10 days and want to accomplish to much?
 

Hello I been reading a lot of your messages in the year and finally I have a question that is been driving crazy for the last 3 months.'
Me and my wife will be traveling to Italy late august to celebrate her 50 year old birthday.
I have a total of 10 days and would love to visit: Venice,lake Como,and Cinque terre,the problem come in cause I have to make stops to say hello to my brother in Florence and to my sister in Milan!
I guess the best bet would be to arrive and depart from Florence to Newark.
I was hoping to arrive in Milan the 26 of August,in the morning,stay with my sister and visit a little of Milan the same day,stay the night,depart early the next day for Venice (27)spend
the 27/28 in Venice depart early the 29 for lake Como spend the day and night,spend the 30 in lake como,leave the 31 in the morning for CT spend the day night and sept 1 there,leave at night for Florence spend sept 2 in florence,leave at night for Milan spend the night in Milan and take the flight back the next morning.
Crazy? Too much? Any suggestion? Should I cut CT?
GRAZIE.

From Newark, flights to and from Milan are usually the easiest and cheapest to get. Any chance you could get your brother to come to see you in Milan, rather than trekking all the way to Florence? Seems like your plan could work if you cut out the trip to Florence.

yesss, far too much, I'm afraid.

you could make it easier by doing an open-jaw flight [into one place, out of another] but you'd still have to decide which you were going to use. Actually I'm not following quite what you are planning - you talk about arriving and leaving in Milan, but also about flying from florence to Newark.

in any event, IMO it's Venice that's a the outlier in this. [and lake como too, if I'm honest]. you need to remember that every time you move, you lose at least 1/2 a day so if you move 4 times in 10 days, you've lost 1/5 of your time.

in 10 days you could have a lovely trip flying into Milan, going to the CT, then ending in Florence. or you could substitute Como for the CT [or even Venice]. But if you try to do them both you'll end up just rushing from one place to another with little time to enjoy yourselves in between. add Venice into the mix and your feet will barely touch the ground.

remember - less is more.

Whoops my bad annhig lol,I meant arrive and depart from newark to milan!
Msteacher thanks for the reply,no my brother can't move cause of work from Florence.
Ok then guys,should I cut CT or Lake Como?

confession time, I've never been to Como and only spent a day in the CT about 25 + years ago and didn't like it at all.

but I have spent time on Lakes Garda and Maggiore and loved them both, it it won't surprise you when i say I would favour Lake Como over the CT. it also makes more sense if you are keeping Venice in your itinerary [not sure if you are or not from your last post]

if not, you could do either.

depending on your flight times, I think it might even be possible to cut out a last night in milan before your flight home if you did this:

Milan - Florence - Como.

but you would have to research getting from wherever you were staying on lake Como to Milan airport before you committed to it.

How about flying into Milan and out of Florence. In between, visit two other places - either the Lakes and Venice or the Lakes and CT. We like the lakes and found CT to be beautiful but there is not much to do unless you are hikers.

I have been to all the places you mention, and they are each wonderful in their own way. However, you do need to cut something, so I would suggest cutting the CT. It will be quite hot there, and you will enjoy the cooler air of Lake Como much more. Also, yes, much easier to get to Milan from Lake Como (which town you choose to stay in will make a difference, though...it is much faster to Milan from some towns than others).

See Venice before it sinks. Choose between Como and CT. Fly open jaw into Milan and out of Florence. That still has three travel days within your trip, so consider choosing only one of the three: Venice, Como, or CT. Then there are only 2 internal travel days, a much more relaxed trip.