The Italy Travel Podcast - An Only A Bag Podcast

Looking for "hidden Italy"? This may be the place you're looking for! Immaculate coastline, tiny mountain towns that non-Italians rarely find, fresh, local food, and rosemary which may be the key to everlasting youth. In this episode, we're talking about the Cilento (pronounced chee-len-toe). Head south from the heavily-touristed Amalfi Coast to find it. The Cilento is a National Park full of mountains, lush forests, small towns and cities, some of the best food you'll ever eat, and, of course, the Costa del Cilento which stretches from Agropoli to Sapri.

If you'd like to support Only A Bag and you're headed to the Amalfi Coast (or anywhere!) you can use our ⁠Booking.com⁠ link to book your next trip!

And if you'd like to donate, you can do so at our Ko-fi (pronounced "coffee"), linked ⁠here⁠.

If you have any questions, you can find us on our website⁠ or on Instagram and ⁠Bluesky!

Thank you so much for listening!

It wouldn't feel right to put out a bunch of episodes centered on how to live in Italy without also mentioning some of the things that can make Italy a difficult country to live in. We don't go super in-depth into any of these topics, instead just offering some anecdotal and experience-based information (with actual research as well, to be clear) on freedom of speech/press, Corruption and Trash, Racism, and Fascism.

You might be able to tell that we're very cautious about the way we speak, and this is due to not wanting to be sued for saying something that someone else might take as slander. Though in case it isn't crystal clear from this episode: Fascism = Bad and Italy allowing those elements to forment and grow in power = Really Bad.

In this episode we mention a bakery, but didn't have in our notes the exact quote. The bakery is called "L'assalto ai Forni" or "The assault on the ovens" in Ascoli Piceno.

The original quote on their sign for Liberation Day was "25 aprile: buono come il pane, bello come l'antifascismo" meaning "April 25: as good as bread, as beautiful as anti-fascism."

If there's any part of this episode you'd like to know more about, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask!

And for those of you who prefer to just listen to episodes about what to see and where to eat, fear not! We shall return to those soon, we just wanted to wrap up the "Living in Italy" segment first.

Thank you for listening!

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Deviating slightly from the episode we expected to make, this week we're talking about the Amalfi Coast. We've touched on it slightly before, but with the summer season starting to ramp up, we wanted to talk about how to get to this popular summer destination, things to look out for, some pastries to try, and how to not get trapped out there!

If you'd like to check out some articles to get an idea of how to plan your trip, you can check them out below:

3 Best Towns on the Amalfi Coast for Families

How to Get to the Amalfi Coast from Rome

Is there an Amalfi Coast Airport?

And on our website, you can find even more!

If you'd like to support Only A Bag and you're headed to the Amalfi Coast (or anywhere!) you can use our Booking.com link to book your next trip!

And if you'd like to donate, you can do so at our Ko-fi (pronounced "coffee"), linked here.

Thank you so much for listening!

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To round up our series of episodes about visas, today we're talking about the digital nomad and remote worker visas. They are possibly the most complicated of the visas available mostly because there is less information about to how receive these visas compared to others like the student visa or elective residency visa. For more information on all of the visas we've talked about you can check out Nathaniel's article "How to Move to Italy: The Ultimate Guide for Americans (2025)."

For more info about being a digital nomad in Italy check out some of our other articles here.

In this episode we mention the list of "highly skilled" jobs that you must fall into to be approved for the digital nomad visa. You can find the list on the official government website here.

At the beginning of this episode we mention the sad news of the passing of Pope Francis on Monday, April 21. We also touch on how the recently announced (and unrelated) Venice tourist tax could affect your travel this summer. Plus, we received a very helpful tip from a listener after last week's episode. They pointed out that, in March, Italy announced a decree which could affect the Jus Sanginis (or birthright visa) requirements. We will keep you updated with that as the final decision will be made in May.

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate to us on ⁠Ko-fi⁠. This fund will help us buy new equipment for the podcast, like new mics! For more information or to contact us you can go to onlyabag.com!

Thank you all so much for listening!

Jure Sanguinis Update: A major "thank you" to one of our listeners for pointing out a recent decree from March 28th that affects birthright citizenship. Under the new ruling, the only people who are applicable are those with Italian parents who were born in Italy, those with Italian parents who lived in Italy for a minimum of 2 consecutive years before giving birth to you, and those with grandparents who were born in Italy.

This isn't a law yet, just a decree, and the Italian government has until the end of May to pass it into a law or abolish it. We will update you all on it as it progresses!

More of our mini-series "How To Live In Italy!" In this episode we talk about three of the major pathways to citizenship in Italy; the golden visa, elective residency visa (often called "the retirement visa"), and birthright citizenship (Jus Sanginis). Is the golden visa just for the uber rich? Sort of. Do I have to be of "retirement age" to apply for the elective residency visa? And finally, you've been told your whole life "we're Italian!" or maybe you just found out on an ancestry test, so how do you claim citizenship? We'll answer all of those question and more in this episode.

We touched on the so called "retirement visa" in a previous episode, How To Live In Italy: Work Visa and Retirement Visa, but we wanted to mention it again because it can be a great option for people with outside income who are looking to live in Italy. And because *spoiler* there is no age restriction.

For more info, you can check out Nathaniel's article "How to Move to Italy: The Ultimate Guide for Americans" on our website. Don't forget to bookmark it to reference later!

If you'd like to support the podcast you can donate to us on Ko-fi. This fund will help us buy new equipment for the podcast, like new mics!

Thank you all so much for listening!

We have fit everything we possibly could about this incredible city into this episode! How do I get there? What is there to do? Why is it called "The City of Caves?" Should I even bother going? Yes! We'll tell you all about it. In this episode we talk about everything you need to know to visit, but the city's history is vast, so we only touch on that a little. But we'll be doing a deep dive into the history of this 7,000 year old community in a later episode, so stay tuned!

In this episode we mentioned several restaurants which were all amazing! Here's where we ate:

Lunch: Da Nonna Rosa (Via Lucana, 166, 75100 Matera MT)

Drinks: Monkey Drink House (Via Duomo, 9, 75100 Matera MT)

Dinner: Osteria al Casale (Via Madonna delle Virtù, 29, 75100 Matera MT)

Gelato: I Vizi degli Angeli (Via Domenico Ridola, n.36, 75100 Matera MT)

Forno (bread shop): Panificio Paoluccio (Via del Corso, 22, 75100 Matera MT)

Cafe/pastry shop: Bar Caffè Tripoli (Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 17, 75100 Matera MT)

The entrance to the hike across the Gravina (ravine) is here.

Thanks so much for listening! You can check out articles on ⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠⁠ with new articles coming out all the time. You can help the podcast by using our affiliate links for booking hotels and rental cars!

If you liked the podcast, please leave a review, it helps us immensely! You can contact us on our website and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you're listening to this podcast.

Picking up where we left off in the previous episode, we continue to cover setting and managing expectations, especially as they surround food, sharing responsibilities, and getting clear on what you want to do and see (or don't want to).

Thanks so much for listening! You can check out articles on ⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠ with new articles coming out all the time.

If you liked the podcast, please leave a review, it helps us immensely! You can contact us on our website and follow us on ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠ and wherever you're listening to this podcast.

Traveling with someone else can be an amazing opportunity to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It can also be incredibly stressful if you've never traveled before, or traveled together before.

In this Part 1 of 2, we discuss setting expectations around a budget and transportation.

Thanks so much for listening! You can check out articles on ⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠ with new articles coming out all the time.

If you liked the podcast, please leave a review, it helps us immensely! You can contact us on our website and follow us on ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠ and wherever you're listening to this podcast.

"Is tap water safe to drink in Italy?", "What's the deal with tipping?", "Do they expect me to use the bidet in a public bathroom?", and perhaps most importantly, "Why does the alarm go off in a public toilet when I pull that thin cord?". In this episode we answer all that and more! We also discover how incensed Darcy is about a rage-bait Instagram video and Nathaniel's views on tipping culture.

Thanks so much for listening! You can check out articles on ⁠onlyabag.com⁠ with new articles coming out all the time.

If you liked the podcast, please leave a review, it helps us immensely! You can contact us on our website and follow us on ⁠Bluesky⁠ and wherever you're listening to this podcast.

After our recent trips to Venice and Florence we thought we'd share some of our hard-learned tips that have become second nature. Can you be fined for sitting in the wrong seat on a train? What do you do if you get separated while traveling? We will also talk about setting expectations, the importance of communicating your needs to your travel partner(s), and how crucial it is to bring two pairs of shoes (Nathaniel didn't and paid dearly).

In this episode we mention Nathaniel's article "Espresso Drinks and How to Order Them" which explains each type of coffee drink you can order at a cafe in Italy; hint: an American "macchiato" is not an Italian macchiato.

Thanks so much for listening! You can check out more articles on onlyabag.com with new articles coming out all the time.

If you liked the podcast you, please leave a review, it helps us immensely! You can contact us on our website and follow us on Bluesky and wherever you're listening to this podcast.