HONEYMOON IN ITALY IN FEBRUARY
 

Hello Everyone,

First of all I would like to thank you all for reading my post and your feedback. Me and my fiance are getting married in London in mid February, 2015 and then we are planning for our honeymoon from 20th - 1st March, 2015. The country we are aiming for is Italy; Venice, Florence and Rome, each with three nights. It is our first time in Italy so will appreciate if you experts/gurus can help us on wht to do/places to visit and tell us if 3 days are enough or maybe too much for each city. I have already check fodors destination page and its articles on forums but would like to know your feedback too for honeymoon perspective. Also I will be getting a guide book soon but for us its fun to explore by ourselves.

Now I know its winter off season and it wont be like the same as in other peak seasons of the year but due to personal reasons we dont have any option to postpone or make it to some other region of the world. Our budget will be about 3,000 USD for two but we can be flexible. Overall we just want to relax, walk around and sight seeing too, maybe some tours too( as my wife is really into history). Also regarding I have done my research but again I am open for your recommendations

We will be really grateful if you guys can guide/help us out so that we can have a one memorable honeymoon.

Looking forward to hear from you all.

Thanks

I think you will do fine with that schedule and those destinations given what you describe, although if your wife is enthusiastic about history, maybe she should be the one to have the final say as to whether she is more excited by the history of one of these places more than others. Your budget doesn't allow for a 5* luxury honeymoon and Michelin * meals, but you can certainly find charming and romantic b&bs and intimate restaurants with excellent food in that budget.

It would be normal for it to be quite cold in Florence (and chilly too in Venice) and you can't rule out the possibility of a real winter storm having an impact on your transportation and travel in any of the cities. Maybe drenching rains, or even snows, that will force you indoors or delay your travels between cities. If the thought of that honestly bothers you, then of course you should reconsider a European honeymoon. But many people do enjoy Rome, Florence and Venice at at that time in winter, when all 3 cities are far less crowded and if you are lucky it actually could be sunny and dry.

We visited all 3 cities in early February several years ago. Rome was pleasant (when the wind wasn't blowing too hard). Florence and Venice were beyond freezing...I've never been so cold as I was in Florence. And it actually snowed in Venice. Being "winter people" we loved it. Especially the fact that we never had to wait in line anywhere.

Our only regret was that our gorgeous Florence hotel was quite a long walk to/from the Duomo area. Under normal circumstances we wouldn't have even noticed. But, with the wind howling down those narrow streets, we ended up taking taxis back and forth and felt foolish hiring such a short ride! Just be sure to pick centrally located hotels just in case the weather is intrepid.

One other suggestion: we used tour guides a lot more on that trip that we usually do. The weather meant it wasn't as pleasant just wandering around in our usual self-guided manner. When the weather outside was frightful, the tour guides switched to inside venues.

Thanks sandralist and JeanneB for your reply. We are form Canada so no worries about cold :P. Regardign hotels I have tried to book the hotels as center as I can for each city. Below are the hotels I have booked

Venice : Hotel Abbazia 4*
Florence : Cosimo de Medici 3*
Rome : Twentyone Hotel 4*

Feel free to comment about the hotel and their locations.

JeanneB, if possible can you refer us some tour guide contacts/website for our convenience.

Also I would like to ask that in the given time (03 days) should we do short trip/tour for surrounding small town/villages around these cities or just stay in the main city.

Thanks

If you haven't done this already, you should read reviews of all the hotels on booking.com or Tripadvisor to see if they get good reviews.

One thing to think about for a winter trip is that, even if you are used to cold, you might want to be able to go back to your hotel during the day or only have a short walk at the end of the day from your hotel to the best places for dinner. I am a little concerned that your hotel for Florence is not the best location for seeing the famous sights, even though Florence is very small. It is very close to the train station, but at night, it is not the nicest area and many of the nicest restaurants are a long walk away. And it could really be freezing! You might think about staying somewhere close to the Duomo.

On the other hand, even though most people stay further from the train station in Venice, I think perhaps in winter it would be nice not to have a long way to go from the train station with your luggage, and you can use the water buses easily from there.

I like the location of your Rome hotel but I would recommend that if you are arriving in Rome at the central train station, take a taxi to the hotel rather than than use the Metro carrying all your luggage. After that, if you want to go to the Colosseum, it is easy to use the Metro. But always in Rome you need to watch out for pickpockets using public transportation, and that is easer if you are not carrying luggage.

It is always a good idea to know about day trips that are easy to do just in case you feel like it when you are there. But certainly the 3 cities you have picked are incredibly interesting and beautiful. Three days is a very short time to see them, so you probably won't feel like it. You certainly shouldn't book a pre-paid tour.

Thanks sandralist for your feedback, appreciated. I have changed my Florence hotel to Hotel Calzaiuoli which is pretty close to Duomo.

Can you list down some key places to visit in every city for a 3 day trip

Thanks

The Calzaiuoli is an excellent location!.

I strongly recommend that you ask your history-loving fiancee to look at this website and other websites like Frommer's and Tripadvisor for "top attractions" in each the cities where she and you will be going. Sometimes the "top attractions" listed are really not how you want to spend your time. (For example most guidebooks for Florence will name the outdoor clothes market in Florence as a "top" attraction and some people do like it but other people skip it).

It is just as true here that if I or someone else gives you a list of what to see that we might not mention something you both would really love to see (or might waste your time with a place that we like that you don't find important).

You are going a long way and spending a lot of money. Al the places you are going have more than 3 days worth of fantastic treasures of history. So the two of you should choose bssed on looking at some good websites and guidebooks.