maureen_16

We are going to fly in and out of Milan in late September/early October. I love a mixture of touring small towns and large cities. We will be spending 10 nights amongst a few towns/cities. Below are a couple of itineraries I have come up with. But I think I am being overly ambitious to include so many stops for 10 nights. We enjoy some time to relax as well.
Itinerary #1
Arrive in Milan
Go directly to Lake Como area for 2 nights
Travel to Turin for 2 nights
Travel to Nice for 2 nights
Travel to Florence for 2 nights
Travel to Milan for 2 nights
Then fly home

Itinerary #2
Arrive in Milan
Go directly to Turin, Italy
Then to Aix-en-Provence
Option #1 - drive up coast and then back to Milan for 1 or 2 nights
Option #2 After Aix-en-Provence to back Lake Como and finish trip in Milan

Suggestions on my itineraries please! Also would you drive or travel by train to all destinations. Once I get the itinerary finalized I'll be back to ask about suggested hotels but if you wish to provide those now for the cities I am considering visiting that would be great too! My price range on hotels is $100 - $150 with 3-4 stars. If my price point is way off let me know! Looking for any advice! Thanks all!

RonZ

Trains are advisable for short trips. #1 is improved if you drop Nice. Only three destinations would be preferable given the available time.

cmstraf

I like itinerary 1, highly recommended Varenna rather than other town on Lake Como. Recommend Sienna after Florence instead of Turin. IMO, unless you have friends there, Turin not worth it. Sienna knockout lovely city.

sandralist

Were it me I would go to Torino first if I wanted to include parts of France in this trip. If you have a certain kind of personality, you could consider leaving the remainder of the trip, after France, open so you could see what the weather is. Being committed to a Riviera stay if the weather is rainy is a bummer. Ditto the lakes.

Would make sense to me to rent a car after Torino, drive it around France, but return it in Milan. Suggest dropping it off at Linate airport and then taking the bus into Milan proper to spend last nights there.

I'm really not familiar with Aix-en-Provence so can't comment overall on your itinerary. If you decide instead to go to Nice, you might consider staying outside the city if you have car and daytripping in by train, or simply taking trains from Torino to Nice.

Given your interests, if you don't want to rent a car, something you might consider doing for a September trip is heading to Torino for your first nights, then taking a train to Cuneo (in Piemonte), and then from there the train to Nice

http://www.beyond.fr/travel/railcuneo.html

Coming back, you could make a stop in an interesting Riviera town (Albenga would be my choice) before heading up to Milan. Be quite a quirky trip, but for September/early Oct, might be a lot of fun.

A different all Italian trip that doesn't need a car but mixes it up with small and big towns would be Milan>Lago di Como>Bologna/Modena/Florence>Milan.

sandralist

cmstraf and I were writing at the same time and we are polar opposite in our tastes. I have visited Torino many times and enjoyed each one of my visits. I have visited Siena once and have no desire to ever return. Read up on both places. They are entirely different. If your purpose in coming to Italy is a medieval town, and you would be bewildered to find yourself in former royal capital with italy's best cafe scene and movie museum (and modern art museums), then surely you do want Siena. But I wouldn't go back to Siena even to meet up with friends.

Jean

When you spend 2 nights in a place, you have just one full day to explore that destination. Neither of these proposed itineraries are going to give you much time to relax.

Driving into and out of larger cities is a pain, and trains take you from city center to city center, so IMO Itinerary #1 is better by train. But including Nice creates some long journeys. Torino-Nice is 5.5 hours. Nice-Florence is 7 hours.

Itinerary #2 would be easier by car, but then I'd drop the detour to Lake Como.

I like Milan more than most people here, but in a short trip I'd just get there early on the last day and spend one night. If you want to see the Last Supper, you need to make reservations in advance.

Mimar

If you haven't yet bought your plane tickets, some alternative suggestions. Do you really want to go to Milan? You could fly into Pisa and be an easy train ride from Florence. Other possible airports are Nice and Turin/Torino. With your short time it makes sense to fly an open jaws routing (multi-city on airline websites). Say into Pisa and out of Nice or some other such combination.

<< Trains are advisable for short trips. >>

Trains are also advisable for city-to-city trips, which is what you outline. Hopefully you're staying in a small town on Lake Como. But I still wouldn't get a car. You can train to Varenna, ferry to Bellagio, or bus from Milan airport to Menaggio. (Check the bus times.)

And 2 nights plus a train trip adds up to, at best, 1.5 days at each stop. For my taste that's too much time in trains and train stations, too little time seeing the sights.

bobthenavigator

As Jean says, 2 nights are not adequate for most destinations.
I would favor the #1 itinerary but would drop Nice and give Lago Como and Florence 3 nights each.

maureen_16

After reading all the comments - and thank you for them - we think we will just stay in Italy and save France for another time. Again after reading your comments, I agree 2 nights is not adequate for most destinations. We visited Florence over 15 years ago so decided it needs to be part of this trip. Perhaps Milan, Florence, Sienna (I know there are opposite ideas of visiting this town) and maybe Ravenna. Any comments on Ravenna? I always love the coast in Italy. And, I agree I think using public transportation is the way to go.

The reason for flying in and out of Milan is the cost. I can get a round trip ticket from New York for $655.

Thanks again and keep the comments coming!

KTtravel

Ravenna's mosaic art works are stunning and well worth a visit.

sandralist

Ravenna is one of the most stunning and important of Byzantine sights in the world, let alone Italy. However, it is also an important industrial port, and any nearby beach is pancake flat and urban. So the only reason to go is to see the mosaics and enjoy the handsome town and its good food.

I don't like to comment on how much time people "should" spend in any one location, or where to overnight, but taking your wish list of destinations, if you wanted to fit them all into the same trip using trains/buses only, these might be the most efficient logistics:

Arr Milan, same day train to Florence
Siena from Florence by bus
Train to Bologna
Train to Ravenna from Bologna
Return to Milan by train before flying home

or

Arr Milan, same day train to Bologna
Ravenna from Bologna by train
Train to Florence
Siena from Florence by bus
Return to Milan from Florence by train

If you drop Siena (not encouraging you to do so), you can visit Florence as a day trip from Bologna by train. If you use Bologna as a base, you have an opportunity to visit other nearby smaller towns, like Modena and Ferrara, by train.

Likewise, if you drop Ravenna, and use Florence as a base, there are smaller towns by bus and train (Fiesole, Pistoia, Arezzo) depending on your interests).

If you are flying Emirates, the return flight is late enough in the day that you can wake up in Bologna, or even Florence, and be at Malpensa enough hours ahead of your flight to pass through security. However, most people find it a lot easier to simply be in Milan the night before a transatlantic departure

bilboburgler

I'd drop Turin, perfectly pleasant, just not worth travelling half way round the world for.

Jean

FWIW, although I don't discourage your visiting it, Siena has grown into a bigger city than you're probably imagining.

"And, I agree I think using public transportation is the way to go."

Not necessarily. If you want to go from city to city and make day trips to other cities, then public trans is pretty simple. If you want to drive around in the countryside (somewhat like your original Itinerary #2), stop/stay in small, remote towns and make excursions into cities only a day here or there, then you would enjoy having a car. You could train on arrival to Florence (or Bologna or Siena or wherever), pick up the car on Day 3 and turn it in before returning by train to Milan or keep it until you go to Malpensa.

If you decide to drive, you need to educate yourself about the limited traffic zones (ZTLs) established in the historical centers of just about every Italian city and town. Generally, you park outside of city centers and walk in. If you drive into a ZTL by mistake, you risk getting a ticket. We've had no trouble avoiding ZTLs in small towns, but there have been posts here by people who weren't so lucky.