Italy Travel Apps That Will Make Your Trip Smoother

Let’s face it: travel in the modern era is infinitely easier thanks to smart phones. But in some ways your travels can be harder if you don’t have the right apps for a specific trip!

On our recent two week trip to Italy, I discovered that having a few apps already installed on my iPhone was incredibly helpful. Instead of relying on slow hotel wifi and scrambling to create accounts on unfamiliar platforms, building up my app inventory from the comfort of my own home was much easier.

Perhaps my biggest mistake on our recent visit to Italy is that I didn’t pack an external phone battery pack. I meant to, but had recently updated my phone and couldn’t find the new compatible charger I had purchased specifically for the trip! Almost every day that we were exploring on foot, my phone’s battery was dead (or close) by the end of the day. It was an unnecessary source of stress, so don’t make the same mistake.

Apps for getting around in Italy

Google Maps or Apple Maps

Make sure you have your favorite navigation app at the ready!

I keep both installed and I found that Google Maps didn’t have the same “what were you thinking?” driving directions in the Dolomites (which I wrote about here) but Apple Maps offered more variety in our route options. If you’re driving anywhere other than from one major city to another on an autostrada, I suggest checking both apps to see if they agree with each other.

For city journeys, both apps do a great job of providing both walking and public transportation directions. I really recommend that you keep one of these handy to find your way!

Free Now, WeTaxi, ItTaxi and Uber

These are the apps for requesting taxis – yes, Uber works for taxis in some parts of Italy. The European apps seem to be spotty in terms of performance, Uber is more expensive than just hailing a taxi but it generally works.

Just select “taxi” in Uber rather than Uber Black, as Italy doesn’t have the more affordable UberX option we’re used to seeing in the US. Also be sure to change your preferences in Uber to charge you in local currency rather than USD to avoid extra fees.

If you have an Amex Gold or Amex Platinum, make sure it’s set up as one of your payment methods in the Uber app to take advantage of your monthly credit! The same goes for all of the United credit cards that charge an annual fee. In both cases, be sure to enroll in the ride share benefits through your credit card’s online account before your trip.

Note: You can’t use US-issued Uber gift cards for non-dollar purchases, so unfortunately those aren’t an effective way to save on Uber in Italy.

Trenitalia or Italo

Taking the train from city to city? Download the train company’s app in advance! I didn’t do that and regretted it when our train from Naples back to Rome was delayed by 80 minutes and we had to keep going over to the board to check. It would also have been easier to change our train if need be.

For the record, Italo’s trains are much nicer than Trenitalia’s.

Airline app

It goes without saying, but you should install the app for the airline you’ll be flying. If there’s a delay, you’ll often find out that way before you receive a text or email – giving you a valuable leg-up over other travels if you need to change a flight to avoid a missed connection.

🎧 Listen up!

Want more tips for visiting Italy with kids? Listen here:

Apps for staying in Italy

It’s always a good idea to download the app for your accommodations as well, but maybe not for the reason you think. Obviously it’s handy for keeping your booking easy to access.

But more importantly, it’s the easiest and best way to communicate with property managers, whether it’s a hotel or vacation rental. Keeping all messages on the platform is extremely important in case anything goes wrong. It’s actually against Airbnb’s terms for a host to ask you to connect outside of the built-in messaging service, and that’s for your protection. They want to see official documentation on the back end if you have a complaint.

That’s not to say we’ve never communicated separately with a host… when there’s something simple like calling to let them know we’ve arrived, calling can be more efficient. But if there’s anything that you want documented, from agreement to an early arrival to a complaint about bad WiFi, keep it in the app.

If you’re staying at hotels in Italy, the apps can provide lots of handy features. For example, Hiltons often let you select your specific room when you’re checking in online through their app. Hyatts will let you request an extra bathrobe, toothbrush or pillow via their app (or even connect to the TV to stream from your favorite service).

Even if you plan to uninstall it right after your trip, having the app for your Italy accommodations can give you extra piece of mind and extra benefits.

Apps for communicating in Italy

Google (Translate)

Unless you speak fluent Italian, there’s a good chance you’ll need to translate something at some point. The easiest way to do this is with Google Translate. For quick phrases, you can use a web browser and just type what you want.

Where the translate portion of the Google app really shines is for documents like menus. While many restaurants provide English translations of their Italian menus, there are sometimes hiccups. In a few places they only brought us Italian menus, whether because they didn’t have translations or because they ran out. In the Dolomites, some restaurants offer bilingual menus in Italian and German but omit any other languages. And sometimes translations are just… wonky.

In a pinch, you can take a photo of the menu and upload it to the Google Translate website. But the app is much slicker than that: just point your camera at the menu (or sign) and it’ll translate on the fly! That’s handy for something like a multi-page menu where you might be flipping back and forth. You can hit the photo button within the app to capture a picture of the translation if you want.

Would you believe that 3 billion people around the world use WhatsApp every month? That’s more than a third of the total population and more than half of adults.

Its market penetration in Italy is no different, with nearly all adults and many businesses using it. You can use WhatsApp to connect with tour guides, drivers, your hotel’s front desk staff and more. We even made restaurant reservations by firing off a quick message! While my ability to send text messages to non-iPhones was a little spotty, WhatsApp was always reliable. The downside is that it only works to contact other people who have it installed.

Airalo

This isn’t exactly an app and it isn’t exclusively for communication, but you should consider downloading a local eSIM card through Airalo. Rather than swapping out the physical SIM card of your smart phone (thus temporarily losing access to your usual phone number) you can install an eSIM in addition to give you a big chunk of data to use when traveling. That avoids roaming data fees that would be charged by your usual cell phone carrier.

For a week or two of travel, 10GB should be enough as long as you aren’t watching/uploading videos while you’re on the move. I recommend doing that stuff when you’re on WiFi at your hotel.

We relied instead on roaming with our T-Mobile service, as our plan includes unlimited international data. If you’re a Verizon customer you’d spend $12 per day or $100 per month for their travel service (though it does include at least some calling), but $12 you could get enough data to last your whole trip even accounting for a few phone calls here and there.

For a multi-country trip, you can spend a little more to get an unlimited data package that works throughout Europe. No matter which option you choose, you can set it up in advance from the comfort of your own home and then it won’t activate until you arrive and it connects.

If you’re new to Airalo, use coupon NEWTOAIRALO15 to save 15% on your first order. Existing customers can save 10% with coupon AIRALOESIM10.

Pro tip: With the death of Skype, I haven’t been able to find a great way to make affordable phone calls while overseas. I tried Rebtel and it sort of worked but then didn’t work. If you are in Italy and need to call someone in the US, have them call you! Outbound phone calls incur a huge charge but inbound calls are generally free even when you’re traveling. When calling an airline with a long wait time (which I had to do a few times), select the option to request a callback.

Apps for activities in Italy

If your trip to Italy is anything like ours, you’ll probably have a ton of different activities booked! Between skip-the-line museum tickets, guided tours, and hike parking passes it can all get overwhelming. As much as possible, I tried to centralize our activity reservations into GetYourGuide, Viator and Tiqets.

Why three apps? First off, not every activity provider has every option. For instance, I was only able to book the Colosseum Underground tour for the date I needed via Tiqets. You may also find that some platforms (or direct bookings) require you to select a specific time, while others just commit you to a particular day – that level of flexibility is always helpful for us!

Second, if you’re booking for multiple travelers (four in our case) moderate cost differences can add up. I often find that Viator is a little cheaper than GetYourGuide for the same activity, and it also offers 5% back in rewards – which can really add up if you’re booking a lot of tours.

Third, for activities that have the same price I check the Rakuten shopping portal to see which platform offers the most generous cash or points back. At some point during our Italy planning, Viator ran a special on Rakuten offering 20% cash back (or 20x American Express points) and it was definitely worth making my most expensive bookings there. If you’re new to Rakuten, sign up here to get an extra $30 back when you make your first shopping trip of at least $30!

Pro tip: If you have any American Express credit card that earns Membership Rewards points, you can choose to earn points instead of cash through Rakuten. It even works for cards with no annual fee or a low annual fee! You can often use those points for flights with a value of ~2 cents per point when you transfer to partners. That means my 20x deal on Rakuten has the potential to be like getting 40% back. It’s an amazing way to make your travel spending work for you.

But back to the apps… having these apps downloaded on your phone makes it incredibly easy and fast to pull up your tickets. It’s also the best way to reach out to your tour operator or to the platform itself if there’s an issue.

Plan your next trip to Italy

Ready to start planning an amazing Italy trip? Check out these helpful resources!

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