My fiance and I are travelling to Italy for our honeymoon in early September. I would appreciate some feed back on our loose itinerary.

Sept. 5 - Arrive in Venice
Sept. 7 - Leave Venice for Florence via train. Overnight in Florence.
Sept. 8 - Rent car in Florence late afternoon and drive south to Greve.
Sept. 9-12 - Travel Tuscany from home base in Greve area. May move to second location in southern Tuscany part way through.
Sept. 13 - Drop off car in Orvieto or Grosseto and take train to Naples, then directly on to Amalfi coast. Not sure whether to stay in Positano or Sorrento.
Sept. 14-17 - Amalfi coast.
Sept. 18 - Amalfi to Naples (via bus), Naples to Rome (via train).
Sept. 19-20 - Rome
Sept. 21 - Fly home from Rome.

My questions are as follows:
Should we split our time in Tuscany between two home bases or stay at one?
Recommendations for day trips in Tuscany (wineries included)?
Suggestions for rental car drop off point (Orvieto , Grosseto, Or other)?
In Amalfi should we stay in Positano, Sorrento, or split the time between them?
Best travel route from Naples to Amalfi, and back?
What are your feelings on booking all accomodations before we leave versus booking a day or two ahead as you travel? We are planning on staying more in bed and breakfasts and agriturismo type locations.

Thanks ahead of time for your input.

Hi,

My advice would be to slow down. Spend most of your time in Tuscany, add a couple more days in Rome, nix the time south of Rome. You can always go back.

If you like, please contact me for more details.

I don't know where you are travelling from. If it's from the US then you'll arrive in Venice tired.

You don't leave much time in Venice.

I guess you don't have much interest in Florence because you'll just be passing through as well.

I don't know the Tuscan towns so I'll leave that to someone else.

From Naples to Sorrento you can either take a boat or the commuter train that takes 1 hour.

Sorrento doesn't get much respect but I don't agree. It's a real town with real people as well as many restaurants, hotels and shopping (Sorrento is famous for inlaid wood music boxes - you'll see them in any music box store in the US).

It's also an excellent jump-off location for Capri, Positan and the AC as well as Pompeii (30 minutes back on the commuter train).

Also, you've got to allow time for travel.

Venice to Florence is about 3 hours.

You are allowing about the right amount of time for Sorrento/AC.

Booking in advance - the age old problem. In September you may not have a problem. But then again, booking in advance restricts and guarantees.

Forgot. You are also a day or two short in Rome considering you've got to travel from Sorrento/AC to Rome for half day.

You are trying to visit the Tuscan town as well as several other areas (Florence, AC and Rome).

I don't know if you've travelled much. If you haven't one of two things will happen. You'll come back and say "fine" or you will have caught the travel bug and will be back and travel will become a priority.

Unless you can add days, I would drop Venice and add the days to Rome.

That may work with some squeezing.

Spada,
First of all, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. Honeymooning in Italy will be magical; however, I have to agree with the other posters that you're tackling too much territoy for it to be enjoyable. The area to which I can't speak of is the Amalfi Coast (haven't been there yet). It seems as though you're spending most of your time traveling from place to place - hope you don't mind me saying so...

The itinerary you have now has:
1 full day to see Venice
1/2 day to see Florence
Sept. 9-12 "travel Tuscany from home base in Greve area, may move to second location in southern Tuscany part way through" - with this plan, will you be in the Greve area on the 9th and 10th moving to southern Tuscany for the 11th and 12th? I ask because, again, it seems as though you won't experience Tuscany as much as spend your time checking in and out of hotels and driving...Tuscany should be savored and is worth more than a drive-through
Sept. 19-20 Rome Perhaps you planned to spend one day at the Vatican and the other day exploring the Colosseum & Forum? Hitting only the highlights?

As far as car rental dropoff in Tuscany, we recently rented and returned our car at the Hertz location (booked through AutoEurope) at the train station in Chiusi - very successful.

Hope this helps...
Happy Planning!

Yes, too much but not that bad.
I would drop one destination--the one nite in Florence makes no sense to me.
Pick one location for Tuscany--Greve is to far north for me and too commercial. Stay south of Siena but see San Gim. as you drive south. Stay in Positano on the coast--especially for a honeymoon. Good luck !

I also agree that it's a lot of moving around and a long way from Venice to Amalfi. You definitely don't have enough time in Venice or Rome. I would take the night in Florence and add it to Venice. Since you obviously don't want much time in Florence, see it on your way to Tuscany. Then take at least one night from the Amalfi Coast and add it to Rome. That still isn't enough time there but would be better.

And September is still high season. I would definitely want to have my hotels booked ahead of time. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time looking for accommodations and have to take what is left over. Not fun, especially on a honeymoon.

Firstly thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

It is true that we are relatively new at this. Our flights are already booked. So the trek from Venice to Rome is unavoidable. My fiance originally really had her heart set on the AC, so I don't see us cutting that out. If we did cut out Florence and put the extra day on either Venice or Tuscany, should we still train from Venice to Florence to rent a car, or is there a better location to start Tuscany from?

As for staying in the Greve area, we were interested in going to the Chianti Wine festival that is held in Greve that weekend (Sept. 8-10). Are we better off staying somewhere more south and arranging transport to and from the festival? We would want to enjoy the wine, so I don't think that driving ourselves would work.

How would you advise to "savour" Tuscany? Should we stay in only one place and take multiple driving day trips, or should we stay in a location where we can walk to neighbouring villages/towns, or should we simply entrench ourselves in a chosen Tuscan town and really soak in that particular location?

bobthenavigator; What is the more promising allure of southern tuscany over the Greve area? As for Positano, once there, are you pretty much stuck there, or is it central to any points of interest like Sorrento? At this point we weren't planning on having a car while on the AC.

Any additional thoughts are weclome as I fumble my way through this.

You could rent a car in Venice and drive to Greve (about 3 hours, not including some alluring detours). That would give you another day in Venice. And stay in just one place in Tuscany.

What do you intend to do on the Amalfi Coast? See Pompeii and Herculaneum? Capri? Canoodle on the beach? If you want to travel about, then stay in Sorrento. (Get a hotel on the cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples.) If you just want to poke around Positano, Ravello, and Amalfi, maybe take a boat to Capri, stay in Positano or elsewhere on the Amalfi Coast. (Note Sorrento is not on the Amalfi Coast; it's just around the corner.)

The Greve area, and most of Chianti, have been homogenized due to the proximity to Florence and 100 years of too many Brits and Yanks. They do call it " Chiantishire".
The area south of Siena is more attractive and less crowded, although that is only relative. Most of the photo book shots you see on Tuscany are from the Val d'Orcia and Crete regions of south Tuscany. Do not take my word for it. Buy the book "TOP 10 TUSCANY" by Reid Bramlett and see his top 10 hill towns--none of them are in Chianti unless you count Siena and San Gimignano as Chianti---I do not.

Given that you are locked into the Venice to Rome itinerary, and this is supposed to be a honeymoon, can I add my voice to the others who are urging you to cut down on the travelling. I would suggest the following:
4 nights in venice [to allow recovery from jetlag] and lots of boat trips around he islands.
Rent car and drive where the mood takes you- Verona if the opera is still on [Pre-book hotel if so] Lake garda if you still want some more water based activities, heading for the Greve area if you like the sound of it.
Last 5 days - drop off car in Orvieto, and train to Rome, which will more than fill the end of the trip. This gives you a nice mix of town and country, and pre-booking v flexibility. Also not too much driving - it's a shame to spend your precious time in the car. Good Luck.

I think southern Tuscany is more desirable than the Chianti area. The Top 5 Tuscany book is an excellent reference. I would base myself (which my husband & I have done 3 times - others on this forum have repeatedly traveled to this same area) near Pienza, Montelpulciano, Montalcino, San Quirico - the ideal Tuscan vacation. If you're interested in wine-tasting, the Brunello's of Montalcino and Nobile's of Montepulciano are wonderful. You're getting great advice from others...

Have you looked into Cinque Terre? Have your fiance look it up. It's much closer than Amalfi and you still get all the beautiful scenery! It was my favorite part of our 2 week Italian Honeymoon!

We have tried to take all the recommendations to slow down seriously, as well as the Cinque Terra sugestion. We also picked up "TOP TEN TUSCANY" and have found it very helpful. Our new itinerary is as follows:

Sept. 5 - Arrive in Venice.
Sept. 5-7 - Venice
Sept. 8 - Venice to Cinque Terra by train.
Sept. 9-11 - Cinque Terra
Sept. 12 - Train to La Spezia and rent car. Start Tuscany.
Sept. 13-16 - Tuscany. Based in southern area.
Sept 17 - Drop car and train to Rome.
Sept 18-20 - Rome
Sept. 21 - Fly home.

We are currently looking for places to stay in all of the above. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Trying not to go too far above the 100.00 euro per night range.

Feel free to tell us if you still think that we are tackling too much. However, I am at a loss as to how to tweak the schedule any further.

Hi spada,

Now your trip sounds wonderful!

Hotels I can recommend from previous visits:

Santa Margherita Ligure (CT)
Hotel Laurin, 3*

Montalcino
Hotel Il Giglio, 3*

My other hotels were not what I would recommend for a honeymoon, although they were perfectly nice for a solo travler on a budget.

Congrats & buon viaggio!