kathleen

We’ve begun an itinerary for 2-3 weeks in northern Italy and part of Croatia for late August- September, 2012. We haven’t made plane or hotel reservations yet, with one exception; we’ve booked lodging and bought opera tickets for the Arena in Verona for September 1. We’re planning our itinerary around that venue. We’d like to travel as much as possible in September to lessen crowds, so the opera is very near the beginning of the trip (and at the end of the Arena opera season).

The itinerary below is what we have so far. The big problem is in the middle of the trip: how to travel to Croatia. Should we spend 2-3 days going by train and bus to Trieste, then down the Istrian peninsula to Split, or cross via ferry straight to the Istrian peninsula, or go directly to Split? We have the time to add a few days, but just not sure about it. We’d welcome thoughts on this. I have read all the trip reports and comment others have posted, but I’m still undecided about the Istrian peninsula. We’ll travel using public transportation throughout the entire trip. The two cities in Croatia we want to visit for sure are Split and Dubrovnik. So…

Fly into Venice, then train to Padua, 2 nights (Giotto frescoes).
Train to Verona, 1 night (Opera)
Train to a lake town, 2-3 nights. Not sure which town. We’ve never been to any. Suggestions?
Train to Ravenna, 2 nights (Mosaics)

**Now, trouble with the middle section--getting to Croatia:

Possibility #1
From some city in northern Italy (Trieste?), train or bus to Istrian peninsula (3 nights). Stay in a seaport town. Which one? Then train or bus to Split (3 nights-Diocletian’s palace, day trip to one island) Then bus to Dubrovnik (3 nights), then train or bus to Zagreb (2 nights). Fly home, connecting through some city other than Venice with open jaw ticket, departing from Zagreb.

Or possibility #2
Train to Trieste (1 night), then ferry to the Istrian peninsula. Which city? Then Split, then Dubrovnik, then Zagreb. Fly home.

Or possibility #3
Ferry to Split (overnight trip) If we do this we’d probably need to add a night to Ravenna to then travel the following day to Ancona, right? This would maintain a lot of time for the mosaics in Ravenna. Does the ferry from nearby Rimini cross to Split or just to the Istrian peninsula towns? If so, then after Split, on to Dubrovnik, then Zagreb. Fly home.

Or possibility #4
Ferry to Dubrovnik from Bari ?, (overnight trip) If we do this we’d probably need to add a night to Ravenna then travel the following day to Bari, right? After Dubrovnik, then Split, then Zagreb. Fly home.

Alternative end to trip.
Fly home from Dubrovnik (eliminating Zagreb) Fly back to Venice with a one way ticket and connect with a round trip ticket back to US. Having heard really good things about Zagreb, we’re reluctant to cut it. And, an open jaw ticket to Venice and ending with Zagreb is about the same cost as round trip to Venice. It’s Dubrovnik that seems to add significant costs to the flight.

What would you do?

kathleen

Topping for any suggestions. Thanks.

qwovadis

www.sirmione.com Lake Garda Hotel Eden for me last
prettiest Garda Town "the pearl of the lake" cute
castle roman villa termes 20 miles or so west of Verona.

For Croatia best to train to Ancona and take the Blue Line
ferry to Split from 20 euro deck passage for me last.Will put you in the center of things with no long bus slogs which as a newbie I did from Trieste pretty but VERY long avoid.
Try to see stay around Diocletian's Palace prettiest area.Have been several times.Plitvice NP Dubrovnik favs www.balkanology.com Zagreb not so much.In the communist era they built a lot of ugly blocky stuff that mars the natural beauty of many of the big cities.

If you must do Zagreb train to Trieste cross the street to bus station CroatiaBus most days to Zagreb leaves at 5PM
most days gets in at 10PM.

Happy Travels!

qwovadis

Offering a terrace with sun loungers right on Lake Garda, Hotel Eden is 100 metres from Sirmione Castle.
www.booking.com/hotel/it/eden-sirmione.en.html

LittleVicky

You could get the bus from Trieste to Pula and use it as your base. Pula is the main bus terminal on the Peninsula, so you would maximise your short time in the area.
There is the added bonus of a super fast catamaran from Pula to Zadar. This gives you a break from the buses and allows you to enjoy the islands.

zeppole

Are you completely averse to flying? You can fly from Bologna to Zagreb on TAP airlines (portugal) for about 125 euros per person. There are presently 2 afternoon flights daily.

If the flight schedule remains the same, you could leave Ravenna in the morning and be at Bologna's airport in plenty of time to take the flight. Or you could also stay in Bologna and visit Ravenna as a day trip.

I don't know your budget, but a nice place to stay in Bologna is Antica Casa Zucchini.

Other than that, you might consider going back to Venice to catch a ferry to Croatia.

http://www.venezialines.com/

Ackislander

I am going to post on your questions serially because I am still working on answers to some of your point. Here is the first pass.

Consider flying into Milan and taking the train to Verona, Padua, and Venice. Venice airport is subject to weather delays, and you won't have to backtrack, saving money on trains. If you haven't been to Verona, allow yourself an extra day and night to see the town and its historic and artistic sites. It is our favorite town in Italy.

The Scrovegni Chapel is only a few blocks from the train station, and you can get a trolley nearby to travel across the city to the other sites of interest. Make sure that your lodging is on this "interest/transportation axis".

Save the mountains and lakes for later. When you are finished in Venice, go to Ravenna. The mosaics are wonderful, but I don't think you need two nights if you arrive before lunch from Venice, unless it makes for a better ferry connection.

Because I would indeed do the ferry to Dubrovnik (no loops, remember?) then go up the coast to Split by bus.

Here's where I have to go away and think. Zagreb is interesting in a central European way, but nowhere near as interesting as Istria. I'll be back!

One other comment: if you weren't going to the opera (and I am a serious opera fan) I would say to do this trip a month or more later. It will be hot and still crowded most places, esp Venice.

kathleen

Thanks for the suggestions.

Qwovadis: We’ll consider Lake Garda. I think it’s been mentioned by many as a favorite. The lodging you suggested is at the very upper end of our budget. A few stays could be that much, but not many. If we can get most others to come at a lower cost, then that place could remain a possibility. We’re not too concerned about its terrific location on the water’s edge, since we live on a barrier island off SC coast. We’d be more interested to exploring the town and walking around to get views of the lake and area We’ve used booking.com before. In fact the place in Verona was reserved through them.
In Split, we would like to stay as close to or inside the palace area itself. We’re looking now for a place.
If we do go to Zagreb, it would be our last city, and we’d fly home from there. There’s something about authenticity of an old city, without much tourism that interests me, whether there are grand sites there or not. So I’m leaning toward keeping it in.
The balkanology website is great. Thanks for that.

LittleVicky: If we do decide to keep the Istrian peninsula in, I do like the suggestion of the fast catamaran from Pula to Zadar. Pula as a base—I’ll consider it.

Zeppole: Flying. Really try to avoid it when possible on a vacation. Don’t mind starting and ending that way since it’s usually a necessity. Zagreb would come at the end of the trip.
I think we might need two nights in Ravenna, since we’d be arriving one day most likely around noon. So in only one afternoon we’d have to see all the Ravenna sites. Then there’s Sant'Apollinare in Classe just out of town that we want to include too. We’re big art and architecture fans so we tend to wander through these kinds of sites slowly. We’d just rather stay two nights and have plenty of time there. The lodging site you mentioned may work well, good location.

Ackislander: We wanted to do the trip later in the fall, but the Verona opera season dictated our schedule. We’d been wanting to go to this opera venue for years. We thought about flying into Milan, and if we did then I’d want to spend a night there before heading east. I’ve been wanting to see the DaVinci’s Last Supper and a few other sites in Milan. We began to think that maybe the west side of Italy needs its own trip (and maybe include a lake stay another time then). We’ve been to Italy a few times before and have been to Venice. We will skip it this time. We’d go directly to Padua from the airport. On this trip we’re attempting to stay out of the big Italian cities, and choosing instead, the smaller ones. I’ll take your suggestion as to where to stay in Padua for the best transportation options.

The ferry to Dubrovnik would work, then to Split, then end with Zagreb and fly home. This would eliminate the Istrian peninsula, so it still needs thought. I assume that the ferry to Dubrovnik will still be running in September from Bari? I need to become more familiar with the ferry websites.

I really appreciate all these suggestions and feel that we’re getting a little closer to solving the middle section of the trip. Whether to include a lake town, or the Istrain peninsula, and or Zagreb, and how to make the loop are the issues. Including everything adds a week, which I believe is too much.