About Italy Trip Planner
Most travel advice is a memory: someone went once and wrote it up. We build our Italy guides on current data and official sources, and three partners who work in Italian tourism check our advice in their part of the country. Every guide says how we know what it says.
Founder story
I was born and raised in Athens, where I still live. I trained as an engineer, and I work with data. My first travel site was Greek Trip Planner, which I built with four friends who work in Greek tourism.
Today I run a small portfolio of country trip-planner sites. Greek Trip Planner came first, Portugal Trip Planner second, and Italy Trip Planner is the third. Each site has its own local partners, and each tells you who checked what.
The research is the engineering part of this job, and I do it myself. For every place on this site I work through the official and primary sources: Italy's national and regional tourism boards, the rail and ferry operators' own timetables, the official ticket sites for museums and archaeological sites. When something changes, I try to get the guide updated before it trips you up.
I've been to Como and Milan for work in 2023, and to Sicily in 2025: Catania, a drive up Etna, Syracuse, Messina and Taormina. Everywhere else on this site I know from research, not from a visit, and I'd rather tell you that than fake it. That's why three partners who work in Italian tourism check our advice in their areas, and why every guide says how we know what it says.
Panos
The people
One founder who researches every place, and three partners who work in Italian tourism and check our advice for their own part of the country, regularly. A guide one of them has checked says who and when.
Founder · Athens · Engineer and data analyst
Founder of Greek Trip Planner, Portugal Trip Planner and Italy Trip Planner. Engineer by training. Researches every place on this site, builds the trip planner, writes and edits the guides. Visited Como and Milan in 2023 and Sicily in 2025.
Milan & Como · Restaurants
Restaurant owner in Milan and Como. Checks our food and restaurant advice for Milan and Como.
Rome · Tourist bus driver
Tourist bus driver based in Rome. Checks our Rome advice and how we tell you to get around by road: driving times, traffic, transfers and day trips.
Naples & Catania · Tour guide
Tour guide in Naples and Catania, half Greek and half Italian. Checks our advice on sights and tours in Naples and Catania.
Our method
Every guide on this site carries one of three labels under its title, so you always know where its advice comes from.
Label 1
Built from primary sources: ENIT and the italia.it portal, regional tourism boards, Trenitalia and Italo timetables, ferry operators, official ticket sites and ISTAT figures. Every guide starts here.
Label 2
One of our partners in Italy has checked that the advice is current and worth following. The label names who and when.
Label 3
One of us has personally been there or done it. The label names who and when, and only Panos sets it, after the visit really happened.
What carries over
Italy isn't Greece. But planning trips in two other countries taught us lessons that apply here too.
Building Greek Trip Planner with friends who run tours, transfers and hotels showed us how tours are priced, which add-ons are padding and what makes an operator reliable. We use that when we choose what to recommend in Italy.
The most common planning mistake is cramming. In Italy that means planning around real travel times: when the train beats the car, when a timed museum entry fixes your morning, how long the ferry to the islands really takes.
When a famous place is overrun or overpriced, we say so and suggest the alternative. The second-best-known place is often the best day of the trip.
Travel information goes stale fast: timetables shift, ticket rules change, prices rise every summer. Keeping the research current is the part Panos treats as engineering work.
The free trip planner runs on the same engine as Greek Trip Planner, fed with Italy's places, trains and ferries. It asks about your pace, budget and interests before it builds a day-by-day plan.
Affiliate links are disclosed, paid placements are labelled and kept apart, and nobody can pay to be recommended. Those rules were set on Greek Trip Planner and apply here unchanged.
Transparency
Being upfront costs us nothing and earns your trust. Here's how we operate.
Researched, Local check or Been there: each guide says how we know. If none of us has seen it, the guide says so.
Some links earn us a small commission if you book (hotels, tours, trains, transfers, car hire, insurance). It costs you nothing extra and never decides what we recommend.
We don't take Featured Partners on this site yet. When we do, they'll be clearly labelled, shown in their own sections and never mixed in with our recommendations.
We use AI to help research and draft, and we say exactly how. Nothing is published automatically: Panos reviews and edits every guide first.
Fair question
Because it started the way Greek Trip Planner did: friends asking me for travel advice, and me spending hours building their itineraries. A free planner and honest guides are the better version of that.
The site pays for itself through affiliate commissions, not through you. We'd rather earn a commission on a hotel we'd recommend to a friend than charge you for advice.
FAQ
The ones that come up most, answered honestly.
Because the problem is the one I've been solving for Greece: travellers arrive with three famous names in mind, cram too much into too few days, and plan around advice that's generic or out of date.
I'm a visitor in Italy, not a local, so I don't pretend otherwise. I do the research myself, three partners who work in Italian tourism check our advice in their areas, and every guide tells you which applies.
No. I've been to Como and Milan for work in 2023, and to Sicily in 2025: Catania, a drive up Etna, Syracuse, Messina and Taormina. Everywhere else on this site I know from research, and from our partners in Milan and Como, Rome, Naples and Catania.
Each guide carries one label, Researched, Local check or Been there, with who and when for the last two. The details are in our editorial policy.
Yes, as a research and writing tool, and we say so openly. AI helps gather and organise sources and draft guides; Panos checks and edits every guide before it is published, and AI never sets a “Local check” or “Been there” label. The trip planner is AI too: it turns our guides into a first draft of your trip. The details are in our editorial policy.
Lorenzo is a restaurant owner in Milan and Como and checks our food and restaurant advice there. Andrea is a tourist bus driver based in Rome and checks our Rome advice and how we tell you to get around by road. Costantino is a tour guide in Naples and Catania and checks our advice on sights and tours there. They check regularly, and a guide they've checked says so, with the date.
Yes. I run a small portfolio of country trip-planner sites: Greek Trip Planner came first, then Portugal Trip Planner, then this one. They share the founder, the editorial rules and the engine they run on. The guides, the recommendations and the local partners are separate: on this site, only the people named on this page check the advice.
Through affiliate commissions when you book a hotel, tour, train or transfer through our links, at no extra cost to you. We don't take paid Featured Partner placements on this site yet; when we do, they'll be clearly labelled and kept apart from our own recommendations. The full detail is in our editorial policy.
The free trip planner is built for most trips. If yours is complicated (several weeks, the islands plus the mainland, accessibility needs), email us and we'll do our best.
Contact
We like hearing from travellers: a question about your trip, a correction (a timetable changed, a ticket rule moved), or just news that your trip went well. If you live in Italy and think we got something wrong, we especially want to hear from you.
Start with the guides. When you are ready, the free planner drafts your route from the same research.