Hello,

My husband and I are starting to plan our first trip to Italy. We are thinking of focusing on Venice and the Lakes Region - although Cinque Terre also sounds intriguing.

Because we don't like to pack and unpack multiple times, we were hoping to limit our moving around. We're going to have two weeks, so we were thinking of maybe 5 or so days in Venice, and then moving to one other spot and taking day trips from there (we'll have a car). Is this realistic, and, if so, where would you suggest as a good home base to branch out from?

Thanks!

I dont think it is realistic to do the CT and lakes region from a central point. You could try milan but I dont think you would be happy. I would choose either the CT area or the lake region area. It seems like the CT region has more to offer. I would stay at rustico sara http://www.tuscany.net/sara/ in the garfagnana region. From there you can see many places by car such as tuscany, lucca, florence, pisa, and the CT. This is a most wonderful place to stay. What ever you do, I am sure you will love it!

Ciao

hi cthoops,

at last, a "newbie" who doesn't want to see the whole of europe in a week.

first of all, your idea of starting with 5 nights in Venice is an excellent one, whatever the time of year. it'll give you time to recover from any jet-lag, and to adjust to our strange european ways without having to worry about driving.

after that, where you go is at least partly influenced by the time of year that you are travelling. from May -sept, the lakes would be a good choice; outside these months, the lakes more or less close down, so you might want to look at the CT, or Tuscany proper.

in 2 weeks you might think of 3 bases - after Venice, 4-5 days on one of the lakes, or an agritourismo in Tuscany, ending your holiday with a few days in florence or siena.

there are lots of threads on this forum discussing the "best" touring bases in tuscany. just put "tuscany" into the search engine.

hope this helps,

regards, ann

The ideal "Home base" for The Lakes is in the vicinity of Lugano.

Not only is this location central to each of The Lakes, IMO Lake Lugano is the most scenic of them all - fjordlike. We spent a week there and even made daytrips up into the Alps including one to not-to-be-missed Soglio.

Good advice above. Venice is a great destination. 5 days is a gracious plenty, so you could cut one day out if that day is needed somewhere else.

We really like Lake Como. The boats on Lake Como go dozens of nice towns and villages. Bergamo and Soglio are nearby.

We spent a few days in Vicenza and visited Marostica, Bassano del grappa and two Palladian villas that are nearby.

With two weeks, three different locations would not be two much. A good rule of thumb is no more than five hours travel from one location to the next, keep things easy.

I really appreciate the suggestions.

Given that we're looking at mid-to-late October, it sounds like Venice and then CT/Tuscany would be a better area to explore than the Lakes. We like to really "dig into" an area vs. an "if it's Tuesday this must be Belgium" type of trip!

Thanks!