First time to Italy, need suggestions
 

Friends,

This will be my first time to Italy and need some suggestions. I am looking at 8 -10 day itinerary. We will be flying from San Francisco. Traveling in early June.

Will it be possible to visit Florence/ Pisa / Venice during this timeframe? I am not sure how to organize the itinerary ( as in to start from Florence or Venice etc). We are not big into museums; so if any of the destinations have a lot of museum related activities we can skip.
I was thinking about Florence with the option of including a winery tour of Tuscany- is there any other wine region worth exploring?
How many days at each of the destination is recommended?

Thanks in advance;
Shanky

Do you mean June 2014 or 2015? I hope the latter.

Is it 8 or 10? How many nights to sleep in Italy.

Florence is a fairly small city, but it has the world's greatest density of Renaissance art. If you just want to see the city, you could do it in a day. If you love Renaissance art (in churches as well as in museums), which it doesn't seem is your case, several weeks might be too little.

Venice is another city that can be seen fairly quickly unless you want to visit museums and churches.

You might want to spend just three nights in each of these cities, which would allow you to see the cities themselves, and maybe take a side trip, and then spend the rest of your time in a smaller, quieter, town. Both Florence and Venice are sinking under the weight of the tourists in July.

Would you consider renting a car?

"is there any other wine region worth exploring?"

Now you know Italy has a lot of wine right? :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_wine

If you are serious then the Veneto (the land around Venice) is pretty good especially where Amarone comes from.

Fly open jaw Venice/Florence.

Plan three nights Venice, 2 full days.

Purchase train tickets to Florence [2 hour ride] on Trenitalia, choosing the "not registering" option, up to 120 days before.

Pisa from Florence you can do as a day trip [1 hour train ride each way].

Various tours from Florence are available plus train connections for day trips.

Sure Florence (4) /Pisa (1) /Venice (5) would be fine for a 10 day trip.

As far as where to fly, I would just start checking airlines out of SFO and see what prices and routes are available.

Thank you everyone.

bobthenavigator- I am looking for june 2014 and can do either 8 or maximum 10 days stay in Italy depending upon the suggestions on the things to do / see.

bvlenci- I was not planning on renting a car unless there is something worth really visiting /exploring and requires car. Even then I plan on keeping driving to a minimum rather than driving whole day. Is there any particular place that's more accessible by rental car?

bilboburgler - Do you know any good wine tour companies for Veneto wine tours? Also our preferences usually is for red wine over white wine.

RonZ: I did take a look at trenitalia and found Venezia S.lucia (venice) -> Firenze(S.M Novella)
train stations. Is this the best departure/arrival stations to select while traveling from Venice to Florence?

Thanks;
Shanky

Venezia S. Lucia is the main, and only train station in Venice. Firenze SML or Firenze Santa Maria Novella is the main station in Florence.

Fly into Venice, and out of wherever you are thinking of flying from. Try and give Venice four nights.

As bob hinted above, you've left it late to start organising travel, hotels etc. Have you booked the air tickets yet,as this will change our recommendations for places to go?

In any case, you need to understand that you don't have a lot of time on the ground to see that much of Italy and if you're not "big into museums" does this include art? If so, skip Florence.

Venice needs at least 3 nights and you could take a trip across to Verona tacked on to that. Maybe a few nights in the Lakes (Garda or Como) would be suitable. Give us a bit more information on what you'd like to see. Tuscany is much more do-able with a car, as it saves a lot of time and with a short trip like this, you don't have a lot of that.

"bilboburgler - Do you know any good wine tour companies for Veneto wine tours? Also our preferences usually is for red wine over white wine." well in Italy avoiding the whites is a good basic concept.

Never used a tour guide in my life, but
http://www.getyourguide.co.uk/venice...verona-t25695/ and http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUse...ua_Veneto.html might be worth a look.

Soave old city is pretty enough but while the AC is based on Trebbiano di Soave the only drinkable ones have a good bit of Chardonnay in it. You can taste in the city for peanuts at the local wine marketing place.

Thank you everyone. Unfortunately had to change our plans since there is no visa appointment available until late June at the Italian consulate and do not have enough vacation time to include another Schengen member country to get the visa and then visit Italy.

Thanks a lot for all the help :)

~shanky48