My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy in Sept. We have 16 nights. Here is our tentative itinerary:

We fly into Milan and are hoping to get a flight from there to Prague for 3 nights. This is a must see on our trip? Is 3 nights enough time?
Fly from Prague to Florence where we will rent a car and spend 8 nights in Tuscany.
Drive to Cinque Terre area for 2 nights.
Drive to Santa Margarita for 2 nights
And end up in Milan the night before we fly back home.

We are thinking of staying in the Montepulciano-Pienza area and using that as our base for the 8 nights in Tuscany. Are there many restaurants in that area? Can anyone recommend farm house accomodations for that area? From there can we easily visit Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Assisi, Orvieto, Montalcino and Chianti area (wine-tasting)? Is that too much time for that area? Can anyone suggest other areas to see?

We’ve never been to the Cinque Terre or Santa Margarita area but have been to Milan.

If anyone can offer suggestions to this itinerary, I would greatly appreciate your help. Thanks

Why are you not flying into Prague directly? Are you using FF tickets that restrict you to use Milan R/T?

Three nights is not enough IMO for a city like Prague, especially if you are counting your travel day.

For me, there is too much moving around. We visited the CT as a daytrip from Rapallo where we spent a long weekend. That was enough for us and we were quite happy we were staying in Rapallo instead.

You are flying into Florence and spending no time there? I think that is a mistake.

If I was restricted to Milan only as an airport, I would build a trip around that and not try to force fit everything else.

Just my opinion.

We are flying from NY to Milan on frequent flyer points. That is why we are flying from Milan onto Praque.

We have been in Florence before so we thought we would just go back and spend a day there.

Is Ct very close to the Santa Margarita area? Should we think of just staying there and visiting CT? It's hard to tell on the map what the driving is like. We can always add time onto Praque...everything is still in the planning stages. I was hoping for suggestions like yours.

I thought as much...thanks for clarifying.

We took the train to the CT and the scenery was really breathtaking! I am glad we did not rent a car so we both could pay attention. There are stations in each of the towns. We were there in mid September and it was really was a nightmare; we were out of there in 2 hours. Far too many tourists and barely a word of Italian being spoken. Some love it but I personally avoid those type of places.

I have only driven through Prague on my way to Vienna from Copenhagen. I plan to spend time there next winter while I am in the area.

Have you already spent time in Milan? If not, I would add a day at least to see the city. I quite enjoy it.

SML is far more charming IMO and that is where I would base and just do a daytrip. The ferry there is convenient and makes it simple to visit other places like Portofino.

Hi D,

Cinque Terre towns and SML are very near so no real need to stay in both.

As far as your Italy itinerary goes, I would:

3 nts northern Tuscany (SG, Siena, Florence, Chianti)
4 nts southern Tuscany (Montepulciano, Montalcino, Pienza)
2 nts Assisi (Spello, Montefalco, Cortona maybe)
3 nts Cinque Terre/SML
1 nt Milan

Drop the car somewhere on the way to CT, Pisa airport maybe or La Spezia.

Buon viaggio!

Sorry, dc, I see now where you have been in Milan already. If you are looking for a hotel convenient to the station and the Malpensa Express, I stayed at the Le Meridien and loved it! Perfect for short stay.

When we hightailed it out of CT, we spent the day in La Spezia and totally enjoyed it!

dcreighton,
Combine Cinque Terre and Santa Margarita to four days in one or the other and I think you got it. If you want ideas for Tuscany send me an e-mail and I will send you some suggestions.

Henry

Dayle,

We were planning on keeping the car for the SML and CT and driving it back to Milan. If we turn the car in, what would be the easiet way to get to Milan.

Kfusto, thanks for the hotel recommendation in Milan. Is there an easy way to get to the Duomo area from that hotel?

Henry,

I tried to send you an email asking for your Tuscany suggestions but it came back to me...undeliverable.

My email is [email protected] Please send. Thanks.

We walked with no problem. I got the hotel on Priceline for $100 US and it was really a bargain. Large rooms, fab bathroom and I found the location convenient.

There is a metro stop across the street.