3 Weeks in Italy -- Itinerary Help....Please
 

My wife and I are considering the following itinerary to Italy in 2013. Your opinions, suggestions & advice is appreciated -- especially on where to establish a "base" in Piedmont, Cinque Terre & Tuscany areas, and places to stay. Thanks! ([email protected])

DAY DATE PLAN

1 Sat, 9/28 Depart Seattle
2 Sun, 9/29 Arrive Venice
3 Mon, 9/30 Venice
4 Tue, 10/1 Venice
5 Wed, 10/2 Pick up car; Dprt Venice – drive to Piedmont area (Asti as base?)
6 Thu, 10/3 Piedmont area (Asti (?))
7 Fri, 10/4 Piedmont area (Asti (?))
8 Sat, 10/5 Dprt Asti; Drive to Cinque Terre (Vernazza as base?)
9 Sun, 10/6 Cinque Terre
10 Mon, 10/7 Cinque Terre
11 Tue, 10/8 Tuscany (Siena as base?)
12 Wed, 10/9 Tuscany; Return car
13 Thu, 10/10 Dprt Siena - Train to Florence
14 Fri, 10/11 Florence
15 Sat, 10/12 Florence
16 Sun, 10/13 Dprt Florence -- Train to Rome
17 Mon, 10/14 Rome
18 Tue, 10/15 Rome
19 Wed, 10/16 Rome
20 Thu, 10/17 Rome
21 Fri, 10/18 Depart Rome; return to Seattle

Can you drive to Vernazza? If not, Levanto is definitely reachable by car.

Cut out one day in Cinque Terre and add it to Tuscany. Same with Rome. If you really like it, you'll come back. I would consider just a day trip to Florence, staying outside the city and using the train to go in. You could then see more of Tuscany and some of Umbria, leaving the car in Orvieto before taking the train to Rome.

What are your interests?

Thanks for the suggestions, Michael. I'm also researching possibility of driving into Vernazzo, and was thinking of Levante as a fall-back.

KJA -- this is our first visit to Italy. We hope to come away with a good overview of the different regions we're planning to visit. Seeing the smaller towns, meeting the locals as well as hitting major attractions in the larger cities would be our primary interests for this trip.

I, too would add a day to Siena/Tuscany, and I would then drive to Florence before turning in the car. Take one day from Rome to do this, because of your primary interests. Do be aware that your car will be useless, and sit parked, for the days in CT. But you probably want to keep it because of your itinerary.

Generally I think you have a very good itinerary. I agree with removing one day in the CT and adding it to Tuscany. And I'd drop the car at Siena and take the bus into Florence. (The bus is a direct shot from the historic center of Siena to the historic center of Florence.) Or drop the car at Florence's airport and bus into town. It's better to avoid driving in central Florence.

How important is Florence to you? Are you big fans of Renaissance art and architecture? If not, consider Michael's suggestion of a day trip into Florence (by bus) instead of staying there. That would give you some extra days.

If you are going from Siena to Rome, you could drive or drive part way and train the rest. Or take the Sena bus from Siena to Rome.

I also think it sounds like you have a pretty solid itinerary, although agree with the suggestions of possibly just doing Florence as a daytrip from Siena. It just seems like a lot of moving around, and one less packing/unpacking might be a nice change.

We stayed in a fabulous B&B in Acqui Terme in the Piedmont region. It is called Baur B&B (www.baurbb.com). It is our favorite place we have stayed in all of Europe. Here is a link to my trip report from our stay there. We thought it was a fabulous base for seeing Piedmont.
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/0...t-acqui-terme/

You can't drive into Vernazza.

Don't confuse Levanto with Sestri Levante. Both are near le Cinque Terre and have good parking, but Levanto is a bit closer. You can also park in Monterosso al Mare and Riomaggiore, which are right in le Cinque Terre. Since right now you are looking at arriving in le Cinque Terre on a weekend, be sure to book a place to stay with guaranteed parking, whichever town you stay in.

Are you going to Piemonte because you are big red wine buffs? Because if not, you might find it more charming to go to Emilia-Romagna for cheese and pasta and a mix of charming small towns that see very few tourists but have fabulous food plus a chance to enjoy beautiful Parma and its nearby castles. For wine, Piemonte. For everything else, Emilia-Romagna. (It's also a shorter drive from Venice, or you could take the train).

Thank you all for the feedback -- we really appreciate the insight and suggestions!

> We hope to come away with a good overview of the different regions we're planning to visit. Seeing the smaller towns, meeting the locals as well as hitting major attractions in the larger cities would be our primary interests for this trip.

Then it sounds like you have a good plan!

I agree with others that you can probably take one day from the Cinque Terre. The only problem with that would be if the weather is bad during your one day there, as can happen in Oct. But of course, a 2nd day wouldn't guarantee a change in weather. Just be prepared!

I'll offer a counter-argument to the idea of cutting your time in Florence: I had more than 4 very, very full days in Florence (5 nights + some time on either side) and did not have time to see everything I wanted to see there. It sounds like my interests are a bit different than yours, but I thought I'd mention that since you say you want to see at least the major attractions of the cities you selected, and I think it would be hard to do that in Florence with less than 2 or 3 days. But it really does depend on one's interests.

Hope that helps!

The Piemonte is beautiful with wonderful food and wines.I recommend Alba as a base over the largwr city of Asti.

Sounds wonderful, but I also agree about cutting back on some places. We did a couple of day trips from our base in Refrancore (just outside Asti) to Milan and even one day to the CT. (we did go back later for a few days but wanted to show some friends the CT and they only had one day to spare)
We stayed in a fantastic villa just outside San Gimignano in Tuscany & did day trips to Sienna & Florence.

You could read my TR for places we stayed (scroll to July 28 3.05pm), Refrancore will always be an absolute highlight. Food Wine the people, just magical. Oh and did I mention the food? yum



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