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-   -   Honeymoon in Rome, Naples, Bologna April 23 to May 10? (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/honeymoon-in-rome-naples-bologna-april-23-to-may-10-a-1643499/)

marystroka Dec 30th, 2017 09:02 PM

Honeymoon in Rome, Naples, Bologna April 23 to May 10?
 
Hi! My husband to be and I will be taking our honeymoon in Italy, leaving April 23 from Chicago (arrives 9am in Rome) and returning May 10 from Rome at 11am.

This is his first time in Italy (my fourth) and he would like to see the following cities and sites: Rome, the Vatican museums, Cannae, Naples, Herculaneum, Vesuvius, and Monte Cassino.

Fixed date is April 26 - we have tickets to the Scavi tour at the Vatican.

We plan to budget about $3,000.

I have friends with a baby in Bologna i would love to see if we can somehow fit that in. I would also love to use my Italian at some point so hoping to get out of tourist stuff for at least one day. I also have one friend in Rome to see.

Would appreciate any advice you have to share on planning our itinerary. Will we need to rent a car? Are there honeymoon suites, and are they worth looking into?

GraceBeachLover Dec 31st, 2017 12:26 AM

Hello dear,
first congratulations!
If I understand, you will stop before in Rome.
Well from here Bologna where your friend lives is so easy to reach by train, it takes only 2 hours and 15 minutes from Roma Termini to central Bologna. Have a look here https://biglietti.italotreno.it/Book...neTreno_A.aspx
However I did not understand how many days you stay in Rome.

If you go to Naples you can not even see Sorrento and then Pompeii. In fact, they sell admission tickets for both (Ercolano and Pompei).

You do not necessarily need to rent a car because it would cost you a lot and these places are easily accessible by train.
Rome is big but it also turns well with tour operator buses.

If I were you I would also add two days to Florence and even here I can give you many suggestions if you want, let me know.!! :))
Grace....

annhig Dec 31st, 2017 07:46 AM

yes, congrats, Marystroka!

however, as you've already been to Italy I suspect you already know that you are going to struggle to fit all of those places into your itinerary. Indeed to my shame I had to look up where Cannae is!

it's shame that you have already booked your Scavi tour as it would have been better to put all your time in Rome at the end of the trip but never mind, we can work round that. More difficult may be your budget of $3000 - I work out that you have 16 nights which works out at less than $200 a day - not much when some of that is going to be in Rome and Naples and certainly not enough for Honeymoon Suites [whatever they are!].

A good idea is to mark out what you are going to do every day to get an idea of travel times and what is feasible in the time you've got, for example:

23/4 - leave Chicago at
24/4 - arrive Rome at 9am. Take Leonardo express to Termini and ? to hotel. check in, say, 12 noon. Rest of day at leisure.
25/4 - Explore Rome - eg Colsseum, Capitoline museum, etc ,etc,
26/4 - Scavi tour plus St Peters and Vatican Museums
27/4 - free day Rome
28/4 - train to Naples. check into hotel by 12 noon, explore Naples. alternatively use a car service to take you so you can go via Monte Cassino. You could also do this as day trip either from Naples or Rome
29/4 - Excursion to Vesuvius
30/4 - Excursion to Herculaneum
1/5 - free day Naples
2/5 - pick up hire car, drive to Cannae [about 3 hours]. Explore Cannae, stay night nearby
3/5 - stay night near Cannae - explore area
4/5 - fly from Bari [nearest airport to Cannae] to Bologna. Ryanair and Alitalia both fly there - see Kayak.co.uk for flight info.
5/5 - stay Bologna
6/5 - Bologna
7/5 - Bologna
8/5 - train to Rome
9/5 - Rome
10/5 - fly home.

you do have a bit of wriggle room, but your main problem for achieving this itinerary is cost - travelling around always increases the costs and your budget is really tight. Staying with your friend will obviously reduce the costs a bit but you're still going to struggle.

Just a thought - you could ask for travel money rather than wedding presents!

PalenQ Dec 31st, 2017 08:00 AM

Book long-distance train tickets far in advance -up to about 90 days - for serious discounted tickets over full fare - book your own at www.trenitalia.com - check www.seat61.com for great advice on doing that -for general info Italian trains - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Cars and cities are not a good mix but for some places you'll need one - try to marshall large cities into trains.

StCirq Dec 31st, 2017 08:34 AM

I agree that the real problem is your budget. My DH and I are budget travelers and spend hours searching out affordable places to stay and eat, and we are often fine with just picking up carry-out sorts of food, but I don't think we could do 17 days in that part of Italy for US$3,000, probably not even 3,000 euros, especially if it were a honeymoon and we wanted a splurge now and then.

annhig has given you some good ideas, but this is not going to be easy if you move around that much.

PalenQ Dec 31st, 2017 09:30 AM

pre-pay as many things as possible and see how much money you have to spend on other things - could be tight.

tuscanlifeedit Dec 31st, 2017 09:44 AM

May we ask what parts of your trip the $3K is going to cover? If it's all transport, hotels/rooms, food and admissions, maybe you need to rethink some of this.

I assume that your air is firm. Perhaps one way to cut back expenses is to stay put more, with maybe a budget apartment in Rome and one in Naples.

marystroka Dec 31st, 2017 12:10 PM

How much would you recommend budgeting then? Thanks

annhig Dec 31st, 2017 01:19 PM

IMO you need roughly $200 per day for accommodation and the same again for everything else, which for 16 days makes $6,400. the way I work that out, based on our spending patterns over the years, is this:

Average hotel - €100 [€150 in Rome, and that's not lavish], breakfast €5 x 2, lunch €10 x 2, a coffee, beer or gelato morning and afternoon €5 x 2, dinner €25 x 2, plus a museum a day €10 x 2, and transport, say €10 x 2 per day averaged out over the whole time.

so that's €165/$198 per day plus accommodation plus a bit a wriggle room. Even this is not lavish by any means.

Of course you may be able to pare it down a bit - accommodation will be cheaper outside Rome and you are staying with friends in Bologna - but any less than $5000 and you won't have much for museums, galleries, etc. etc. The most expensive elements are getting to and from Cannae and Monte Cassino. Leave them out and you would have time to make it worthwhile to rent an apartment in Rome [cheaper than a hotel and you can cook and eat in which makes it cheaper still] and you would still have a great time.


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