cng545

Hi all,

I'm a newbie on your boards and was told to look here by "knotties" on theknot.com for planning my honeymoon. I'm planning this for the last two weeks in August this year and flying back to the States right before Labor Day (13 days total in Italy).

I understand it is the hottest time of the year, but we still want to visit this romantic country. It is both our first times to Italy and we want to do the "big 3"; our budget is roughly $4-5K after airfare. I will probably post again to run the hotel suggestions by you all, but for now I want to figure out the timing and spacing of my itinerary.

My two tentative itineraries are listed below. Thank you so much for any feedback.

2 Main Questions:

1) What do you all think of the timing and spacing of the itineraries below? It is really hard to figure out what is too much time in one city and too little time in another, given it is only a 13 day trip in total anyway.

2) What do you think of our inclusion of Volterra?
The reason we are including Volterra is that we are interested in attending the A.D. 1398 Volterra festival on Day 7 of our itinerary (August 27th). It looked neat and something different.

However, I have done a quick search on Volterra here and have read the mixed reviews. Has anyone ever been to this medieval festival? We'd be renting a car for the Tuscany portion of our trip and would be open to other day trips or staying in other Tuscan villages.

http://www.tuscany.la/events/event-i...php?evento=112

Itinerary #1
Aug 21 Arrive Venice in morning stay in Venice
Aug 22 Venice
Aug 23 Venice
Aug 24 Venice
Aug 25 Depart Venice by train to Florence. Pick up rental car in Florence to go to Volterra
Aug 26 Volterra
Aug 27 Volterra, Go to A.D. 1398 Volterra Festival
Aug 28 Return to Florence stay in Florence
Aug 29 Florence
Aug 30 Florence
Aug 31 Take Eurostar train to Rome stay in Rome
Sep 1 Rome
Sep 2 Rome
Sep 3 Depart Rome back to States

Itinerary #2

Aug 21 Arrive Venice in morning stay in Venice
Aug 22 Venice
Aug 23 Venice
Aug 24 Depart Venice by train to Florence.
Stay in Florence
Aug 25 Florence
Aug 26 Pick up rental car in Florence and
drive to Volterra
Aug 27 Volterra, Go to A.D. 1398 Volterra
Festival
Aug 28 Return to Florence stay in Florence
Aug 29 Take train in Rome, stay in Rome
Aug 30 Rome
Aug 31 Rome
Sep 1 Rome
Sep 2 Rome
Sep 3 Depart Rome back to States

Midnightsun

cng: I think the inclusion of a Tuscan town is a good idea. There's a very different feel than Florence. I haven't been to the A.D. 1398 Festival in Volterra, but I attended a Renaissance Festival in San Gimignano, and it was fun. Otherwise, Volterra has an excellent amphitheater, a fine Etruscan museum, and enough to keep you busy for a day. With a car you could explore nearby towns like San Gimignano. Either itinerary will work. If it isn't too expensive, you could drive to Rome and stop by a town like Montepulciano en route from Florence. Drop off the car at the airport, and you can get picked up by the Hotel Alimandi, a nice 3 to 4 star hotel (check out the recent discussion) tucked under the Vatican Wall. Enjoy your honeymoon!

dcd

I'd vote for the second itinerary with a slight modification. Venice is magical but in high season it can be a bit overwhelming with all the people. So I think 4 nites there would be more than adequate. You might consider staying 3 nights and adding a night in Florence. If you aren't a big Renaissance art fan, you can easily cover the highlights of that city in 2 days.

Instead of returning to Florence on 8/28 of Itinerary 2, I'd drive to nearby Siena, explore that charming town, and spend the night there. That's a neat town. On 8/29, I'd hire Luca Garrapa of www.hillsandroads.com (he should be available this far out) to pick you up at the Siena hotel and drive you to Rome via an Umbria hill town or two (Orvieto or Piensa perhaps) and a winery. Luca is an excellent guide with very reasonable rates. He lives just outside of Siena. That would be much more scenic than the train, saves the trouble of doubling back to Florence, and a lot more fun.

Sounds like a great honeymoon!!

Dave

ira

Hi CN,

May I suggest?

4 nights in Venice - pick up car
Motor through Tuscany
(Visit Florence as a daytrip)
Drop off car near Rome (Orvieto)
4 nights Rome.

A week's car rental will be just slightly more than the 3-4 days you have planned.

CAAA101406

We also are HM in Italy. We have almost the same itinerary but in reverse. I am now trying to decide whether we should combine Florence and Tuscany and taking day trips? I am so torn. We did find a couple great hotels.

Rome- Mecenate Palace Hotel

Florence- Hotel Antica Torre Tornabuoni

Venice- Thanks to friends of ours we are staying in a suite at Hotel Danieli. They had extra starwood points and gave us a 1600.00 suite for 5 nights! We really didn't need 5 nights there but when it's free...we will do day trips from Venice.

Tuscany- still looking for a place in Montalcino area.


I am also on theknot. I do go on the HM and Boston boards so if you have any ??, you can page me there.

Good luck!

SusanP

The second itinerary is much better, you need the extra time in Rome, but I would not return to Florence on the 28th. I would stay in a southern Tuscany town for a night on the way to Rome (Montalcino, Montepulicano, Pienza--my choice would be Pienza).