I have a question,

Sept 2009 My fiance and i will be going on our honeymoon. Two spots we will be definately hitting will be lake como (5 days) and Venice (3 days). After that we would like to drive through tuscany. My question is..........what would be easier.....a como, venice and then drive to florence for tuscany......or venice.....como.....and then drive to florence?

What is there to see inthe drive from como to florence?

I would check your flight options in/out of Milan, Venice and Florence. Depending on where you live, flying home from Venice means an uncomfortably early departure and from Florence probably involves a connection somewhere.

For me (in Los Angeles), I'd go Venice-Florence-Lake Como and fly home from Malpensa. I'd train between these destinations and rent and return a car in Florence for exploring Tuscany.

Were you going to spend any time in Florence or just use it to access Tuscany? If the latter, you could train to Venice-Arezzo, pick up the car there and drop it at the main train station in Florence. How many days do you have for this segment of the itinerary?

Is the emphasis on Lake Como over Venice (5 days v. 3 days) for relaxation? If not, I'd take a day from Lake Como and add it to Venice.

Depending upon what you want to see in Tuscany you might want to go Venice, Como, Tuscany and fly back from Rome. IMO the southern part of Tuscany is the best which would result in staying south of Siena in the area around Pienza, which would make Rome a logical place to fly home from, unless you don't mind an extra leg, like Pisa to somewhere and then home from there.

It would be helpful to know how long you will actually be in Italy (not counting day of arrival and day of departure), and what your interests are. My recommendation is to fly into Florence or Pisa (it has a large international airport), and rent a car for the Tuscany portion, train to Como (there is a Hertz office right in the Como train station), train to Venice (through Milan) and fly out of Venice. That itinerary reduces the backtracking.

You should commence making your hotel and airline reservations NOW to avoid disappointment. Good luck and I hope you enjoy Italy as much as I did (which was a LOT!). Congrats on your wedding and try to pick up a few words of Italian. It's fun and appreciated.

hi, michael,

does it HAVE to be como? Lake garda is much more convenient for the rest of your trip and IMHO very beautiful and interesting in its own right.

your trip would then look like this:

Venice - Garda - Tuscany - Florence [perhaps flight home from Pisa].

you could pick up your car on leaving Venice, and return en route to Florence. easy peasy.

regards, ann

My suggested sequence would Venice--Tuscany--Como and fly home from MXP, as Jean proposed. However, I would drive to the city of Como to drop my car and then hydrofoil to my lake destination. With an early start, I would divert a bit to have lunch in Portofino.

I like bobthenavigator's suggestion if you have the time.