Honeymoon in Italy - Summer
 

Hi Everyone, I'm new the forum and hoping to get some advice! I'm planning my honeymoon for the beginning of July to Italy. I'm looking for advice on our itinerary and hotel recommendations/what to do. My biggest concern is making sure we are travelling to the right places.

The trip is 10-14 days depending on hotels and airfare. We love wine, coffee, food and being active. Not huge beach bums but I LOVE the water and definitely need to cool off in the summer. My hubby is more into museums so we need some of that but i'm not a huge fan.

The trip:
I want to go to Rome, Florence, a villa in tuscany with possible day trips and somewhere by the water

Was thinking:
- Fly into Rome and stay 1-2 nights
- Train to florence and stay for 3 nights
- Drive to Villa (we found one in Chianti that is very nice) and stay for 3 nights
- Not sure what the water area should be. I originally thought about going to Lake Garda but was discourged by some people. Then I thought about cinque terre but im' not a fan of the hotels there.

Thanks in advance!

What kind of water area and what kind of hotel were you looking for? On the coast of Tuscany, there are some very upscale places (as well as any kind of more modest accommodation)--see Castiglione di Pescaia and Monte Argentario areas. If you end up returning to Rome for your flight out, Lago di Bolsena sounds nice.

Your pace is a bit more quick than I would want for a honeymoon, but we all have different travel styles. If you can get a flight to Florence or Pisa instead, I would save Rome for an anniversary trip though.
congrats!

I am curious as to what discouraged you from Lake Garda. We loved it. We did go in the fall. Summer in Italy will be hot and crowded but generally worse in August. But that will be an issue in most of the popular places.

Our trip to Lakes Como, Iseo and Garda is in two trip reports.

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1649643/

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1649644/

I would add one night to Rome. We have always found the city to be romantic. We were less enamored with crowded Florence, and if museums and art won’t be your focus, you might get away with one fewer day there. Maybe more time in the villa and perhaps only a day trip to Florence.

Yes, Lake Garda to me was the nicest lake - actual lake - of the three most famous lakes I visited -and it has a lot of nice places along its shores with frequent boat service. I especially like the northern fjord-like tip of the lake. The southern part of the lake has two nice towns with rail service. And Sirmione is the lake's Bellagio - swamped by tourists in day and gorgeous when most are gone at night. Sirmione also has some lovely Roman ruins overlooking the lake.

Sirmione:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sirm...ih=625&dpr=1.5

Lake Garda:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lake...iw=645&bih=613

I think you have to figure out a couple of things before you plan your days.

Will it be 10 days or 14 days? Big difference.

Do you want a go-go-go honeymoon (likely in hot, humid weather), or do you want a leisurely pace? FWIW, I don't do well in hot/humid weather, so I'd want a chance to really slow down in the middle of the day. Not every building in Italy is air conditioned to the glacial temps found in the U.S. (if that's where you're from).

Will/can you fly into one city and out of another?

These issues will determine the pace of your travels and whether a fourth destination is even realistic.

All good questions! I'm looking to leave July 1-14 so that means i would arrive July 2nd in the morning giving me 12 nights at most.

I want a mix of activity and leisure. I thought about flying from other cities but I'm coming from Toronto Canada, so Rome allows us to fly direct and it's cheaper.

This is what I'm currently thinking.

Day 1- arrive in Rome (stay 2 nights)
Day 2 - Rome
Day 3 - Travel to cinque Terre (stay 2 nights)
Day 4 Cinque terre
Day 5 - travel to Florence (stay 3 nights)
Day 6 Florence
Day 7 - Florence
Day 8 - travel to Chianti (stay 3 nights in villa)
Day 9 - chianti
Day 10 - chianti
Day 11 - travel back to Rome (stay 1 night)
Day 12 - Fly to Canada

My priority is having time to relax in Tuscany and take a cooking class and go wine tasting. We want to relax here. I'm a bit limited based on the availability at the villa though.
Also, do you think I should stay in cinque terre a day trip from Florence and instead spend more time in rome or somewhere else?

>>> Day 1- arrive in Rome (stay 2 nights)
>>> Day 11 - travel back to Rome (stay 1 night)
Try not to stay in Rome twice. If you can bunch up all your stay in one, you can save at least half day by completely eliminating one check-in/out cycle.
Once way to do this is to fly into Milan, Malpensa or Linate, and go straight to Cinque Terre on the arrival day if the plan lands in the morning in Milan. If you have to fly into FCO, you can take a high speed train to Florence. Trains run until into the evening.

I think I would be divorced before the honeymoon was over if we spent time in the Cinque Terre in July.

I would go to a beach in Tuscany rather than the Cinque Terre, for a relaxing time in July. Suggestions have already be made for a few here. It would make more sense to go to these places on your way from Rome, than to go all the way to Cinque Terre for 2 nights in July (it will be noisy and full of tourists), which would then involve backtracking to Florence.

Ditto StCirq!
We don't know enough about you or your wishes to make any more suggestions at this point, but make sure the two of you think and talk about what kind of trip you want to have. It is SO easy to overdo it in Italy. Be sure to look at train schedules--it kills me to lose time on a vacation. That time in a train could be spent sitting in a cafe, etc. etc. Have you searched multi city flights? A quick layover in Germany for example (Heathrow is the only airport I actively avoid) is not painful when it saves you backtracking.

I also would avoid the Cinque Terre in July. The crowds can be unmanageable unless you head out early in the morning to hike the higher trails.

I also can't immagine why you were discouraged from Lake Garda. We were there in July two years ago, three generations of my family, and we all loved it. We stayed in Pai, one of the smaller quieter towns, in a mini apartment right on the lake, which also had a pool.

Does the sentence I highlighted in bold above mean you will fly home on the 14th? If so I think you are incorrectly counting your time in Italy. See your day by day schedule above where I have added the dates in bold. I apologize if I misunderstood what date you are flying back to Canada.

My opinion agrees with the advice you have received above. I would save the Cinque Terre for another trip at a less crazy time of the year. I would go directly to Florence on your arrival day and move all your time in Rome to the end. It sounds like you like the villa you found in Chianti a lot and want to stay there but you are limited by it's availability. If staying there is a priority, that might complicate coming up with an efficient schedule. In my opinion, you have plenty of time to have a great honeymoon - you just need to tweak it some to make it a little easier. Congrats on your wedding.

thanks for the input everyone!

I think we found the right plans

Fly to Milan and go straight to Lake Como
- 3 nights in Lake como
- Train to Florence and spend 4 nights
- Rent a car and stay in Chianti for 3 nights
- Train to Rome and spend 2 nights
- Go back home

Does anyone know if you need a special permit to rent a car in Italy? I've been getting mixed answers on this?

You need an international driver's permit, if that's what you mean.

You may not need to show IDP to pick up cars but it is a requirement to drive the car in Italy. Get one quickly a your local AAA.

Bring two passport photos to the AAA office. The charge for the IDP (which is basically a legally authorized translation of info on your driver's license) is $20. For a fee, AAA will also take the photos. You don't need to be a AAA member, although the photo fee is less if you are.

Consider renting your car via broker AutoEurope which has great US-based customer support, good rates, and they usually offer prepaid full insurance that can be a fraction of what you might be charged at the desk.

I think we found the right plans

Fly to Milan and go straight to Lake Como
- 3 nights in Lake como
- Train to Florence and spend 4 nights
- Rent a car and stay in Chianti for 3 nights
- Train to Rome and spend 2 nights
- Go back home

I think that's a huge improvement. You will be so happy you're not returning to the same city where you arrived.

My only suggestion might be to take one night from Florence, and add it to Rome.

Happy Honeymoon!

Florence is one of the muggiest cities in Italy, usually hotter than cities further south, like Rome, because it lies in a natural bowl, where there isn't a lot of air circulation. I myself wouldn't want to stay there four nights in July. It's also packed with tourists, and they're not mostly day trippers, so it's crowded even in the evening. I try to go there in the dead of winter.

I think you have found the right plans for what you want to do too. Good luck with finding places to stay and figuring out your transportation logistics.

Hi everyone, you have all made such wonderful suggestions and i truly appreciate them!
We've had a slight change and i would like some advice with regards to trains vs car rentals.

Here is the trip:

- Fly into venice and stay one night
- go to Lake Garda (stop in Verona for a few hours on the way.) I'm staying in Bardolini in Lake Garda for 3 nights
- Drive to florence and make stops along the way
- Stay in florence 4 nights
- drive to chianti and stay 3 nights
- train to rome and stay 2 night then head home

My questions are:
- Should we rent a car in venice and drive to verona and then lake garda?
- does anyone know if i can rent a car in garda?
- do i need a car in garda or will the ferries be sufficient? I think we'd like to check out 1 or 2 other towns on the lake for one day
- if i train from Venice to verona, does it make sense to store my luggage at the train station and spend a few hours walking around? then take the train to garda. Will i be able to get a taxi in garda to drive to bardolini?
- lastly, do you trust luggage storage at the train station?

thanks in advance!

The pace of your itinerary doesn't appeal to me, so I'll only answer a few of your questions.

There are car rental offices in both Peschiera del Garda and Desenzano. You can reach both towns by train, and both towns are ferry stops on the route that includes Bardolino.

There is also bus service between Verona and Bardolino.

https://m.atv.verona.it/#/routes

Whether the ferry service on Lake Garda is sufficient for you in the time you have depends on where you want to go, what you want to see/do. Not every ferry in each direction stops at Bardolino. The ferry website is currently showing timetables effective through May 31st, so you'd have to check back.

Navigazione Laghi | Lago Maggiore | Lago di Garda | Lago di Como

There is luggage storage at the Verona Porta Nuova train station. IMO, these services in Italian train stations are trustworthy, but we do lock our luggage when we leave it.

Now, I have a couple of questions.

Were you planning to keep the car while you're staying in Florence, or turn it in and rent another car as you're leaving? If you plan to keep it, you need to figure out where you're going to park it and how much that will cost.

Are you familiar with ZTLs? Zona Traffico Limitato. These are zones set aside in nearly every Italian town of any size into which you can't drive without a permit. If you drive into the zone, even by accident, you risk receiving an expensive citation after you get home. You can research a town you're thinking of visiting to see if it has a ZTL, but you should definitely know what the ZTL warning signs look like.

https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.co...with-ztl-zones

Each driver needs to have an International Driving Permit.

IMO it doesn't make sense to try to rent a car in the small village of Garda. Do it at Verona, as you plan to visit Verona anyway.
It would make even less sense to take a bus from Verona via Bardolino to Garda and to look there for a taxi in order to backtrack to Bardolino as you obviously plan.
Tell us at which places you plan to stop between Bardolino and Florence. If you mean Mantova, Cremona, Parma or so (all reachable by public transport without any problem) it might be easier to visit them in day trips from Bardolino.

Thanks Jean. Once we are in Florence, we will not have the car. We only wanted the car to get there. I saw some car rental companies in the city but perhaps its easier to drive it to the airport? I'm worried about the ZTL areas. I'll have to look it up on the map.

Then when we leave Florence to go to Chiante, we thought about renting a car again. THe hotels i'm staying at have free parking. If Chianti is accessible by bus and taxi though then I might not want the car.

The real reason I'm excited about the car is because i've heard beautiful things about driving through Tuscany and since I'm coming in from Lake Garda, I will be able to drive through small towns and pick up food along the way.

Lots of people find the Florence airport easier for rental car business than navigating city center streets. No ZTL, many more open hours, etc.

It would be very difficult to see Chianti/Tuscany without a car in the time you have. There is bus service, but it's geared more for commuting than sightseeing.

If your goal is to 'drive through small towns,' consider driving secondary roads as much as possible, rather than the autostrade or major highways.

Is your Chianti hotel within a ZTL? Is so, you need precise instructions from the hotel on how to drive to the hotel.

Where were you thinking of returning the car before Rome?

This sounds like a good plan. However if I were you I would take a night or two out of florence and put that night or nights in Rome.

The original poster has changed the plan. They now will fly into Venice and visit Lake Garda before heading to Florence.

If you need a car with automatic transmission, it's easier to get one at an airport than in a small town with one rental agent.