First trip to italy-help!
 

I'm a little overwhelmed with all the options available. We want to go the last two weeks of September, so I know I need to get hopping on the planning, so I hope you can help. We are in our early 30's, like hiking and quaint romantic INNs, and can certainly deal with minimal services. We like wine and food, and our minds picture of Italy is sitting in an outdoor cafe, sipping coffee or wine. We aren't much for museums or churches, but would like to see just a select few that are a must see. We do like to see old ruins. We think that we want to include Cinqua Terra in our itinerary, but beyond that we are very flexible. We have two weeks, and I am sure we will make future trips to other areas that we don't see. Thanks

To get started, you might want to try to connect with Bob...

http://www.bobthenavigator.homestead.com/

I'd start with a couple guidebooks. Rick Steves is a good one for Italy. I'd love to help but I prefer traveling in cities myself, which isn't what you're after.

This site is packed full of information that you might find helpful. Everything from planes and car hire to food and night clubs.

http://www.travel--guide.org/Rome

Hi K,

Good advice from Suze.

Here's my suggestion:

Fly into Venice - 4 nights,

Train to Florence - 3 nights
Stay at www.bedinflorence.it

Train to Salerno.
Take ferry (3 blks from train station) to Positano.
Take Orange bus to Praiano (6km)
Stay at www.lesirene.com

Have a limo take you to Naples airport (110E) or take the SITA bus to Sorrento and the Curreri bus to NAP.

Fly home from NAP.

See my trip report:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

((I))

First, you must resign yourself to the fact that you won't have time to see everything! :-) You must, of course, see Venice. Read Rick Steves' advice on this, though, as there is a huge racket with the water taxis/vaporettos. I spent the most romantic evening in the square there, drinking wine and listening to chamber music. Don't listen to the spoilsports, Venice is magical. Since you are thinking about the Cinque Terre, I would suggest spending a couple of days in Tuscany en route. I had a great stay in San Gimagnano, which is an ancient walled city. Don't do the day trip, stay there . . . they dump off buses of tourists in the morning, which can make the shops a little crowded, but it's a delightful little town. We stayed at the Bianco Leon, which I recommend – our room windows opened on to the town square, so we could perch with a glass of wine and watch the world below. Even if you're not crazy about museums, I would definitely see Florence. It's breathtaking, and has some terrific shopping.

Hope this helps!