IsabelleandRyan

Hello!

I am just starting to plan our September 2015 honeymoon to Italy. The problem is, I just have no idea where to start as far as an itinerary goes.

I have been to Florence and Pisa, so I do not want to include them in this trip?

I do not want to do too much moving around (hotel to hotel). We haven't decided on the length of the trip yet, perhaps about a week and half or two weeks would unfortunately be the max.

Should we do Rome and Venice? Cinque Terre? Sicily? Sorrento? Amalfi Coast? I was trying to keep it to two locations and then maybe possible day trips from those home bases.

Thank you in advance!

sandralist

Your trip is very far from now so you have plenty of time discuss this with your fiancee, and you really should hold off getting your minds fixed on certain destinations until you know how much time you will actually have. More important is to get a general idea about whether you would both be more enthusiastic about spending most of your time in the exciting art cities or would much rather give a priority to beautiful views and just pass through the art cities with some light sightseeing.

What might also be important is whether you are leaving immediately after all the excitment (and work!) of a large wedding. If so, you might want to pick a place to arrive in Italy that is not exhausting to get to.

In September the weather is typically quite nice everywhere in Italy.

bobthenavigator

Come back when you have decided how many nights to sleep in Italy. Impossible to plan without knowing that.

bobthenavigator

Sorry, meant to add one scenario ideal for a honeymoon.
Given at least 10 nites in Italy, I would stay north and see Venice, the Dolomites, and Lago Como--very romantic.

Fly into Venice and home from Milan--or vice versa.

adrienne

Definitely include Venice in your itinerary. If you visit Sicily you will need 2 weeks there to adequately see the island.

Perhaps a week driving around the smaller towns in Tuscany/Umbria, Venice for 3 days, a couple of days on Lake Como, fly home from Milan.

bilboburgler

I'd either stay north or go south and I'd plan for a two centre break. One of those breaks would be just you two alone in a city and one doing something on a course with locals.

Now before you say boring.

For instance a cookery course so you can recreate the foods of this holiday. Or art so you can paint where you stayed, or pottery so you can take home a pot, or cycling so you see distant vistas.

My options would be

1)Venice and a course in the hills around
2) Venice and a course in Tuscany
3) Lecce and a course in the local area

Early Sept can be nice and warm, will you need/wamt a pool?

sandralist

A lot of people would nix Venice for a honeymoon. Definitely nix it. I am surprised by how often Italians describe the lakes as "melancholy", or view the Dolomiti as a family destination, not a honeymoon one. I really disliked the Lecce area when I visited it and it can be way too hot there in September for my tastes. I picked Venice (among other destiantions) for my honeymoon (and then ended up not going until much later in my looooooooooong marriage), but that variety of personal quirks and favorites is why it is not a great idea to put your own personal honeymoon up for a voice vote on the internet. You might regret letting two sentence opinions influence your thinking too much when it comes to something as personal as your honeymoon.

For the same reasons you don't want to marry other people's spouses, you might not want to take their ideal honeymoon either.

bobthenavigator

A breath of fresh air---how pathetic !

rekha_rajan

Is there a place better than venice?

sandralist

Plenty! I live in one!

Mimar

Some people are Venice-blind just as some people are colorblind. Pity them.

IsabelleandRyan

We ultimately decided to spend 4 nights in Venice, 5 in Florence (with day trips throughout Tuscany), and 5 nights in Rome.

People seem to love or hate Venice. For every person that doesn't like it I seem to find one that thinks it's the most beautiful city. So, we shall see if we love it!

HappyTrvlr

In Venice, walk away from the San Marco arwa into the neighborhoods for a better experience.

sandralist

What, HappyTrvlr? You can't see the beauty of the San Marco area? Don't look now, but you might be an object of pity from those for whom only one viewpoint is valid.

Also, I'd like to point out that the question raised was not whether Venice is beautiful. The question was about honeymoon destinations. Plenty of people would not consider Venice for their honeymoon. Is that ok with the travel police? I hope so.

Mimar

Aren't you over-reacting, sandralist? Taking my post too personally?

The appeal of Venice is visual, that and its novelty. If you're visually oriented, you get it. If you're not, it doesn't matter how urbane and cultured you are. I get a great deal of pleasure out of things visual, colors and shapes. And I feel sorry for people who don't get that experience.

At the same time, I'm not musically oriented. I don't understand the intense experience some people get from music. Wish I did. So go ahead and pity me. I feel kind of bad about it myself. But such is life.

Some of us -- enough of us -- find Venice the most magical and fantastical of cities. You don't. I wouldn't want someone who would love Venice not to go there because of others' negative reactions.

sandralist

Mimar,

You know nothing about me, least of all my history with the visual arts which I will just take a flying guess is far greater than yours, professionally and otherwise.

But what's really discrediting to you is your lack of self-awareness, and your sense of superiority not merely about your unimporatant travel tastes but your sense that color blind people are to be "pitied" or that you are some sort of person to feel "sorry" of anybody. Tone deaf really does nail it. Such is your life, not mine.

I was the person who fisrt recommended to the OPs not to let a few comments on the internet have too much inflience on their decision. You and bobthenavigator only arrived to be insulting and puff yourselves up.

sandralist

I just am still shaking my head at the idea that someone arrived at the conclusion that the millions of people who candidly report that they found other travel destinations more rewarding than Venice just must not be "visually oriented." -- ??? That's really it, huh?

Maybe all those other people just simply aren't looking for a flattering reflection of themselves all the time, so they actually see more of what is going in Venice than "colors and shapes". Or maybe what spolied the Venice experience for a great many people was the sheer overload of so many camera snapping "visually oriented" airheads who are just so amazed to see that the world is actually made up of colors and shapes. One wonders what terribly dull grey circumstances they live in -- and why they don't apply themselves to decorating before deciding the rest of the world just doesn't have their gifts.

bobthenavigator

So sad !

Jean

isabelle, you're going to have a great time. It's your honeymoon, for heaven's sake!! Disregard the sniping above. Everyone experiences places differently and forms their own impressions. There is no right or wrong opinion.

sandralist

I agree with Jean (who often posts here she doesn't like Venice).

Bob, go soak your head.