25 Things to do Alone on Your Solo Travel to Italy

Solo travellers mistake that they have conquered the joy over the moon by traveling alone. Travel is not limited to tourist places. You can do certain things to take your solo travel to Italy to the next level. Instead of confiding in the routine by taking pictures, you must confront the ordinary, colouring it with sheeny things.

This blog is a guidebook about doing alone on your solo trip to Italy. These things that transform your solo travel time in Italy come effortlessly. Not a big deal. The things are as simple as talking with a local in Italian, helping a traveller, teaching English to the natives that you can handily excel on your solo travel to Italy.

Ready! 

1. Romantic date with the self

I could not help thinking of anything happier alone on my solo trip to Italy than Gondola rides. Gondola rides thy name is music, romance, peace, and scenic vision. 

2. Find a not-so-popular museum and walk into it. 

Visiting a museum is a religious thing you will end up doing in Italy. There are countless museums in Italy, most of which are significant tourists spot. So, you can not avoid visiting museums in Italy. To rightly point based on my solo travel experience in Italy, there are many more unpopular museums in Italy. Plan your time to visit one such museum in Italy. 

• The secluded museums are less crowded. 
• They are calm and concentrative.
• The entry ticket is comparatively less. 
• You can spend your time on every single artefact. 

For example, the Cappelle Medicee museum in Florence is an underrated, not-so-crowded museum in Italy. Visiting a museum that gives you time to process the experience is the best thing to do alone in Italy as a solo traveller.

3. Hiking trails 

On a general note, I like hiking. You would know how much I Love Mount Etna if you have read my other blogs. Mount Etna in Sicily, Mount Vesuvius in Naples, and Dolomite mountains are terrific places to hike. 

4. Enjoy the scene from the shore

If you can spend hours on the sea doing the sea chores like swimming, diving, playing, you can stay outside the sea for hours, not sleeping but simply enjoying. You can have more fun on the shore. 

• Secure a nice spot to lie down. 
• Let the spot be overlooking the beach. 
• Now you have got a panoramic picture to admire. 
• Add a beat to the view by plugging on the earphone. 
• Play the songs on your favourite list. 
• Now, direct your eyes to the surrounding. 
• Observe the happening around the sea. Trust me—you can witness everything from romance and family to even drama!

See, now you know staying onshore is more fun. So, do this thing whenever you spot a beach like the beaches in Sicilian Islands on your solo travel to Italy. 

5. Say NO to vehicles and be on your foot everywhere

Walk! Walk as much you can. It is not only a good exercise when you are away from the reach of the gym. It is an exciting thing to do as a solo traveller on your travel to Italy. The immediate picture of a solo traveller I can imagine is a person carrying a rucksack with hair pressed into a high knot bun wearing loose clothes with unmatching sneakers walking around the streets. Who real it is, is a different story. But travellers walking is an implanted memory to many people like me. 

So, when you take part in this tradition, it is nice. Florence, Milan, and Bologna are a few places where you can entirely cover the tourist locations on your foot. Personally, while walking, I feel confident and independent as a person. If you want to feel what freedom looks like, say NO to comfortable rides and start walking. Let the air of freedom catch you. 

6. Allocate time for local shows

Pretty sure you must have got tickets to tourists spots like Vatican City, Pisa Tower, to name a few. Have you had plans on watching a movie in Italian theatres?  

Yes. 90% of the time, the things you indulge in on solo travel are constricted to the tourist attractions in Italy. You unconsciously belittle the normal experience that gives equal happiness. For example, what is so wrong with watching Spiderman in Italian theatre. That could actually be a delightful thing to do alone on your solo travel to Italy without spending much.

In the same way, you can reserve your time for local concerts and operas. For example, Scala Theater in Milan or Fenice Theatre in Venice is a great choice. 

7. Sign up for a massage section

Don’t you want to know how Italian masseuse hands work on your body? No? Don’t you want to brag about the relaxing massage you got in Italy with your friends? 

Seriously! Again no?

It is okay if you are not interested in massages. How about hot springs? You can NOT say no to hot springs. If you don’t want others’ hands on you, hot springs are your choice. The Ischia Island in Naples overflowing with hot springs, thermal falls, hydro massages is the go-to destination for healthy massages in Italy. 

8. Cook your traditional food

If you happen to stay in a local’s house or signed into couch surfing, you can take it to your advantage and prepare your home meal for the host family or co-backpackers. Cooking your traditional food in an Italian home is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity a traveller can get. So, don’t miss out on this experience of turning a host into a host family. 

9. Bring your favourite book to read in a garden

The gardens are refreshing and relaxing. I like to relax in gardens spreading my body against the greeny grasses. Pretty much all of us like to lie down and take a cat nap in the garden. But how cool is it to read a favourite book of yours while you are relaxing in the garden? It is a pleasant thing to do on your solo travel to Italy. Try it out. Share your experiences in the comment section. Let me know how well you liked reading a book peacefully.

10. Design your postcard

Preparing your postcard of Italy is the aesthetic thing to do on solo travel to Italy. Despite my best efforts, I could not fix one location to pose for my postcard photograph. I fluctuated between Cinque Terre, The Roman Forum, and Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral—quite hard to pick one milestone beauty in Italy. You can include the Italian national flower, Alpine Lily, in your postcard. Hold the flower right in front of the camera lenses while the background is filled with the aesthetic location.

11. Join a local tour

Joining tours like cooking and wine tasting is an interesting thing to do in Italy. While the tours are available in every region of Italy, experience-wise I suggest you take

• Cooking classes in Bologna
• Wine tasting in Tuscany
• Glassmaking in Murano
• Carnival mask workshop in Venice 
• Hunting tours in Emilia Romagna

Save your time alone doing useful things like these on your solo travel in Italy.

12. Converse in Italian

An impressive thing to do in Italy is conversing in the Italian language with the natives. Importantly, conversing with the shopkeepers. Shopping is the right moment for you to exhibit your language skills. When you converse in broken Italian, the shopkeepers understand your efforts and reply with a welcoming smile. And, that’s exactly the moment you will feel butterflies inside but conceal it outside, carrying on with your broken Italian. 

13. Eat pizza in roadside kiosk

A memorable thing to do in Italy is eating pizza. That extra memorable thing to do is eating pizza on the roadside kiosk. The taste surpasses the galaxy! Finding pizza shops in Italy is not an Excalibur quest. Local shops can be easily spotted in and around the areas of tourism

14. Help a traveller like you

In the thousands and thousands of people, you may encounter someone as clueless as you are. From my experience, I can say you can get the cues of confusion in a person. Do not think twice before attending them if you come across people like that, especially solo travellers. 

Help the soul in disaster. Even though it is ethically the right thing to do, the happy smile from the solo traveller and the satisfaction you get from that make your travel experience in Italy a memorable time. 

15. Trying adventure activities in Italy 

Adventure is overused in talks of travel. Travel and adventure are intertwined. One’s succession is joined by the other. For your solo travel experience in Italy to succeed, you have to do adventurous things. Italy opens to you many adventure activities. Click here to view them. 

16. Strolling the streets licking gelatos

No one leaves Italy without landing their taste buds on gelatos. And, gelatos has become the signifier of travel to Italy. You might have seen people posting a picture of them holding a gelato on social media. Guess what! An unusual thing to do in Italy on your solo travel is to buy three to four gelatos. Lick them taking turns as you roam in the streets of Italy. 

17. Teach English to the natives

Teaching English to the natives is one of the feel-good things to do on solo travel to Italy. Like your enthusiasm towards Italian, the locals have a fit for English. They observe the varying English spoken by the travellers. It amuses them. You can casually befriend a local and teach them a handful of words in English. Of course, it will not go well in metropolitan cities, but you can try it in local neighbourhoods. 

18. Crack a joke with a local 

Not joking.

I have tried it. Turns out, the jokes never work out, but in the end, laughing is guaranteed. Attempting a joke with a local is difficult to do on your solo travel to Italy. Warning alert! Don’t blindly grab a person to do this activity. I tried it with the locals who were familiar to me. It is not decent to try it with a random person crossing you in the street. But for sure, you have to try it out! 

19. Maintain a travel journal

As many travellers like travelling, they don’t show immense interest in recording their travel experience. For instance, I, too, was not into maintaining journals. Photographs were sufficient to bring back memories. On the advice of a solo traveller like me, whom I met at a dorm, I started writing about my travel experiences. Keeping a travel journal locks your memory lanes of Italy at one spot. 

20. Dine at a restaurant

Dining in a restaurant all alone is a fearless thing to do on a solo trip. I accept, when you dine alone, it is natural to feel that everybody else’s eyes are on you. I have been in those situations. Dining alone sounds like a hurtful thing until you reach home and are forced to share your favourite meal with your friends at a restaurant. Haha. I think of those silent blessed moments now. 

21. Bargain and buy souvenirs

Buying souvenirs is a dutiful thing to do in travel. Even so, doing it alone may not be entertaining, but sadly there is not much option open to you. You are alone and have to do it alone. I wish you could use some help while bargaining. Anyway, you can manage as a solo traveller with prior experience. 

22. Be a walking alarm

To ensure your safety in Italy as a traveller travelling alone, you must be alert 24x 7. No turning back. You are responsible for your stay in Italy. Hence, you have to play extra roles working as a surveillance camera of yourself. Do not hesitate to reach out for help.

23. Make your own decisions 

Trust your instinct. Trusting yourself is the holy grail thing to imbibe on your solo travel to Italy. You have decided to travel to Italy and have come this long. Continue in tune. Trust the ways of your mind. Be confident in executing your thoughts. Of course, not every road is flat as a pancake. Sometimes, your decision may result in disturbances. It is okay to get lost because you decided to take a different route. It is okay even if your decision builds trouble into your plan. Whatever it could be, the most valuable thing you can learn from your solo travel to Italy is to make your own decision.

24. Accept the outcomes 

Is trusting yourself enough? Nope. 

First, you have to be ready to trust your instinct. As a result, if you face disappointment, you have to be ready to accept it. Don’t direct the accusing fingers to yourself. One of the lessons I learnt alone as a solo traveller in Italy is to embrace the chaos. Yes, however chaotic things turn out, don’t be the judge of your case. Don’t feel guilty, either. Things meant to happen, happen anyway. So, just do what you feel inside and face the outcome at ease.

25. Do things that marvel at you

At the last resort, solo travel is about eliminating doubt and elevating the soul. It is the best time to unhook the sagginess. A time of rejuvenation. A time alone to enjoy your existence. 

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world.” Dream, discover. Happy Travelling alone.