Our editorial approach
Italy Trip Planner exists to publish useful, specific travel guides that help you plan a better trip to Italy. It's one of a small portfolio of country trip-planner sites run by the same founder, Panos, alongside Greek Trip Planner and Portugal Trip Planner. The sites share the editorial rules on this page; each has its own guides and its own local partners.
Most travel advice is built on a visit: someone went once, a year or five ago, and wrote it up. Italy changes faster than that: timetables shift, ticket rules change, prices move every summer. So we start from current data and primary sources, and ask partners who work in Italian tourism to check the details that change fastest.
We aim to be current, practical (what to book, where to stay, which train to take, how long things take), honest (including when a famous place isn't worth the queue) and specific (names, prices, times, not "wander the charming streets").
Panos is Greek, not Italian. We say that openly, and it's why every guide tells you how we know what it says.
How we know what we know
Every guide shows one of these labels under its title. Local check and Been there also show who and when.
| Label | What it means | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Researched | Compiled from primary sources: ENIT and the italia.it portal, regional tourism boards, Trenitalia and Italo timetables, ferry operators' own timetables and prices, the official ticket sites of museums and archaeological sites, ISTAT figures, and traveller review data. | The default for every guide |
| Local check | One of our partners in Italy, named on our About page, has checked that the advice is current and worth following. | Panos, after the check has happened |
| Been there | One of us has personally been there, stayed there, eaten there or done the trip. | Panos, after the visit has happened |
A guide shows one label. It stays "Researched" until a person has checked it or been there; a checked guide may still contain researched parts, and when that matters the label says what was checked. No software, script or AI tool sets or upgrades a label. When a guide is checked again, the label and its date change.
How we make money
Everything on Italy Trip Planner is free to read and use. The site earns from affiliate commissions, and later from clearly labelled Featured Partner placements.
1. Affiliate commissions
When we link to hotels, tours, tickets, trains, ferries, transfers, car hire, eSIMs or travel insurance, some of those links are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Our partners include Booking.com for hotels, GetYourGuide and Viator for tours and tickets, Omio for trains and Ferryscanner for ferries, mostly through the Travelpayouts network, along with selected car hire, transfer, eSIM and insurance providers.
We decide what to recommend first, then check whether an affiliate link exists. If the best option has no affiliate programme, we still recommend it. Affiliate links in our guides carry rel="sponsored".
2. Featured Partner placements: not yet, and always labelled
Italy Trip Planner is new and doesn't carry any paid placements yet. When it does, every placement will carry a visible "Featured Partner" label, look distinct from our editorial content, and sit in its own section or as a labelled row in a comparison table. Paid placements are never mixed into, or ranked with, our own recommendations.
What we don't do
- Accept payment for editorial recommendations
- Publish sponsored content disguised as editorial
- Sell dofollow links: commercial links carry rel="sponsored"
- Sell or share your personal data
- Present researched information as first-hand experience
Editorial independence
This is the part we care about most. Affiliate relationships and paid placements never influence what we recommend or how we rank it.
- Recommend first, monetise second. The list is written before we look at commissions.
- Negative is allowed. If a popular attraction, tour or hotel disappoints, we say so, even when it would pay us.
- The friend test. We only recommend what we'd tell a friend visiting Italy to book.
- Partners can't edit. A Featured Partner can check its listing for factual accuracy, but the wording and placement are ours.
Featured Partners
When we open placements, businesses must be legitimately operating, well reviewed across independent platforms, and something we'd be comfortable recommending. We remove a placement if quality drops during a contract. The rules and terms are on our Featured Partner page.
How we make these guides
We use AI in our work, and we'd rather tell you exactly how than leave you guessing.
Who researches
Panos, an engineer and data analyst, chooses what to cover, using search data on what travellers want to know about Italy, and does the research himself. He works systematically through every source available for a place: ENIT and the italia.it portal, regional tourism boards, Trenitalia and Italo, ferry operators, the official ticket sites of museums and archaeological sites, ISTAT, and traveller review data.
What AI does
AI tools help gather and organise that research, structure the guide and write the first draft. They also suggest booking links and find licensed photos. AI never sets a "Local check" or "Been there" label: those record what a person actually did.
Who checks it
Nothing is published automatically. Panos reviews and edits every guide before it goes live. Our partners in Italy (named on our About page) check the advice for their own areas regularly, and a guide they've checked says "Local check", with who and when. Anything nobody has checked first-hand stays labelled "Researched".
The trip planner
Our free AI trip planner turns your answers (dates, pace, budget, interests) into a day-by-day first draft of your trip. It only routes through places we have guides for, links each one, and picks hotels and tours from those our guides recommend. It is an automated tool: check timetables, opening times and prices before you travel.
Content accuracy & updates
Being current is the point of this site. Travel information changes constantly: timetables shift, ticket rules change, prices rise every summer. Keeping the research current is part of Panos's job, our partners flag what changes in their areas, and a guide shows an update date when it has been changed.
Prices are approximate and vary by season. Always confirm details with the operator before you book. If you spot something outdated or wrong, email us at panos@greektriplanner.me. Confirmed corrections go into the guide with the new update date.
Photography
We use licensed photos, and we record each photo's licence and credit with it.
Questions about this policy?
If you have questions about where our advice comes from, how we use AI, our affiliate relationships or anything else on this page, email us at panos@greektriplanner.me. We're happy to explain.