2 weeks in Southern Italy

We are planning 5 weeks in Italy next Sept! We will be going to Rome,Tuscany,Cinque Terre,Venice and Amalfi Coast.

Which would be the best direction of places to go? We do not want our last week in Rome as we prefer Rome in the beginning of the trip! Which would be the best last place to be other than Rome for easiest access to a departure airport. Thanks

First off- thanks in advance for any advice! (first time posting)

We are planning a ~2.5-3 week trip to Italy for May 2022 with our 2 kids (6 and 8).

My idea of a dream Italy vacay is cozy farms, beautiful scenery, amazing food, space for the kids to run and explore, bike rides, horse rides, and an authentic feel.

We also like to take our time in places vs trying to rush and see it all. I feel we have to see Rome and Venice but also know our kids will easily get overwhelmed and tired by the big cities.

Based on that, I have loosely come up with the following itinerary:

Fly into Rome (found a great points flight from our city); 3 nights here

5 nights in Umbria (agriturismo)

5 nights in Tuscany (agriturismo)

? 1-2 nights in Bergamo (my hubby has been and loves Citta Alta neighbourhood)

3 nights in Venice - fly home

Any thoughts on this? I love the idea of Cinque Terre but perhaps best to save it for another time (without the kids!).

Thank you!! Cait

We have planned out and booked most of a 2-week trip to Italy. We had to cancel this same itinerary in the fall of 2020.

We are set to arrive in Italy on August 29th, 2021 with a week in a villa just outside of Montepulciano then on to Sorrento and Rome for another week.

Does anyone have a sense of whether hoteliers and villa agents have cancellation mandates or guidelines now that Italy is back at Red Alert?

We want to take it all in while in Italy, and would not want to be restricted from restaurants, have to wear masks most of the time, etc.

We are looking at taking a trip to Italy in October. This will be our first trip as new parents without a baby and we are 100% interested in relaxing, taking our time walking pretty streets, eating delicious food, and drinking even more delicious wine. If we don't do a single museum or go to any popular tourist sites- fine by us! We are wanting to go somewhere with comfortable weather- not too warm, not too cold, but maybe cool enough for a light jacket in the evenings. We were last in Italy (Puglia) for our babymoon in March 2020 when everything went nuts there and our trip was less enjoyed, as a result.

I appreciate any and all help.

Hello, my husband and I (both fully vaccinated) will be in Switzerland for one month (Sept. 21-October 21). We are thinking of extending our trip for 1-2 weeks and visiting Italy because we end up in Lugano, and would be able to take the train to Italy. (We will need to return to Zurich for our flight home, so as to avoid change fees.)

We have been to Italy several times, but have never done anything other than the main cities and tourist areas. We did visit Cinque Terre from Florence on one trip, and did the hike from village to village, and we have visited Lake Como twice, but only on day trips. We also did a vacation in Italy one time that included the Dolomites, Verona and Sienna. We love nature, hiking, quaint villages, pretty beaches, biking. We have never done the countryside in Italy (Tuscany area), seen Portofino or Genoa. Based on when we'd be there (late October), and the fact that we will need to get back to Zurich for our flight home, we don't want to travel as far south as the Amalfi Coast, so we'd appreciate any suggestions for places to visit for 1-2 weeks that are more north. We prefer being able to use public transportation, but are open to car rental, if need be. Really appreciator any advice/suggestions!

Just booked our first trip to Sicily and will spend 7 nights in mid-November 2021. I realize not enough time, so looking to probably focus on the eastern part of the island and fly into Catania. Have some questions to help with planning

1)Thinking of spending around 3 nights in the Syracuse, Noto, Modica area. Which city/town is the best place to stay and explore from there? Planning to most likely do local buses to explore during the day

2) We'd like to spend 2 to 3 nights in the Mount Etna area and possibly stay in Taormina for part of it. Thinking of renting a car from Catania for this part of our trip. If not, anyone have a tour group they recommend for tours of Mount Etna.

3) We hate to miss Palermo, but realize with only a week you need to make choices. Will there be get similar food markets in Catania to those you find in Palermo.

4) We would not to spend a day sampling wines and wondering which region to target in the areas we plan to visit.

Thanks much for any comments you can provide!

My husband and I visited Syracusa, Ortigia, and Catania a few years ago and promised we would return some day, and we are scheduled for 2 weeks in October! Can't wait!

We are interested in history, wine, biking, scenery, and local flavor. We do not want to be changing hotels every other day, so let me lay out what we are thinking and then get some feedback.

3-4 nights in Trapani: Fly into Palermo, rent a car at the airport, and drive to Trapani. If we aren't to tired we will detour to Segeste on the way. We would like to take the cable car to Erice, bike on Favignana, and then maybe visit salt flats.

Day 4: We were thinking that if we got up early we could make it to Agrigento, visit the ruins, and then continue on to Ragusa. If that's too much we would spend a night in Agrigento.

3-4 nights in Ragusa: We originally thought we would like to rent ebikes and visit wineries and other towns like we did in southern France and Tuscany, but as I'm researching I am wondering if that's a thing in that area. I couldn't find bike rental places in Ragusa and don't see any vineyards in that area either. (I did find a map that shows vineyards north of Vittoria and Comiso.)

3-4 nights in Palermo: We would do a day trip to Monreale cathedral, a day trip to Cefalu by train, and a day seeing the sights of Palermo.

Here are my questions:

1) Should we skip the Ragusa area and stay to the west, and if so, what should we do with those days? Should we stay in Vittorio or Comiso and try to rent bikes and visit those area wineries? Is that a pretty area? (I love the pics I've seen of Ragusa and Modica.)

2) Is there an area that has biking options (single day rides vs. multiple days). Ideally we would like to visit wineries on these rides, but scenery is a good incentive, too.

3) In my itinerary above I still have a few nights unaccounted for. Should I add another place, like Cefalu to the itinerary, or a place on the southern coast, or Marsalla, or should I just add the days to the places we are already staying?

4) We thought about visiting the Villa Romana del Casale, but it's about 2 hours north of Agrigento so not really on the way to any place unless we stayed in that area (Enna?) for a day or 2. Thoughts on that?

5) We also thought of staying overnight on Favignana to have 2 days of biking. Is that too much time allocated to see the island?

I will stop there. Vagabonda and others were so helpful on our last trip that I'm hoping for some common sense wisdom again this time. Thanks in advance!!

Kim

My wife and I are seniors, and will be taking a bike trip in Italy this September We have been fortunate to have biked many times in Europe, and have typically opted to spend another week or ten days nearby in a more leisurely holiday after the bike portion of our trip. Ideally we would like a pleasant beach town where we could rent a small flat for a week, doing some touring by car in the region, and some lazing on the beach. Any suggestions, particularly from the Sicily experts, are very welcome. Thanks !

Hi Everyone,

We need some advice. I’ll try and fill in as many gaps so this won’t be painful. My family loves to travel and Italy has been our favorite destination. On multiple longer trips..and some shorter..we’ve hit Rome, A little of Umbria, a lot of Tuscany, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, Lakes Como and Maggiore and Venice. We had the kids for 2 weeks on one of these. We planned to hit Sicily the last 2 Summers but it was not to be and had to cancel. We are now coming end of November now..Thanksgiving week..and are flying into Rome.

With all that laid out we are driving from Rome so we don’t want to go too far..maybe 3 hours any direction. That gives us really regions of Lazio, Tuscany, Umbria, parts of Campania, Abruzzo and Molise. I’m guessing on some. I know it’s rainy season and is chilly. We are fine with as our honeymoon there was in October.

So with all that said and where we’ve been what would be a beautiful area for that time of year where we can see midieval villages, maybe some leftover Fall colors, great food/wine vineyards? I’ve thought about going off script with Abruzzo or Le Marche but we love Tuscany so much. I know there are pros here. Appreciate y’all!

Chris

Hello everyone!

My Plan A was Sicily but may have to park that until October!

Plan B, flying into Napoli and I guess I want to explore places I've not seen before! 2 week itinerary required!

Rough idea is spending two nights in Rome with seeing Galleria Borghese and Capitol Hill museo

I was only in Rome last summer and explored alot then as I had a full week!

This time I would like to see Tivoli and Hadrian's villa, any other day trips?

I'm hoping to get Assisi seen too.

Making my way.... public transporte, train, to Puglia, I'd like to see in particular Lecce, Matera, Maratea, Peastum, Caserta in Campania! Flight out of Napoli!!

Please advise on a feasible itinerary! Looking for suggestions on good bases to stay for 2/3 nights before moving my luggage off again!

Thank you!