My husband and I would like to travel to Italy for one week for our 10 year anniversary. Neither of us has been to Italy and getting started with the planning is a little mind boggling. My question is - how early should I start planning (we're looking to travel in the spring of 2007) and is it best to focus on two or three cities max. since we'll only have a little more than a week. Also interested in your thoughts on renting "villas" that I've seen on many websites. Thanks everyone for your help.

I'm a little confused by the idea of renting a "villa" when you are thinking of splitting just over a week between two or three cities.
Most people assume the first trip to Italy should be the big three -- Rome, Florence, and Italy which can be covered (albeit a bit rushed) in a little over a week. Is that your first desire or do you have more of a desire to relax more in the countryside (maybe a villa in Tuscany for a week, visiting Florence by day, and possibly adding a night or two in Venice or one of the lakes?
What kind of trip are you really looking for? One with lots of city museum and church visits? Or a more relaxing countryside stay?

Duh, the third of the "big three" should of course have been "Venice" not "Italy".

A week could be spent in just Rome!!! But I think I would do only two cities -- not three. Rome and Venice! With a year to go that gives you plenty of time to work on Italian phrases! And read and reread all the guidebooks. I think a villa works fine for confident, experienced travelers. And for a week at a time, which therefore probably won't work for you...If you look at them check for a.c.!

Is there anyway at all you could add even a few more days to your trip? I presume you would leave on a Saturday and return a week from Sunday. Consider that you lose a day on the way there between the travel time and the time change it comes to about 24 hours.

Also, there is the question of jet lag, and if you did want to go to Venice, most of a day will be consumed with checking out of your hotel, a 4-hour train ride and checking in. Unless you get an open-jaw plane ticket, you will consume another day to get back to Rome to fly out.

For this reason, if you absolutely can't extend the length of your trip, I would suggest you go to Florence rather than Venice; the train ride is just over an hour.

(Or of couse, you could just go to Venice and some of the northern area nearby, and skip Rome and Florence.)

One last thing you could start is a conversational course in Italian. It's fun and will make your trip more enjoyable. Good luck!

Hi doogs,

Now is the right time to start planning.

With only 1 week, I suggest no more than 2 places.

Villas usually rent by the week.

My own bias would be to fly into Venice (3 nights) train to Florence (3 nights, with a possible daytrip to Siena) and fly home from Florence FLR or Pisa PSA.

Have a lovely visit.

Ira, on another post, it said Florence's airport was closed?

With a little more than a week, I suggest that you either look for a nice rental OUTSIDE one of Italy's more interesting cities (a rental in Tuscany near Firenze, a rental in Umbria near Perugia, a rental in the Veneto or the lakes, convenient to both Verona and Venice)

OR

Spend a week in Rome.

If this were France or England, would you be trying to go to 3 cities?

Since you asked about renting villas, it makes me think that's what is drawing you to Italy. So why not rent a villa?

What part of spring are we talking about? Early spring or May? If its early spring, than you might do best to settle into Venice for about 5 days, then 2 nights in Verona, and fly out of Milan.

Or just stick to Rome.

If it's late spring, villas in the Tuscan and Umbrian countrysides get more attractive, with the big city art options of Firenze, Assisi or Perugia.

One thing that has changed since 1986 is that it is much easier to get into the Italian countryside and away from the city-focused trips. You'll find quality accommodations and English speakers outside the well-trod tourist path.

Being a former student of history I am very drawn to Florence and feel I would be negligent not to go to Rome as well, but Rome's reputation of hustle and bustle, crowds and such kind of scares me off. We do enjoy the outdoors so perhaps the countryside is a good option. I just want to really experience the culture, but I guess just like anyplace else it will vary based on the region. Don't know if I'll get any additional input, but any advice on Rome?

Oh, you'll get plenty of input! ;-)

I think people who want to experience the culture of Italy do very well to get outside the huge internationalized cities of Rome and Venice. I don't think you should be intimidated by Rome, however, and since you are booking so far in advance, you could book yourself into the Hotel Santa Maria in Trastevere and have the best of both worlds: the old-fashioned villagey atmosphere of Rome's oldest neighborhood, the Trastevere, with all of Rome's history at your doorstep.

People are going to scream when I say this, but I think going to Venice gives you very little of the flavor of being in Italy or understanding Italian culture. Italian culture is really a collection of regions, all very different, and Venice is certainly an important part of the collective history, but it is such an international tourist attraction, you have to really be almost lucky to discover the truly Italian in Venice

You describe yourselves as having a little more than a week, which I think gives you two options:

A weekly rental in the Tuscan countryside, where you can do day trips to the amazing Etruscan and Renaissance hilltowns and cities of Tuscany -- rich with history and art. Fly in and out of Pisa.

Or 3 days in Rome, in a really charming hotel with good services to take the edge off (like Albergo del Senato or Hotel Santa Maria) and then 5 days in Tuscany at a villa near Firenze and Pisa. Fly out of Pisa

I took several trips to Italy before visiting Rome, and my favorite memories of Italy are almost all in places way off the beaten track.

Has Venice ever been truly Italian? It's always been "different."

In a short period of time, I think it's hard to do justice to Rome, Florence and Venice. That doesn't leave you with much down time.

Here's yet another possibility to consider: fly into Milan and immediately transfer by train (one hour) to Lake Como for 2 nights of complete rest and relaxation to get over your jet lag. Take a look at this wonderful place, for example: http://www.varennaitaly.com.

Then, travel by train to Florence for 2 or 3 nights and then take the train again to Venice for 2 or 3 nights.

Or, you could stay close to Florence instead in a Tuscan town like Siena for the last third of your holiday.

I would hope you might be able to stretch a week into 10 days with a couple of weekends as bookends.

Rufus, I agree. Venice is one of the earliest hybrid cities, the crux or port of several completely different empires -- and never the Roman empire! Still, it exerted its effect on Italian cutlure as whole, but now it is in a new international phase.

Florence airport is closed.

>Ira, on another post, it said Florence's airport was closed?

It is closed now, but the OP is going in 2007.

>...you have to really be almost lucky to discover the truly Italian in Venice.

Like watching kids play with a soccer ball in a campo?

Like watching shoppers at an outdoor market?

Like watching guys at bocci?

Like hearing the sounds of everyday Italians going about everyday business?

Like seeing works by some of the world's greatest artists (all with names that end in vowels) on the walls of very minor churches.

This takes luck?

I will admit that Venetians use white cornmeal instead of yellow in their polenta. That is different.

Very valuable advice and I'm grateful. I'm thinking we might try to extend the trip to ten days to not feel limited. Thanks so much and I might be back with more questions!!

Just to clear up the confusion regarding the Florence airport. It was not closed permantly. It was closed for renovations. The word is that the renovations are completed and that just paperwork has to be signed. Supposdly the Florence airport will be opened sometime this month but some airlines will be using the Pisa airport until May 2006 due to agreements that went into place when the Florence airport was closed.