First trip to Italy with wife and one year old child. I am looking for information on cell phones, baby car seats, and baby strollers. Is it best to buy or rent cell phone? Is world phone better or local phone? Are there baby stroller rentals in Rome and Venice or is it better to take my own? Do cabs have baby car seats or should I bring my own?
Also want information on Papal mass. We want to attend a mass that the Pope is presiding over. How early should we arrive?
May I suggest that you click here and access our Europe Trip Planning guide. You will find a title for most of your questions, and more.
Clicking here will give you access to previous discussions on the papal mass.
In general, you can use the "Find" function at the top of the page to access previous discussions on most subject, using key words such as "car rental", "baby strollers", etc., etc.
And, of course, we will be happy to answer the best we can your more detailed questions.
I am going to put a link to your post in our Italy forum where it will get more visibility. Rome and Venice are two of my favorite cities in Italy. I'm certain you are going to have a great trip.
You've asked a lot of questions in your post. I'm going to recommend doing a search in the Italy forum for previous posts on your questions. Here are the results of a couple of searches:
You can check on previous discussion on baby strollers in the Italy forum by going to the search function. Rome is a hilly place (seven original hills plus Testaccio). The sidewalks are small and uneven. Check out the uneven flagstone paving on the path leading to the Arch of Titus before it changes to the more even brick paving. http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/showphoto.php?photo=32374&cat=4024 flagstones like this are hard to push over and leads to a bumy stoller ride. The traffic is dense and fast moving. You can navigate most of the Rome sites by walking everywhere because ancient and medieval Rome was not a very big place, but you can go further and see more by using public transporation (buses and the Metro). All of these thing make a stroller hard to use. A one-year-old can still fit in the large sturdy back-pack like carriers and these are a better idea in hilly locations with a lot of stairs. We carried our daughter one until she was about 15 months old when she started grabbing stuff off the shelves in the grocery store when she was in one. If you really need a stroller get one of those light umbrella style ones so you can take the kid out, fold it up quickly, and carry the kid and stroller down or up the stairs. My daughter and I (who is 20 now) often joke that Italy is the Land of Stairs.
Posts: 3782 | Location: St Paul, MN | Registered: 10 February 2006
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