Italian Itinerary - good rough sketch?
 

I'm taking a first stab at an itinerary for a two-week trip to Italy in May 2011 - we're on the verge of buying plane tickets, so if anything is incredibly messed up, now would be the time to fix it! I would love your thoughts/ideas.

About "us": two women, age 29/30. I'm interested in photography, easy/moderate hiking, seeing beautiful things, history, gelato, good & relatively inexpensive food. Type A planner. My friend is interested in whatever. (Direct quote on our lakes vs. Cinque Terre decision: "I do not care where we go hiking and eat gelato in Italy.") We're not interested in clubs or an overabundance of art, and we're not foodies. (We just like to eat.) We've each spent a total of five days or less each in the country, mostly about ten years ago as college students. We've each been to Rome and Florence, just for a couple of days; there's a lot we want to see in Rome, but we'd be fine without going back to Florence (though wouldn't object to a quick stop). I've been to Venice once, just for a day trip.

I am not usually crazy about big cities (though central London is one of my favorite places in the world, and my friend loves DC), so I'm wondering about Milan. We would mainly be going because we got good flights out of MXP, and I would like to see the Last Supper, but I'm also thinking about just taking the train from Lake Como the day before we leave and just having a half day or so in Milan. If we did that, I'm not sure where to put the extra day - maybe in Rome, and if we finish what we want to do there, we could do a day trip to Orvieto or Florence?

I'll definitely do more research on accommodations, what *exactly* we want to do, and to make sure we have closing days, etc noted - I know there's tons of information on those things here already. This is just a really rough sketch to make sure we have a good idea before buying tickets. That said, if you have ideas, must-dos, or hotel/restaurant suggestions, please share! (I know we tend to travel faster than a lot of you do - as long as it's not unreasonable, we're okay with that.)

May 7 (Saturday): Leave US for Rome, arriving midmorning May 8.
May 8-11: <b>Rome, 3.5 days</b> (Sunday afternoon - Wednesday)
Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill; Pantheon; Vatican (I don't think either of us will spend all day in the museums, but the Scavi tour sounds right up my alley); check out fountains and Campo di Fiori, other churches, etc. Maybe Villa Borghese. The usual things.

May 12: Travel to Venice.
May 13-14: <b>Venice, two full days</b> (Friday/Saturday)
Doge's Palace (Secret Itinerary?), St Mark's, clock tower; trip to Murano; wander around taking pictures and eating gelato and marveling at Venice.

May 15: Travel to Lake Como (specific town TBD - input welcome!)
May 16-18: <b>Lake Como, three full days</b> (Monday-Wednesday)
Hiking (easy/moderate), day tripping to whatever towns we don't stay in, and I would love to take a cooking class.

May 19: Travel to Milan
May 20: <b>Milan</b> (Friday): Last Supper, Duomo

May 21: Fly home

In terms of budget, we're pretty conservative spenders by nature. My general philosophy is that the less I spend on one trip, the sooner I can go on another. However, we are past the hostel stage of life, and I'm willing to spend a little more on things I feel like are worth it. I'm aiming for accommodations around 100E/night and dinners 20E or less (if that's realistic), with panini or whatever for lunch. (In London I do a lot of Pret, Marks & Spencer food, that sort of thing.) Tours, depending on where it is, are definitely something I'd be interested in - something along the lines of London Walks would be fantastic, especially in Rome. I took a tour of the Vatican museums when I was there in college, and that was absolutely worth it for me.

Thanks in advance for your input!

I like it !
Your budget will be a challenge---I assume your 100E was for both of you. Here is my budget article that may help:
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/planning/budget.htm

Looks like a good plan. I assume you're taking trains between stops. Have you looked up the trip times for your destinations? It's almost 4 hours Rome to Venice and 4.5 hours Venice to Varenna (which I picked as a place on Lake Como you would like).

Re: meals expense. In Italy we have our big meal for lunch. It gives us a rest from sightseeing and refuels us for the rest of the day. Then we eat lightly for dinner. Mostly just gelato. Lunches are cheaper than dinners, and one gelato is much cheaper than dinner.

Is 20 euro meals just for dinner or for the day which would include gelatos, sandwiches and other snacks? If it's the latter, I would say that would be a big stretch to make happen.

Where on Lake Como will you be going/staying? If it's Bellagio, you can forget that budget.

Thanks to both of you for the quick response, suggestions and link! Yes, the 100E was for both of us. I've seen several threads with places that seem to fit that budget, but if we need to increase a little bit, we can. That's the starting point for searching/budgeting. As long as it's clean, centrally located and comfortable, we're okay.

Mimar, we are planning to take trains - I know they're relatively long journeys, so I just went ahead and put the whole day for each transfer as a travel day (unless we do switch to half a day in Milan). Whatever we get to see once we get there will be gravy. :) Big meals at lunch are definitely something we'll consider. I think this trip will be a different style of traveling than we're used to (i.e., sightsee all day and relax at night), but I'm excited about that!

Varenna was on my short list of towns along Lake Como - is that your favorite? Is there some hiking that's pretty easy to access from there? We're not planning on renting a car right now, but I'm not completely ruling it out if it would make things much easier.

chazzarelli, I think we were posting at the same time. The 20E was just for one main meal (per person); sorry about not being clear. That would be a VERY small budget for all day!

So far I'm leaning toward Varenna on Lake Como, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

My husband and I managed to spend 90 euros or under on B&B's in Italy. But that was with a double room with private bath.
If you want a room with 2 seperate beds, or two rooms, it might be more expensive. 20 euros in the evening for dinner should be fine.

While in Milan we thought the Duomo was fantastic but the Last Supper tickets were sold out the day then went for sale online so we didn't get to see it. Both of those you can do in a day or under. We did the duomo in a morning.

Here's a place in Bellagio on Lake Como that fits your budget.

http://www.residencelalimonera.com/

IMO 100 euros a night in Venice and Milan will be the biggest challenge.

lindy, we're fine with one room, though we would prefer twin beds. I'm glad to know it can be done! Where did you stay in Milan, if you'd recommend it?

Thanks for that suggestion, Jean! I will definitely check it out. I knew Venice would be a challenge, though I have some forum threads in my notes with suggestions; I haven't looked into Milan accommodations yet, so we'll see what I find. If we need to go a little higher for a few nights, we'll be okay, I think, but I'm going to try!

no problem - After spending 5 days in Bellagio last month, I can say you really can't go wrong wherever you stay on the Lake. It's all beautiful and each town has it's own charm. Budget wise, I think you'll be more limited in the Bellagio area compared to others.

no problem - After spending 5 days in Bellagio last month, I can say you really can't go wrong wherever you stay on the Lake. It's all beautiful and each town has it's own charm. Budget wise, I think you'll be more limited in the Bellagio area compared to others.

I think you should look at monasteries for your accommodation. You will easily get a twin room for about 80 euros per night with a light breakfast included. You don't have to be catholic to book!

We stayed in one in Rome and will definitely do that again. Ours was a bit too far out of the city centre to be convenient, so make sure of that if you do book.

www.monasteries.com

You could book a monastery for Rome and Florence.

Oops, should have previewed before posting. What I meant to say is..... make sure if you book a monastery that you don't make the same mistake we made. Find one that is close to the city centre.

I agree with the suggestion of considering monasteries. I haven't stayed at this one in Venice, but its location is very good.

http://www.donorione-venezia.it/ing/home.htm

Here's another general topic website.

http://www.monasterystays.com/

Thanks for the additional replies! chazz, good to know we can't really go wrong. :) My impression is that Varenna is a little less expensive than Bellagio, but I'm going to look at both and see what I can find for hotels, etc.

I had heard of staying in monasteries but hadn't considered it too strongly yet - been concentrating on schedules! I will definitely take a look into those. Thanks cathies and Jean for the links!

Of course, now that we find a good set of flights, it goes up $120 between early this morning and lunchtime when I went to buy them! For now I think we're going to wait till the middle of next week to see if it goes back down in a midweek sale. Long shot, and we'd be okay with the current price, but crossing our fingers...

Hi, my link was wrong, don't bother with it. I meant to put the monasterystays.com link.

While I agree with looking at convents and monasteries, I wouldn't use monasterystays to book as they mark up the rates quite a bit (as much as 10€-15€ a night for a single). Book directly with the convent/monastery, but use monasterystays to look at amenities (although they don't list anywhere near as many convents as are actually available).

With monasteries/convents you have to pay attention to curfews. Some are as early as 9 while others don't have curfew at all. There are over 200 in Rome, but in the center there are under 60. Click on the ones you are interested in for amenities, location, contact info (some will have website links). Many have private bath if that's important to you.
http://www.060608.it/en/accoglienza/...tuti-religiosi

One of the most popular is Fraterna Domus near Piazza Navona, but it does have an 11 pm curfew. It's in your price range.

I wouldn't entirely rule out hostel type rooms. Foresteria Orsa Maggiore in Rome is just across the river from the historic center. It caters to women only and has private or shared rooms.
http://www.casainternazionaledelledo...esteria_uk.htm

For Venice, here's a map of convents/locations.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0...144a023c6be3f2

Venice convent websites.
http://www.istitutovenezia.com/it/al...inks.html#cat2

Budget hotel Milan.
http://www.hotelberna.com/

Wow, thanks for all those details, kybourbon! I did a little searching last night but that will be immensely helpful.

hi jent103,

My daughter and I just got back from Italy. We stayed at La Limonera that Jean mentioned and we LOVED it! Our studio had 2 twin beds, a cute kitchen area, a very nice bathroom and a small view of the lake. We also had access to the third floor terrace overlooking the lake.
Just outside the gate is a small grocery store, a restaurant and a gelateria-everything you need! My daughter left behind an item and Daniela was nice enough to mail it to our B&B in Siena! I think I read on this forum that Daniela does a cooking class. We paid 70 euros in early October so it should be in your budget. Good luck!

Thanks for the review, carolw! Unfortunately, La Limonera doesn't appear to have any studios available on our dates, but I may shoot them an email anyway once we get our flights finalized. They do have a "small apartment" available that was 130E/night in May 2010 - but with a kitchen and a grocery store nearby, we could eat meals in and save some on restaurants, so it might work out well anyway. I'll definitely keep that on file! Any other tips for the Lake Como area?