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Provincial tourism boards control most information, so ENIT (Ente Nazionale Italiano per il Turismo), the national tourist office, is well-intentioned but of little help. However, you will find links to the local Lombardy tourist boards on their website.

Local informazioni turistiche offices, often indicated as “APT” or “Pro Loco”, are good for free maps, sight and museum opening hours, and hotel directories. The amount of information beyond that varies widely, but most are friendly. Milan’s tourist office is on Piazza del Duomo at Via Marconi 1 (02-7252-4301 ), with a branch in Stazione Centrale (02-7252-4360 ).

Citizens of the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia need only a valid passport to visit Italy for up to 90 days for tourism.

You may bring into Italy personal items with the following quirky limits: 400 cigarettes (or 550 grammes of tobacco), 2 cameras, 10 rolls of film, a pair of skis, two tennis rackets, one shooting gun with 200 cartridges and a litre of alcohol.

Most shops and businesses open at 8 or 9am, shut for riposo from about 12:30 to 3 or 4pm (museums and churches, too), and close around 6–8pm. In larger cities, the riposo is disappearing in favour of orario continuato , working straight through.

Italy is on 220V/50 cycles. To operate a 110V device you need a converter (most laptops and camcorders have this built in). To plug it in, you need an adapter from your pronged plugs to Continental Europe’s two round pins.

Most hotels 3-stars and above get satellite TV with CNN and BBC news. Train station and central piazza newsstands are best for finding English-language newspapers (the International Herald Tribune comes with an Italy Daily insert). Informer (www.informer.it) is Milan’s ex-pat English-language magazine.

Lombardy has a mild climate, a bit hotter and drier than most of the UK. August heat can be oppressive, while January snow is common. Spring’s middle ground keeps hotels booked in the cities, but summer is the season for the lakes. There is some winter skiing in the Alps ringing the lakes to the north.

High season is Easter–Jul and Sep–Oct. But while cities are deserted mid to late Aug, lakeside resorts are packed right through Jul–Aug. Milan’s trade fairs (Mar, Apr, Oct) make finding hotel rooms and classier dinner reservations nigh impossible. National holidays are: 1 & 6 Jan, Easter Sun & Mon, 25 Apr, 1 May, 15 Aug, 1 Nov, and 8, 25 & 26 Dec.

Italians dress well, so it’s a good idea to take at least one nice outfit, though few restaurants require jacket and tie. Many churches do not allow bare knees or shoulders (no shorts, miniskirts, or vests).