italy on a budget?

[krista]

i'm a college student looking at a quick (1 or 2 week) trip to italy. I'm huge into photography, and would love the chance to shoot some of the amazing achetecture there. Problem is, 1) i'd be traveling alone 2) i'd be traveling CHEAP and 3) i've never traveled outside the country except with planned trips with big groups. So what i'm saying is, I have no idea what I'm doing. I figure i'll stay in hostels. How safe are they? and whats the best (cheap and fast) way to get from city to city in italy? Basically any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Eagle]

Krista, you might want to repost this in the "Pre-Travel Planning" section, as you'd likely get more responses. Also, you might want to register on the Board as having a Profile helps us to tailor the responses more specifically if we know a bit about your circumstances (ie: where you're travelling from, etc.)

A few comments on your post. I normally travel solo and don't find this to be a problem at all. However, I can appreciate that your situation is different but even so, it's not a big deal. As far as "travelling cheap" I don't know what your country of origin is, so don't know what kind of currency exchange you'll have to deal with. Italy can be expensive, but it depends to some extent on which areas you're visiting (the north is often a bit more expensive than the south).

As you've never travelled on your own, it's great that you've found this web site as some "homework" is a good idea to make sure your trip runs as smoothly as possible. The group here is very helpful and should be able to provide all the info. you will need.

Hostels are generally safe, but this depends to some extent on the individual Hostel. Most of the "chain" Hostels (such as HI / YHA) are well run and there seem to be fewer problems. However some of the independent Hostels can be dodgy. Of course, it helps to know what to expect in terms of "Hostel protocol", and hopefully you won't have any problems.

The best (although not necessarily the cheapest) method to travel between cities in Italy is usually the rail system. A Rail Pass is often preferred to buying point-to-point tickets, but there's a huge variety of rail passes available, so you'll have to do some Itinerary planning to figure this out.

Hope this helps? If you need further info., post another note.