In October I'm planning to join my brother Kevin and my sister Sheila
  for a trip to Italy.  I've been reading guidebooks and so far the only
  thing I can tell for sure is that our all-too-brief 10-day visit is not
  going to be enough time to see and do a tenth of what we'd like to.

  In a way that's liberating because the sheer impossibility of cramming
  everything into one visit cures me of the impulse of even trying.
  Instead we're planning on splitting our time between two cities
  (Rome, and a second city yet to be settled on, probably Florence)
  and hoping to see some of the highlights of each city and use the
  rest of the time just to experience some of the flow and spirit of
  each place.

  Having never previously visited Italy (or any part of Europe, for that
  matter) I could use some advice.  What should we definitely not miss?
  Which cities should we visit and which parts of those cities should we
  stay in?  How do we find a nice small hotel or pensione that's both
  affordable and a neat place to stay?  What else should we know in order
  to enhance our visit?

19 responses total.

Florence, definitely. What you will want to do depends on what you like to
do. I visited the major museums and ruins (mostly). They are loaded with
all that world famous art that everyone learns about from childhood. I was
also travelling by motorcycle, so could explore some of the outlying
famous places like Ostia (and did I mention ruins?). I also attended
performances, such as the opera at the Baths of Caracula.

 Let's assume for the moment that Florence is the other city we choose.
 Even just deciding to spend the whole trip in Rome would yield more
 sites of historical and artistic importance than we could visit while
 we were there.  How does one begin to narrow things down further?

Get guides to Rome and Florence, and start making priorities. Of course, this
is what city tour companies do for you, including buses to save time between
sites. You might consider booking city tours in advance. 

 Of course I'm reading guide books and making a list of highlights,
 but experiencing a city should be more than just checking things off
 a list of tourist attractions.  As far as the bus tour idea goes,
 I don't think any of the three of us would find that to our taste.

Experiencing a city if you have limited time and limited budget IS ultimately
checking things off some list. Are you asking, then, for suggestions for
NONtourist things to put on your list? NONtourist things are what the people
living there do (when they are not going to see the tourist attractons - these
ARE destinations for the inhabitants too, you know). So, what kind of
NONtourist things are you interested in doing? 

> Experiencing a city if you have limited time and limited budget IS
> ultimately checking things off some list. Are you asking, then, for
> suggestions for NONtourist things to put on your list? NONtourist
> things are what the people living there do (when they are not going
> to see the tourist attractons - these ARE destinations for the inhabitants
> too, you know). So, what kind of NONtourist things are you interested
> in doing? 

Any activity we engage in as tourists will be, by definition, a tourist
activity.  But there's an entire continuum of "touristness", if you will. 
Being bussed from museum to museum to museum ad nauseum means you get to
see an awful lot of great art but not much of the context.  I hope we'll
find time to "waste" just walking around the cities we visit, talking to
people we meet (or attempting to, anyway.. :-) etc.  

At this point I think we have enough items on our agenda to fill much
of the time on our trip but I could still use advice on where to stay
in Rome and Florence.  I'm going to ask for this item to be linked to
agora in the hopes that I'll find more people with experience visiting
Italy.  Thanks for the responses, Rane, but it looks like you're the
only active grexer still visiting the travel conference.

I just don't take conferences out of my .cflist. But, certainly, ask where
the users are.

I'm active, but I've never been to Italy.

I'm active, but i've only drove through Itlay and didn't really see much.

"Any activity we engage in as tourists will be, by definition, a tourist
activity". What about tourists engaged in terrorism?

"But there's an entire continuum of 'touristness', if you will." I won't.

 Thank you so much for that revealing and insightful contribution.

We know we tire of your sniping, but do you?

 Oh goody..  Now tell me again how as an American I can never hope to
 understand the cleverness of your famously sophisticated British wit.

As an American? Don't know about that. Mostly you ought to be able to avoid
it by remaining yourself.

What IS it with you, anyway? Were you an ugly kid who got bullied, or
something?

This response has been erased.

 Expurgated responses can be read by those who know how.

 Now, however, I'd like to return to the topic at hand -- does anyone
 have any helpful travel suggestions for Italy?

It's pretty much the same as travel anywhere else, except in England and a
few other countries where cars drive on the left. 

re #17: 
>  It's pretty much the same as travel anywhere else, except in England
>  few other countries where cars drive on the left. 

What a discouraging thing to say.  

If travel in Italy is exciting, it is also exciting in every other country,
in one way or another. Since all are exciting, it has to be "pretty much the
same" in that regard, in all. Think about it. 

Your question was too unspecific to respond more usefully. 

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