Italy Trip Planning Help!

My husband and I are planning to vacation in italy for our 25th wedding anniversary next year.

i am so overwhelmed with decision making and he is no help as he is very go with the flow and says yes to everything. which doesn't help me decide. lol.

we want to go to rome, pisa, florence, tuscany, amalfi coast

is it better to rent a car and travel this way or is it better to travel via train with all our luggage as we move from city to city?

or

could we be based out of one city for the entire vacation and travel to each place for the day trips?

if so, which city do you recommend to be based out of?

is renting a car a good idea?

i am planning a 14 day vacation to Italy, what is the best time of year to go?

thank you so much in advance for all of your help in planning this trip.

My parents and I will be flying into Rome on July 28 and staying there until the evening of July 30 (planning to drive down to Naples on the 30th). However, my mother has already visited Rome and says one day should be enough for sightseeing, also considering the hot July weather and crowds on tourists. We would like to spend the 30th visiting little towns around Rome and escaping the city bustle. Any towns/places we should include on our itinerary? We were planning to visit Florence but we feel like we would like to escape the touristy sights and cities for a day. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

My husband and I are hoping to do a road trip around Italy mid sept for 2 weeks. We are flexible with respect to which city we fly in/out from.

We love quiet, scenic beaches (especially quiet coves away from too many tourists), but also like mini city/local town/village trips. We would like our trip to be more beach heavy with a few day/overnight trips to cities/local towns/villages thrown in!

We are happy to do a mix of trains/rental cars but are thinking it probably makes more sense to just hire a car for the whole trip.

Could anyone suggest a 2-week itinerary that could incorporate these things? We are thinking south of Italy, as assuming the weather will be better there in Sept.

Thanks in advance!

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

Long story short, I had two other trips in planning that my teen daughter eventually vetoed :)

She has requested a culture/sightseeing/city trip over the 'nature' and 'beach' options. She's had a really tough year and with all the anxiety about heading into high school, I would love to make this happen for her. I have about a month to plan this trip, so here's my first attempt at an itinerary. We will be flying in and out of Rome (only option for a direct flight), which we'll be skipping as we have previously visited:

Day 0: overnight flight into Rome, arrive 7:30 am

Day 1: Rome to Naples via high speed train, Napoli, Overnight in Napoli

Day 2: Pompeii tour, Overnight in Napoli

Day 3: Amalfi coast tour (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Napoli

Day 4: Napoli in the morning, leave for Florence via high speed train, Overnight in Florence

Day 5: Florence, Overnight in Florence

Day 6: Tuscany day trip (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Florence

Day 7: Train to Cinque Terre w/ stopover in Pisa, Overnight in CT

Day 8: Cinque Terre, Overnight in Cinque Terre

Day 9: Train to Milan, Overnight in Milan

Day 10: Milan in the morning, train to Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 11: Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 12: Venice in the morning, Venice to Rome via high speed train or flight, Overnight Rome near airport

Day 13: fly home

Would love to hear your thoughts:

- We like fast paced, but is it too fast paced? Any suggestions?

- I feel like Milan is a bit of a 'detour' and I wonder if it's worth just for one day?

- Should we get TrainItalia passes? Which one?

- I would love to have some flexibility and not prebook hotels in case we want to linger in one area more - is this too much of a risk? (I wouldn't have considered it but i feel like we could 'wing it' this year?)

- Is there anything else I need to pre-book? (ie. tours, transportation, admission tickets, etc).

Thanks all in advance!

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!

Hi all, we have the pure joy of a month to explore Italy by car this autumn (covid etc dependant). We have a few of the obvious places to visit; Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast (likely the furthest south we will go) but to join these up we are looking at “non obvious” aka not big city places to stop. Somewhere with beautiful views or old villages to explore, places with beautiful hotels or hideaway gites to stay.

We will travel from the north, likely Pisa / Florence first, then work down South until Naples so particularly looking for suggestions in this area. It’s a round trip so we go Naples back up with some stops (east coast perhaps?) to Venice, Como and home

Many thanks!

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!

I'll be flying from the USA into MXP, landing at 7:30 AM in a few weeks on Thursday. Flight out is Saturday at around 5:00 PM from MXP to France. I mostly want to go to Lake Como, but I was hoping to also see Milan city if possible. I will be using public transport and prefer to stay somewhere that isn't Como city.

If anyone has experience, can you please give some advice on what would be the best way to do this? I was thinking either go straight to Milan and get an early train Friday morning to the lake and then straight to airport Saturday, or go straight to Lake Como and then Milan either late Friday night or super early Saturday and walk around for a few hours before my flight. I am open to skipping Milan if the schedule is too tight - I have already taken pictures in front of many churches and fountains in Europe, and I also don't have interest in museums.

I guess my concerns are using public transportation for such a long trip with a lot of transfers after landing in Milan - I could be held up in immigration for hours and maybe the trains aren't frequent? And also using public transport for a long trip on the same day as my flight out - if I don't make a connection, I could end up stuck somewhere!

Appreciate any insight you can give!

Thank you :)

Hi,

My partner, our 14 month old and myself are trying to decide whether to take a trip to Italy next month - one that has already been delayed twice due to covid. We would love advice from anyone living in Italy or who has recently travelled there. We’re interested on how keen people living in Italy are to have tourists at the moment, what the atmosphere is like day to day in terms of covid restrictions and any tips on keeping a very very lively and curious 15 month old happy - one who loves to run about, chat to people and be busy...

My partner and I are in our 30s and well travelled (and have done 8 trips in the Uk since the birth of our daughter). We have both been fully vaccinated and are comfortable using masks outdoors and indoors. We are prepared to have and pay for the 5 covid tests necessary and the Uk quarantine anc our trip is already booked but is fully refundable so the stakes are fairly low. All our accommodation hosts are still enthusiastic for us to come.

We’re starting in Venice then had planned to take a train to Florence before hiring a car anc spending some time in a farm stay just north of San Gimoniano. We fly back from Pisa.

We live in London.

Thanks in advance!