Committed to Italy in August--ugh--South or North?
 

Not the best time to go, I know, and had planned on going to Amalfi Coast for a week in August with two families (12 of us), now am getting scared about how hot and crowded it will be. We have been on a previous trip to Tuscany and Umbria. Should we hang in there or try going north to the Lake District/Milan? We will rent a villa as a base for a week and take day trips...can we get to Venice reasonably from there or is that even worse (hot, crowded and smelly)? thanks

Its going to be hot and crowded everywhere in Italy, seaside (and lakes) with vacationers and cities with tourists. Less hot as you get further North and closer to the mountains. I would consider Piedmont, Val d'Aosta or Trentino.

I don't recommend Milan in August. A lot of people are away on vacation (the Milan-based company I used to work for shut down most of their operations in August because so many people were on holiday). As suggested above, go wwith Piedmont and/or Trentino.

Thanks for your recommendations...now everyone my husband talks to says we can't miss Capri--apparently it's terrible during the day but quiet at night. If we rented a villa there for a week, would it be hard or expensive to take ferries back and forth to the mainland? Do we even need to rent cars?

We spent 14 nights/15 days in Italy in August in 2009 and like you were limited to August for the trip we were planning. We did 6 nights in Rome, 5 in Florence, and 3 in Venice. While I prefer heat to cold, and yes it was HOT I don't regret a thing and we had an amazing trip. We are planning a trip to the Amalfi coast now to go early May (again, not "perfect" timing as it would be warmer in June or early July but again our dates were limited in our planning).

My thoughts are to consider northern Italy for this trip. From what I've read in planning both trips, August is "vacation time" and the beaches and Amalfi coast region are PACKED plus it is brutally hot.

We found that things were not nearly as crowded as we expected in northern Italy and likely significantly less crowded than peak times because of this. We were in major cities that attract tourists year round so pretty much everything was open, but because it was off-season we got amazing deals on accommodations. For example, in Rome we stayed in a wonderful highly rated hotel with a gorgeous room overlooking the Pantheon because we got off-peak rates + 40% off of list price for staying 6 nights. We looked at that hotel for the one night we are spending in Rome at the beginning of our next trip and it would be nearly $500 for one night in a lesser room with no view. (I believe we paid under $300/night when we went last time). It was hot, but manageable -- my husband bought a straw hat and we bought bottled water from street vendors and grocery stores.

I also expected Venice to be hot and smelly and muggy in August but it was beautiful and I didnt find it smelly at all.

I imagine southern Italy would be significantly more expensive and also significantly more crowded... but you can't really go wrong in Italy :)

Is this trip for August 2011? If so, lots of places will be booked up. Villas with accommodations for 12 are not common, and most Italians vacation in August.

Maybe look at www.slowtrav.com for recommended agencies, then call them up and ask what they have available.

Go North my friend..However the weather has been so unreliable that is very hard to figure out how the weather should be in certains months anymore.