You should plan the trip however you like it.
What do like? History, gardens, dining, ancient ruins, coast? Where is Ascoli?
You can rent a car when you leave Rome, we did this a couple times. (Yes, even leaving Rome was a bit hairy, and highway signage can sometimes be few and far between, but we did okay.)

Train will be a lot more comfortable than bus if you can reasonably get to Ascoli. However, it looks like Ascoli is about 5 hours by train and involves a connection, so I think I’d go for renting a car — although the train will probably be as fast or faster.

I assume your “using expedia” question relates to booking flight and hotel together when you’re not staying in one city for the whole time. I’m not sure how you’d do this on expedia or orbitz, but you might be able to do it on travelocity. I’d just book them separately. I think the “save money by booking together” is highly over-rated — particularly for European destinations. You can probably get the flight a few dollars cheaper by booking directly with the airline and you’ll probably find the same hotels significantly cheaper by shopping around on-line. A specific hotel may be sky-high on expedia and a super bargain on orbitz, price-line, travelbound or some other site.

I checked and we can’t find a cheaper deal booking directly through the airline. Same with booking separately – no such luck.

I think renting a car is our best bet. Driving in Italy can’t be that hard.

We’re into Roman history and Italian art. That doesn’t narrow things down much, but we have the sites we’ll see pretty much down.

Hi there.

When I was in Italy I found it very easy to use the trains. They are not expensive and the network is very dense. So if your are planning to see ( or want to see) sites that are out of the cities (but are in smaller towns), using the train should not be a problem.

Also renting can lead to many issues if you have an accident or something happens. So you might want to think about that as well.

I also find the train more direct and you get to enjoy the scenery instead of worrying of where you are going and what all the signs mean. Anyways that’s my opinion and I hope you enjoy your trip.

Happy travels

The problem is five hours on a train.
We’re already taking 8 hours on a plane from either New York or Philadelphia – that’s 13 total hours of travel.
I know some people who drove and it wasn’t bad – I’ll get a decent GPS and we’ll be OK. I can’t justify the excuse not to rent a car because we might have an accident. If I use that then I can’t take a plane because it might crash.

TechieJustin:

To answer your question on Rome (about staying close to the Vatican)…not intending to point out the obvious, but feel free to look up hotels on your own, either from a list in say a Michelin or Lonelt Planet guide, or when expedia gives you a list of hotels, just google the address to see where within the city the hotel is located. Rome is perfect for Roman history (obviuously) and Italian art (Capitoline Museums have works from antiquity; Vatican Museums have a large collection of various ages, both from Italy and outside Italy).

On driving to Ascoli Piceno (in Marche region), it doesn’t look like a great distance from Rome. Rent a car if you wish. If you have your own car, I say try exploring the Marche region and possibly nearby Abruzzo.

I agree.

How much do those disposable prepaid cell phones cost? I was thinking of getting one of those for my parents and one for my brother and I so when we separate we can still keep in touch. Maybe one with just 15 minutes on it.

I just rented a UK cell phone from Vodaphone. I got it through Verizon, who I use at home. Since I’m a “high value customer” (that means I pay way too much for my regular cell phone service) I got the rental free. All I had to pay was $21 for 2-way shipping plus air time. I thought the airtime and text rates for everywhere in Europe (except Russia) were excellent. It came with 110 to 220 volt charger, universal outlet adapter, fancy case, etc. I could have had my US Verizon phone # forwarded to it for an additional charge.

Unfortunately I’m not a high value customer with any cell phone carrier. So basically I’ll need maybe 15 minutes and starting from scratch. I know here we have these Go Phones.

I have my phone through work so its not mine.

TechieJustin,

If you have tri-band cell phone, then it will work in Europe. What you [i]can[i/] do, if you are willing to fork out the $50+, is you can buy an Italian sim card. What you need to do at least a week before you leave for Italy, is call your cell phone provider(s) and have them unlock your phones so that they can be used with a different sim card. Upon arrival in Italy, just buy a new sim card kit, and replenish it as needed. (Techncially, you should be an Italian resident to buy an Italian sim card, but you can always use your relatives’ address and tax number if you are asked for this information. I bought a French Sim card when I was there visiting a few years ago, even though I was no longer a resident of France at the time, and I used my old Paris address. I bought the kit at a newsstand, and the cashier didn’t really care what I wrote down.) As for replenishing your minutes: Let’s say your sim card kit came from TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), then you replenish it by buying TIM replenish cards at newstands. You buy the card, and there’s instructions on the card on how to replenish your minutes.

Some major Italian cell providers are:

TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile)
Omnitel Vodafone
Wind
H3G

Also, a little fun fact: incoming calls on European cell phones cost nothing.

I did some checking… My cellphone through work doesn’t use a SIM card… I opened it up and there’s nothing except the battery. I took out the battery and there is no SIM card.

So it looks like I’ll have to do the prepay option if that’s available.

Well, if your phone does not take sim cards, then it can only be used with the provider that sold it to you, and you cannot sign up for local cell phone service in Italy, neither a pre-pay account, nor a fixed-rate monthly bill account. Your only options may be what was discussed earlier in this thread. Either that, or try and find a cheap cell phone, maybe at Target or Best Buy, or an old cell phone if anyone in your family has one, one that is also tri-band and takes sim cards.

Another thing to keep in mind: cell phones outnumber people in Italy, so it’s possible your relatives have an old cell phone and/or an extra pre-pay account sim card, that they can just loan to you. You may want to ask them before you leave for Italy.

On the importance of having a tri-band phone: cell phones and cell phone towers use different wave frequencies in Europe than in North America. Just as there’s different electric voltage, and different television wave frequencies (at least, pre-HD there were), cell phone infrastructure uses different frequencies in each continent. A tri-band phone can be used both in North America and Europe. Nowadays, I believe that most cell phones are tri-band. But, just to be sure, if you bring a cell phone from North America, make sure it’s tri-band. If it’s dual-band, look up the frequencies that your phone supports, and make sure they match the frequencies used in Europe (you can google that information.)

I understand the tri-band philosophy – different parts of the world use different frequencies – I’m an IT guy and I have to arrange this sort of thing for some of the VPs here at work. That is not an option for me at this point. My phone is through work – and my parents use cheapo phones for whatever reason.

So the prepaid disposable phones are the only real option.

How much do they go for in Italy? €30? How are they activated? Can I do it though the internet or so I have to call up and type it in?

I have been following this thread a bit and I was wondering if anyone who knows this stuff really well would be able to write a travel tip so this info would be easier to find for everyone. There seem to be a lot of questions around this topic…

Great. Take what you normally arrange at work for visiting VPs and apply the same concept to yourself traveling to Europe from the United States.

As for getting a disposable cell phone: I’m not a tech savvy guy, so I’ve never heard of such a thing as a disposable cell phone (is it like a disposable camera?) But from the perspective of an “experienced traveler” (or at least South Europe “expert”), I can assure you that there’s some excellent phones on the market for cheap prices both in the United States, and especially in Europe where [at least it always seems] the cell phones sold tend to be fancier and more advanced thatn the models sold in the US. You’ll notice that even 9-year-olds have cell phones in Italy, and that’s due to two reasons: either the kid inherits their parents’ old cell phone when the parent upgrades, or the parent buys the kid an inexpensive [but good quality] cell phone that may cost just €30, and does the basic things kids want it to: like text messaging. Add the fact that, in Europe, incoming calls cost nothing, and prepay accounts are very popular and inexpensive for minors…therefore it’s not unusual for kids to have cells. What this means for you is: it should be easy and relatively inexpensive to get your own cell phone and account in Italy. However, if you’re getting one for each person traveling with you (sounds like a large bunch), then the costs will add up, so you may want to rethink if that’s necessary for a brief trip to Italy.

As for activating that phone…you can either buy a sim card kit individually (and they’re usually available at newsstands or wherever phonecards are sold), or you can buy your sim card kit together with your cell phone at a store that sells cell phones. Ask for a pre-pay sim card kit/account. The sim card kit should come in a box, which includes instructions on how it’s activated (it’s usually something as easy as inserting the sim card into you phone and making a first phonecall so you can activate your account instantly and be able to receive calls). If the instructions come only in Italian, and you don’t read/speak Italian, ask the salesperson to help you activate your account. Also, you should have a limited number of prepaid minutes already programmed into that account when you purchase your sim card kit.

Hi!
I’m Italian and I know pretty well my country.
I advice to hire a car too.
The south of italy is not served very well by train than the north, and by car you can enjoy a beautiful trip and view along Lazio and marche.
Have a nice time in this amazing regions!
Giulia

thanks for the help, it looks like we’re not getting a car. We waited too long and we can’t get one.
Big oops on my part. I actually thought somebody else in my family would take care of that aspect, but I was wrong.
Someday I’ll learn to take the initiative and do everything myself.