Traveling last week March via Milan for 8 day exploration by train. What town shall we use as a base, that is not a huge city, that has charm, activity, and train service so we can make day trips? (May go to Florence, but skipping Venice.) Or shall we just skip the idea of staying in one place and haul our luggage from place to place? Itinerary undecided, probably remaining in North half of country. Have considered Lucca, Siena. Have ruled out Parma. Where is that perfect town? (Last day or so we will go to Cinque Terre, then out via Milan.) Thanks.

As I think everyone here will tell you, eight days is not nearly enough time to do what you have planned. Would suggest you concentrate on one or two places.

They don't have anything planned yet, so how can eight days possibly be too short? I think the idea of basing yourself in one town and making a number of day trips is an excellent one. Unfortunately, I can't recommend a particular town.

If you don’t want to choose Florence, which IMO is a very good base, I would pick Bologna. Very charming university city with a large historic core, great restaurants, markets, plenty to see and do there. Off the beaten path for US tourists. And you can train to places like Parma (1 hour), Modena (30 minutes) and Ravenna (1.5 hours) on the coast. You can train to Florence in an hour (although IMO a day trip to Florence is a complete waste but whatever it is <i>your trip</i> if that is what you want to do). You could go to Rome too, It’s just under 3 hours on a non-stop train, but again for a day kind of a waste. (If you don’t mind paying, you can also take Formula 1 driving lessons in a Ferrari in Bologna too!)

Also don’t rule out bus trips, which from Florence esp. is going to be the only way to get to smaller more villages which do not have train service. Also day trips by bicycle and walking are ways to see the countryside from Florence (have not done from Bologna but would imagine this is very possible).

Another thought would be the Dolomite area in the mountains, I would be a little bit concerned that last week in March may be just too late for ski season and you would be finding things closed and more fog and wet. But check around. Cortina or Bolzano. Hard to say, could be snowy and really lovely, or foggy.

There is a very good walking guide to Tuscany published by Sunflower books. Their website is http://www.sunflowerbooks.co.uk. They rate hikes by difficulty and time it takes to complete all or each section, and give good directions on how to reach each walk. There may be walks right from the door of your hotel. They publish walking guides for many other places in Europe as well.

Why not Lucca? Charming for sure, very hard to beat.

Most people don’t stay long enough to really get to know it to the point of feeling at home (as opposed to rushing by the highlights like you do in a museum).

And there is the entire Toscana coast line in easy reach, see www.toscanacosta.it/defaulten.asp

You can get from Lucca, by train,
To Pisa in 23 min
To Livorno in 47 min
To Carrara in 1:00 hr
To Florence in 1:16 hr
To Monterosso (Cinque Terre) in 1:23 hr.
To Siena in 2:21 hrs.
To Parma in 3:30 hrs
To Milano in 4:18 hrs via Florence or about the same via La Spezia

Does the 8 days include the time in the Cinque Terre?

Will you have to spend the last night near Malpensa for an early morning check-in?

Is there some reason you don't want to rent a car for the few days of exploring?

Since I was thinking of basing in Parma for a future trip, also using railways, I am wondering why you ruled it out..would you mind explaining a bit? Thanks!

Perugia would be an option, good bus and train connections to other hill towns.

I too would pick Lucca just because I like Lucca---a real town with nice people doing real things.

I agree that either Boloogna or Lucca would be goodplaces. Lucca, especially, is a &quot;real&quot; town, as bob says. Inside the walls there are a lot of car-free streets, so you can walk around easily, and it's not so crowded and frantic as Florence (which I love, but it's being loved to death.)

Bologna would be my choice. Big enough to be interesting, but very walkable and a relatively untouristy feel you don't get in places like venice, Florence, or Rome. Great food and food markets. Plus it is where two rail lines cross so it is a tranfer point and convenient to head in pretty much any direction.

Book marking

ttt

bookmarking...thanks!