Renting a car in Italy, Parking in Venice and Fresh Orange Juice

Dress from Whistles Shop here

Arena Di Verona

Juliet's Balcony

Things to keep in mind when renting a car in Italy:

You have to have a credit card as the lady explained to me that debit card is not a guarantee in Italy so most of the car rentals only provide services if you have a credit card. We didn't have a credit card so our booking was non-refundable!

Moving on, there are companies that will let you rent a car with a debit card but you have to pay for a full insurance, which means it will be much more expensive. The total renting a car per day for us was €95 with the deposit of €100 for the fuel that means the insurance includes theft too! So you actually will have a peace of mind. I am a pretty good driver so I won't have to worry about anything anyway but sometimes you never know! If you have a credit card then you won't have to pay for the full insurance which will be much cheaper.

One last thing about renting a car is when you return the car don't forget to refuel. We were too lazy to find a petrol station and when they said they will charge us €50 and whatever petrol amount is needed, we got back on the car again and the petrol costs us €30 otherwise they would have charged us €80, so it was worth going back. 

Since we visited Verona and Sirmione, the next city that was close to us was VENICE. We always wanted to go to Venice but it was certainly not on our plan this time and not by car... but, hey! 

Sirmione town

Public beach at Sirmione
Shoe from Whistles Shop here

Some useful information if you are driving to Venice:

First of all, toll charge. Venice is 1hr 20 mins away from Verona with toll charge but if you were to avoid toll charge then it is nearly 3 hrs. With a limited time option, we took the first route. When you enter the motor way there will be a toll booth you just have to take the ticket from the booth so that's all easy. It is €1 per 7 km. Driving in Italy is pretty rough by the way. The tailgating is real! One thing that I loved was whenever anyone is approaching traffic on a highway all the cars turn on their hazard lights which look super cool (they did the same in Germany so it might be a common thing in Europe but I haven't seen people do that in England, ever).

Anyways when leaving the highway you will approach the toll booth, there will be signs of cash or card at the top so you just have to queue wherever you prefer and pay the toll.

Parking in Venice:

The closer you are to Venice the more expensive the parking gets. We parked in a Tronchetto parking. For 3-4 hours it was around €5 but once you cross 4 hours it is €20 per day. So with all the money mistakes that we were making, we were over 4 hours by half an hour or so. Typical!

 The public transport which is a boat to get to main attractions of Venice is €7 per hour and €20 per day. What we did was we took an over bridge train called Peoples Mover. The single way ticket is €1.50 which will take you to Piazzale Roma and you can just walk to all the main attractions from there. Walking is so much fun on the magical streets of Venice and is definitely the best way to see Venice.

One last tip:
When we first arrived at the airport of Verona we had an orange juice which was fresh and it tasted so good. So I became a fan of an orange juice instantly. Later, I chose this restaurant just because I saw the fresh oranges on the bar. I ordered an orange juice and they gave me a bottled one, so please make sure you add fresh in front of an orange juice!

These are some of the practical things I wish I knew before travelling but you have to go through things to know things if that makes sense. But yes Italy is so beautiful. When we were walking in Venice we overheard an American accent say 'I am in love with Italy' and walking by side of Grand Canal with a magnificent Rialto bridge at the front, that expression couldn't be less true for us.