An Extra Trip to Italy - Any Itinerary Ideas from the Fodors Pros?
 

Oooh - I'm so excited! My husband may be going to a meeting in Milan in September, with his costs paid of course, so we're now considering another trip to Italy.

We've travelled to Italy quite a bit (last trip included Venice, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Rome), so there's nothing I feel we HAVE to see, only what we want to see. I'm giddy, however, with the possibilities, especially for the few days when hubby will be in his meetings.

I don't have any details yet, like how long we'd go for, or when in September it will be.

Initially, I'm thinking we could do something like fly into Venice, stay there for a day or two. Then he could train on to Milan, and I could stay in Venice, meeting him in Milan later. Or we could fly into Milan, and I could spend the extra time just in Milan, but I'm not sure about several days in Milan when I could be somewhere else in Italy. I'm comfortable travelling alone, so that's not a problem. And if I stayed in Venice, I certainly love Venice, but exploring somewhere new on my own would be fun too.

Then after his meetings, we could go somewhere else together. I'd love to go to the Piedmont - it's on our wish list - but would rather go during truffle season, which I've read doesn't start until October.

We generally like to spend time in the cities on our vacations, but enjoy the gorgeous countryside too. On a variety of trips over the years, we've visited the Lakes region, and don't think we want to go back. We've enjoyed the Cinque Terre, many parts of Tuscany and some parts of Umbria, and even a couple of days in the Trente area. We like Lucca; last year we stayed in Ferrara and were charmed, and visited Bologna, and loved the food. We're both big foodies and not into shopping or clothes. We love Rome more each time we go.

Anyway, any new or different suggestions on destinations for me or us? Even if this trip doesn't work out, the fantasy planning will be great!

Off the wall! I have enjoyed Puglia tremendously. You could fly into Bari, rent a car and set out for Alberobello, Martina Franca, Lecce et al. I will be flying into Bari next month to visit, for the first time, Basilicata. The caves of Matera look fascinating. No idea if this makes sense to you, but the Mezzogiorno is amazing.

If you haven't spent time in Milan, I'd stick with traveling with him to Milan and staying together there. You can do great day trips by train out of the city like to Bergamo. Besides you might actually like Milano, and it certainly is a foodie city!

Puglia is wonderful, if you can make the logistics work and if you have the time for it, since it is pretty far removed from Milan.

Hi Lexma, I was just getting to type you a post when I read Patrick's post. He said what I was going to stay.

So there are two votes for you to go to Milan (it IMHO is a wonderful city) and if you could work out Puglia I sure would do that.

What wonderful possibilities you have!

If you decide against Milan you might want to stop by Ravenna. We went there for two nights in Oct. - the most amzing mosiacs are there - it was worth the side trip. Padua would be a good day trip from Venice too for the Giotto frescos,

Thanks for the suggestions thus far.

Maybe Milan plus Bergamo would be a good choice. I haven't done any research on Milan yet, but have a stereotype of it as a fashion city, not a foodie city. But give me a great local market or food area, and I'm occupied for hours...

Puglia might be too far out of the way, but I guess that depends on how much time we can wrangle away from work after the meetings.

We went to Ravenna last October - it was one of the top visual experiences I've ever had! I'm now recommending it to anybody heading to Italy.

Lexma, you just may spend an entire day at Peck in Milan: foodie paradise!

Lexma,

Here's a link to a Bergamo's tourist information site;

http://www.bergamotour.com/uk/index.htm

The Virtual Tour section seems to give a good flavour of what the city has to offer, especially for the old, upper town ("Citta Alta").

Jim