WHAT'S THIS WEBSITE ALL ABOUT? It's about giving you a handy place to get the resources that will help you put your own independent Italy trip together. You will make all your own choices, and there will not be any travel agents trying to assist you or sell you anything. We'll give you the tools we think are most helpful, but otherwise we'll stay out of your way.

Why this new approach, and the choice of a self-service website? Our original ItalySource website has been a successful source for travelers who do not have the time, or the desire, to do the research and work out all the details themselves, and who want direct assistance, by telephone, from people who've been there. Our agents spend a lot time on each trip, to get the plan right.

But we realized that we're missing out on serving the many people who do not want to work with an agent on their travel plans. Websites like Travelocity and Expedia have been successful, because there are so many travelers who want to do it all themselves. But those mega-websites are highly generalized in the information they offer, trying to address travel all over the world, and with little if anything available in the way of personal or candid advice. Those websites assume that you already know what you want to do.

They also do something we don't like. Maybe you don't like it either. They toss in lots of advertising. For air tickets, hotels, trains, cars, cruises. Any company that pays for that advertising gets a link. So don't look for candid advice on those websites, because they can't afford to offend their advertisers. You won't see any of that advertising on our website. In the interest of being candid. We do provide a booking engine for hotels, transfers and tours. Yes, we do get a commission on anything you book there. But it is not paid advertising. And it's there because it is not only the best source we can recommend, but the one we use ouselves in our travel agency. We do not accept any advertising. Whatever you see on this website is there because we consider it useful, and use it ourselves, not because anyone paid us to put it there.

We're offering something in the middle -- between 1) those big commercial websites with all the advertising and 2) travel agency websites -- so you can plan your own Italy trip, book it, never need to deal with an agent, but still take advantage of the specialized expertise of people who've been there and who plan lots of trips. That's what this website is all about. We've collected our advice about trip planning and travel in Italy, and made it handy. We've also provided some of the same travel booking resources we rely on using ourselves, in our travel agency, so that you can book hotels, trains, transfers, cars, sightseeing and more by yourself.

Read through the Flow Chart before you do anything else on this website, and check out at least a few of the links, to get an idea of the information we've provided. You can get back to the Flow Chart from any of our pages by clicking on the link at the top called How To Do It, or any place we refer to our travel planning Flow Chart. This chart is the heart of our self-service website.

You will see that our website contains three general types of content ~ planning tools, booking tools, and links to other websites that offer information we think is useful for plannning and preparing for your trip.

If you have been to Italy before, or know what you want, you can skip all our comments and recommendations and go straight to the Booking Tools.

We recommend that if possible, you avoid purchasing air tickets or booking hotels until you've worked out a compete plan, including where you will fly in and out of Italy, how you will travel, and where you will stay, in addition to deciding when you will travel. We've seen lots of people book their flights, only to wish they had used different airports, or find that hotels are not available in one of their destinations for their travel dates, or that they cannot get trains or car rentals to take them where they want, when they want. In our travel agency, we are well aware of the complications that can require changing the initial plan. So try not to get locked in on flights until you know your plan can work.

Read our tips about itineraries in Italy. You can build the itinerary however you wish, but it's nice to know what plans are tried and true, so you have some kind of reference on what's considered reasonable or most efficient. For example, most Americans and Canadians look at the relatively short travel distances in Italy and imagine they can see more of Italy in less time than is really practical -- unless they really want a whirlwind trip. In fact, the most common conflict we see in planning Italy trips is that the two major requirements for most people are 1) to see as much as possible and 2) to have it all be relaxing. Those two objectives generally don't go together! If you look at our suggested itineraries, you may be able to avoid that conflict.