Travel Italy: Vacation Packages, Tips, Tours of Italy

With the New Year the fashion discount season kicked off in most of Italian cities. With premier designer shops offering quality items at very cheap prices, it is an unmissable opportunity to fill up your wardrobe with the best designer fashion.

To locate the best designer shops in the major art cities located at walking distance from major tourist attractions, please have a look to our shopping in Italy guides.

If you have a chance to travel a few km outside the city center, don’t miss the opportunity to visit the only-designer outlets.
You can find the best designer deals there. Just to suggest few in the surroundings of major art cities:
- in Rome: McArthurglen Outlet in Castel Romano , 15 km away from Rome Eur (details here); Valmontone Outlet, along the motorway A1 Rome - Napoli (details here).
- in Florence: McArthurglen’s outlet in Barberino del Mugello (about 20 miles north of Florence) and
the Prada outlet in Levane-Montevarchi (about 30 miles south of Florence; direction to Arezzo).

The fashion sales season actually go on until early March, however in the early weeks of January you can catch the best bargains.

Below the 2009 winter sales start dates for the major cities and tourist areas.
- Jan 2: Napoli (Capri, Amalfi Coast and Campania), Trieste, Potenza
- Jan 3 gennaio: Bari, Bologna, Catanzaro, Genoa (Liguria), Milano (Lombardy), Palermo, Rome, Turin (Piedmont), Venice (Veneto)
- Jan 6 gennaio: Ancona (Marches)
- Jan 7 gennaio: Florence (Tuscany), Perugia (Umbria), Bolzano, Trento
- Jan 8 gennaio: Cagliari
- Jan 10 gennaio: Aosta, L’Aquila (Abruzzo).