isabel

I thought I was planning a trip this year that would be a little more 'slow travel' than I sometimes do but the more I plan the more it becomes a series of one and two night stays. The Italy portion is about a week and we will be renting a car for the first time in many years so I want to get to some of the places that I've skipped on recent trips when I was just traveling by public transportation. But how to arrange? I'm caught in the dilemma of day trips/lots of backtracking vs. moving from place to place every night.

Here's my tentative itinerary:
Two nights San Marino with day trip to Urbino ( and maybe San Leo if time).
Ferrara for one night (leaving San Marino early so will have most of the day/next morning)
Bassano del Grappa - one or two nights? (also want to see Asolo)
Mantova - one or two nights?

I was going to do three nights Mantova and day trip to Bassano but that looks like unnecessary backtracking and I actually found a better place to stay in Bassano.

Then on the last day (of this part of the trip) we'll have a whole day because we are aiming to get to the hotel at MXP and drop the car in the early evening. My husband has a 7 am flight the next day and then I switch to public transportation for another two weeks in northern Europe.

Questions - how much time in Mantova and Bassano? I am almost considering skipping Ferrara to have more nights in one of the other places but I really want to see it and not sure I need more time in those other places.

For background I have already been to Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Bologna, Treviso and Venice.

Any hotel recs?

Michael

I don't think that Ferrara requires more than a few hours of visit, so you could do it as a "drive by."

zeppole

Touring any Italian town that isn't totally catering to tourists means timing your visit so that things are open. You can of course "drive by" anyplace if you aren't interested in what the place is. At the point you are considering "driving by" any of these places or asking "what's the minimum amount of time I need for there?", why don't you consider eliminating it entirely and focusing on actually being some place?

Ferrara and Mantova are easily reached by train. Why not see both of them after you no longer have a car? While you have a car, go to places like Sant'Angelo in Vado (near Urbino), or Valeggio sul Mincio or Asiago (not far from Asolo) and other places where having a car is really an asset not a nuisance?

Has anyone told you that San Marino is a total tourist trap? If you want a rock-hilltown-castle with stunning views, go to San Leo.

charnees

Go to this map http://www.raileurope.com/europe-tra...italy/map.html and zoom in on the NE corner of Italy to see the rail connections. You could stay in Castelfranco Veneto or Verona or Padua for example, and see the places you are interested in by taking the train, or even driving. WE found that getting a train from Bassano to most places was a little difficult, because not so many trains run there. But you could also drive from there to Castelfranco to get the train.

ira

Hi is,

>The Italy portion is about a week...

If you want to stay in 4 places and only have 6 nights - it ain't gonna be slow travel.

Why not pick a base and do daytrips?

eluckhardt

Regarding how long to stay, we just visited BdG and Mantova last month and loved both towns. Mantova is bigger, and I preferred it, but my husband preferred BdG. We had 2 nights in BdG and 3 in Mantova. 3 in Mantova turned out to be a little longer than necessary, but we still found things to do (we were planning on doing daytrips from there, but wound up changing our minds). I wanted to see Asolo, but we were not able to squeeze it in. We were traveling with 2 children and had a car, so our situation is completely different from yours, but just wanted to give a little feedback. Good luck with your decision.

isabel

Thanks for the replies. To clarify: we DO have a car. On many past and (hopefully) future trips we do mostly trains - so we want to do things on this trip that are a little more difficult by train.

Urbino and San Marino - hard to do without a car. Really want to see Urbino and since San Marino is close I want to do that too while I'm in the area. I KNOW it very touristy but the location, view, castles - they are all authentic and we will be very prepared for the shops to be all tourist oriented. The choice to stay there and day trip to Urbino, rather than the
other way around is to get out of San Marino during the daytime.

That leaves us with five more days/nights. That's the part I need help with.

Ira - I'm realizing it's not going to be slow but I'm trying to slow it down by limited the number of nights. But yet I realize - and people here are confirming - that the places I'm considering are small and don't take all that long to see.

eluckhardt - can you tell me a little more about your trip. What did you and your husband like about Mantova vs BdG. What hotels did you stay at in both places?

zeppole - I realize Ferrara is easily done by train so we might drop that - although we are going right by it and probably won't be back in this region of Italy for a while..... I am planning to see San Leo, based on suggestions you've given for it in other posts. If we leave San Marino very early (8 or so) and don't want to get back till almost dark don't you think we'll have time to see both Urbino and San Leo?

zeppole

You can use via Michelin to clock the distance.

It depends on what you mean by "see". It wouldn't interest me to see Urbino. I've seen pictures of Urbino. It would (and did) interest me to go so I could understand the history of the town. Likewise with Ferrara. I spent a day there and left without seeing at least 3 three sights I wanted to see.

You can get to Mantova very easily by train.

ekc

In October, we spent 3 nights in Asolo and spent the days visiting BdG, Mantova, Asolo and the surrounding area. We then followed it with 3 nights outside of Cormons. We loved it and had a great time. So much to see/eat/drink!

eluckhardt

Sorry for the slow reply.

BdG was a last minute decision. Very last minute. So, we didn't arrive until 8 pm in the evening. We spent our only full day walking around the town, taking naps back at the hotel., then heading back out for dinner. Like I said, I wanted to see Asolo, but could not convince the older kid and husband to get back into the car. Marostica is also nearby and that is also supposed to be nice. I can't remember the name of our BdG hotel. Belvedere or something? It was just outside the town walls. It was fine. Nothing special, but fine. We found it very last minute using our GPS.

In Mantova, we stayed at Palazzo Arrivabene. I liked Mantova more b/c it was larger than BdG and it felt like a real town that I could actually live in. With 2 kids we did not tour many of the museums, etc., but walked around alot. The weather was rainy and cool, so we also spent a lot of time back at our B&B. This was a very low key trip. We spent a whole morning checking out the vendors at their Thursday market. I bought a non-stick pan and DH bought socks. That might give you an idea of what our sightseeing was all about. I really liked the little theater, Bibiena. Loved the Mostarda in Mantova. That may have been the highlight for me. Mostarda with cheese at several of the meals. So yum.