Italy - Non Touristy Sights/Activities in Rome and Venice?

Hello!

I am planning my first Europe trip in May 2012. My dates of travel are May 7-25 and I am visiting Rome, Venice, Paris and Barcelona. I'm so excited for my trip and I’m planning my daily travel itinerary. There are SO many TOURISTY sights/museums in each city and I wanted to incorporate non-touristy sights/activities as well. I know that each city has so much more and there must be hidden gems in each city.

For example, I currently live in the Bay Area and everyone who visits SF, CA sees Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, etc. Being a local here, I know there are SO many unique and beautiful places to visit in Oakland/Berkeley area that aren't touristy and many people aren't aware of them.

Can you please recommend any unique/beautiful/non-touristy sights/restaurants/activities/festivals in Rome and Venice?

ANY advice is appreciated. Thank you all.

Welcome to FT!

Some of the touristy sites are so because they are imbued with unimaginable history - imagine walking where the Roman emperors walked, seeing what they saw, as you walk through the gathering places, marketplaces, Colosseum, etc. Ah, but wait - it's full of tourists, so you don't want to go there! ;)

Seriously, don't discount a site merely because tourists go there. But for Rome, you can see what most don't if you take the train out toward the airport to the ancient port city, where the merchants lived and where the ships with imports and exports - wine, olive oil, precious metals, exotic animals, textiles, the prized purple dye so expensive it was reserved for the exclusive use of Emperors, walking down the roads, seeing the three-story apartment buildings people lived in, the pub, the baths, the mosaic floors - in. Ostia Antica it is called, and as the old port on the Tiber River silted up, people moved and left it fairly intact - it's a good way to spend half a day and think of those times, of the armies and explorers that went on to conquer much of the Western world, from England to Egypt and the Levant. Link (http://www.ostia-antica.org/)to Ostia website.

Do some reading - guidebooks are cheap, and Lonely Planet has a good site online with a message board (the Thorn Tree, named after the message tree in Nairobi, Kenya used by travellers).

Do some searching here on FlyerTalk before you begin posts, so you can ask more detailed questions, and don't cross-post the same in several Fora, because cross-posting here is prohibited and posts will be deleted. Besides, nobody knows your interests better than you do, so merely asking us open-ended questions will tell you about our preferences, not yours.

Concentrate your travel - three weeks is nothing, ,and the more you move around the shallower your trip will be and the more it will cost. Think of what you always wanted to see - if it's art, consider Florence, for example, which also has a couple of wonderful gelaterias that go back to before World War II, the (touristy!) Ponte Vecchio that once served as a bridge with butcher shops; rebuilt in 1435 it now has gold and jewelry merchants, and is still beautiful as it spans the Arno river.

As another example, if you like beer and ale and are more interested in that subject, go to Belgium - a small country with over 800 brews and lots of small breweries with traditions going back hundreds of years. If Italian food - Tuscany (ah, there's Florence once again!) is your cup of tea.

Music? Maybe Prague - historic and beautiful, much more compact and easier to walk than Paris, with an amazing variety of concerts at certain times.

Try to go off-season - not in summer, anyway, when there are many tourists! thronging everywhere (many of them trying to see "non-touristy" places and rushing back and forth - "if it's Wednesday, we must be in Rome!") and everything is dearer - both harder to get and more expensive.

Plan joyously and be flexible; pack lightly - half the clothing, twice the money, is the usual rule (don;t become a prisoner of your stuff). (Disclaimer - slow travel is what I enjoy - we'll spend three weeks in Provence, France this Spring.) :)

You need to tell us how much time you are going to spend in each city. Is it A week in Rome and two days in Venice? How deep you get into a city depends on how much time you have to spend there.

Thank you for your reply. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely going to visit the tourist/popular sights, but I wanted to incorporate hidden gems as well. I will do my research. I am interested in seeing beautiful architecture, amazing views, etc

Here is my current itinerary: Rome: May 8-11 (I arrive into Rome at 9am on May 8, 4 nights), Venice: May 12-14 (3 nights), Paris: May 15-20 (6 nights), Barcelona: May 21-24 (4 nights). I come home on May 25. Thank you!


Welcome to FT!

Some of the touristy sites are so because they are imbued with unimaginable history - imagine walking where the Roman emperors walked, seeing what they saw, as you walk through the gathering places, marketplaces, Colosseum, etc. Ah, but wait - it's full of tourists, so you don't want to go there! ;)

Seriously, don't discount a site merely because tourists go there. But for Rome, you can see what most don't if you take the train out toward the airport to the ancient port city, where the merchants lived and where the ships with imports and exports - wine, olive oil, precious metals, exotic animals, textiles, the prized purple dye so expensive it was reserved for the exclusive use of Emperors, walking down the roads, seeing the three-story apartment buildings people lived in, the pub, the baths, the mosaic floors - in. Ostia Antica it is called, and as the old port on the Tiber River silted up, people moved and left it fairly intact - it's a good way to spend half a day and think of those times, of the armies and explorers that went on to conquer much of the Western world, from England to Egypt and the Levant. Link (http://www.ostia-antica.org/)to Ostia website.

Do some reading - guidebooks are cheap, and Lonely Planet has a good site online with a message board (the Thorn Tree, named after the message tree in Nairobi, Kenya used by travellers).

Do some searching here on FlyerTalk before you begin posts, so you can ask more detailed questions, and don't cross-post the same in several Fora, because cross-posting here is prohibited and posts will be deleted. Besides, nobody knows your interests better than you do, so merely asking us open-ended questions will tell you about our preferences, not yours.

Concentrate your travel - three weeks is nothing, ,and the more you move around the shallower your trip will be and the more it will cost. Think of what you always wanted to see - if it's art, consider Florence, for example, which also has a couple of wonderful gelaterias that go back to before World War II, the (touristy!) Ponte Vecchio that once served as a bridge with butcher shops; rebuilt in 1435 it now has gold and jewelry merchants, and is still beautiful as it spans the Arno river.

As another example, if you like beer and ale and are more interested in that subject, go to Belgium - a small country with over 800 brews and lots of small breweries with traditions going back hundreds of years. If Italian food - Tuscany (ah, there's Florence once again!) is your cup of tea.

Music? Maybe Prague - historic and beautiful, much more compact and easier to walk than Paris, with an amazing variety of concerts at certain times.

Try to go off-season - not in summer, anyway, when there are many tourists! thronging everywhere (many of them trying to see "non-touristy" places and rushing back and forth - "if it's Wednesday, we must be in Rome!") and everything is dearer - both harder to get and more expensive.

Plan joyously and be flexible; pack lightly - half the clothing, twice the money, is the usual rule (don;t become a prisoner of your stuff). (Disclaimer - slow travel is what I enjoy - we'll spend three weeks in Provence, France this Spring.) :)

I'm confused. If you are in Venice from 12-14 you sleep there the 12-13, leave the 14th. The Rome trip is very short too. Europe is not like showing someone around the Bay Area. There is too much to see and experience. Your best bet is to capitalize on the fact that you are foing to be there a little bit before the hordes of tourists make it difficult to enjoy. Make a list of the most popular tourists places, see them before the July-August hordes. You can't get into a back-street, off the beaten places of Rome and not see the Colisseum or Forum. You are way over stretched for time. That's lie saying I want to see the U.S., but only have 7 days, and don't want to just see the touristy places. Best advice I can give for such a short, spread out itInerary is that when you eat in a restaurant with multiple languages on the menu, the more the languages, the worst the food.

There is very little in Venice proper that isn't touristy. The city itself is so physically small that tourists cover it all and the mainland portion is pointless to visit. Maybe Giudecca or parts of the Lido is a bit less touristy, but not that much. Being on a series of islands it really is quite unique in that way.

If you're any kind of sports fan whatsoever try to take in a Serie A or B football match.

if you track most where do i goz and what do i doz, and my first time in europe, one can pretty much track the top 10 tourist places in europe. the responese i get from posters when i suggest they drive through the french or italian country side isno, we want to do a been there done that.

top ten tourist places in europe. help me fill them in:
venice
florence
rome
paris
london
chianti
burgundy
nice
barcalona
brussels
amsertadam

i think these are the top five, and close to a next five. everybody wants to go to these, and not to the tourist sites there? as my wife says, give me a break.

you want a non touristy place in europe, go to moscow and st. petersburg and istanbul before the crowds hit.

I would have to disagree that almost all of Venice proper is touristy. I spend a lot of time there. San Marco, Ponte Rialto, a few other places are very touristy. Large ocean liners dock in Venice, disgorge 5,000 people, and the main tourist sites become impassable. Just go there before 9:00 AM, or after 9:00PM and it will be fine. Venice is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

I've had people tell me, "Venice is small, you can see it all in two days." Thats ridiculous. When you add up all the beautiful streets, allys and canals, you couldn't possibly see it all in six months.

Just go away from San Marco, away from the Rialto Bridge, and away from the train station, and just keep walking. Eventually you'll get to the real Venice, where the menus are printed in Italian, and not in six languages.

You'll feel like things haven't changed in hundreds of years, and it will be unforgettable. Don't go to the Lido to avoid tourists. It's part of the mainland. The get around in cars, not gondole and boats. The Giudecca is not touristy and is worth walking around in, but not if you're just there for a couple of days.

You're going at a great time of the year. Just wander off the beaten path, and enjoy.