Travelling Safely in Italy

Italy is an excellent country to go on holiday for so many reasons. This country oozes with romance making it the perfect place for younger couples to fall in love or for older couples to rekindle that magic. Plus, there is no better place in the world to get a great slice of Sicilian pizza and gelato. If you are a lover of art and religion you will be able to see some of the finest artwork and you will be able to visit the Vatican and see the Pope. Some of the must see cities are Rome, Venice, Milan and Florence. You should also remember to make the following regions a part of your trip: Tuscany, Campania, Sicily, Umbria, The Lakes and Liguria. Also, before you go you should invest in international travel insurance that you can find online for a great rate.
Why do You Need Travel Insurance in Italy?
Whether you are staying the week or two years in Italy, you should make sure that you get yourself some travel insurance. International travel insurance will save you big bucks when it comes to delayed or cancelled flights, damaged or stolen luggage during transport and injury or illness. Every one of these situations could cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars if you are not insured while travelling in Italy. Just like at home, you never know when an emergency will arise, so you have insurance for your home, your health and even your special belongings. While you are away those same emergencies may come up that you need to deal with promptly. Otherwise, your entire trip to Italy could turn into a long term stress.
Where to Purchase Travel Insurance for Italy?

There are many places where you can purchase international travel insurance for your trip to Italy. The best resource to check out first is online. When you go online, you can compare dozens of insurance companies that offer international travel insurance. Before you choose a company you need to have in mind a few factors. These include the following:
• How many people need insurance on your trip?
• What types of travellers insurance coverage do you need?
• Does your current home, health or life insurance cover you in any way internationally while travelling?
Once you have decided on the types of insurance that you need, you can start looking at potential insurance companies that cover your specific travelling and insurance needs. Your current insurance company may offer some sort of special deal or include coverage for trips abroad. Call them up and see if they can offer you a deal. If not, going online is probably your best bet for a great deal on travel insurance in Italy.
There is no need to worry more than you have to while on vacation, after all, you are meant to be relaxing and recharging from the daily grind! With international travel insurance you can feel secure that in the case of an event your new coverage will reimburse you for any damage to personal items, cancelled flights and thousands of dollars worth of medical bills.

Public Transport - Italy

If you are a tourist visiting Italy, you should familiarize yourself with the different modes of public transport in Italy. Knowing the different ways of getting around the beautiful country provides you with a peace of mind and having the grandest of time during your visit.
Italy is regarded as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. A lot of people are scrambling to visit Italy and stroll in its beautiful cobbled streets, visit the different tourist spots and simply enjoy the Italian life.
If you are one of those tourists, you might want to get to know the different means of public transport Italy before even booking the trip. Carefully planning of your whole trip will make your visit to Italy a memorable experience ' one with significantly less problems and with time that is greatly maximized.
Knowing public transport in Italy gives you an edge while travelling. No longer will you have to battle with unreadable maps or signs that you can't understand. When you know how to get around the country, you will be able to get to where you want to be in no time.

Major Italian cities have at least one airport which provides a fast and efficient way for locals and tourists alike to travel from one town or city to another. If you are flying to the capital city of Rome, there are several airports that you can choose from. Multiple airports are common in major cities that have a high population of travellers coming in and out of the area.
Italy also has a modern and extensive public railway system. The main railway network is operated by Trenitalia, the national train operator. It operates all kinds of public transportation via trains and includes medium distance, long distance as well as regional passenger trains.
Trenitalia provides three major services, Eurostar Italia (ES), Intercity (IC) and Eurocity (EC) as well as regional trains. Eurostar Italia provides the fastest connection via train between major cities in the country. IC and EC, on the other hand, covers long distance travel via train. Both of these services cover the entire Italian railway network. Regional trains provide local transportation and stops are available at almost every station in the area which it covers.
If you want to travel from one province to another, the Eurostar and Intercity trains are good choices. They are fast and efficient and can even cut down the travel time by an hour compared to travelling by car.

Freight Scene

Italy is a forward-looking country with a dynamic freight transport sector, which supports its imports and exports activity.
The United Kingdom is one of Italy's largest export markets with sales of goods worth just over 9 billion pounds in 2008. Meanwhile, UK sales to Italy were valued at 13 billion pounds in the same year.
So freight forwarding between the two countries is a well oiled machine, and there are many freight companies with expertise in arranging services between Italy and England.
in 2008, Italy was the seventh-largest economy in the world and the fourth-largest in Europe.
After the second world war, Italy changed from being an agriculture based economy which had been very badly affected by the results of the war, into a major industrialised economy and a leader in international trade. The freight services sector in Italy has developed in tandem.
Italy is a highly developed country, and, according to The Economist, has the world's eighth highest quality of life. The country enjoys an especially high standard of living, and is the world's 18th most developed country, higher than Germany, UK and Greece. As a result, Italian consumers are sophisticated and demanding, especially in terms of quality. They therefore have a taste for good quality and market leading imports from the UK, especially in technology and quality consumer goods. Some up-market fashionable UK brands are also in demand in Italy as imports.The client of shipping companies to Italy reflects this.

Despite this, Italy's economy suffers from many problems. After strong growth between 1964-1988,the last ten years' average yearly growth rate has fallen behind the European average. What's more, Italian living standards reflect a considerable north-south divide. The average Gross Domestic Product per capita in Northern Italy may far exceed the EU average, whilst some regions and provinces in Southern Italy are well below the European average. Italy is sometimes called the sick man of Europe. Freight transport options are correspondingly more numerous in the developed north.
The Italian economy is undermined by lack of infrastructure development, market reform programmes and investment in research. Italy still receives financial aid from the EU. To this extent, the freight industry is held back and it is not at the cutting edge in the same way as it is in countries like Sweden.
Italy has fewer global multinational companies than other economies of its size, but there are a large number of small and medium sized businesses, and in the North, there are many companies involved in industrial and machinery production. This has led to a manufacturing industry focused on exports of niche and luxury products. Freight forwarders have been keen to attract custom from these kind of businesses and they make up the vast majority of the customer base of an average Italian shipping company or freight company.

Forwarding in Italy

Italy has a contemporary and efficient freight transport infrastructure, which facilitates an effective system for freight forwarding. Most of the transport infrastructure was built after the Second World War and is continually updated. Most freight forwarding in Italy is carried out by road and there is an excellent road network, especially in the north of the country, which is well utilised by shipping companies and those involved in freight transport. The main routes are Turin-Milan-Venice-Trieste, Milan-Bologna-Florence-Rome, Milan-Genoa and Rome-Naples. There are over 4000 miles of expressways, mainly in the north and central areas of Italy.
As well as the road network, Italy also has an efficient system of railways, rail and sea ports which together combine to provide the main routes for international freight. Italy also has 1500 miles of waterways although these remain largely undeveloped.
The rail system in Italy is also well developed and very punctual. Mussolini has been credited with getting the Italian trains running on time and whether or not this is factually accurate, the punctuality of the Italian rail system is remarkable. The Italian trains are also cheap and comfortable, compared with those in neighbouring European countries, and the rail network is about to be improved further as the state owned rail company, Ferrovie dello Stato, is developing a project to introduce high speed trains. This will boost further the importance of the rail network to freight forwarders.
However, there is still a shortage of railways in the south and east of Italy and government projects to improve this situation have stalled, together with other planned projects to improve the transport infrastructure in the south such as creating a subway in Naples. The road network is also less efficient in the south of the country. This situation reflects the fact that most of the industry and economic activity is in the north and central areas, so the development of the infrastructure for freight transport has been prioritised by the government in these places whilst the south has lagged behind, with the exception of its seaports. Southern Italy includes 37% of Italy's population, 40% of its land area but only produces 24% of its Gross Domestic Product. So the freight services options are more curtailed in the south of the country than in the north, although the shipping company with good local knowledge can easily overcome these challenges related to freight services in Southern Italy.
Sea ports used to be very important for freight forwarding in Italy and until 1975, a significant amount of cargo went through them. However, their importance has declined in the last thirty years, due to the development of other means of handling international freight. Nevertheless, the ports of Genoa, Trieste, Naples, Taranto, Augusta, Gioia Tauro and Livorno are still very important to their respective regional economies and Italy is still a major player in container shipping and international freight in the Mediterranean. The Italian merchant fleet consists of over 2000 ships, over half of which are over 100 tonnes.
The national air carrier Alitalia connects Italy to 60 countries and Italy has 136 airports. The most significant are Fiumicino (Rome), Malpensa and Linate in Milan, Ronchi dei Legionari (Trieste), Caselle (Turin) and Marco Polo (Venice). Again, the list of the most significant airports shows a bias to the north and central areas of Italy.

The Italian economy has grown rapidly since the Second World War and Italy is the world's seventh largest economy, in USD exchange rate terms, although the economy has faltered more recently, showing sluggish growth since 2002. This economic strength over the last 50 years has led to the development of a thriving and efficient freight services sector, with a large number of shipping companies and freight forwarders operating throughout the country and assisting with the efficient freight forwarding of both exports and imports.