I'm planning the honeymoon itinerary at the moment for my fiance and I while on a reprieve from wedding planning. We finally decided on Italy and are hoping to cover a fair amount of ground. Unfortunately, after hoping to spend nearly two weeks, we may now have to limit our trip to a week or so in length. We hope to spend a few nights in Rome, a few nights in Cinque Terra (Vernazza) and a few nights in Tuscany. We had hoped to rent an apartment for a week in Montepulciano, but do not feel we can spend the entire week there. Still we are interested in Locando San Francesco in Montepulciano as an alternative or Villa Bordoni Chianti in Greve. We plan on reserving a car for our stay in Tuscany and using trains to reach the CT region.

We are deciding between Artemide Hotel and the Royal Marcello Hotel in Rome and are opting for La Mala in CT. We welcome any other lodging suggestions and input regarding the itinerary. I've been to Milan and Florence before (though this is my fiance's first trip to Italy), so we are willing to save those cities for another visit.

Thank you in advance!
Jessica

It sounds like you're trying to cover too much distance in a short period of time. Vernazza and Tuscany are wonderful and relaxing and could easily fill up more than a week. They are perfect places for a honeymoon! Adding Rome would be very hectic - traveling between cities, packing, unpacking, getting your bearings, etc. Recommend saving Rome for another trip. Rome deserves at least a week by itself. I just returned from 10 days in Rome and saw a lot - but there's still so much more to see.

Good luck in your trip planning!

hi jessica,

how long are your "few nights"? - your week must be longer than the normal 7! - you have at least 9 by my reckoning.

the standard advice is that every time you move, you lose 1/2 day, plus are you coming from the US - if so, you need to factor in jet lag as well.

if you really only have a week, limit yourselves to two places - either Venice and Florence, or the CT and montepulciano, or Rome and the amalfi.

you do want to stay married, don't you?

regards, ann

Whew...I think you really have to cut back on this with your current time constraints...I, too, am confused about the way you currently envision that 'week'. Do think, also, about the combined effect of post-wedding exhaustion (do you leave immediately after the big day?)and jet lag.

Your current agenda, if I have understood it corectly is very ambitious. For the record, if you have a 7/8 day week, I'd pick one city (either Venice or Florence or Rome) and then 1 place in CT, no change of hotel or a smaller town in Tuscany...you'll need the breathing room of a slower pace.

Thanks for the feedback. We are looking to travel no less than for 7 nights (so I was intending 2 nights in Rome, 2 in Vernazza and 3 in Tuscany). If less than that, we are likely omitting one of the destinations. For our longer itinerary, we are contemplating 11 nights, with 2-3 in Rome, 2 in Vernazza and the rest in Tuscany with a possible day trip to Florence by train, if we are up to it. As Ann has noted - we would like to stay married!

I think your 7 week stay cannot include both the Montepulciano area of Tuscany and le Cinque Terre. If you have bought your tickets and are including Roma, I think you need to drop le Cinque Terre for this week-long trip.

If above all you had your heart set on Cinque Terre, fly into Genoa, spend a few nights on the Cinque Terre, rent a car, head to Tuscany, drop the car off at Rome airport.

What time of year is this? If it's high summer, Rome and southern Tuscany are extremely hot and le Cinque Terre is mobbed.

We are heading out in mid-October. So, the weather should be perfect and there should be fewer tourists (though we know it some areas they still deem it high season for pricing). We have been considering open-jaw tickets where we would fly into one city, like Rome, and fly out of another, like Florence or Genoa. No tickets are bought yet.

I live in Liguria, about 90 mins from le Cinque Terre, and there is no guarantee of perfect weather here in mid-October. On such a short visit, you could rained out totally for le Cinque Terre. And when it rains here, there is really very little for a tourist to do. Just so you know you are taking a risk, and a greater risk than what you face mid-September or earlier in October.

On the other hand, you could find lots of thing to do and up your chances for slightly warmer, calmer weather in southern Tuscany and Roma. Perhaps you would consider flying in and out of Rome but basing yourselves most of the time in a good agriturismo, one that would cook all your evening meals for you, that was well positioned for sightseeing in both Toscana and Umbria.

It's a tough call. Obviously I like Liguria -- I live here -- and although wet weather usually passes quickly, if you are only here for two nights, you could get rained out that one full day.