ClaudiaNorred1948

Adult daughter and I visiting Italy first week of July for 10 days. Want to visit Venice (no more than 2 days), Cinque Terre, Tuscany/ and/or Umbria. Would like recommendations for breaking up the trip into 3 to 4 day segments. Not interested in museums, etc, looking for picturesque villages, etc. thanks so much!

Andrew

Do you have plane tickets already? Obviously if you do, that will constrain your itinerary.

If you still need to buy your plane tickets, I'd fly into Venice, train down to Tuscany for a few days, then train up to the Cinque Terre. From there you can fly out via Milan or Pisa, depending on which one works out better for price and flight convenience. You might want your final night near the departure city, though if you fly out mid-afternoon you could perhaps get away with an early morning train especially back to Pisa. Many who fly out of Pisa might encourage you to stay the night in Lucca instead of Pisa - both are not far from Pisa's airport.

I don't think I visited any museums on my trips to Venice (I'm not a big fan of museums either), and I'd say two days is barely enough, unless you mean three nights. You could spend half a day or more just visiting the picturesque islands like Burano that are near Venice or doing day trips to Padua and Verona - avoiding the mobs of daytime tourists in Venice but still coming back to enjoy a more quiet Venice at night, when it's really charming and beautiful.

The Cinque Terre is really nice, but unless you're hiking you might get bored after a couple of nights. Three nights there would be plenty for the average person. The villages are nice but not big.

So you might do three nights in Venice, three nights in the Cinque Terre, three nights in Tuscany, and perhaps a final night in Lucca (if you fly out of Pisa) or a final night in Milan. You could fly out of Genoa too if that happens to work with your flight arrangements, but Pisa or Milan are likely going to work better especially if flying out of Europe from there.

ClaudiaNorred1948

Great information, just what I was looking for! Don't have airline tickets yet, so, gives us some flexibility. Any other thoughts, I.e. Hotels, Inn, restaurants, are appreciated. Thanks so much!

kwren

If you'd like to stay in Cinque Terre, we stayed at Arpaiu in Manarola. It's at the top of the hill overlooking the water and sunsets. There is also a deck overlooking the same view. We stayed 4 nights and loved it, but as already mentioned, hiking is a big draw there. The hikes and views were amazing, but taking a ferry along the coast, trains between towns, or a day trip to Portofino was wonderful too.

Very easy access by train.

ClaudiaNorred1948

We have decided to fly into Milan on Jul2 arriving on July 3, spend 2 nights in Lake Como, drive to Venice, stay there 2 nights. After that, drive to Tuscany and stay 3 nights (or possibly 4nights), head to CT either one or two nights, depart from Pisa on Saturday, July 12. I appreciate the recommendations for hotels already suggested and welcome any others. Specially would like a recommendation for a hotel/base in Tuscany! Awesome responses, thanks so much!!!!

PS. Are we being too ambitious with our travels, I.e., doing too much in a short time frame!

gailscout

I would look at ditching renting a car and look at taking trains instead. You are visiting large cities where you don't need,want or can use a car, and having a car in CT is the worst. Parking will be a nightmare, especially if you have to feed the meters for a few days. Trust me, I learned the hard way and I went way off season.

Pepper_von_snoot

Good luck finding a good hotel in a good location in Venice for July at this late date.

Thin

Andrew

It's funny: when giving people feedback about traveling in Italy, I always assume they are taking train. Italy has such a great train network that it would never occur to me to drive there, except in a few places (e.g. Tuscany) where it makes some sense.