Italy and Greece 2 week itinerary
 

My fiance and I will be spending 2 weeks on our honeymoon in Italy and Greece in May 2012. We've already visited the big attraction cities (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome) and are wanting to see different areas. This is the itinerary we are hoping to be able to do and would love advice whether this is feasible, travel time predictions and how long to stay in each place. Thanks for the travel help.

Fly from Austin, TX to Milan>arrive in Milan and immediately go to Lake Como for 3-4 days (stay in Bellagio I think)>Lake Como to Amalfi Coast (do we need to stop halfway in Bologna or could we travel Cinque terre route down)>Stay in Positano for 3 days>Positano to Bari and catch ferry to Greece (I think Patras would need to be our travel route)>travel by train/bus/ferry to Santorini for 3-4 days>Santorini to Athens to catch flight home

I think it's doable, but a little bit rushed. Go to the trenitalia.com site to see what your options are from Bellagio to Positano. I suspect that will be a very long journey, requiring several changes. From Como to Napoli is almost seven hours requiring two changes plus you'd need to get from Bellagio to Como (boat, car?) and from Naples to Positano (no train that far, you'd take commuter train to Sorrento and then a bus unless you hired a car). All in all it would be a VERY long day.

I suspect you'll find the travel from Positano to Santorini to also be very arduous. You could see if there are flights from Naples to Santorini but otherwise it will be a lot of trains and boats.

So I guess I'd probably pick one or the other country and just do the whole two weeks there. I actually like moving around - I enjoy trains and love ferries but I think for only two weeks it would be too much. Just the lakes and Amalfi coast would be a really nice two weeks, as would just a couple of Greek Islands (maybe Santorini and Naxos/Paros).

You must not know about travel logistics or the time required.
How long do you think the trip from Positano to Santorini will be. With good connections, which will be lucky,it will be more than 2 days. I would drop the 2 country idea---it seldom works for Italy and Greece unless you fly from Naples or Rome to Athens

Unless your goal is to spend a lot of time on ferrys, try checking skyscanner.com for flights from Rome to Athens, and also from Athens to Santorini- ferrys are not like cruise ships despite what the brochures might say. Because you still have a lot of time you might be able to snag really good airfare deals and save yourselves a lot of time and hassle. Just double check to make sure what airport you'll land in.

seat61.com/italy best train quicker prettier to the Med Coast

and down from Milano to Napoli

Residence L Ulivo Bellagio - HotelsCombined™ helps you find cheaper deals on Residence L Ulivo and 23 other Bellagio hotels ... Grand Hotel Villa...
http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/...o_Bellagio.htm

Great Como apt/hotel at www.Bellagio.info Villa Serbelooni

Couple of days there train to www.cinqueterre.com Portofino

station a couple of hours www.metropole.it by SML/Portofino

station for a couple of days... then get up early shoot to

Rome then FrecciaRosa fast train to Naples 1 hour

then Circumvesuviano to Sorrento/Amalfi

full day good experience..

hoteldelfino.com Best Western Paistea Positano 2 good hotels

Fly or Ferry to Athens Intercontinental.com Athens in the

past for me from $55 bidding priceline.com betterbidding.com

Greecetravel.com good info santorini.com ikies.com oia my fav

Make more time if you can or pare back a bit.. Congrats!

I would fly to Athens first (cover the most distance on your overnight flight) and travel on to Santorini to start your trip. Find an Aegean flight from Greece to Italy (Santorini/Rome?). Visit Positano area and then train north to Como, fly home from Milan.

I would not trek from Positano to Bari to Patras to Athens to Santorini. Positano to Bari will be several hours. The overnight ferry arrives mid-day or afternoon at Patras. From Patras you have a long trek to Athens (4 hours?) and then you would still need to get to Santorini.

(I am not familiar with Italy, so comment based on Greece experiences.)
I like kybourbon suggestion if it has to be both countries and definately Santorini. An other option you may want to check, is dropping Santorini and head for Corfu instead, then flight Corfu to Athens. (Corfu is completely different to Santorini of course) . Or disembark on Patras as planned, but hire a car and explore some of what Peloponnese has to offer, before jumbing on a train/bus to Athens.