Milan/Venice/Florence in October?
 

Hi -

Looking to plan a trip in late October for my 50th. Would flying in and out of Milan work if we wanted to go to Venice for a couple of days then explore to as far south as Florence? I know it is alot of ground to cover and I dont plan on spending all the time in the car! We will pick a couple of places to stay in between. I would like to book the flights soon.

Thank you!

How long do you have in Italy?

If just going to Milan, Venice or Florence take the train as cars are useless in cities (especially Venice!) -many cities do not even allow private vehicles in their historic city centres.

But cars are great to explore countryside cars are great. Maybe take the train Venice to Florence and rent a car there to explore Tuscany and its iconic hill towns.

anyway for lots of info on trains check www.trenitalia.com; www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Assuming you have two weeks or more, PalenQ's trip would work--fly into and take the train from Milano to Venice; train to Florence; rent a car to explore Tuscany for a few days. Rent and return car at airport in Florence and fly out of there.

I've done this exact trip in late October but without a car (except for one day to visit the outlets between Florence and Rome). For most of the trip a car would have been counterproductive, not to mention unnecessary, but you could certainly do more exploring by car if you wish. But it's just as easy to take a train to Pisa or a bus to Siena. The weather was a little cool on many days but glorious for the most part, and the crowds had thinned a bit (but that doesn't mean you don't still have to book the Last Supper and Uffizi in advance).

You don't need 2 weeks to get a lot of a visit to Venice & Florence. It actually takes 2 years to really see either city "completely", but it can be a wonderful experience to go to either city for 3 or 4 days.

You also don't need a car and it would be a nuisance to have one in between these cities.

It would be easier to advise if you gave more details about your trip -- like, are you flying Emirates? Could you instead use Venice or Florence airports? Are you going in early October or late October (weather is very different at the beginning and end of the month) -- and for how many days are you traveling?

Yes, it will work regardless of which airline you use. Do not rent a car from Milan-Venice to get from A-B...take the train; ditto for Venice-Florence and back to Milan.

Agree you could rent a car to explore parts of Tuscany which are inconvenient to get to by other means.

And let's get real here: two years? There is a LOT of Venice you can never EVER see and believe me, you won't have missed anything IMO.

But let's get really get "real": 2 weeks is just a pulled out-of-the-air-number. The claim you'd need two weeks to visit Venice Florence or even something else is nonsense.

Emirates flights in and out of Milan from NYC have a different schedule than most other airlines and that can make a difference in how to order the trip and where to spend the final night. With other airlines schedule, it can make more sense to immediately take a train to Florence rather than to Venice.

You don't need 2 weeks to get a lot of a visit to Venice & Florence. It actually takes 2 years to really see either city "completely", but it can be a wonderful experience to go to either city for 3 or 4 days.>

I think Venice a day less than Florence and Florence a day less for Rome - 3 days including landing day and getting to Venice.

Florence 3 days

Rome 4 days

would be enough for the average traveler.

Plus maybe rent a car for Tuscany.

<I dont plan on spending all the time in the car>

I think you have plenty of time to do what you propose, but I'd do it by train.

Were you just flying in and out of Milan, or do you plan to sightsee there?
If it is only flight purposes, why not fly into Venice and out of Rome? Look at multi- city or multi-destination tickets, not 2 one way.
It might cost more, but consider the cost of train and over a half day of your trip getting from Milan to Venice, then time getting back to Milan and a night there before your flight home.

Good advice from Sassafrass.

My two week ballpark included some time in Tuscany. And yes, massimop, the two weeks was just a "pulled out of the air number." Obviously one does not "need" two weeks to visit three cities: four days in country would suffice if all you want to do is "check the box", and as you noted above, two weeks is not sufficient to really soak everything in. But it does permit you to take a pretty good look.

Yes a quick look at Italy's highlights may be a precursor to coming back and seeing where you may want to spend more time.

There nothing "check the box" about spending a night in Tuscany and a day in Florence seeing a handful of treasures if one is choosing the things ne particularly wants to do. Why be underhandedly dismissive about it? It can be a perfectly fine way to go about learning about Italy

It is genuinely puzzling why people who park themselves in some spot in Tuscany and then drive to Pienza for 2 hours, and then the next day drive to Perugia for 3 hours, and the next day drive to San Gimignano for 2 hours don't seem themselves as "checking boxes" and somehow reach the conclusion they are having a more in depth experience of their destinations than someone who swerves off the track to spend a night in Pienza between Florence and Rome.

Most travelers -- whether they are business travelers or simply curious travelers -- have an extremely limited amount of time they can be sightseeing abroad. That's just a fact. Obviously one can ruin one's own travel experiences by planning an exhausting schedule of sightseeing and trying to execute it. However, 8 days in Italy, seeing a couple of different places, can be 8 days filled with wonder.

Thank you all for your input and insight.

To add my 2 cents - we would want the car so we can explore and not have to stick to a schedule. For us the cliche' that it is not the destinatin but the journey applies here. We will only have 6-7 days. Of course we would prefer to have longer, but I will take this vs. not going at all! We have done shorter trips to amazing places and had wonderful experiences and memories.
Thank you all again!

If you'll only have 6-7 days, you really don't have time for exploring, especially if those are not 6 or 7 full days on the ground (7 or 8 nights in Italy).

The train is about twice as fast as the fastest drive on your routes, and that is following the autostrada. There's nothing to explore on the autostrada. If you want to take back roads between Venice and Florence, you'd be crossing the Apennine mountain range, where there are very few towns, very few places to eat, and very slow driving on narrow twisty roads.

Flying in and out of Milan really takes some time out of your 6-7 days. Then, if you want to explore, you'll need a full day to get between Venice and Florence. You have three travel days (Malpensa airport to Venice, Venice to Florence, and Florence back to Malpensa. If you need to be near the airport the day before your return flight, that's another lost day.

If you have little or no time for leisurely exploring, there's no point in renting a car. It really takes up an enormous amount of time, because, apart from the fact that driving takes longer than the train trip, you can't take a car into the center of either Venice or Florence. That means you'll also waste time commuting into the city centers.

Fine if you want to spend most of your time outside main cities where private cars are usually prohibited from the centers. And Venice obviously a no car zone.

But a drive Venice to Rome via Umbria or Tuscany could be cool for a few days.

But cars and Rome don't mix - return it before Rome and take the train in -like from Orvieto, a classis hill town.