My Italian experience ...
So, I will try giving some cold facts, no offensive conclusions or
wow positive feedback, but facts only - just some real experience
I am currently having in Italy.
1. Entering the country and driving long distance without any real
pit stop station was a little nervous, you'd have to drive watching
a beautiful scenery while thinking if a gas station would appear
any time soon.
2. Since I have entered to Italy from Austria I was on roaming and was
waiting to get to the WiFi area to check emails, surf a little, navigate
google map and stuff. Well, i'd better be prepared that they dont have
any wifi on those Autogrill food stations, no ATM and no money exchange
at all.
3. The streets are real narrow and hotel parking lot can be tiny.
Cars get parked in 2 or 3 rows. So be prepared they would ask for your
car key at the hotel to move it here and there letting others going out or in.
4. A hair dryer is a mysterious thing to operate, first it needs a special
switcher to be on ( one of 3 in front of the bathoom door, fun is it's not
obvious which button would work ), then you'd have to switch a button on
the wall near the hair dryer On, and finally you can use the thing.
5. The room has a central air conditioning system that is easy to operate, but
at times you can hear music coming off the vent channel in case someone plays it
loud in their room below or upstairs.
6. I didn't know but Italy has a different electric socket system, so you'd need
a converter, imagine I have arrived iphone battery nearly dead and wanted to go
online on my PC - that's where I figured out it wont last long. Actually, internet
speed itself is rather ok then good, it gets stalled frequently.
7. Forget your dollars, they dont want it. Banks work only till 1 pm, i was unable to
find any money exchange office on the street, found 3 bank branches with 2 working ATMs - Unicredit and Banko Ri Rimini.
8. So I went to try buying a prepaid SIM card for mobile internet then. Firstly they
would ask you for your passport even if its a prepaid, you's have to buy their modem
even if you have one, SIM cards in Italy are blocked or even built in it seems, I was told my modem won't work with their SIM. And the minimum prepaid time is 3 months, comes to EUR99.
9. Here in Rimini, it seems like a 'Uzhnoe Butovo' - kinda a Southern Moscow - Russians are everywhere.
10. At some point everything is nominated in EURO and even McDonalds food is more expensive, at some point I must say you'd feel screwed by prices in EURO.
11. After 3 days I have become to a conclusion that this country means chill and relax at it's perfect, seems like no one is working, no one is offering you a better service, no one is competing for the client, they just go the beach and eat pizza all night long, since daily it's so damn hot even Italians prefer to relax.
12, It's definitely hot and you'd sweat all day long, especially on arrival, so you'd need
a spair change frequently. Or a laundry done once in 2-3 days. So, before I got the laundry room access key I spent 2 days figuring out how tos about it, apparently there is just one machine in the hotel that can be used by anyone. So then I went there and set for 10 minutes waiting when its done, took someones stuff out ( nobody showed up ) and put mine in for EUR3 a cycle. Next day i tried to find a couple of t-shirts to fit me but their shops are so messy and brutally unorganized i prefered to stick to my 3 shirts and a laundromat
13. The sea is amazing. Wide, long beach, very warm water you could stay in all day long.