cwhite01

Would appreciate any guidance and advice. My husband are in the very early stages of planning a trip to Cologne Germany to visit friends next summer (2014). We'll be leaving from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania staying for 3-4 days in Cologne then contemplating taking our second trip to Italy - this time to northern Italy - Florence, Tuscany, Venice, and Pisa. We'll be staying with friends In Cologne so are pretty much set on that front. Assuming we would fly from Cologne to Florence (?), I'm open to suggestions about how best to travel to visit the places named above. Also suggestion for sites of interest in the various cities and towns and what can be incorporated as day trips. We're thinking 10-12 days total for the trip.

stevewith

Your friends in Cologne probably have all the inside skinny on cheap flights out of their area to italy (you probably need to go to Frankfurt, but that is simple, and from there you can probably find lots of choices to flights to northern Italy).

Sounds like you have 7 days or less for the Italian portion of your trip. If you are open to suggestions about how to spend your time in Italy, you will get an avalanche of idiosyncratic advice. Some people go to these places to drink and eat until they nearly pass out, or wander around eating as much gelato as they can, while others make a point of seeing magnificent churches or talking walking tours of historic monuments. Still others go to Florence to shop, or leave town to visit wineries. Some people want a gondola ride in Venice or a Bellini in Harry's bar, while other people say their favorite moment was watching children kick a ball around a Venetian campo.

You have targeted 4 of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy and they attract millions of tourists precisely because they are overflowing with a huge variety of things to enjoy depending on your personal interests.

If you really have no idea of your priorities for Florence and Venice, you have until next summer to look at comprehensive guidebooks and come up with a plan that means something to you personally rather than rely on other people to know what you like.

HappyTrvlr

With only 8ledt after Cologne, you won't have enough time to cover those four places in Italy. You need to eliminate one or two.

francesco_marchi_148

You could fly from cologne to pisa in the morning, visit the city in the afternoon, in the evening or next day take the train for florence. Stay two day in florence, take an high speed train from florence to venice, visit venice during the last days and take the plane from venice to home

kybourbon

I would look at budget flights from Cologne/Bonn or even Dusseldorf to either Venice, Florence, Pisa or even Bologna. I see flights on Germanwings in August for Cologne/Bologna for 49€, Cologne/Pisa for 59€, Cologne/Venice 49€. It's much too far in advance to know what will be available next year as some flights may be seasonal or routes not continued. It does give you an idea of possibilities.

If you flew into Pisa, you could store your luggage at the airport or central station and visit the tower (you really only need a few hours unless you want reservations to climb the tower), retrieve your luggage and pick up a car at the airport for the Tuscany portion of your trip (you really need a car for Tuscany). Drop the car at Florence airport, visit Florence a few days, train to Venice for a few days and fly home.

If you don't want to rent a car, you could train from Pisa to Florence (under 10€)and book some Tuscan day trips from Florence (a lot of companies offer these or you can bus/train to some places).

Pisa has seasonal flights to JFK on Delta and Venice has some seasonal flights to the states also. Florence does not and would require connecting in Europe as would other small airports around (Bologna, Verona, etc). Milan and Rome are the major airports in Italy and have flights to multiple US cities without a European connection. Flights from Milan or Rome are often cheaper.

cwhite01

Thanks to all for the good advice and suggestions.