Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Best 5 Free Apps When Traveling in Italy

These days, having a smartphone with you while traveling has become quite a common thing to do and also, very helpful!

If you usually travel with a smartphone, I am sure you do it because of all the perks you can get from the millions of applications there are regarding travel and everything else travel related. So, what you usually do is search for any (quite commonly called) apps that you feel will help you with your upcoming travels, download them and expect the to work their magic while on the move, right?

Well, one of the biggest inconveniences is the fact that you don't always have data or wi-fi available while traveling, which is when the app search becomes more interesting, as you have to search for some that particularly work offline, you know, just to be safe.

Well, I found a few of these that came quite in handy while I was traveling through Italy and now I wanna share them with you. So, here's a list of The Best 5 Apps When Traveling in Italy:



GuidePal City Guides - GuidePal used to have many different apps for different cities around the world, however, they decided to make it easier for everyone and put it all together in just one app, which includes several of the most important cities in the world. It has maps and they're helpful, but, if you want/need too much detailed information, it'll cost you; however, the basic stuff that is for free is good enough to get you started.





City (Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, etc.) Map and Walking Tour - If you're a fan of Tours but are traveling on a budget, this is the App for you as it helps you make your very own Walking Tour. It tells you the more important places and landmarks to visit, where they are, their opening times and some more info that may be useful. The down side on this one would be that you have to get a different app for each city, but still, it's worth it and they're all free!




City (Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, etc.) Street Map Offline - This is one of my personal favorites as it contains a lot of general information about the different cities you're visiting. It tells you a bit of story about the place, how to get there by different kinds of transport, what to eat, and some more very helpful info you could only get from the locals. The very best about this one is the 404 it gives you on every city, and everything is completely offline, so you can take it with you wherever you go and it can get you out of trouble a few times.




Metro Roma Free - The Metro in Rome is quite easy to use as it only has 2 lines, however, it always comes in handy to know where you're going and which metro station would be easier to use and/or the walking distance from one place to another.




SpeakEasy Italian Lite - Last, but not least, comes in the communication. Oh yeah, whenever we travel we wish we had a chip with the language we'll be needing inserted but, as we all know, that is not possible (yet, anyways), which is alright since -at least- we can get these wonderful apps to help us go through life, if not speaking proper Italian (in this case), at least getting us to communicate our basics needs and to understand what the locals are trying to tell us. With SpeakEasy you'll be able to order like locals do at restaurants and to understand when crazy sales people are trying to overcharge you for your espresso.




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