Hello. My husband and I are thunking of going to Italy for 2 weeks in mid October. I would like to try and go to Venice, Florence, Rome and Tuscany. Any help with an itinerary would be great. I have been to Venice, Florence and Rome but my husband hasn't and I haven't been to Tuscany. Will the weather in these places be ok this time of year? What is the best way to get from city to city - train or flying? What order do you recommend we see the cities in?
Many thanks.

I haven't been to Italy in autumn, but I understand that the weather should still be nice and it won't be as hot as it is in spring/summer. Which city will you be arriving in? Usually trains/buses are how most people get around.

The weather in Italy should be pleasantly cool but not cold - but do expect some rain.

The places you have listed are too close together to fly - you should either train or car.

You can easily go from Venice to Florence in a couple of hours and use that as a base, doing a day trip or two into the Tuscan counryside/smaller towns and then on to Rome.

Depending on your preference you can easily do train (except for the Tuscan countryside, which is best visited by car, although you can get to many of the smaller towns by train and/or bus). Or, you can rent a car leaving Venice and drop it off when ariving in Rome.

Be sure to get an open jaws ticket - either into Venice and out of Rome - or vice versa, to avoid wasting time backtracking.

Thanks for the advice. What exactly is open jaws tickets?

An open jaws ticket is one that goes from X to Venice outbound and from Rome to X on the return. The cost is no more than a regular roundtrip ticket - but it must either be the same airline or partner airlines.

You don;t say where you're coming from - but if you seach on any of the major search engines under mulit-city or multi-desination it will show that kind of flight.

Do you mean 2007?
You may be late to book decent places for this year.
Weather will vary from Rome to Venice---think Atlanta versus DC. Tuscany is NC. Late Oct. can be rainy.

Anything after summer, stay south. Went to Milan, Rome, and Florence in January. Also went to Barcelona, which was significantly warmer and much better! Really, it's just too cold to enjoy, but what do I know - I live in Miami and anything lower than 70 degrees is a cold front.

Yes - this October. I know it is sort of last minute but we have an unexpected opportunity to go away so we want to jump at it. Any recommendations of where to stay in Venice, Florence, Tuscany and Rome? We like quaint bed and breakfast type places. Thanks.

Oh wow. October is still high season in Italy. One place to try for available Venice hotels/B&B's is http://www.venetia.it/

For Florence try http://www.arca.net/tourism/florence/accomodation.htm

For Rome I guess you could try http://en.venere.com/hotels_rome/

In fact, you can try venere.com for all four destinations. Good luck.

If you've been to Florence, you've been to part of Tuscany. Florence is in the region of Tuscany.

October is one of the ideal times to go to Italy. I've been to Italy twice in October, and I thought it was mostly warm. I was actually hot in Florence and Venice. In the smaller cities and town and rural areas of Tuscany, the weather ranged from chilly, in some wooded hills near Cortona, to sunny and HOT (in the mid 80sF) in the not wooded hills and valleys around Cortona, with rain during parts of a some days, and mild sunny weather most days.

For travel between Florence, Venice, and Rome, train is best. For travel to the smaller cities in Tuscany (e.g., Cortona, Lucca, Montepulciano), you can take trains or buses from Florence or Siena, but to visit smaller towns and rural areas, you may need a rented car, or a hired driver, or a tour.

I haven't been to Rome in over 30 years, and was there only in summer, so I can't comment on Rome.

You may be challenged to find a room.

In Rome, just north of the Vatican Museums is the Hotel Alimandi. My uncle stayed there at Christmas and thought highly of it. We stayed there six years ago.

http://www.romeby.com/alimandi/pages/booking.htm
Another aunt and uncle stayed at the Franklin, which I did not visit. They really liked it but said it was a little quirky, being an old building.

http://www.romeby.com/franklin/pages/reach.htm

We had heard good things about the Hotel Sant'Anna (phone at http://tinyurl.com/m4fdy) also near St. Peter's. Here are reviews.
http://tinyurl.com/ql323

Six years ago, we really enjoyed the Hotel Pendini, a Florence pensione. More recently a poster told me she had bad luck there. Try to get the floor that the lobby/reception is on.

http://www.florenceitaly.net/pagine/pendini/servizi.asp

Hi !
We visited these exactly places last year during our 15-days visit to Italy (also in October). We started in Rome, stayed there for 4 days (it was raining in the first two days and sunny in the next days), then rented a car and went to Orvieto. Stayed a night there, went to San-Gimignano and Siena, night in Siena and then went to Florence. Dropped off the car and stayed 4 nights in Florence. Train to Venice, 3 nights there and then (in the last day) train to Rome. A short and nice final walk in Rome and then fly home.
We had a tremendous time ! The weather was terrific - it was sunny except of the first two days in Rome. See the gallery of pictures we brought back, here - http://www.pbase.com/olegis/italy

Have fun !

We stayed at Panella's Residence in Florence. It was a couple run B&B with about 8 rooms. I think you just add .com to the name for the website, but I dont have time to double check.

It was not a place that is talked up here on fodors, but we were also doing a last minute trip. One of the "talked up" B&Bs on here recommended it to us when they were full.

In Rome we stayed at HOtel Ponte Sisto. Good location, nice hotel. Would stay there again.
HTH

For Florence Bed and Breakfast accommodations you can also try on:
http://www.tuscanweb.com

Italy in October is fabulous, and the weather usually pretty nice. For accomodations across italy try www.fastbooking.com they have a wide variety of hotels everywhere in Europe. Enjoy your trip...