u/a224471

I currently have tickets for Frecciarossa 9731 from Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia at 1:45 PM on September 8. There’s a national rail strike scheduled that day, and my train isn’t on Trenitalia’s guaranteed list. Unfortunately, my tickets are FrecciaDAYS, so they’re non-changeable and nonrefundable.
Frecciarossa 9733 leaves just 30 minutes later at 2:15 PM and is on the guaranteed list. I can currently book tickets for both of us for €39,80 total.
Would you book the guaranteed train now for peace of mind and accept potentially losing the cost of the original tickets, or wait to see whether 9731 is actually canceled? How far in advance does Trenitalia usually confirm which non-guaranteed trains will run?

My wife and I will be staying in Manarola in September. We arrive Thursday, Sept. 10 around 3 PM and have the Via dell’Amore booked for 7 PM Friday.

I originally planned to make a dinner reservation Thursday just to make our arrival day easy, then keep Friday spontaneous while exploring Cinque Terre.
I’ve looked at Trattoria dal Billy, but it looks like they’re closed Thursday. We could do it Friday if it’s worth planning around. I’ve also looked at Alla Marina and would love opinions on it or any other good dinner options.
Any recommendations for reservations in September? Would you book something Friday and wing it Thursday, or just stay spontaneous both nights? Mainly looking for good local food and a full dinner.

I’ll be in Rome mid September 17th-21st and I’m looking at the options for the Vatican. It will be my wife and I and I hoped to book something early in the day. Originally I was going to book the regular admission tickets for 20 euros but I’ve gotten behind this summer on booking and now there are less options.

My options are

1. Regular ticket but 2pm is the earliest
2. Official guided tour at 11:30 am ($40 pp)
3. Open bus gardens tour at 8:30 am ($45 pp)
4. 3rd party Through Eternity early morning at 7:45 am ($151 pp)
5. 3rd party Viator 7:45 ($176 pp)

Through Eternity sounds like the most enjoyable experience but you pay a premium.

The open bus gardens tour says it gets you into the museum but I need to confirm that. So we would still get in around 9:45 after the garden tour.

Anything later than that I don’t know if we’d want to do.

My family shares 6 phone lines on AT&T and we each pay our own portion. I’m only paying for two of the lines. If I understand the rules correctly I would not be covered by the Flex’s phone protection right? If it makes a difference, we have SplitPay set up on ATT so each month it send us our own portion to pay. I’d like to have the phone protection but everyone wants to pay their own part to earn their own points. I could just switch to a different card that has no protection but gets a higher point rate.

I’m trying to figure out the best AT&T option for an upcoming 16 day Italy trip.

I’m currently on a grandfathered AT&T Unlimited Elite plan. My bill cycle runs 27th–26th, and the trip falls almost entirely within one billing cycle. My current line costs about $62/month total, with the plan portion showing $57.50, a $5 Signature discount, taxes/fees, and an iPhone promo credit.

I used to care about the included HBO benefit, but it’s basically useless to me now because of password-sharing changes and the fact that AT&T only gives one Max account for the plan. So I’m not sure if keeping this plan is even worth it.

My thought is: switch to Elite 2.0 for the travel billing cycle, pay maybe $30–$40 more for that month, then switch to Premium 2.0 when I get back. Online the premium 2.0 shows that it’ll be about $2 cheaper a month than I currently pay after discounts. That seems cheaper than paying $120 for International Day Pass.

Questions:

- Is there any major reason to keep my grandfathered Unlimited Elite plan if I don’t care about Max anymore?
- Has anyone switched to Elite 2.0 temporarily for international travel?
- Any risk to iPhone promo credits when switching between eligible unlimited plans?
- Is Elite 2.0 actually the better move for Italy, or should I just use International Day Pass / eSIM?

Trying to avoid surprises on the bill. Thanks!

Tickets for Leonardo’s Last Supper went up today so I woke up at 4am to try to get my tickets. I got in right when they became available and every day was available except September 6th and 8th. Those dates weren’t even showing as available to book. Not showing like they were sold out. The 8th was the only day I could go. I check single tickets and tour tickets and both show that way. Did I miss something and they are closed on those days specifically?

I thought I had seen somewhere that the next block of tickets starting in September was going to be released 6/16. Now I can’t seem to find that information and the official website doesn’t have any updates on that either. Does anyone have a knowledge on when they might be released or when they released the last few years?

Also, now that they don’t allow name changes in tickets, are they easier to grab? My options to go are either Sept 7th evening or the 8th in the morning.