sk2214

Greetings, I would love some help and thoughts on our Italian trip at the end of May 2008...a little background.

My husband and I are in our late 20's and have started taking European vacations with his parents (late 50's)a few years ago. Our first trip was paris/normandy and our second was munich/rothenburg/salzburg/rhine valley. All trips have been done in 8-10 days.

I have been to Rome and Venice and would love to share Italy with my husband and his parents. The good thing is they are not as interested in the churches ( I think I saw 8 when I was in Rome) as I am so we don't have to spend a ton of time in Rome. And I want to share Venice with them as well. Now, I just need to fill in the blanks. I'd love some help....I want to go to Tuscany so do we stay in Tuscany and day trip it to Florence. Is CT a place we should go? What about Lake Como? Do we need to do Lake Como and Tuscany in the same Trip (the small town feel). Any ideas would be helpful.

Oh, and the reality of it all is, my husband and I will probably return to Italy again in the future, but this is a one stop shop for his parents. I would say their favorites from past trips were: Rothenburg, Normandy, Rhine Valley

ellenem

For you brief trip, I would relocate hotels no more than three times. In fact I'd probably only stay in two places.

Since you think it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for the parents, I guess I would try three locations and hope you have 10 days.

Time to edit your wish list.

cmeyer54

We did 10 days last summer - flew into florence, stayed 3 nights; drove to Montalcino for 3 nights and then drove back to florence, took a train to venice and had 4 nights there. worked well to fly into one city and out of another.

SusanP

Fly into Venice and spend 3 nights there. Train to Florence, stay 2 nights. Train to Rome, stay 4 nights. Fly home from Rome. Or stay in Tuscany for the 2 middle nights and daytrip into Florence, but with such a short time, it's probably better to stay in Florence. If you want Venice, Florence & Rome, you really don't have time for Tuscany with that many days.

Zerlina

>>I would say their favorites from past trips were: Rothenburg, Normandy, Rhine Valley.<<

Then I would not suggest the "Big Three" (all cities) of Rome, Florence and Venice. Choose two, fly into one and out of the other (for Florence, Pisa is the bigger airport) and spend the days in between in Tuscany or Umbria. The Cinque Terre are time-consuming to get to. Or if you prefer Lake Como for the "small-town feel", choose Florence OR Rome, then go to Venice, then Lake Como, and fly out of
Milan Malpensa.

JeanneB

What do the parents like? Big city, countryside? Art, history, wineries? Unless they're big-city fans, you might want to leave Rome for when you and DH go back.

<i>Do we need to do Lake Como and Tuscany in the same Trip (the small town feel).</i>

If you start in Tuscany you could see Florence from there (or vice versa). Then train to the Lakes, fly out of Milan.

SusanP

sk said she wanted to share both Rome and Venice with them. To get a little more time in the country, do 3 nights Venice, 4 nights Tuscany with a daytrip to Florence and 3 nights Rome. By the time you travel to Rome, it's only 2-1/2 days there, which is not much time even if you don't go to many churches!

sk2214

Thanks for the help! I was thinking we'd start in Rome as by the end of our last trips we are ready to relax...here is what I'm thinking;
Th: arrive Rome
Fr: Rome
Sa: Rome
Su: depart for Tuscany...would love to stay in one of the Ag B &amp; B's.
Mo: Tuscany
Tue: Tuscany
We: Cinque terra
TH: Cinque Terra
FR: Venice
SA: Venice
SU: depart

Zerlina

Before you decide to go to the Cinque Terre, find out how long it will take you to get there - and how long it will take you to get from there to Venice. I think you'll find that it will be the better part of a day for each trip.

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

The names of the Cinque Terre are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

I would strongly suggest that you drop the Cinque Terre and add a day each to Rome and Venice.

sk2214

I think we are going to be driving after we depart from Rome....

maitaitom

My only differential from your last itinerary is drive to Florence instead of CT (drop the car), stay a couple of days, then train on to Venice for the last few days (there's a morning train that gets in before noon).

Driving to CT, in my opinion, wastes too much time on the road. Whatever you do, drink plenty of vino! Have fun.