampino airport. In evening we tried using the ATM at Rome termine and our transactions were declined for all the cards. Even after calling up HSBC and Natwest call centers but the cards were rejected. Ultimately we exchanged few GBP at high rate to pay the Hotel bill for tonight. In the hostel we learnt that there were other tourist who had similar experince. However the good newz was that the British chip and pin cards were declined. Since we had US banks debit card with us, we had to withdraw our emergency funds from that bank. Moral of the story is that one should carry enough traveller cheques while travelling to Italy.
2) Summer clothes, petties, shorts, cotton T-shirts
3) Water bottles: There are lots of drinking fountains around rome. You can fill up your waterbottles using them. The shopkeepers near tourist attractions will try to sell you mineral water for 2 Euros and cold drinks for 4 Euros each. Which is too costly. At the waterfountain, splash bit of water on your hands, face and hair to keep you cool. This prevents you from dehydration and keeps you cool. Remember do not wipe out that splashed water.
4) Snack bars: There is lot of walking involved in these 2 to 3 days so stuff your sack with some snack bars.
5) Sun screen, Sun glasses, Caps, scarfs, fans, umbrella are helpful.
6) Locks and Keys: Italy is famous for pick pokecters and thiefs who snatch valuables from you. So its handy to lock your bags with small travel locks or use safety pins in case you have hand bag.

Luggage Deposit lockers in station of Switzerland

As the title of the first page of blog suggests, Switzerland is truly traveller’s paradise.
Since tourism is one of the main economies of Switzerland, Swiss government has left no stone unturned for health, safety and ease of the tourists. Once tourist enters the country he does not have to worry about transport and other miscellaneous issues such as luggage deposit counters etc.
The Panoramic Golden Pass Line makes scenic tour as easy as possible. But most of the tourists are worried about carrying their luggage along with them to each attraction. To solve this problem, Swiss government has made available many locker facilities at each railway station near the major tourist attractions. One has to keep the luggage and then enter desired amount of coins in the lockers. The lockers are available on hourly basis. At major Railway stations Luggage storage Rooms are also available.

Click here to go to Switzerland Main page

Vocabulary for first time tourist in Switzerland

Vocabulary for first time tourist in Switzerland:

• Bahnhoff – Train station
• Bahn – Rail, Train
• Buss – Bus
• Statzion – Station
• EintrittsKarte - Entrance Tickets
• Map – Map
• Street – Strasse
• Hotel – Hotel
• Toilette - Toilet
• Eingang - Entrance
• Ausgang - Exit
• Young – jung (prononuced as yung)
• Cold – Kalt
• Hot – Heiss
• Ice – Eis
• Mountain – Berg
• Meal – Mahlzeit
• I was something to eat - ich wünsche etwas zu essen
• Eat – Essen
• Drink – Trinken
• Water – Wasser
• Vegetable – Gemüse
• Breakfast - Frühstück
• Potato – Kartoffel
• Onion – Zwiebel
• Tea – Tee
• Coffee – Kaffee
• Medicine - Medizin
• Chemist or Pharmacy – Apotheke
• Time – Zeit
• Good Morning – Guten Morgan
• Good Night – Guten Nacht

Click here to go to Switzerland Main page

Essentials for JungfrauJoch

1. Sunglasses – to avoid the effect of Ultra violet sunlight. If you don’t carry them you will have headache.
2. Chocolates or sweets– at high altitude you will feel un-easy and dizzy. It’s advisable to eat chocolates or something sweet to nullify the effect of less oxygen in the atmosphere.
3. Warm clothing - Since you will be reaching top of Europe its assumed you need to carry warm clothing along with you.

Click here to go to Switzerland Main page

Italy Local transport Tip

Travelling tip:
Eurostar is faster medium of travel in Italy and hence a bit costly. You even have option of Local Italian train network which might take couple of hours more. You can go to the ticket counter to buy the tickets or there are many ticket machines on the terminals.
There are many stations with similar names. Like Firenze Santa Maria Novella Station or Firenze Campo Di Marte etc. One should be careful about which station we actually want to go to.

There is huge queue on the ticket and information counter. As the local language is Italy and there are very few people who can speak in English. Its helpful if you plan your itinerary before landing in Italy and take printout of the train schedules. The site to check the train time table is http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html .

Major cities in Italy are well connected and they have local bus network. Daily bus pass can be bought for 1.5 Euro to 2 Euro per person. These buses connect the city centre and the major tourist attractions. Its cheaper to buy local transports day pass rather then paying 25 Euros for Hop off and hop on Tourist Bus.
Always check for day pass options at Tourist information counter.

Luggage Deposit counter Venice Mestre Station

Luggage Deposit counter:
Venice is all about vaperetos and small bridges over water flooded streets. The best way to get around venice is by water bus and foot. Hence its advisable to drop your luggage at deposit counter.

Venice Santa Lucia Train station is in heart of Venice. However there is luggage deposit counter at Venice Mestre, so the later was our unanimous choice. The counter is at the far end of the Platform. The person in charge will weigh your bag and charge you accordingly. They will also photocopy your passports first page as proof of identification.The counter closes at 11 o clock at night. So remember you are cinderella in Venice and the magic will stop working at 11 o clock. You have to rush to Venice Mestre to collect the luggage.

Local Transport in Venice

The local transport in Venice can be much cheaper if you buy travel pass.

This pass has validity of 12 hours or 24 hours and is priced 14 Euro and 16 Euro respectively.

The local transport available in Venice is water bus and normal buses.

If you want to commute in heart of Venice then you need either catch water bus or private water taxi. These are small water boats. These passes were available at tourist information centre at Venice mestre. The individual trip ticket cost is around 6 to 7 Euros. Hence someone with common sense will always opt for Day pass to start with.
For more information visit http://www.actv.it/english/navigazione.php?pagina=tariffe_vaporetto

You have exit station and cross the road to take bus number 3 to Piazzale Roma.