Real Italy Travel

Name: Real Italy Travel
Address: Rome, 00141, IT
Telephone: +39 3333701047
Price range: £££

Casa
Italia
Rome
Real Italy Travel

RIT was established through a great passion for travelling and exploring new places.

28/08/2026

If you've ever wondered how to get a taxi in Rome, book a train without the queue, or find parking without hunting for coins — you're not alone, and we've been exactly there too! Italy doesn't have one all-in-one app for everything, but don't worry, it's simpler than it sounds. Once you've got a handful of the right ones on your phone, getting around feels easy and stress-free. Here's what we actually keep on ours, and love using every time we travel.

🚆 Trenitalia — For booking and managing train tickets, checking live platform info, and pulling up your ticket on the train without printing anything.
🗂️ Tripwaffle — Keeps the whole trip organised in one place: itinerary, bookings, and documents, so you're not digging through email threads mid-trip.
🅿️ EasyPark — A lifesaver if you're driving. Pay for street parking directly from your phone instead of hunting for coins at a machine.
🚕 ItTaxi & FreeNow — Italy doesn't have a single nationwide taxi app, so having both covers more cities between them — book a ride without needing to speak Italian, with the price shown upfront.
🚌 Moovit — Best for local public transport — real-time bus, metro, and tram info, with walking directions to the nearest stop.
🗺️ Google Maps — Download your city maps offline before you land. It also flags ZTL (restricted traffic zone) areas, which is genuinely useful if you're driving into a historic centre.
🌐 Google Translate — The camera translation function is the real hero here — point it at a menu, a sign, or a museum plaque and get an instant translation overlay.
💬 WhatsApp — Most hotels, guides, and hosts in Italy communicate through WhatsApp rather than email or SMS — worth having set up before you arrive.

What's in your travel app toolkit? Let us know if we're missing one of your favourites.

21/08/2026

✈️🇵🇱 Two weeks offline, fully recharged.

We took a proper break — two weeks unplugged, spent with family and friends in Poland, exploring Kraków and beyond.

Highlights from the trip: 🏘️ Wandering the streets of Kazimierz, Kraków's historic Jewish quarter 🦖 Dino-sized fun at Dinolandia Inwałd 🛍️🎬 Shopping and a movie at Gemini Park, Bielska-Biała — plus a playground stop for the kids 🔥 BBQs with friends under the summer sky 🌳 Long, slow walks in nature 🍽️ Endless plates of Polish comfort food… and some amazing Vietnamese food too

Sometimes the best reset is just stepping away — good food, good company, and nowhere to be.

31/07/2026

☀️ July Recap: What We Loved This Month

As July wraps up, here's what's been inspiring us lately —

🗺️ New area we're loving: We've been exploring around Castiglioncello, near Livorno with my cousin and his family — such an underrated little coastal spot. Nearby we stopped at Parco Gallorose in Cecina, a lovely wildlife park with over 150 animal species and shaded walking trails — a perfect half-day if you're travelling with kids (or just love animals).

🍔 Best burger of the month: Found at Doppio Malto in Lucca — genuinely worth the stop if you're craving something different from the usual pasta and pizza.

🏖️ Travel tip: A wander around Forte dei Marmi is one of our favourite "just looking" activities — the luxury boutiques and rows of parked Lamborghinis and Ferraris outside make for a fun people-watching stroll, even if you're just there for a coffee and a walk.

📺 What we watched & listened to in July:

Beef (Netflix) — gripping from start to finish
Cape Fear (Apple TV+) — a classic worth revisiting
🎧 On Purpose with Jay Shetty & Millie Bobby Brown — loved this episode
🎧 From 0 to Travel podcast, with Alastair Humphreys on reconnecting with nature — such a good listen if you need a reminder to slow down and get outside

What was your favourite discovery this July? 👇

24/07/2026

🎨 This is Stornara — Puglia's town that painted itself back to life.

A dying farming town, fading fast as young people left for the cities. One local artist, Lino Lombardi, refused to watch it happen. In 2018 he started inviting artists to paint murals on the town's empty walls.

Today there are 140+ of them. Tourism is up 25%. Eight new businesses have opened. And for the first time in years, young families are moving back.

"Our community has painted itself back to life, one wall at a time." — Lino Lombardi

Not every hidden gem in Italy is about the food or the view. Sometimes it's about the people who refuse to let their town disappear. 🇮🇹

17/07/2026

Happy Friday! ☀️
In Italy, they'd say "chi va piano, va sano e va lontano" — those who go slowly, go safely and go far. Not a bad way to start a weekend. Wherever you are, take the scenic route today. Buon weekend! 🍋🇮🇹

10/07/2026

My first memory of Italy still makes me laugh... 🇮🇹🍕

I was on a summer holiday in Rimini with my parents. It was my very first trip to Italy, and one evening we went out for pizza.

I confidently ordered a pizza... but when my meal arrived, it was a calzone instead.

To little me, this was a complete disaster. 😂 I burst into tears because I was convinced it wasn't what I'd ordered. Looking back, I can only imagine what the waiter must have thought! Thankfully, my parents managed to sort everything out, and I eventually got my pizza.

At the time, I never could have imagined that this country—where I once cried over a calzone—would become my home.

Fast forward more than 20 years, and here I am, living in Italy. What started with a family holiday in Rimini, with its long sandy beaches, lively promenade, and warm Adriatic atmosphere, turned into a lifelong love for this beautiful country.

It's funny how life works. Sometimes the places that leave the biggest mark on us begin with the smallest memories.

Do you remember your first trip to Italy? I'd love to hear your funniest, most memorable, or unexpected stories. Maybe I'll even share a few more of mine! 🇮🇹❤️

03/07/2026

Someone asked me this week what my favourite off-the-beaten-path place in Italy is, and I didn't even have to pause: Abruzzo. We went in August — usually the busiest month anywhere in Italy — and it was still wonderfully quiet. Just us, a handful of locals, and mountains that seemed to stretch on forever.

A few moments that have stayed with me ever since:
🏰 Hiking up to Rocca Calascio, one of Italy's oldest standing forts and the highest fortress in the Apennines — the same setting used in Ladyhawke and The Name of the Rose
🏘️ Getting properly lost in the medieval alleys of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, home to the beautiful Sextantio Albergo Diffuso
🐺 Meeting rescued wolves at the Wolf Visitor Center in Popoli, in Majella National Park
🍖 Arrosticini and cold beer at Ristoro Mucciante, a butcher-shop-turned-BBQ-spot in the alpine meadows of Fonte Vetica
🍷 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, which quietly became my favourite wine in Italy
❄️ Standing in snow in the middle of summer at Campo Imperatore — Italy's "Little Tibet"

I wrote up the full week-long itinerary on the blog, including where we stayed, ate and the towns we fell for along the way 👉 https://www.realitalytravel.com/our-adventure-in-abruzzo/

We're already planning to go back, and this time the food list is longer. Abruzzo quietly punches way above its weight on the plate:

⭐⭐⭐ Reale, Niko Romito's three-Michelin-star restaurant at Casadonna, a converted 16th-century monastery near Castel di Sangro. Romito is Abruzzo's most famous culinary export, known for his minimalist, extraction-based cooking that turns humble regional ingredients into something extraordinary — and for years his tasting menu has leaned heavily vegetable-forward.

If you want authentic Italy without the crowds, Abruzzo deserves to be far higher on your list than it is. 🇮🇹

26/06/2026

Italy in summer is everything — golden light, slow lunches, the smell of wild herbs in the heat.

But let's be honest: it can also be seriously hot. 🌞

Here's how we travel in the Italian heat without wilting ↓

🌅 Move early. Out by 8am, sites visited before the sun peaks. The morning light is magic anyway.

🍋 Seek the shade. Medieval alleyways, cool marble churches, shaded terraces — old Italian towns were built for summer. Use them.

💧 Fontanelle are your best friend. Free drinking water from public fountains is everywhere. Fill up. Often.

🏖️ Head to the sea or the hills. The Versilian coast, the Cinque Terre, the Apuan foothills — all within reach and all beautifully cooler than the city.

🍦 Eat cold things. Granita di caffè. Watermelon. Gelato at every opportunity. This is not optional.

🌙 Save your energy for the evening. The golden hour, the aperitivo, the open-air dinner — this is when Italy is at its most beautiful.

The heat is part of the experience. You just have to learn to move with it, not against it.

19/06/2026

Corfu stole our hearts last week 🌿🇬🇷

This island has a story like no other — shaped by centuries of Venetian rule, you feel the Italian influence everywhere you look, from the elegant colonnaded streets of Corfu Town to the Old Fortress rising above the sea. History and beauty at every turn.

But Corfu is also wildly, gloriously green. Lush olive groves, cypress trees, winding roads leading to tiny villages where life moves at its own gentle pace. That little village vibe is completely real and absolutely magical.

And the sea... crystal clear, every shade of blue and turquoise you can imagine 💙

Then there's the food. Greek cuisine at its finest — fresh, generous, full of flavour. Corfu is famous for its kumquat (the liqueur is a must try!), its extraordinary olive oil, and we also fell in love with the local Corfu beer 🍺🍋

An island that genuinely has it all. Already dreaming of going back.

12/06/2026

🇮🇹 Thinking of planning a trip to Italy? Here's the honest truth about using AI to do it...

Everyone's talking about ChatGPT and AI travel planning right now — and yes, it's pretty remarkable what it can do. Ask it for a 7-day Tuscany itinerary and within seconds you'll have a beautifully structured plan with towns, restaurants, and day trips.

But after testing every major AI tool for Italy travel planning, here's my honest take:

🟢 AI is brilliant for:
— First-draft itineraries you can then refine
— Answering "how do I get from Florence to Matera by train"
— Discovering towns you'd never have Googled
— Comparing villas, regions, and travel styles

🔴 AI still struggles with:
— Knowing what's actually open, good, and worth it RIGHT NOW
— Understanding your personal travel personality
— The real local knowledge that makes a trip unforgettable
— Anything that requires a relationship or a phone call

As for which AI is best for Italy travel planning? Claude and ChatGPT are both strong — Claude tends to give more nuanced, less generic answers, while ChatGPT has broader destination data. Perplexity is great for research with live sources.

But the real magic? Use AI to do the groundwork, then speak to someone who actually knows Italy. That combination is unbeatable. 🌿

Planning a trip to Italy and not sure where to start? Send us a message — we'd love to help. 💌

Indirizzo

Rome
00141

Telefono

+39 3333701047

Sito Web

https://www.realitalytravel.com/

Notifiche

Lasciando la tua email puoi essere il primo a sapere quando Real Italy Travel pubblica notizie e promozioni. Il tuo indirizzo email non verrà utilizzato per nessun altro scopo e potrai annullare l'iscrizione in qualsiasi momento.