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My Free Resources
Begin your discovery of Italy with my free guides.
Accommodations
Plumb Guide
Plumb Guide has taken the guess work out of finding outstanding vacation home rentals. They are the worlds leading curated home collection. Their mission is to vet every available rental home and only select the very best – ensuring the best possible stays. They hand pick the best of all vacation rentals and have curated a collection of top 1%.
Booking.com
They have a huge selection of places to stay, including hotels, apartments, and vacation rentals. Many accommodations allow you to book with free cancellation, which gives you peace of mind if your plans change.
VRBO
Find charming apartments in historic city centers, cozy villas in the Tuscan countryside, or stunning beachfront rentals along the Amalfi Coast. VRBO boasts a vast selection that captures Italy’s unique character. Many VRBO owners in Italy are local Italians who can offer valuable insights and recommendations.
Transportation
Auto Europe
AutoEurope is an online service for booking rental cars. Their website is easy to use and allows you to compare prices from different service providers.
RentalCars.com
Rentalcars.com is a website that helps you find and book rental cars around the world. They work with major car rental companies like Hertz, Enterprise, and Avis, as well as smaller local companies, to offer a wide selection of vehicles at competitive prices
Omio
Omio.com is a travel booking platform specifically focused on Europe, the United States, and Canada. It functions like a travel search engine, allowing you to compare and book trains, buses, flights, and even ferries all in one place.
Rome2Rio
Rome2Rio is a great tool to get started with your trip planning. I use it to research all of my itineraries. Their website helps you find the best way to get from one place to another, anywhere in the world. They consider a variety of transportation options including flights, trains, buses, ferries, rideshares, and even car rentals.
Classes, Day Trips and Experiences
Viator
Viator offers more than 300,000 experiences throughout 200 countries, including wine tastings, walking tours, cooking classes, boat rides, vespa tours, tickets and passes to popular landmarks, as well as travel and transportation services.
Winedering
Winedering is an online marketplace dedicated solely to wine experiences, wineries, and wine tours. They offer a curated selection of over 2,500 experiences worldwide, allowing you to discover wineries, book tastings, and even join guided tours, all from their user-friendly platform.
Get Your Guide
GetYourGuide is a booking platform that helps travelers find incredible travel experiences wherever they’re headed. These experiences include skip-the-line tickets to the world’s most iconic attractions, walking tours by top local experts, immersive food and beverage tours, cooking and craft classes, bucket list experiences, and niche offerings you won’t find anywhere else.
Eat With
Eatwith is the largest global community for authentic culinary experiences with passionate locals worldwide. They connect travelers and locals with hosts in over 130 countries, providing unique, intimate, and immersive experiences in private homes and exclusive venues. From sitting at a dinner party in an elegant Venetian home, enjoying an Italian feast with a Roman family, or taking part in an authentic cooking class in Tuscany. From home cooks and food lovers to MasterChefs and Michelin-starred chefs, their hosts share a special ingredient: a passion for bringing people together through food.
Small Group Tours
G Adventures
G Adventures is a leading adventure travel company that offers small-group tours to over 100 countries, focusing on unique experiences that immerse travelers in local cultures and communities. Known for its intimate and personalized tours, G Adventures emphasizes adventure, sustainability, and support for local communities through its community tourism initiatives. With over 700 itineraries, ranging from weekend getaways to longer expeditions, G Adventures caters to a wide variety of travel interests.
eSIM Cards
Airalo
Using an eSIM card for your phone instead of paying for an international plan with your cellular provider will save you tons of money.
Airalo is the world’s first eSIM store, designed to help travelers stay connected with mobile data abroad. Instead of dealing with physical SIM cards from different providers, Airalo lets you purchase eSIMs (embedded SIM cards) directly on their website.
The setup is easy and prices are incredible. I usually pick their 5GB plan valid for 30 days and it only costs me $14.50. AT&T’s International Plan used to cost me $150 for the same amount of coverage. Everyone traveling with you can have their own eSIM card and stay connected.
Travel Essentials
Check out my list of must have travel essentials. Be comfortable on your flight and be prepared when you arrive in Italy. From the comfy pressure relief seat cushion I use on every flight, to the Air Tags I use to track my luggage, and the travel adapters you’ll need for all of your tech while you’re in Italy.
Learning Italian
Babble
Babbel.com is a website and app offering language learning instruction. Lessons are designed to be short and manageable, typically taking only 10-15 minutes to complete. This allows you to fit language learning into your busy schedule. Lessons go beyond memorization with interactive exercises that reinforce what you’re learning and help you develop practical speaking skills.
Italki
Italki is an online language learning platform that connects students with teachers for one-on-one video chat lessons. There are so many tutors to choose from and lots of scheduling flexibility. Your tutor can customize a learning path for you no matter what level you’re at.
Self-Guided Books
Learn Italian at your own pace with this collection of books that will help to prepare you for essential travel vocabulary and phrases.