When you arrive in central Europe, the time difference will be 5h from the east coast of the US, but on the night of the wedding, at 2am Sunday morning, the clocks will spring forward! Then we will be 6h ahead of east coast US time.
Milan is a little more than 2h away by car. Venice is about 1.75h away.
Some countries require an international DL. This basically a 5-minute internet fix. Use either link below and you should be good to go anywhere you wanna drive, including Italy. You can also find other online. bit.ly/4iZE58W bit.ly/3BXVaPR
Most European cars are manual, stick shift, so when you reserve your rental, you need to be clear that you want an automatic if you do not know how to drive a stick. You will also need to show the appropriate driver's license for the country you are renting in, so in Italy, you must have an international driver's license, which is linked in one of the previous questions.
To some extent. A co-pilot giving you directions is recommended. All three services tend to give you the wrong number of available turns in a traffic circle from time to time, so it's helpful to have a co-pilot to say, "We're going straight here", or "We're going left here", so you don't make lots of wrong turns. Generally speaking, trust, but verify, cause they will be occasionally wrong.
Use the Google app, activate/use your camera and point it at the menu page/sign, and touch "translate". It will take a pic of the menu page/sign, detect the language, and translate it for you.
Yes you can, but Verona is still about 25m from the venue and 35m from the secondary hotel. They do have taxis there, which you generally must call, or they have like two Ubers. Italy only recently passed laws to allow for Ubers and they are black cars and vans only. If you are coming in via train, let either Jared or Fiona know, and we will help you with travel arrangements, as we will have many guests arriving constantly and a couple extra cars at our disposal if we need to help pick anyone up.
Euros are used in Italy. You will need very little cash on-hand and the cheapest place to get cash is at any bank ATM. 400 Euros will be more than enough. Be sure to keep some change on-hand for tolls, bathrooms, etc.
Often when overseas you will be given two options to settle your bill after using your CC. One is US dollars, NEVER use this option. The second option is the local currency, ALWAYS choose this one. If you choose USD, the local CC processor will charge you a ridiculously high exchange rate, whereas your Bank/CC company will always charge you the lowest possible rate. It's often a 10-12% difference in fees on each purchase.
Xe app is for iPhones and Androids and is easy to use. Just add the currencies you wanna see to your dashboard.
There will usually be a CC option at the booth, otherwise you'll need cash. Keep some small bills and coins around for tolls and bathrooms.
Traffic lights work the same as in the US, but different than some other European countries. There is a helpful guide linked below. Just keep in mind that there is no "merge" sign, so that can get a little testy if you aren't paying attention. MOST IMPORTANTLY-- You cannot pass on the right, it is illegal, and you cannot make a right on red, also illegal. The left lane is for passing only! bit.ly/4fMpj2k
Pretty simply, the cars inside the circle have the right of way at all times. All you DC drivers should be familiar with this from the circles at home that don't have traffic lights.
The "behind the counter" allergy meds, NyQuil, ZZQuill, etc, are not available in this part of Europe without a prescription. The lesser level of these meds can be available, but you'll always have to ask for a pharmacist for them, and they'll be available at their discretion. It will be spring there, so I recommend that if you are at risk of allergies, you should bring anything you might need with you from the States.
In Europe, asking for the toilet will suffice basically everywhere. It's not impolite to say, "Toilet?", rather than assuming everyone speaks English, cause they won't.
Some restaurants will have them. If they do not, use the Google app, activate/use your camera and point it at the menu page, and touch "translate". It will take a pic of the page, detect the language, and translate it for you.
Yes, but sometimes no.... In Verona, particularly, there is a ton of construction and they change traffic patterns a lot and do not remove all the previous writing on the roads. There's no hard and fast rules here, just proceed with caution and be aware of the cars on the road.
It's a cultural thing and totally reasonable. If they charge, it's usually 50 cents, and it's a clean and reliable bathroom.
No meat of any kind, dried, tinned, etc. Nothing alive, so no flowers, plants, animals. No drugs. If you are gonna purchase anything that's very expensive to bring back, simply declare it when returning through Customs and pay the nominal tax and you're all good.
Pizza is treated as a dish, just like fish, or a steak, so it's expected that you will cut it the way you like it with a fork and a knife.
Cause the EU doesn't allow nearly as many chemicals in their food/drinks as we do in the US. Additionally, the EU requires any food/drink with a reference to a natural flavor actually have natural flavoring in it! So lemon-lime Powerade basically tastes like lemonade!