alliebtcc

Me and my husband are so excited and very confused about our trip to italy. We are going end of april 2014 into the first week of may for 9 days. We decided on focusing on the northern part, venice being the main interest there. We want to pick one place and take the train for day trips to surrounding cities, bologna, verona, cinque terre. is that the best way to go about this trip? It just seems like bouncing around and staying in more than one city gets expensive and time consuming, we do have a $5-6000 budget, and only 9 days. Any other cities that we shouldn't miss? We are open to anything big cities small towns it doesn't matter, just want to experience it all! Should we stay in venice because most of our time will be there anyway? better question, is it worth the extra money to stay right in venice than taking the train in? Or Should our time be focused in a different/better city? So many questions! We are mid twenties, we want some fun of course, wine, culture, love art etc etc all the typical reasons for going to italy. Thanks for the much much needed help!

kybourbon

You need a couple of bases for 9 days. There isn't one base where you can visit everything on your list. You need to narrow it down a bit. Fly into Venice - 3-4 nights, train to ? for the other 3-4 nights.

Does that include arrival/departure days?

HappyTrvlr

Stay in Venice, not outside. You can do day trips to Vicenza, Verona, Padua, Bassano del Grappa.The Cinque Terre is on the other side of Italy, the west coast, so you would need to travel thwre for a few nights. Have you considered the Dolomites? Or The Italian Lakes? I would stay in Bologna a couple of nights.
You will hopefully have many wonderful experiences on your trip to Italy.

alliebtcc

Sorry, we will have 8 full days to explore. There is just so much we want to see, I know we need to narrow it down a bit. Any cities that we should not miss?

mamcalice

Stay IN Venice. You can train to most of the cities you mention from Venice. The exception is Cinque Terre. To see the CT, you will have to stay in one of the towns or someplace nearby for a couple of nights.

Aramis

Stay in Venice - I'll join the chorus. Use this to your advantage on get out and walk around in the evening and early in the morning (the earlier the better) before and after the day trippers arrive. As noted, Verona, Padua, and Vicenza make great day trips from Venice and should easily help you occupy 4 days. Bologna is 2.5 hours away.

The Cinque Terre (CT) cannot be done from Venice (4 hours by car, 8 by train) so you will have to either stay in one of the towns, stay close to them, or visit as a stopover to see them. I cold not fill 4 days in the CT, nor in any place close enough to make a day trip "doable", except maybe Lucca (2.5 hours by train), with a day-trip to Florence. thrown in.

Alternately, you could stay 2 days in CT and then 2 days in Florence, Lucca, or somewhere else that interests you.

isabel

A lot of people say they "could not fill 4 days in the CT", and while I agree the five towns of the CT themselves would get boring for most people (unless you want to hike all day, and similar hikes each day) - there is a LOT more in the area. I spent five days there in July and could have stayed longer (and it was not my first trip to the area). There is Portovenere, a short boat or train ride south of the CT, and the Portofino peninsula to the north with Portofino, Rapallo, Camogli. I have stayed in both Rapallo and Camogli (separate trips) to visit the CT and prefer that to staying in one of five towns themselves (limited lodging choices, not much to do in the evenings).

Do you know where you are flying in and out of yet? I would split the time with four or fives days in Venice depending on how many day trips you want (Verona and Padua are very worthwhile and easy day trips from Venice) and the rest of the time in the CT area. You could fly into Venice and home from Milano to save backtracking.

alliebtcc

Thanks for all the advice! I just want to be careful not to cram to much in, but do not want to limit our trip to only the venice area. We have decided anything for sure yet, I was planning on flying to venice and staying in venice first. what about lake garda? anyone been to both cinque terre and lake garda? which is worth the trip?

Maggie1017

We just went in early June for hair longer than you plan to and split our time between Tuscany, Cinque Terre and Venice. We enjoyed all 3 but on a repeat (or with less time), I would do just Tuscany (or other well-located spot) and Venice.

We spent 5 nights in Pienza and were able to do short-distance day trips and then spent 3 nights in Venice without any day trips.

We enjoyed having the more active driving-about part at the beginning and then a more easy going stroll-about part at the end. (I know you didn't mention Tuscany as being of interest, but we really enjoyed the pacing of our trip so just an idea on organizing.)

isabel

I was in Lake Garda last summer and the CT this July. They are both wonderful. I think the coast is a little more interesting than Lake Garda but since you will be in Venice, the lake is closer. It's very close to Verona which is also one of my favorite cities in Italy. You could combine the two of them easily. If you have 8 full days it would not be very rushed to split the time 4 days in Venice and 4 days the Liguria coast. People get into trouble when they try to cram three or four different locations in a week but don't be afraid to try two into that time.

Here is the link to the website where I post my photos - Italy, Verona and Lake Garda are there. I will be posting the new CT photos this weekend.

www.pbase.com/annforcier

alliebtcc

isabel your pictures are amazing! when you were in venice where did you stay?