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Italy useful info and tips, travel guide

Climate in Italy

The climate of the coastal regions is a typical Mediterranean climate with mild winters and generally hot and dry summers.
Italy and the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia have very changeable weather in autumn, winter, and spring in marked contrast to the settled sunny weather of summer. Disturbed weather can continue into late May and may commence any time after early September. Throughout the winter, however, cloudy rainy days alternate with spells of mild, sunny weather.
The least number of rainy days and the highest number of hours of sunshine occur in the extreme south of the mainland and in Sicily and Sardinia. Here sunshine averages from four to five hours a day in winter and up to ten or eleven hours in summer.
Generally, the hottest month is July (where temperatures can reach 32°C/34°C); the coldest month is January; the wettest month is November.

Talk

Not surprisingly, Italian is the language spoken by the vast majority of Italians. Parts of the Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking with Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language related to Switzerland's Romansh, spoken by a minority. There is a small French-speaking minority in the Valle d'Aosta region and Slovene is spoken by a minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area.
English is spoken fairly commonly on the well-travelled path, but you'll want a good phrasebook for anything remote although even this may not help for the smaller towns and villages as many areas still speak dialects that you won't find in any phrasebooks.

Learn

For English-speakers looking to study in Italy, there are a few options. In Rome, Duquesne University, John Cabot, and Temple University maintain campuses. Right outside of Rome the University of Dallas maintains its own campus in Marino. Penn State University has a program that sends architecture students. St. John's University has a graduate program in Rome for International Relations and MBA. It depends on how you want to learn. Are you interested in studying in a huge touristy city like Florence or Rome? Or, are you interested in learning from a small town on the Italian Riviera.No matter where you decide, Italy is one of the best spots geographically to travel while you're not studying.
Think about learning what the Italians are best at: food, wine, Italian language, architecture, motors (cars and bikes) and interior design.

Museums in Italy

Every major city has a number of local museums, but some of them have national and international relevance.
These are some of the most important permanent collections.

• Uffizi Museum in Florence, one of the greatest museums in the world, must see. Given the great number of visitors, ticket reserving is a good idea to avoid hours-long queues.
• Egyptian Museum in Turin, holds the second-largest egyptian collection in the world, behind the Egypt's Cairo Museum collection.
• The Aquarium in Genoa, one of the largest and most beautiful in the world, is located in the Porto Antico (ancient port) in an area completely renewed by architect Renzo Piano in 1992.
• Science and Technology Museum in Milan, one of the largest in Europe, holds collections about boats, airplanes, trains, cars, motorcycles, radio and energy. Recently has also acquired the Toti submarine, which is open to visitors.
• Roman Civilization Museum in Rome, hold the world's largest collection about ancient Rome and a marvellous reproduction (scale 1:250) of the entire Rome area in 325 A.D., the age of Constantine the Great.
• National Cinema Museum in Turin, located inside the wonderful Mole Antonelliana, historical building and symbol of the city.
• Automobile Museum in Turin, one of the largest in the world, with a 170 car collection covering the entire automobile history.

Useful information

In case of emergency call the appropriate number in the list below. Such calls are usually free and calls to 112, 113, 115, 118 can be made from payphones for free without the need of inserting coins. 112 (standard emergency number in GSM specification) can be dialed in any case for free from any mobile phone (even if your credit is empty or if you are in an area covered by a different operator)

• 112 Carabinieri emergency number - general emergency
• 113 Police emergency number - general emergency
• 114 Blue Phone emergency number - children-related emergency (especially various forms of violence)
• 115 Fire Brigade emergency number
• 117 Guardia di Finanza - for custom, commercial and tax issues
• 118 Health emergency number - use this if you need an ambulance, otherwise ask for the local Guardia Medica number and they'll send you a doctor.

Buy

Italy is part of the Eurozone, so the common currency of the European Union, the Euro (€), is legal tender in Italy.
Italy is quite an expensive country. It has many luxury hotels and posh restaurants.
If you plan to travel through countryside or rural regions you probably should not rely on your credit cards: in many small towns they're accepted only by a small number of shops (particularly restaurants).
Italian fashion is renowned worldwide. Many of the world's most famous international brands have their headquarters in Italy. The two key areas for high-class shopping are Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone (and surroundings), in Milan and via Condotti in Rome, but you'll find flagship stores in almost every major city.