End of Year Trip to Italy

[5now5torm]

Hi all,

I will be going to Italy at the end of the year with my family and I have some questions I hope you guys could answer by kindly sharing your experience.

1. Safety: I've read alot about pickpockets and thieves, are there any particular safety tips to take note of? (Besides exercising basic common sense)
2. Which lens do you forsee getting more use? 10-22 or 17-55. I know this varies based on the individual's shooting preferences, but based on your own experience, would the wide angle get more use because there is so much scenery to take in, or a general purpose fast zoom will be more practical especially for indoor shoots in low lighting. I am already brining my X-E1, so should I just bring my 60D with just 1 of the above lenses or should I bring both lenses?
3. Are there any particularly scenic areas I should not miss out? Will be visiting Florence Rome Milan Venice iirc

Thank you for viewing and sharing your experience.

 

[nuilnuil]

Hi,

You travel with tour group? Just take care of your belonging in crowded place, do not leave anything unattended especially your mobile where singaporean like to place on table or seat. Bring some heat pack and glove, clothing in layers as quite cold in the morning and nite in venice and milan.

If with tour group mostly will be travelling on coach, bring a polarizes filter as will be shooting from within the coach and often there are reflections. As for me, I bring 17-55 for people and scenry, quite troublesome to change lens on the street. Sometime taking video of the scene would be better.

Depend on personal preference, I prefer Florence and Venice where there are a lot of antique roman architectures. Venice is like a floating city on the sea, you know what I meant when you taking the water taxi to Venice. But the tourist spot in Venice are flooded recently so quite troublesome, have to walk on the raise platforms, you get scolded if stop on the platform to take photo and lot of shops are affected by the flood. Don't bring tripod, some church do not allow tripod eg Vatican.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Johnbon]

One thing I discovered in Rome by chance.. Not mentioned in travel books. Sundays in Europe can be quite dull cos most places are closed. Anyway we headed for one of the listed attraction that open on Sunday whereby u have to queue up to stick ur hand in a circular statue and take photo.

While walking there we saw a small open building with quite a few people inside. It was a daytime market whereby local farmers came to sell their produce. We found this farmer selling his black pig stew with a cup of wine (not glass) for 5 euros... Delicious

I always go free and easy holidays but if u go for tour maybe u can ask ur tour guide..enjoy ur trip really miss Rome and yes Venice is very cold especially the wind chill cos the narrow alleys act like a wind tunnel. By the way the gondola rides will be ex even during off peak hours but still must try at least once.

 

[tsjcsl]

I was in Florence a couple of weeks ago. It was rather cold, and raining some of the days. I was shooting with RF cameras. I spent most time within the tourist belt, where there are still many sights to see. It was walking all the way, and the smallish RF cameras were not too much of a burden. I think the weather will only get colder, perhaps wetter.

The Cathedral is a quite impressive, the old bridge and its goldsmith shops, the Piazza Signoria (with the carosel) are must go places. One thing to note is that these places are FULL of people, the roads are narrow and serves mostly pedestrains, with the occasional car driving pass. Good for street photography. Keep your wallet in the front pocket. There are some street vendors who lay their wares on the ground, mostly "branded" leather stuff - I would advice you not to even go near. Those with mobile stalls are ok.

The Baboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace was beautiful. You will be able to see the city at the top of the garden. I think it was Euro10 entrance fee. I was lucky to have a guide who brought us into the Uffizi Museum. I understand that entrance is free, but tickets are difficult to come by/long waiting in queue. Fabulous place if you are into the arts.

Florence is a place for leather shoes, bags, and many high end shops are located around the Piazza. Some family members may succumb to the temptation to leave $$ behind..

 

[vintagef]

i am in paris. heading to italy. Can not type more words with this france keyboard.

 

[Darcy.Zhou]

Hi all,

I will be going to Italy at the end of the year with my family and I have some questions I hope you guys could answer by kindly sharing your experience.

1. Safety: I've read alot about pickpockets and thieves, are there any particular safety tips to take note of? (Besides exercising basic common sense)
2. Which lens do you forsee getting more use? 10-22 or 17-55. I know this varies based on the individual's shooting preferences, but based on your own experience, would the wide angle get more use because there is so much scenery to take in, or a general purpose fast zoom will be more practical especially for indoor shoots in low lighting. I am already brining my X-E1, so should I just bring my 60D with just 1 of the above lenses or should I bring both lenses?
3. Are there any particularly scenic areas I should not miss out? Will be visiting Florence Rome Milan Venice iirc

Thank you for viewing and sharing your experience.

beware of fake policemen. you can got checked by people wearing police suits and asking to show your passport to them... in fact some of them are fake policemen. once they got your passport.... you will need to spend some cash to get it back.

venice in december might be flooded. so just be prepared.


depending on shooting style, for me, 10-22 is better especially to cover some architecture

i am also in italy at year end

 

[trd2970]

beware of fake policemen. you can got checked by people wearing police suits and asking to show your passport to them... in fact some of them are fake policemen. once they got your passport.... you will need to spend some cash to get it back.

venice in december might be flooded. so just be prepared.

depending on shooting style, for me, 10-22 is better especially to cover some architecture

i am also in italy at year end

I heard about the fake policemen... they work in a team. With fake victims also.

Just stay alert and look streetwise.

 

[florenceplus]

everything is fine here. I am currently travelling around italy. But it is a bad idea to travel in winter here. It is rainy, cloudy and cold. everyday got only 7 hours daylight. Napoli is not as safe as other cities in Italy. Generally Italy is fine for backpacking.

 

[moofie8889]

personally i find Italians are very rude... and once i was visiting a church - domo(milan) an italian just grabbed my hand and put some corn seeds on my hand to feed the pigeons. then he demanded 50 euros from me (must be crazy) in the end i only gave him 5 eur