Back in February 2015, I put up a blog post called, The Rome Problem.  In it, The Traveling Professor talked about some of the problems of visiting Rome in terms of crime, harassment, trash, and public transportation.  It seems that The New York Times has noticed too. They recently published an article called "Rome in Ruins", outlining many of the same problems The Traveling Professor pointed out 4 years ago.  The problems are not limited to cities like Rome.  Paris, for instance, has many of the same problems.  However, travelers should be made aware of what they can expect the next time they visit Rome.  Check out my blog post.

Let's face it, traveling to places like Rome, Florence and Venice, one can expect big crowds.   On our small group tours to Italy we have seen lines hours long into places like the Colosseum and the Basilica in Venice.   The tourist push to see sites like David in the Accademia in Florence or the Uffizi Gallery can be unbelievable.  Even on The Traveling Professor's Tours to Italy much of our itinerary planning is done with crowd avoidance in mind.  In today's blog post I will give advice on how to beat the crowds in places like Rome, Florence, and Venice.   Hopefully, with these tips in mind a tour to Italy will be more enjoyable for you.

We recently returned from a small group tour of Italy.  In Rome, there were masses of people at the Colosseum and the Vatican.  The lines to see "David" at the Accademia snaked over a hundred yards around the block.  The Uffizi, with it's rich Italian art, had a wait of hours and hours to get in.   In Venice, the lines looked liked those in DisneyWorld, only on steroids.   On my small group tours to Italy, we just don't wait in lines.  Look at my tips for getting into those popular attractions like a VIP, with no waiting in line.