What time of year are you going and what are your interests?

There are so many choices it's hard to make recos without more info.

Is this a one way trip? That is a lot of driving in 2 1/2 weeks even if it's one way.

If you are renting a car, you will pay a big drop fee for dropping in another country.

We are going in April next year. We are considering flying to Naples, hiring a car, returning it to Venice and then flying home from there. We like being outdoors, good architecture, sights, good food and wine...

No point in keeping the car until Venice since you can't drive in Florence or Venice. You also can't drive in Rome.

I would fly to Naples and transfer to the coast. In April, the buses shouldn't be too crowded (unless it's around Easter holidays) so you don't really need a car. Train to Rome, pick up a car as you leave Rome or take the train to a hill town such as Orvieto and pick up the car there. Use the car to visit Tuscany and drop it at Florence airport. You can train from Florence to Verona and Venice.

How about flying to Rome, visiting, take train to Naples, rent the car for Amalfi, then drive to and around Tuscany, before dropping the car in Florence for a stay there. From Florence take the train to Verona (love it) and/or Venice before flying home.

That puts you in a car for only the best driving bits and keeps you stress free in Rome and Florence.

If you'd like lodging recommendations, you'll need to tell us your budget.

I agree with kybourbon's suggested route, but it would be helpful to know how many days you want to spend in the known destinations (AC, Rome, Florence, Venice) and thus how many days you have to explore Tuscany. Also, you should get a sense of where you want to go in Tuscany. It's an area of 9000 square miles, and you'll likely not be able to see everything you want to see from one base location.

We were thinking of a 3 night stay in Venice, 5 nights in Florence (7 nights if we miss out Rome - we've been there before!) and a week on the Amalfi coast exploring the surrounding areas by car. I looked into the possibility of flying into Venice, getting train to Florence and driving around Tuscany to the Amalfi coast and that's a definite possibility .

In terms of budget, we would like to stick to £80 per night or less. We would be interested in having a base from which to explore Tuscany and then another to explore Amalfi Coast, then we wouldn't have to live out of suitcases too much...

Thanks

hi tomato girl,

first of all, congrats on your wedding - and Italy is a terrific place for a honeymoon.

I see that your original idea was for what we in the UK used to call a motoring holiday from teh UK to Italy and back, but wisely you seem to have adjusted that, as it really isn't possible to drive to and from Italy from the UK in 2 1/2 weeks, AND see something.

you could do it one way, but the drop off charges if you pick up in one country and return in another can be very high - but worth considering if you MUST go to Freiburg. or you could use trains to get you from Italy to Germany, and then fly home from Friedrichshafen in southern Germany [Monarch fly there from london and Manchester] - that might be fun.

in April I think that you could easily do part of your trip by car, and would not necessarily have to pre-book everywhere; one possibility would be to fly into Venice, then train to Florence, [both places with pre-booked accommodation] then pick up your car and "tour" heading south for a week or so until you ended up at the Amalfi - where it would be a good idea to have booked as well. you could then fly home from Rome - you don't have to stay there!

if you want to add in Freiburg, then it becomes more complicated.

your budget of £80/night seems reasonable - it equates to about €100 and we have rarely paid more than that, even in Venice. if you stayed in an apartment in Florence and the Amalfi, that would help to keep the costs down.