The italians have gyms, believe it or not. They are a little different than American ones but you can get everything you need to done. The grocery stores are different and almost everything has to be prepared so unless you have a kitchen and you know how to prepare that food you will probably be eating out alot.
I’d bring supplements with you. You may find a sympathetic pharmacia in some places where you could hook up with Deca or some other androgens, but I wouldn’t know where to find supplements (they also have liquid xanax, whoopeee!), maybe at a gym.
You will not gain any weight there.
The main transportation is your feet and if you watch the way the italians drive, you’ll want to keep it that way. Traditionally 3 cars fit in 2 lanes and scooters fit between the cars; you’ll see when you get there.
When you sit down at a ristorante you have a choice of a .5 liter or full liter of wine, many places don’t sell by the glass. If you get a coke, it will be the size of a thimbal and if it has ice, it will have one or two cubes.
Outside the american fast food joints, they don’t know what diet soda is. BTW, yes they sell beer at McDonald’s and yes they dip thier fries in mayo, which actually isn’t bad. The tratorias are restaraunts that sell more traditional food, supposedly, I couldn’t tell the difference.
If you traval to Milano you can see everything worth seeing in a day, however, the best ristarante in Italy is there. When you get to the “Centrali” train station take the subway to the middle of the city, that’s where the “Duomo” and all the historic shit is.
Once you are done there get back on the subway and take the yellow line (I think) and go to the “Di Angeli” station. Once you climb the stairs, look behind you and there is a street called “Via Margera” (FYI: Street signs are rare) the restaurant is called “57 Margera” written in blue.
I recommend the “Filete al pepe verde”, it is to die for. Tell them Pat the american sent you and they won’t know who the fuck your talking about.
I worked in Italy for several months in 2000, that is why I know all this shit.
A couple of more tips, bother to learn italian, english is rarer than you think, even in the touristy areas. Finally, if you do nothing else, GO TO ROME. It is just friggin amazing.