Italian itinerary
 

My husband and I are in the rough planning stages for our trip to Italy next summer. We are in our early 30s, casual people, no kids - interested in architecture, culture, food, wine, history, a little shopping, and that sort of thing. Pretty standard, I think. My husband loves photography, so anyplace that has good opportunities for that will be fine with him :) We really like wandering through towns and neighborhoods in addition to seeing the major sites.

We will have 2 weeks and are planning to fly into Venice and out of Rome, spending 3 full days in each city. So that leaves us about a week in between to see other places. We are planning to take trains between destinations and would prefer not to rent a car.

I am looking for some ideas for where to go and what to see in that week. Where have others gone that they would recommend.

I am thinking of spending that week in Tuscany, maybe a couple days in the hills and a few days on the coast.

Any input?

Thanks.

Hi JC,

>I am thinking of spending that week in Tuscany, maybe a couple days in the hills and a few days on the coast. <

In which case you will want a car.

Bus service among the small towns of Tuscany is rather limited.

((I))

Have your husband go to www.worldisround.com and find my Bella Italia photo gallery to get ideas of places that you might want to see. It takes at least 6 weeks to see Italy so plan your trip based on geography.

Ira - where would you recommend that is easily accesible by bus or train? Like I said, we were thinking of Tuscany - a lot of people really love it there and it seems to make sense geographically - but we are open to other ideas.

bob - Thanks for the link. I will have him check it out.

It is possible to visit towns in Tuscany or Umbria via public transport if you make careful choices. Choose a place to stay that works as a hub for visits to a number of other places. I've done these examples:

Stay in Bologna; daytrip to Ferrara and Ravenna via train.

Stay in Florence; daytrip to Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Arezzo, Prato, ... via bus/train.

Stay in Perugia; daytrip to Gubbio (via bus) and Assisi (via train).

Certainly you won't have as much fleixibility as with a car, but it can be done. I usually limit myself to trips of no more than 90 minutes away from my hub city so I don't feel like I'm spending all my time on a train. And I check and reverify schedules, so I don't miss the last us/train back. This does take some research.

I've found budget travel guides such as Let's Go Italy helpful for this kind of travel because it includes good simple information about train and bus connections to other places under it's listing for each city. For my Perguia example above it might say

trains: Assisi, 16 daily, 20 minutes, 5 euro.
bus: Gubbio, 8 daily, 90 minutes, 6 euro.

This gives you a good basic idea of how easily the daytrip might be made. The listing also includes station information as well as bus company information, so you can check schedules online.

Time to hit the books!

Added Bologna to my list at the last minute--yes, I know it's in Emilia Romagna. . .

If you are staying in Florence, don't forget to visit Fiesole by local bus. There is a good Etruscan museum there and super views. There are several restaurants for lunch.
Should you want to go the Tuscan coast, then you can easily catch a train to Viareggio which is a very typcial resort but dates back to the late 1800s.