norrisken

My wife and I are doing a cruise out of Civitavecchia that ends about 9 AM on April 26th. We are renting a car and have a flight out of Leonardo da Vinci Airport 9:40 Am on the 28th. We were trying to decide what to do with the two days we have. I've looked through many postings here and I'm undecided as to what to do. Thinking about finding a base for Sat night, returning to Rome late Sunday and flying out Monday am. Thnking about staying within a 2-3 hour drive of the airport. Spello, San G, Passignano sul Trasimeno, etc. Or we can go south. Too many options, and I'm driving myself crazy. This won't be our last time in the area. We'll actually use the 2 days to get an idea of where we'd like to return for a longer stay. Any advice is truly welcome. As a note we will be doing 2 days before the cruise seeing Rome proper.

LJ

My bet would be that you will find that your appetite for Rome is not satisfied with the 2 days prior to the cruise-why not just return there?

norrisken

That's probably very true. What we would like to do is to "test the waters" and then come back at a later date for a longer stay. The main purpose of our trip is a cruise for our 25th anniversary. But while we are in the area we wanted to get a taste of what we could do on a 2 week stay. Same for the Rome part. I hope that makes sense.

mdtravel

I hate to offer one of those 'stay in one city' posts, but really...stay in Rome. You won't get a feel of any place outside of Rome doing what you're thinking about. In fact, you'll spend most of your time getting out of Rome, driving, getting lost, parking and stressing with everyting...you'll possibly wind up hating Italy for trying to make a trip to Rome, not a trip to Rome. If you really want to get out of Rome ditch the car and hop the train to Naples or Florence...but I'd stay in Rome.

travel_hen

Since you will only have 2 days, I recommend just staying in Rome. There is so much to see and do that 2 days would not be even a scratch. Why stress out on an anniversary trip?

norrisken

Our time in Rome will be pre-cruise and we will make use of public transportation. We will be renting the car at the port of Civitavecchia and will not be driving into Rome. Please understand I do not want an in depth tour, just to get a feel for an area we may want to return to for a longer trip next year. We are seasoned travelers (I'm at 35 countries and counting) but the only area of Italy I have visited was the north. To give you an idea of the method behind my madness: We traveled for two weeks in Bavaria. But during that time we dropped down into Austria (Tirol area) for a beautiful drive and overnight stay. We decided it was well worth a longer trip and came back later for a week long stay. While in Austria we ventured into northern Italy for a day to see what we would like there. I'm just looking for a suggestion where to do a little exploring for a future long trip.

norrisken

mdtravel,
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...avel&fid=2
Quoted from your post "My wife and I will have limited time in Belgium (3 days). We know that is not enough time to do justice to many of the cities, but we do want to get a taste of as many as we can on this initial trip."
This is exactly what we are looking to do in Italy.

norrisken

correction
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35108136

mdtravel

Belgium is not Italy, and Brussels is not Rome.

The advice is sound, knowing Rome and I've done enough research to know that for me, I can see two towns in Belgium and be satisfied. I've spent around 35 days in Rome in the last five years and still don't tire of it and still find new things...I don't believe I could do the same in Belgium...let alone Brussels.

The advice is sound: stay in Rome or, if you must, go to Naples or Florence to add to your list of layover cities.

norrisken

I think we'll try out Spello