We’re starting to book our hotels for our upcoming late Aug-Sept trip to Italy. We’re staying the first two nights in Padua, for the primary purpose of seeing Giotto’s works in the Scrovegni Chapel. We’re thinking about the Grand Italia Hotel near the train and bus stations. Here’s the reason. We fly into VCE around noon, and plan to catch the SITA bus to Padua. Even with flight delays and customs we should get to Padua by mid to late afternoon. We’ll most likely be jet lagged so we won’t want to do much that evening.

I’m planning on booking the reservation for Scrovegni for the next morning. Afterwards, we'll take a bus into town center to spend the rest of the day there. We’ll leave early the following morning to spend the day in Verona, before the evening opera. So, we arrive by bus, leave by train, and have access to the town bus with this hotel location.

Here are my thoughts. I can’t find much about this hotel (looks great on the website, and price is reasonable). I’ve read that the train station area is ugly and uninspiring, but if it’s safe and if we aren’t doing much in the immediate area, is it the ideal location to transportation? Is it a valid and logical reason to book here?

There is nothing exactly wrong with the train station area but it's not the nice part of Padua and your time is limited. A better plan would be to take a taxi to a more central hotel. From there you can stroll in all directions and easily find good places to eat nearby. Padua is small enough to walk anywhere you may want to go (Don't miss the great food markets) once you have got to your hotel and deposited your baggage.

Check out Hotel Belludi 37 http://www.belludi37.it/en/. It's charming. More expensive, yes, but the location for that first night when you just want to check out the city is perfect. Literally around the corner from St Anthony Basillica and the Prato delle Valle. The next morning you can catch the bus at the corner to the Scrovegni and then make your way back by foot to the centro storico.

And if you have an mp3 player (or the like) visit I-Padova for some wonderfully arranged walking tours. It brings the city to life for you. http://www.turismopadova.it/menu-en/...uring-in-citta

While the Grand Italia is right across the street from the train station, all of Padua is easily accessible on foot or by bus/tram. I've stayed at the Majestic Toscanelli a couple of times, and this little hotel just oozes charm:

http://www.toscanelli.com/index.php?lang=en

Great breakfast, too. It's right smack in the middle of everything you'll want to see while you're there.

Tarquin, Toni, Holly,

Thanks for your responses. While I was hoping one of you would say, yes, stay at the Grand Italia, no one did. Is it the hotel or the area?

I will consider what was suggested. I really was hoping to avoid yet another bus (or taxi ride) to the hotel once we arrived in Padua via the SITA bus from the airport. Are there other hotels near the train station that would work better?

Toni, we won't have an MP3 or similar with us. Too bad, it seems like a wonderful idea.

In my case it's not the hotel or the area per se - I don't know anything about either except that it seems as though the further north you go in the city the more modern it becomes, less intersting to me.
Our visit to Padova was similar to yours in that it was our first destination after a transatlantic flight, arriving in Venice but we picked up a rental car. We got to the hotel about mid-afternoon tired but knowing that what worked for us, in order to avoid jet-lag, was to get on local time immediately. That meant keeping active until bedtime. In our case that meant a walk in the Botanical Garden, a visit to San Guistina, the Basilica, and the Prato, then an early dinner. All were within easy distance from our hotel. The next day was spent further afield.
I see your point about not wanting to get on another bus after all those hours of travel but I'd hate to be stuck in a hotel room with nothing to do in the area on my first night in Italy. And leaving on your last day would only add another 15 mins or so the get to the train station - I'd estimate. Not worth it if it would mean missing the charm of the centro storico.

Have you thought about going directly to Verona? You can take a 20 minute bus ride from Venice airport to Mestre station and be in Verona in an hour.

As much as I like Padova, if your main interest in the town is seeing the Cappella Scrovegni, I think you are perhaps spending too much time in Padova, at the expense of larger Verona, where you could spend all 3 nights.

Consider going straight to Verona, spend the first and second day there, and then take a morning trip to Padova the 3rd day, go to the markets and buy a picnic lunch, see the Capella and then head back to Verona in plenty of time of the opera.

What is the rest of your itinerary after Verona?

PS: One more thought:

Take the 20 minute bus ride from the airport to Mestre and stay there. Go into Venice for dinner.

Next day, go into Padova, come back to Mestre -- or stow your luggage in the train station, see the town, and head off to Verona at the end of the day.

Toni, Knowing our pattern on the first evening after long flights, we’ll be dead tired and will not be doing much. We will mostly likely take a walk, have something small to eat, maybe try to find a convenience store and pick up a couple of bottles of water for the next day. No real sightseeing. We don’t expect to arrive in Padua until mid-late afternoon. If the immediate area is safe we’ll walk around there. If not, I suppose we could hop a tram to city center, though I doubt we’d do that. We are still considering staying in city center as everyone suggested, but that probably wouldn’t change what we’d do the first evening.

Zeppole, We’re set on Padua. We’ve been to Venice, nice, but we want different cities where we’ve not been with the exception of Rome—so much there. Plus, we booked our stay in Verona (one night) months ago when we booked the opera tickets. We’re staying very close to the arena, a five minute walk away. It’s great, but more expensive than we’ usually do. We’ll leave Padua early so that we’ll have a long day in Verona before the opera. Then we’ll leave Verona the following day for Ravenna around noon or so.

Our itinerary (still undergoing some change) is choppy at the beginning because of what we what to see and do, then it settles into a very nice pace.

Padua 2 nights, Verona 1 night, Ravenna 2 nights. (choppy but will work).
Then we slow—Siena 5 nights (still deciding 4 or 5), Assisi 1 night, and finally Rome 4 nights. (or Siena 4 nights, Assisi 1 night and Orvieto 1 night, before Rome) Look okay?

We’re seriously thinking Siena 5 nights and making Orvieto a long day trip from Siena. It comes immediately after the choppy start and we may want (need) a long stay in one place. And, I really want to stay 1 night in Assisi to experience the town after and before all the crowds. We’d arrive in Assisi mid-morning and stay until noon or so the next day before heading to Rome.

This is what we have so far.

I recommend seeing Orvieto en route to Rome from Assisi.

I believe there is a regular bus from Siena to Assisi that might save you some time. You might also find a regular bus from Bologna to Siena saves you some time.

Were I going to Ravenna after Verona, I would be even more inclined to simply stay in Verona the whole time, especially since you tell me you won't be seeing Padova your first night there anyway. It is actually a shorter trip to Ravenna from Padova than it is from Verona. If you shop at the Padova market in the morning, you can leave on a 7:30pm train for Ravenna carrying a picnic dinner, and arrive in Ravenna before 9pm.

Taking taxis to and from a central hotel in Padova is going to cut into the cheapness of a Padova stay. Again, me personally, I would rebook the Verona stay to allow for 3 nights in some place affordable, probably near the train station, which is only a 15 minute walk to the arena. I'm assuming that the place you booked in Verona in July will let you cancel for free this far in advance.

But if you want to spend 2 nights in Padova and 1 in Verona, then do that.

PS: In case it wasn't clear, I was suggesting traveling by train from Ravenna to Bologna and taking a bus from there to Siena, rather continuing on with trains to Siena. It may save you some time and money. But I'm not sure.

In October last year, the Verona train station area was a mess of reorganisation of parking areas and roadworks, not a nice walk into town at all.

For the latter part of your trip, I would go with Siena 4, Assissi 1 and Orvieto 1. Personally, I don't care for daytrips - you miss so much of what you're there to see when you only have a couple of hours. Much better to spend the night. If you're traveling light, checking in and out of a hotel is just not that big of a deal. Sounds like a nice trip, Kathleen.

Regarding Verona construction, that sort of thing can be checked out on the Tripadvisor message boards for Verona, where there are usually residents of the places asked who are contributors.

But I don't think Kathleen is going to buy my plan for 3 glorious nights in Verona anyway.

I share Holly uncasdewar's dislike of day trips, but for Orvieto, I think I might find it more annoying to be dragging my luggage around so much in July/August. This is a lot of hotel switches without a budget for taxis. However, I wouldn't take a day trip from Siena. It's just too unwieldy. If stopping by on the way to Rome doesn't appeal, consider adding a day to Rome and seeing Orvieto as a day trip from Rome.

By the way, have you done a cost benefit analysis of having a car and staying in the countryside vs taking all these trains and paying for in-town accommodations? You can pick up a car in Ravenna. In that case, I would drive first to Assisi (2.5 hours) then go an area south of Siena, eventually dropping off the car in Orvieto.

If you can't drive stick shift, perhaps a train is cheaper.

Zeppole, A couple of questions.
If we visit Orvieto en route to Rome from Assisi, should we arrive by bus or train? Does either have baggage storage while we go into town for a few hours?

Getting to Siena from Ravenna: are you saying we train from Ravenna to Bologna then transfer to a bus in Bologna to Siena? Are the two stations near each other?

I think we will keep Padua 2 nights and Verona 1 night. If we go into the city center of Padua, we would probably take the tram, not a taxi. One very full day in Padua will give us time to see some highlights, beyond the Giotto works.

The Verona stay is Sept 1, Tosca= opera (near end of opera season). I could cancel the lodging and rebook or maybe extend, but I think keeping it this way will work fine. One night is not a lot, but again we will have a full day and the next morning. If we fall in love with Verona, then we’ll return on a future trip. We’ve done that with other cities: Prague for example, three times and third time to Rome. So maybe we will be sorry not to stay longer in Verona. I see another trip to Italy already—to Milan, the lakes, the Dolomites.

Tarquin, I’ll check into info about the Verona station. Thanks.

Holly, We do travel light, one wheeled carryon each, so checking in-out isn’t that difficult.

Can’t decide about Orvieto. Part of me wants to stay overnight, part doesn’t. Want we want to do in Orvieto is spend a lot of time at the Duomo, have a nice mid-day meal with wine, walk around, maybe try some other wines. So an overnight wasn’t necessary, just desirable.

Really don’t want a car. Much prefer trains and buses. We can drive shift but would rather not. It’s not that we haven’t budgeted taxis, we just usually look for alternatives that are equivalent. If not, then we taxi. No big deal.

We’re looking forward to this trip. Trying to keep the movement sane, but also get to everywhere we want to go.

Update. As per the above suggestions, we've booked our hotel in the city center for Padua. I think we'll be happy with the decision for the already above mentioned reasons. And we booked the stay in Ravenna, also city center area. So, five nights of the trip are now booked!

We also decided (as suggested) to visit Orvieto en route to Rome from Assisi. Seems logical and feels like enough time. Thanks for all the help.

Last time I checked, there was luggage storage at Orvieto train station. But if you put up a separate thread asking, or ask on the Tripadvisor message board for Orvieto, you can get a more up-to-date answer. (There are not a lot of wines to try in Orvieto. They produce one. It's called Orvieto.)

My understanding is that there is a bus from the Bologna train station to Siena. Again, posting on the Bologna board of Tripadvisor will probably get you an answer from a local if you can't get the information with a google search.

Even if you don't take a bus from Bologna to Siena, you might want to get off the train in Florence and switch to a bus to Siena, depending on where your Siena lodging is. Train station in Siena is far outside the walls, downhill. Requires a bus ride or taxi to the walled center. Bus from Florence drops you off up at the center, and I hear the ride is more scenic.

This thread for the bus from Bologna to Siena is from Nov 2011:

http://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowTopic-...a_Romagna.html

Thank you. I'll check out the bus information.