My wife and I our planning our second anniversary trip with a return to Italy.<BR>I have read some great information at this site. With the itinerary I have included, we hope you may offer useful suggestions.<BR><BR>We will depart for Rome on August 30, 2002.<BR>Arrive in Rome on Saturday Aug 31 at 9:00am.<BR>We will rent a car at the airport and drive to Sorrento. (Last time we took the train...we would prefer to avoid naples).<BR><BR>days 1-3<BR>3 nights in Sorrento.....can you suggest a preferred hotel with parking for under $250.00? We stayed at the excelsior last time,but it is quite expensive.<BR>My family is from Caserta (Santa Nicole La Stada)is this a place that is worth seeing?Is lodging available? is it safe?<BR><BR>days 4-6<BR>we will then travel north towards Florence and Venice...can you suggest an overnight stop on the way? would driving from Sorrento to Venice be too far in one day? should we stay in padua or somewhere else near venice and take the train in? any suggestions? how many days in the Venice area would you recommend? Would a trip to the dolimites be worthwhile and practical?(my wifes family is from Belluno)<BR><BR>days 6-9<BR>we will visit florence and tuscany. should we stay in florence? can we drive and park in florence or should we stay outside its borders and take the train or a taxi into town? Do you have any tuscany suggestions?<BR><BR>days 10-13 <BR>we will drop the rental car off at the airport and take the train into rome. we know rome pretty well. my cousin owns a bar near the trevi fountain and we will probably stay nearby and take a taxi to the airport when our vacation is over.<BR><BR>Other helpful questions to be answered.<BR>1. Are automatic transmissions readilly available. Any rental car suggestions.<BR><BR>2. The first two weeks of september is when we will be travelling. we will book our first 3 nights in sorrento and our last 3 in rome. In between we are hoping to "wing it" with no strict itinerary. Are hotels hard to find without a prior reservation? When we were in france and belgium we found many novotels and sofitels with vacancies in september.<BR><BR>3. will the highways be crowded this time of year? anything we should avoid.<BR><BR><BR>

Hi Jim! My main suggestion is to fly into Venice or Rome and out the other. You will be spending too much time driving. Personally, I would only use the car for Tuscany & use the trains the rest.

Hi Jim<BR><BR>Help me out here. You land in Rome on the 31st and drive to Sorrento, spend the nights 1, 2, and 3 in Sorrento, spending essentially two full days there. On day 4 you drive north to Florence (a long day) (forget about driving to Venice in one day) and stay nights nights 4, 5, and 6 in Florence (essentially two days). On day 6 you drive to Venice (another long day) or the Dolomites (even longer). Oops what happened to Tuscany? See where this is going? After accounting for flying time, it looks like you have 12 days in Italy. It's a beautiful country, but all you're going to see are the autostrade, which is a shame. Please rethink your itinerary and give yourself some time to linger and enjoy. I'm no expert travel planner (Yoo-hoo, Bob the N), but I'd save Sorrento for your next trip. After you land in Rome, take the train to Florence for a few days, and then take the train to Venice (stay in Venice, not Padua). Then either rent a car and go to the Dolomites (someone will chime in here and advise you about this part of the trip) or Tuscany, not both. Turn the car in and take the train back to Rome.<BR><BR>Let's see--here's a sample: <BR>Day 1 Land in Rome, take train to Florence<BR>Days 2, 3, Florence<BR>Day 4 Train to Venice<BR>Days 5, 6 Venice<BR>Day 7 Car to Dolomites<BR>Days 8, 9 Dolomites<BR>Day 10 Drop car south of Dolomites and train to Rome<BR>Days 11, 12 Rome<BR>Day 13 Fly home<BR><BR>There now, don't you feel more relaxed?<BR><BR>Automatic transmissions are very rare in rental cars in Italy, and when they are available, they're expensive. Go to www.autoeurope.com to check out rental cars. Lots of people on this site (including me) have been satisfied with this company.

Jim, I agree with the above post. It looks much to much travel. Since you have already seen Rome, how about flying into Milan, rent a car there if you want and drive to the Dolomites, Venice (you can stay on Lido where you can park your car at the hotel) Drive down to Tuscany and Florence. On your way back to Milan you might drive along the coast to Portofino which is just about 90 minutes from Milan airport. This is much more doable. We did this trip in October, 15 days without rushing.<BR>Have fun planning and happy trails

Just a comment on the possible Belluno part of your trip-- We went to Italy this past summer and traveled to Belluno, also to see where relatives had come from. I thought the town was beautiful and would recommend a stop there. (We stayed one night.)

Jim,<BR><BR>A few comments:<BR><BR>It is a loooonnng car trip from Sorrento to Venice - you may want to rethink the order of your trip.<BR><BR>From Sorrento, you can easily visit Caserta as a day, 1/2 day trip. . . you may not want to stay there, but 'mini Versailles' is worth visiting.<BR><BR>A car is a 'burden' in Florence and Venice - if you are spending any appreciable time in the city you may want to organize to not have a car in either place.<BR><BR>With your itinerary, you may want to consider renting a car for the Sorrento visit. Train to Venice and Florence (and perhaps back to Rome).<BR><BR>You can also rent a car from either place for a day or two to see the surrounding areas; but there is so much to see in Florence and Venice and your time is so short, you may want to concentrate your time in the cities.<BR><BR>

Hello Jim, Well, not sure where to start but Betsy is on the right track.<BR>It is all about priorities. It will be hard to do it all in 13 days, and the arrival and departure locations will be crucial. The ideal would be to fly into Venice and out of Rome--or vice versa.<BR>And, the car usage will depend on sequence. I would consider dropping either the north or south extremes. It is always tough to include Venice and the Amalfi coast in the same 2 week trip. But, you must decide the priority.<BR>I would start north and you can still hit Caserta prior to your Rome departure. Think about it and get back.

Oh yes, the roads will be very crowded that time of year. And, it is possible that the Sorrento/Positano hotels may require a minimum stay during high season. Lots of variables.

thank you to all that responded to my italian itinerary. i have made some adjustments...let me know what you think<BR><BR>8/31-9/3 train from rome to sorrento and a 4 night stay in sorrento with a side trip to pompeii and my families home in caserta (we may rent a car for a day in sorrento)<BR><BR>9/4-9/6 train from sorrento to naples to rome and finally to florence for a 3 night stay. (any thought on a convenient place to stay?...should we take a side trip to pisa or sienna or chianti?<BR><BR>9/7-9/9 train from florence to venice for a 3 night stay. (we like the idea of staying near san marco.)<BR><BR>9/10-9/13 train from venice to rome for a three night stay (we will stay near the spanish steps)<BR><BR>our goal is to spend $200.00 per night for lodging (perhaps more in sorrento)<BR><BR>$100.00 per day for dining<BR><BR>we would like first class trains with hopes that non smoking exists (I noticed that there are train plans that allow 4 trips within one month...our itinerary is for 4 main trips...any train suggestions?)<BR><BR>I hope all of the kind respondents will get this message and offer some more great advice.<BR><BR>jim [email protected]<BR>

Jim,<BR>You might also check on sleeper trains for some of the longer legs of the trip. I really enjoyed my trip on the sleeper and you save the night's hotel cost. You can also fly Alitalia within Italy for reasonable prices. Try to see the arch. museum in Naples and if you have time, Ravello. Villa Cimbrone in Ravello is a very romantic place. I haven't stayed in Sorrento, but I understand the Grand Hotel Concumella is a beautiful place. You might want to splurge here. The Eurostar trains are great and first class often has a smoking car and non-smoking car. I also pay the extra for a reservation for my seat (you will know why when 2 other passengers claim the seat is theirs - this happened to me and I just showed them my reservation and refused to get up.) A lot of folks on this site have mentioned Hotel Flora in Venice which is close to San Marco. I think you will need all 3 days in Florence. You might take a 1/2 day trip to Fiesole. I would definitely stay in the old town. You will be able to walk to all the sights and enjoy the atmosphere of Florence at night which is both fun and romantic. Enjoy your trip!