Cheap food, transportation in Venice and Rome?

Question

What are the cheapest places to eat?

How to get from Treviso airport in Venice and from Ciampino airport in Rome to downtown of these cities?

What to buy in these cities, what are they known for or what is inexpensive there?

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Nobody seems to pay to ride the trams or buses in Rome except for Tourists.  The chepaest places to eat in Rome are the family run places called Tratorrias and these have  more authenic Roman food than  a "Ristorante" which is fancier and more expensive.  Trattorias are all over the place, some have no names and usually have white paper table cloths.  be  adventurous -- the food in Rome is great....

Answer 2

For both cities, I have had great results using the Frommer's Guides to Italy.  All the inexpensive places to eat they suggest have turned out to be great!!  In terms of what to buy, of course, Venice is known for its glassware.  There are little shops on every street.  One of the best things are  candies made out of glass.  Look around and you will get a sense of better quality ones.  They make great gifts and we got some to use as ornaments on our Chistmas tree.  Venice is also famous for masks.  Again, Frommer's will tell you about things to buy in each city, and recommend places for good buys.  Don't forget to eat gelato whereever you go in Italy!

Answer 3

I'm currently planning for my own trip to Rome and Venice in August this year so I can't give you an experienced answer, but I can give you some help about transport in Venice! I found this thing caled a Venice card (for free public transport and other discounts) : http://www.venicecard.it/aq_pre_eng.jsp

Hope this helps!

Beejay

Answer 4

Cheapest places to eat?  Make sure that you eat breakfast at the hotel you are staying in.  They are quite satisfying.  For lunches don't sit in any restaurants.  Get a pannini and eat in a piazza.  You can get them almost anywhere, but if you go to a Bar Tabacchi you can get a bottle of wine to share in the piazza.  For dinners go off the beaten path.  Don't eat on any major road, near any tourist attraction, etc.  I ate in a piazza in Rome and had the worst meal my whole time in Italy.  Also, many of the restaurants have menus outside so you can see the prices before you sit down.  

Take public transportation in every city.  Take the water bus in Venice.  The water taxi does take a nice route through the city, but it is not worth the money.  The same in Rome, just take the bus.  It can be more difficult if you have a lot of luggage but it will save you a tone of money.  The public transportation in Italy is wonderful.  This is probably not the best thing to say, but don't pay for public transportation.  I think it is totally paid for by tourists.  I stopped paying eventually.

Nothing is really inexpensive.  But there is a flea market in Rome near Testavere that has a ton of inexpensive stuff.  I chose not to buy too much stuff because the really good items tend to be expensive.  Especially if you are using the US Dollar.

If you already haven't booked your trip I would highly suggest substituting Florence for Rome.  

In Rome there are a ton of deals for the busses.  I ended up buying a double decker bus ticket to tour the city.  It cost 13Euro and you can get on and off the busses at or near all the major sites.

Also, find a supermarket.  I love wine and planned on drinking a lot of it.  The supermarket was by far the cheapest place to get it.  Oh, and none of the hotels have irons in them, one of the staff at the hotel said they are illegal in Italy.  I don't know how true this is, but I stayed in three hotels and none of them had an iron in it.  I had to buy an iron - and found it in the supermarket.  I have a 5 year old and was looking for something cool to buy her.  I found a Dora the Explorer book in Italian in the supermarket.  

I don't know if you smoke or not, but if you smoke menthols bring them with you.  You can get a pack of Marlboros for less than 3Euro, but to get a pack of menthols cost nearly 5Euro.

Answer 5

I'm Italian (From Venice)

All Italian airport is connected with a service of special bus

there are different categories

Just follow the young People...

In Marco Polo (Venice Airport) there is a bus connection to the center of the city for 2.50 Euros

in Milan with 3.50 euros you can get a special ticket for traveling within 30 KMS



All over Italy you can see Restaurant With Fixed Price of 9 Euros

all inclusive but not beverage(but you only have a choice of 2 different menu')

Usually in Italy I get some lunch for 4.50 euros