Prater

Hello. I cancled my Egypt honeymoon and am now exploring options. I am considering Venice, florence, tuscnay and rome. Iam not sure how many days I will need in each. also considering renting a car in venice and driving to florence, or taking the train and renting on in florence to go to tuscany.

Any suggestions on how long to stay in each city?

Any suggestions on renting a car?

BTW, my fiancee likes the beach (she likes the caribbean) and I like to learn explore and see the sights (non tourist sights-like the locals). Any suggestions?

In advance, I appreicate any feedback...

michele_d

It would work great if you can fly open-jaw into Venice and home from Rome. You will only really need a car for the Tuscany portion of your trip.

Maybe something like this: Fly into Venice, 3-4 days Venice. Take the train from Venice to Florence. 3-4 days Florence. Rent a car when you are done in Florence. Use the car to explore Tuscany for the next 3-4 days and then drop your car in Orvieto and train on down to Rome for 3-4 days.

You can easily spend a week in each place but this will give you a good overview. Happy planning.

bobthenavigator

Try this:

Arrive VCE---4 nites
Train to Florence--3
Get car---to Tuscany---4
Drop car at Orvieto--train into Rome---5 nites

Save the beach for later--have fun !

Sassafrass

When are you going?

loddonia

Venice is magical, I returned last May after 30 years, with everyone saying it would be so over crowded, & I would hate it. It wasn't, only the bit around San Marco & the Rialto, & even they are fine early morning & late at night. You can wander down all the little streets alone, I have photos with not a soul in them. It was the best experience & one I intend to repeat. We stayed for a week & next time we will make it two. It is not half as axpensive as expected either. I wouln't say venice has the best food in all of Italy, but it does have the most beautiful venues. To sit beside a canal with a fairy tale bridge nearby, is something no other city in the world has to offer. Try getting a Venice Connect pass to use on the vaporetos & to get into museums & Art galleries. Well worth it depending on the length of your stay, as the Vaporettos are expensive for foreigners. With one of these passes you can ride them as often as you wish for a set price. Remember there are no cars in Venice so the vaporetto is your means of transport, apart from your feet!
Enjoy it, it will be wonderful.

cambe

You don't say when you are going but if it is in the summer, you could go to one of the Tuscan beaches instead of the countryside. The Maremma area is lovely and full of Italians from Milan, Rome and Florence, this would allow your fiancée to soak up some sun on a lovely beach with great people watching and a short drive from both Florence and Rome.

Another alternative would be Venice (very romantic), train to Florence (also romantic) for a few days then train to the Amalfi Coast. The beaches aren't great but the views are to die for and it would IMO be very romantic for a honeymoon.

Leave Tuscany and Rome for another (less romantic) time (Italy will call you back)

k9korps

The eternal debate on this forum is how many days to spend in Rome/Florence/Venice. As you can see by the above posts, the debate continues. Generally, 4/3/3 is OK, but it depends on your interests.

Be aware, as one poster noted, most of the beaches in Italy aren't like the Caribbean. There are some nice views, but not a lot of wide, sandy beaches. My attitude: I can go to the beach almost anywhere, so why would I waste my time doing that in Italy, when there's so much else to do and see? Plus, you're using a big chunk of time to get the some place like Amalfi and get settled.

My honeymoon advice is to instead use the time in Venice for romantic dinners and nighttime strolls on the promenades. But that's just me.

qwovadis

Think I got you over in Africa but in 2 weeks

might fly into Rome RT www.tigercarrentals.com

sort of do a round robin www.amalficoastweb.com

Puglia/Apulia for best beaches up into Tuscany

to Venice over to www.lucca.info www.viareggio.it

back down to Rome picking up cheap cute hotels

along your way....2-3 days in ceach big city is plenty.

Congrats!

Sassafrass

If you really have your heart set on an afternoon at the beach, you could always go over to the Lido in Venice. I think it is actually quite pretty and it does have sand. DH and I have been there twice. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon resting from so much walking. It is easy to take the boat over there.

clayman

Bobthenavigator has given you a great schedule. Take his advice, skip the beach, work out the fine details for each place and relax, relax, relax at an easy pace each day. Here's a link http://www.flickr.com/photos/tara_la...7613833489798/ to some great photos a fellow traveler posted. Show the photos to your fiancee' and the beach will fade as a desire!

zeppole

I agree with cambe that if your intended likes the beach, there are many wonderful seaside locations to enjoy, in Tuscany and elsewhere -- although I would definitely not make a trip to the Lido in Venice.

Also, if your future wife would be more cheerful not seeing only the tourist sights but prefers what the locals enjoy, 90 percent of what is being suggested to you is touristy touristy touristy. A trip to the Tuscan coast, or a Tuscan island, would avoid that. There are beautiful wild and sandy beaches in Tuscany if you are willing to rent a car.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop...a_Tuscany.html

Are all your options open or have you already bought plane tickets? What is your time frame?

By all means share this thread and all your plans with your fiance. I started traveling to Italy on my honeymoon, and I now live by the sea in Italy. It's beautiful. I seldom go to Venice or the Tuscan towns and don't find them as romantic as others do. People are different and like different things. Pick your own honeymoon in consultation with your fiance.

zeppole

PS: I just wanted to add this because the first place I ever traveled was Egypt (and now I want to go back!), so I think it would be great to see something Etruscan in Italy since you can't get to Egypt. This is from another message board about a hidden Tuscan beach, in response to someone else planning a last-minute trip to Italy:



"Buca delle Fate" (the Fairy hole - it's a beautiful bay, much prettier than Cala Violina, it's not sandy beach though, it's rocky, but it's gorgeous). You have to walk through a track in the woods about 20 minutes (you'll pass by some of the famous Etruscan ruins) so if you're up for a bit of adventure, do give this totally hidden beach a try. It's beautiful! I go every summer! The nearby beach of Baratti is lovely too, it's a calm bay on the northern side of Poulonia (very easy to find, as opposed to Buca delle Fate but not overcrowded!), a *free* beach, has some great shady spots under umbrella pines and an amazing gourmet sandwich truck to get yourself a picnic lunch.

About 30 mins further up north from Baratti/Populonia (you'll be exactly an hour from Castiglione della Pescaia) is Bolgheri - the town of the coastal Supertuscan red wines. It's so picturesque. Taverna del Pittore is a great restaurant for some excellent country Tuscan cooking and a good excuse to head there for dinner one of the nights.

About 15 mins inland from Baratti/Populonia area is Venturina where the Etruscan thermal baths "Calidario" are - in July & August they're open until midnight and you can enjoy a warm swim under the stars, it's gorgeous!

http://www.calidario.it/

Not enough days to see it all, but if you spend your days at the beach, and then in evenings head into some of the country towns like Bolgheri or Campiglia for dinner (also when it's cooler) then you get the best of both worlds

For agriturismi, I don't have actual experience staying in these places as we always stay in the area at my husband's family's place but these are a couple I know of in the Castiglione della Pescaia area that have a night by night accomodation (as opposed to only weekly - as many in this season do) and seem much more reasonably priced:

http://www.vignamurata.com/

http://www.agriturismoilpino.it/

http://www.lucernadellagoprile.it/

Report inappropriate content
Save this Post

leemiller10
London...
posts: 4
7. Re: Last Minute trip to Italy
20 July 2010, 10:59
Buca delle fate looks beautiful, is it possible to swim there? And how packed does it get in August? I have a couple of days to spend on the coast in Tuscany and am debating between cala violina, cala martina and baca delle fatte...

Thanks


hapagirl_ital...
Florence...
posts: 2,152
reviews: 18
8. Re: Last Minute trip to Italy
20 July 2010, 11:22
Destination Expert
for Florence
The buca delle fate is a little secret, and a little hard to find, and then once found it's a little difficult to get to (in the sense that it's a small, dirt track through the woods to get there so that puts many people off going to all the trouble!) so no, it's not packed in August like other beaches are. It's definitely worth the adventure getting there, plus walking through the Etruscan necropolis RIGHT THERE is incredible too.

Swimming there is lovely - it's clear and clean like a swimming pool! If you like snorkelling it's a great area.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop....html#27448391

With a little extra planning, you can get beyond the "non-tourist sights" in Italy, even last minute.