My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy in the Fall. We are flying into Milan and out of Rome. We have a few spots we would like to see, starting with Como, Venice, Florence, Tuscany and Sardinia, ending in Rome. We are wondering the best way to travel between and if Sardinia is possible with only having 14 days? We would like to mix the historical with the "natural" beauty of Italy. Can anyone suggest the best way to travel ? We are thinking a car but wonder if that is too much driving.

I might suggest that you don't need a car for the entire trip, but just for a part or part of it.

When you say Como, do you mean the actual town of Como or the mid lake region? In either case you don't really need a car, especially if you head to Varenna, a nice location, with a train station.

Maybe land in Milan, make your way to Como or Varenna by train, leave there and go to Venice by train. Venice to Florence by train is very easy. Upon leaving Florence you can rent a car for your time in Tuscany. Drop off car and train to Rome. Chiusi, Orvieto, or other towns are good for this, depending on which part of Tuscany you want to visit.

Finally, I don't think you have time for Sardinia. Como, Venice, Florence, somewhere in Tuscany and Rome is a pretty full trip.

Pick 4 and have fun---6 is way too much in 14 days.

October is absolutely the best time of year to visit Italia! The weather is fantastic and prices are very moderate.

I agree with Bob, and tlf. I would pick Varenna over Como, for 3 nights and train it there from Milan, train to Venice for 2 nights , then to Florence for 2 nights, pick up a car and base somewhere near San Gigmignano (not necessarily there, but you want something smaller than Siena) for 3 nights, drop your car in Orvieto and spend your final 3 nights in Rome.

It gives you a good sampling of Italy. You will probably be back with a totally different travel style for your next trip, but it will be very hard for you to not plan another trip to Italy.

The weather in October can be fine or rainy. There is sometimes some fog along te North Italian lakes.

Lake Maggiore is just a few miles from Milan MXP airport. If you prefer Varenna/Lake Como, count to arrive there 3 to 5 hrs after your landing, if you use public transport.

You need a car for the visit of Sardinia only, the gems are rather widespread there:
Castelsardo, Alghero Grotta Nettuno, Torralba, Santissima Trinita di Saccargia, Sassari, Nuoro, Tharros, Barumini, Isili, Cagliari, Villasimius, Carloforte, Pula, the fortified town of Bonifaciu, just in front of Sta Teresa di Gallura, already in France......Count at least 5 days for a somewhat decent visit.

Thank you all for the very helpful replies. This will make my trip planning much easier. We will save Sardinia for another time. It seems best that we plan to utilize the trains until we head to Tuscany.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

Wondering about phone and internet on my iphone? I was told that we needed a "sim" card but the iphone does not accept one. Any suggestions on phone usage?

lucca is a great place to visit while you are in the north of tuscany. you have way too much planned for such a short period. spend some time in an area to get the feel rather than a rush through whirlwind trip.

In terms of weather, you dont say if you're going beginning of October or late October. Last year I went late Oct/ first week of November and the weather was rain, rain, and more rain. I was in Milan, Bologna, Montepulciano and Rome. I was there 12 days and I think I only had 2-3 where it didnt rain.

And I agree, it seems that you want to visit too many places in 14 days

Just a suggestion as everyone's travel style is different, but we are planning 18 days in Italy his way -

Arrive Milan; train to Lake Como - staying in Bellagio as we couldn't find a place we liked and that fit into our budget in Varenna; 3 nights to overcome jetlag and to ease into Italy.

Train to Venice - 4 nights; may do a day trip to Padua

Train to Florence - 6 nights; day trips to Lucca/Pisa; Siena; maybe the Cinque Terre

Train to Rome - 5 nights, with day trip to Orvieto; possibly Ostia Antica

Depart Rome

We decided to keep things less "planned" than on previous trips; to have possibilities in mind and do the research on what to see in each place but wait until we arrive in our base to decide which day trips to pursue. We haven't taken this more leisurely approach to trip planning before so we will see how it turns out. We always want to see as much as possible on any given trip but have decided to hope that we will have a chance to return, and just enjoy what we do see.

Good luck with your own trip planning.

We are in Northern Italy right now - the last two days it POURED rain from Bologna through the entire north. Now it is partly cloudy and quite nice for at least the next 5 days - but not hot. It is 13 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.

Not bad, but you have to deal with the chance of very heavy rain haha

I assume this trip will be in 2014...

FYI, ferry service on Lake Como reverts to a reduced/off-season schedule at some point in October. This year, an autumn schedule went into effect today (10/1), and the winter schedule starts 10/28. In some years that we've been there, the winter schedule has started after the 2nd or 3rd weekend of October.... You can still explore the lake after the timetable changes, but it does take more time.

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/eng/c_orari.asp

I have an old unlocked pre-smartphone phone that we use for travel. In Italy, there are a couple of places that you can use to get service, last time I used TIM for both the little phone and my iPad. You shouldn't need your phone much at all. I turned off my iPhone service while in Belize this past summer. I don't need to pay for all the extraneous text messages, etc. but I did use it when we had a good wifi available. See what your options are for international iPhone service, and tell your friends and family that you will charge them if they abuse your availability while traveling GPS and navigation is helpful, particularly when you are visiting a small town and concerned about finding your car again, but I prefer to use old fashioned maps for driving place to place.