Itenerary tips for first timers
 

My husband and I are going to Italy in June for our 10th anniversary. He wants to go to the alps region and I want to drive the Amalfi coast. We have 2 weeks. Any tips on an itenerary? We've never been to the country. What are the MUST SEES? Thx.

Have fun planning!

Alps and Amalfi don't really work all that well in a two week period.
"Must sees" depend on what you all want. Cities, views,food,relaxing times or a go-go "We've got to see it all attitude.
Where do you plan to fly into and out?
I could go on and list many more questions.
For now, search here and at Slow Travel. Look for posts that ask your same question. Just put the word in "itinerary" and many will appear.
Look at the questions that need to be answered before we can give you much help.

Is it cold where you live? Go the bookstore and buy the DK Guide to Italy. Spend a cozy weekend going through it and you will end up with a list of must sees long enough to keep you busy for a year or so. Have your husband do the same thing. Then each of you should rank your must sees, then look at a map and see if it all can be done in two weeks.

One of your first actions might be to check out "open-jaw" flights, i.e., a flight that arrives at a northern destination in Italy, and departs from the south. With only two weeks for such an ambitious itinerary, you don't want to waste time back tracking.

You will love Italy!

:-)

The "classic" Italy itinerary is Venice, Tuscany (Florence, Siena, and the beautiful countryside), and then Rome. If you want to visit the Amalfi coast OR (not AND) the Dolmites, then you will have to be on a little faster pace than many people like to travel, & drop Florence.

Stu Dudley

StuDudley's right. Open jaw into Milan, I assume you'll have a car so you can stop off in the Lake region somewhere like Lake Como (Bellagio) is a good choice for two nights . That may appease your husband. Proceed to Venice for 2-3 nights then Florence for 2-3 nights. Stay in the countryside near Siena for 2-3 nights to explore hill towns and wine region, and Rome for 3 -4 nights (3 is absolute minimum for Rome). If you spend the minimum in each city, you'll have 2-3 nights on the Amalfi Coast (see Pompeii on the way). Three nights is best for the Amalfi Coast. AND driving it is amazing! I can never figure out why people prefer to take a bus or have some stranger drive them around all the hairpin turns, etc. I think the driving hysteria is a big marketing ploy by the locals to get tourists off the roads, which I can understand from their point of view. But, I digress.... Fly out of Naples. We did something like this on our first trip to Italy and it was very rushed, but we saw all the "highlights." We've been back several times and repeated certain parts for longer stays.

I also agree with StuDudley about Florence. There are many Florence afficionados who would scoff at that. You could combine the Florence/Tuscany trip into 3 nights and stay in Florence (or outskirts) and day trip to the hilltowns. This is one of my favorite Italy experiences. We've stayed at a the Salvadonica, a 14th century working farm www.salvadonica.com within 20 minutes of Florence and the Hotel San Sano (closer to Siena), a 13th century converted fortress www.hotelsansano.it. Both had pools and we loved them. You can do day trips to Florence, Siena, San Giminano, wineries, etc. from both. We got in our car every morning and explored. In the late afternoons we returned to our hotel, relaxed by the pool then went out to dinner in local restaurants.