Our 3 Best Pieces of Advice After publishing a few articles on Medium about house sitting, one of the main comments I’ve received is, “Any advice on how to get my first house sit?” They don’t even know what hit them. Any advice? You betcha! Years worth! #1 Start Locally When I first started house sitting, […]
Travel
Best Gelato in Florence? La Strega Nocciola
An unassuming spot within a two minutes’ walk of the Duomo for some of the best gelato in Florence. Where: Via Ricasoli, 16R, 50122 Firenze FI When: 12-11pm (12-8pm on Mondays) Price per person: $3-5 Recently, Darcy’s mother came to visit and, like a good and true tourist, she wanted to see Florence. Despite having […]
What is Espresso: A Brief History of Italy’s Famous Coffee
Plus, what all those coffee terms actually mean. (If you’d like to hear us talk about coffee (and drink) culture in Rome, check out our podcast! We don’t talk about the history of espresso, just the ins-and-outs of ordering coffee and what to expect.) Chances are, at some point in your life you’ve seen, tasted, […]
My 5 Favorite House Sitting Websites
Ranked in no particular order (because I love them all!) (Many of the links in this article will be affiliate links to house sitting websites. I will mark them with an asterisk (*) for ease of identifying. We may receive a small commission if you use the links provided.) For the past few years, Darcy and […]
Noisy Neighbors And Mental Health
Our first apartment in four years that lasted twelve days Above is a photo of Perugia (not mine), looking out from the steps of the post office towards one of our favorite cafés for coffee in the morning and gelato in the evening. It’s along a small piazzetta down the road from the center of […]
Getting Around Rome by Bus, Metro, or Tram
How to navigate Rome’s bus, metro, and public transportation system You’re headed to Rome. Congratulations! If you’re arriving from FCO and want to know how to get to the centro, click here. But if you’re arriving to CIA, click here instead! If this isn’t your first time in a big city (if it is, I’m […]
![CIA to Rome — How to Get to Centro From Rome’s [Other] Airport](https://onlyabag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/airport-gf13e35eaa_1280.jpg)
CIA to Rome — How to Get to Centro From Rome’s [Other] Airport
Serviced by mainly budget flights, CIA is surprisingly easy to reach from Rome and vice versa To listen to the podcast version of this article, check out our “Getting to Rome” podcast episode. In my last article, I wrote about getting from FCO (Rome’s largest Airport) to Termini (Rome’s central train station which also serves […]
5 Ways To Save Money While Traveling
Down the street or across the world, these tips can help you become a budget traveler Traveling anywhere, let alone the world, shouldn’t be as expensive as our family or friends might make it out to be. You shouldn’t have to save thousands of dollars just to go abroad for a few weeks. Here are […]
Travel Credit Cards
Benefits | Downsides | Recommendations To begin, let me first say: I am not a financial expert, and in no way qualified to give financial advice. My advice comes from personal experience. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. Also, only use a credit card if you have the money to pay off the credit card. So, […]
Codice Fiscale: What it is | How to get it
So, you want to know how to get a codice fiscale? First things first, what is a codice fiscale? A codice fiscale, or fiscal code/tax code/personal tax code/etc. is a document assigned to everyone born in Italy and anyone else who applies for it. A codice fiscale is created from someone’s personal information (birth date, […]
Getting a SIM Card In Italy
How to get a SIM card in Italy This article is designed for those who want an Italian SIM card and intend on being in Italy for at least a few weeks. It’s not designed for those passing through for a few nights, or those interested in Prepaid SIM Cards. If you’re a student, expat, […]
Chinotto: What Is It?
Italy’s National Drink If you have visited Italy, chances are, you’ve seen a dark soda with the name “chinotto.” Or, one of the more common brands, such as San Pellegrino’s Chinotto or Neri’s Chin8 (as 8 is pronounced “otto” in Italian). So, what is a “chinotto”? Chinotto is the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree, […]
FCO To Rome — How To Get To Rome’s Centro From The Airport
Leonardo Express, Trenitalia, And Taxis Are Only Three Options To listen to the podcast version of this article, click here: Getting To Rome. Most of the links in the article are affiliate links. If you use them, Only A Bag will earn a small commission. These links are our honest opinion, we don’t offer links […]
![[Budget] Restaurants in Salerno Recommendation: Pizziché](https://onlyabag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/IMG_5675-scaled.jpg)
[Budget] Restaurants in Salerno Recommendation: Pizziché
A hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Salerno, Italy for delicious, cheap food. Where: Salerno, Campania, Italy | Piazza XXIV Maggio 19 When: 10:00 – 15:00 (3:00 PM) Price per person: €5 At the very beginning of the Amalfi Coast is the coastal city of Salerno. Filled with restaurants, bars, shops, and boutiques, Salerno has remained under the […]
Packing List: House Sitting Edition
Now that you found a house sit, how do you make a packing list specifically for house sitting? Later I will write a general packing list, but since this is a house sitting-focused article, I’ll focus on what to bring when house sitting. For those of you who have traveled before, you might be like […]
Let’s Talk about the “House” in “House Sit”
How much should you clean the house when the owners are about to return? What happens if something breaks during your house sit? The most important part about the house sit, beside the pets, is the house. No-brainer, I know. However, since it’s an important topic, I might as well write about it. But first— […]
Are Masks Required in Rome This Summer? (Updated July 2022)
What are the Mask Rules in Rome, Italy during the summer of 2022? What do you need to bring? I don’t have time to read it all, can you just tell me if masks are required in Rome? They are. N95 or FFP2 masks are required in Rome on all public transportation until September 30th. […]
Setting Up Your House Sitting Profile For Any Website
How to get those first reviews and build up your profile for any house sitting website. A continuation of “What is House Sitting?” When we first decided to house sit, the questions began to flood in. How do we get started? Where do we actually travel to? Do we need reviews or will people trust […]
House Sit: Finding the Right Home Owners
Now that you’ve decided to take the leap and house sit, how to choose the right home owner? In the article about setting up your house sitting profile, I briefly touched on choosing where to go. In this post I’ll continue that idea and talk about how to choose a homeowner for your first house […]
What is House Sitting? An Introduction to the Cheapest Way to Travel
And is house sitting right for you? House sitting is, in my mind, the unicorn of traveling. Stay at someone’s house, usually taking care of their pets and plants, without money exchanging hands. In my eyes, house sitting has hit a “second wave.” Although it’s always existed in some form whether in the back of […]
