arindasue

I can always rely on this forum to give great advice! We will be starting our three week trip with 5 nights in Venice (in stone) and then using a combination of train and rental car to explore Northern Italy for the rest of our three weeks. Neither our return date nor city is set yet, but so far that would leave us with around 16 nights.

We're thinking Verona, Bologna, maybe Chianti for a change of pace, maybe briefly Cinque Terre, back up to Lake Como area before leaving from Milan. (No Florence this time...it's gotten so crowded!)
Via Michelin shows all this as just over 500 total miles driving so that is certainly doable.

We're in our 60’s, have travelled a lot, are quite flexible (with travel plans anyway! Ha).
Any other ideas or suggestions?

arindasue

I forgot to mention....this will be the first three weeks of May.

bilboburgler

I'd do a chunk of this by train, so Venice, Padua, Verona, Bologna, Ravenna, Ferara are all very easy by train, you get straight into the centre and use central hotels. You can do the whole thing by train but this is the easy bit.

I'd do Chianti by car and try and get Siena in

sandralist

If you don't like crowds you might want to reconsider le Cinque Terre and Lago di Como, and either skip them entirely or choose alternate waterview beauty spots nearby or, at a minimum, make sure you understand which are the most crowded towns on which days/times of day, and plan around that.

After Bologna, if you are not big-time Chianti drinkers, you might consider visiting the Garfagnana area or especially the lovely Lunigiana area of Tuscany with your rental car rather than the much-touristed Chianti. However, those landscapes are somewhat different than the iconic vinyard landscapes of the Chianti, so if you want the Chianti, then you should go to the Chianti.

Personally, in May, I would keep the car until you need to go back to Milan airports to fly home. However, for towns along the Riviera and the lake shores, you need to make sure you book a hotel with guaranteed parking.

But if it were me (and it is not!), after Bologna I would head for the Lunigiana and then Lerici on the coast, and I might give some consideration to Lago d'Orta (although Lago di Como is spectacular, so if you've never seen it, you might not want to drop it, despite the heavy tourist presence).

Whathello

I'm a fan of Torino.

JudithRD

20 - 30 mins West from Verona is Sirmione on Lake Garda...love to shop there...20 - 30 mins North of Verona are some wineries that have Amarone... Also a big fan of Torino. You can day trip to Aosta, See/drive through the Mont Blanc to Chamonix (France). I personally didn't care as much for Bologna.

Midnightsun

You won't go wrong with the places you have chosen, but some medium size towns have quite a bit to offer. Bergamo (not far from Milan, so it could be a next to the last stop) is lovely. Lucca has some stunning architecture, and it's great fun to stroll along the walls. Ferrara is certainly worth a day of exploration, and the same would be true of Modena. There are some wonderful agriturismos and B&B's in Emilia-Romagna (Opera 02 is a favorite), if you want to absorb the countryside. Padova can easily be reached by train from Venice, and it has a the Scrovengi chapel with amazing Giotto frescoes. If you are planning on spending time in Bologna (which is a city we love), you might enjoy reading John Grisham's The Broker in advance. That book made us decide we should visit Bologna, and we have been back three times, always discovering something new. An advantage to having a car is that you can pick some small towns to explore, but be wary of driving into the historic centers (especially Bologna). Enjoy!

tonfromleiden

Last year I had Bologna as the last stay on a trip in central Italy and found it very pleasant. It's a good base for attractions around: Ferrara, Ravenna, Modena, and Parma. All within some 1,5 hrs by frequent (and cheap!) regionale trains.
Padua (Padova) is a city you certainly shouldn't miss. As said, it can easily be done by train from Venice (half an hour, if I remember correctly).

thursdaysd

Another recommendation for Turin. I spent several nights there on my last trip and really enjoyed it. See:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-9370880

This is an excellent and more extensive TR that includes Turin:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...n-of-italy.cfm

arindasue

Thank you so much...great ideas, so far. We usually travel more off season than May, so I imagine the crowds will be worse than we're used to. I'm now thinking that we'll skip the west coast altogether this trip.

SO... that leaves more time for more of your great suggestions! As this is our first time above Florence, other than Venice, we are open to most anything...without crowds.

I must pull up a map to find all the small towns that have been mentioned.
We have several friends who enjoyed the Chianti area, so we may keep that.
An agriturismo sounds like a fun idea, so if there are any more favorites of those, please let me know.

Any recommendations on places to stay along the way would be appreciated, too.
Looking forward to more tips!

sandralist

There are a great many towns near or in the Chianti of beauty and historic fascination that remain practically unheard of to most tourists. Among them are Lucignano, Loro Ciuffena, Civitella in Val di Chiana, and the small city of Arezzo is really very lovely, and gets a fraction of the tourists of other destinations in Tuscany despite its marvelous architecture. If you go to Arezzo with a car, suggest you stop by the astonishingly beautiful but small Santuario Santa Maria della Grazie at the edge of town, a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture (as is the core of Arezzo itself)

https://sites.google.com/site/smdgrazie/

If your penultmate destination after Chianti is Lago di Como, then I suggest you swing over to the Adriatic coast to visit Ravenna after Chianti, and spend 2 nights there. The attraction is not the water views but the spectacular mosaics that never disappoint any traveler.

After that, consider the route that would take you north to the lakes via Modena, Reggio nell'Emila and Parma and through the castle country to Lago di Como. There is really no end of towns great and small, castles, food, opera, glorious art, and very few tourists. Really impossible to choose for someone else. But it should be lovely in May and very few other tourists around, except those doing cheese tours.

arindasue

Well, now I think we have decided to stay further north and leave Chianti, and perhaps even Bologna, for another trip.

We are now thinking of making our way from Venice to Turin, with a few nights in the Dolomites. Any input as to roads usually being open through the the Dolomites in May? ...places to stay?

We have already seen the beautiful mosaics of Ravenna so plan to head east or north of Venice. Many of your previous suggestions may still work, but are there any other favorite places/routes along the way to Torino or in Torino itself?

I anxiously await your replies ; )

rialtogrl

If you want to go east of Venice, and like mosaics, you could go to Aquileia to see the Roman mosaics there. They are stunning. You could go from there to base in Udine for a couple of days and see some of Friuli. Great wines, great food, lovely scenery and Udine is a very nice town.

ekc

We stayed for 3 days in Bolzano (at the Hotel Lauren) and loved it. We also visited Udine for a few hours and enjoyed the town. We were on our way to Asolo, which we absolutely loved.

Another vote for the mosaics of Aquileia. And Torino.

arindasue

Oops...sorry to confuse things...I meant west of Venice, not east.

sandralist

The month of May is very early to go to the Dolomiti. You stand a very high chance of rain, low clouds and obscured views, and if you are interested in hiking or utilizing ski lifts, you may face too-muddy trials and ski lifts closed (many hotels/restaurants will be closed too). Sorry to sound negative, and you could take your chances on sunny skies -- but I would not commit to spending time in the Dolomiti in May. I would wait until you are in Italy and can see a very short term weather report -- or save it for a trip when you can go in high summer.

Friuli-Venezia-Giulia is nice, but if you ultimately want to go to Torino, there is no end of lovely places to visit and explore between Venice and Torino, whether you swing slightly north or slightly south. I happen to have a soft spot for the Emilia-Romagna and its many castles, and its beautiful small art cities.

If you have not been to Mantova, Modena and Parma, they have marvelous offerings and easily reached by train, and if you are willing to rent a car and prefer hills there are places like Castevetro di Modena, Torrechiara or Castell'Arquata in Emilia-Romagna, not far out of your way to Torino.

If you'd rather do a northern route, consider Bergamo and seeing Lago di Como on your way to Torino, and then take a train from Torino to Malpensa for your final night.

sandralist

Just to be clear: Mantova is in Lombardia, not Emilia-Romagna. But it is easy to use trains or a rental car to include Mantova with parts of Emilia-Romagna if you are interested.

arindasue

Thank you, sandralist. That's what I was afraid of when considering the Dolomiti that time of year. I guess that just leaves us more time for all the other great suggestions.

We do plan to travel by car from Venice. I hate to have to choose a northern or southern route toward Turin.
I'll have to see look more closely at a map or online site to see if it's reasonable to zig zag our way across. ( I suppose that's an example of that FOMO syndrome I've seen you mention before!) Is ViaMichelin a good choice?

We haven't yet mapped out all the above great suggestions and are still open to new ideas. We just need to end somewhat near an airport that is serviced by our Star Alliance airlines...we're using miles from United.

sandralist

You can use both via Micheln and Google to estimate drive times. The major autostrade in north Italy get a lot of truck traffic and traffic in general, which can slow you down. Weekend traffic to scenic spots can also be intense. But you will get some idea of the lay of the land using the mapping websites.

It might make sense to take the train to Verona and rent a car from there after a night or two if you are going to zig-zag along a more northerly route, rather than dip down into the Emilia Romagna. Some interesting towns to consider are Valeggio sul Mincio, Asolo, Trento (which you can also visit by train from Verona), Bergamo and of course Mantova.

If you want a more southerly route, go to Bologna first and perhaps also see Modena and/or Ferrara as day trips from Bologna, without a car. Then rent a car and go exploring and zig-zagging on up to Torino.

Finally, if you feel like it, and depending on where your departure airport is (know nothing about the Star Alliance airlines), you could take a train from Venice to Bologna, Verona or Mantova, use trains to go sightseeing, and take a train to Torino and rent a car there to go exploring in that northwest corner of Italy. Again, to early for the high Alps, but there are scenic towns like Saluzzo at lower elevations, and you can easily include a seaside lunch along the Mediterranean on a sunny day.

Really, the possibilities are just so infinite, especially if you enjoy untouristed small towns in Italy with pleasant town squares and great food and a showy church, plus lots of small art cities with eye-popping treasures. After awhile it isn't even FOMO anymore, it's like how do I possibly choose among all these enticing possibilities?

In May, so long as you stay out of the Alps, you do have a nice choice of deciding whether you would like a mainly walks/plus food/plus small towns vacation, with a few WOW historic/art sites --- or just the opposite: Immerse yourself in Italy's amazing riches -- art, opera, architecture, modern aspiration in Torino (movies, science, design, political vision) -- and leave yourself some time to be amazed by the food (chocolate, wine, cheese, markets, pasta, zabaione). But I would pick an emphasis on one or the other to avoid the temptation of trying to do too much of both and falling between 2 stools.

violetduck

Last September we went to Venice, Padua, Arezzo, Perugia (day trip to Assisi)
and Rome. Happy travels!!!