Dear Folks,
Well, I’m the last person you would expect to be writing a travel guide but the truth is I want to help you avoid making some of the mistakes I made when I first came to Italy.
Learn to say buongiorno and buonasera: You can say buongiorno and buonasera and make people happy. Say it first when you walk in somewhere. People like to be greeted.
Wear great shoes or, better yet, buy some here! The uneven stone paving is hard on your feet so you want good shoes. Italy is great for shoes! You could buy Italian shoes in America and get ripped off or you could buy them here, locally, and make the town merchants happy and get a better deal and feel really good about the whole thing and end up with great shoes! (Ask Norma.)
DuoLingo is good for some last-minute Italian vocabulary. Buongiorno and grazie and vorrai un cornetto con marmellate per favore go a long way.
