Italy

Useful, cheers. I'm there on the 20th of next month so I reckon I'm fine? Anyway the thing nobody says is that the supermarkets round Termini shut about 8 and I had crisps for dinner my first night like a muppet. Also the night bus in from Fiumicino is about 7 euros and gets you to Termini at half five when nothing has opened and there's nowhere to sit. Sorry, that's not what you asked.

Three weeks in Rome this month and the pattern I have noticed is that it closes neighbourhood by neighbourhood rather than all at once. Trastevere south of the viale had maybe four places open on the 14th. Prati was more or less normal. My landlady's rule is that the family run places take a full fortnight and anything with a staff rota keeps going, and that held up on every street I walked down. Same story on the day trips. I tried about ten days out for a car to Orvieto on the 16th and got nowhere at all. Asked for the 22nd instead and it took four minutes.