My Honeymoon
 

Any help would be much appreciated. Between planning our wedding and the honeymoon I am surprised I have time to sleep. This is our tentative itinerary:

September 21-23: Cinque Terre hotel for 2
September 23-28: Farm in Tuscany 5 nights
September 28-30: Venice for 2 nights September 30-October 2: Naples for 2 nights October 2- 4: Capri for 2 nights .
October 4-6: Rome for 2 nights
October 6: fly back from Rome to US

Questions wouldn't it make more sense to start in Italy, then Cinque Terre, Tuscany and so on?

Also, Does this even seem doable?

And lastly what is your best suggestion in getting to these cities? Rent a car or do the train?

Thank you so much for your help, I have never planned anything like this and it is a lot of work.

Thanks
Ann

Hi, Ann [from another Ann - we anns without es must stick together].

first of all congrats on the wedding and commiserations on getting lumbered with the planning - are you starting as you mean to go on?

IMO [and that's what you posted for] you are trying to cram in too, too much.

If you are tired now, you'll be knackered by the end of the wedding. all we wanted was a cup of tea and a week's sleep![we got over it eventually]

You don't say where you are flying from to start in CT, and your route involves quite a bit of tooing and froing.

Assuming you're starting out from the US, the classic is to fly into Venice. THat's because it's a very good idea.

to allow for jet-lag, I'd stop at least 4 night, probably 5.

then go to CT/Tuscany. [do you really want both?] 5 nights.

then rome for 5 nights.

that's 3 places in 15 nights. remember, every time you move, you lose at least half a day, if not more. moving is tiring, and wastes valuable sight-seeing time.

Stay longer in fewer places, and you'll see and remember more.

bests wishes,

regards, ann!

Ann, You seem to have 15 nites in Italy and that includes 5 nites in Tuscany. I would do a max of 4 destinations---that means overnites.
Here is what I would do:

Fly into Rome---stay 4 nites
Train to Chiusi--get car---to Tuscany base location---5 nites
Drive to Cinque Terre---2 nites
Drive to Venice--drop car---4 nites
Fly home from Venice

Or, the reverse ! Good luck !

Hi Ann,

I completely agree with Ann and Bob. 2 night stays, especially with the traveling distances you have, just won't be worth it. Yes, your plans also include wasting time backtracking.

Save the Amalfi Coast for an anniversary trip! And - hurry and get your reservations made. It's not too soon.

Buon viaggio!

I really appreciate the helpful information. I will consider shortening the trip. Maybe an extra night in Venice makes since to get us grounded, my only concern is that Venice is just so expensive. I will keep working on it :)

Thanks
Ann

Hi Ann,

We honeymooned in Italy in June 2004, returned for our anniversary in 2005, and will be there again for our anniversary this year.
On our honeymoon we visited 4 spots in a little over 2 weeks. Honestly, in retrospect, I wish we'd only done 3. We were so tired and worn out after the wedding and the trip that we really needed a couple days at the beginning of the trip just to relax and sleep. But when you've only got 4 days in a city with a multitude of worthy sights, you feel like you've got to hit the ground running. We had a WONDERFUL time, but we came home from our honeymoon in need of another vacation ;-)
My advice would be to repeat to yourself "We will return" often as you plan. There will be other trips to Italy so you don't need to try to cram it all into your honeymoon. Pick a few destinations and take the time to enjoy each thoroughly.
Congrats on your upcoming wedding!

P.S. We visited the CT, Rome, Florence, and Venice on our honeymoon.

On our 2005 trip, we briefly re-visited Rome and the CT and spent the rest of our time in the Naples-Amalfi Coast area (which is where we are headed again this year).

We're saving Tuscany for our 5th wedding anniversary in 2009.

Hi AP,

I also think that you have too much on your plate.

With 15 nights on your first visit, I strongly suggest flying into Venice - 4 nights, train to Florence - 5 nights (daytrip to Siena and, perhaps, Bologna), train to Rome - 6 nights (daytrip to Orvieto, and one to Hadrian's Villa or Antia Ostica).

To visit Tuscany, you will want a car. Driving in Italy on your first visit could be the wrong way to start a marriage. :)

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

Such great advice. I am thinking of changing it to this:

Fly into Venice
Venice (3 nights)
Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Tuscany (5 nights)
Capri (3 nights)
Rome (2 nights)
Fly out of Rome
So that is 17 nights. Oddly I am not all that interested in visiting Rome as my fiance was there for part of his Greece honeymoon with his first wife. I do want to go to Capri so I think flying out of Rome is ideal. So spending two nights there will give me a sense of the place.

Does this sound better?

Then my next question is any recommendations on accomidations. As for as Tuscany I would like to stay centralized so we can visit several areas. We were thinking of renting an appartment or staying on a fram or something.

Any tips or advice is much appreciated :) You guys are the best I am so green when it comes to this.

Thanks
Ann

hi, ann,

I do like the idea of staying on a fram!

you could look for "agriturismo" [if I've got the spelling right - i know I've got it wrong before] or any of the many lovely apartments in the area - try google or www.slowtravel.com.

I understand the idea of going to Capri- but I still think you've got too many destinations. if you are determined on Capri, why not lose the CT, and spend longer in Tuscany and Capri. you'll be back I'm sure!

regards, and best wishes,

ann

Hi ann,

It still seems a <i>little</i> busy... travel between Venice and the Cinque Terre will take more or less an entire day. You'll have at least a couple of train connections. So if you arrive in Venice late on the first day (jet lagged and exhausted), have a day to sightsee if you're feeling up to it, have another day to sightsee, and then depart... you're only getting 2.5 days in Venice at the most. Because you'll arrive in the CT pretty late in the day, you'll also only get about 2.5 days there. So... my suggestion would be to consider dropping the CT from this trip and save it for another. OR, since you have some reservations about visiting Rome on your honeymoon, why stay 2 nights? DH and I frequently just stay in Rome the night before we're flying out. If you added that night to either Venice or the CT, I think it would make the beginning of your trip (the time when you're most tired from the wedding and still getting used to the time difference) a lot more relaxed and enjoyable. If in your 1 night in Rome you decide you want to see more of Rome, it's the most likely place you'll fly into the next time you visit Italy so you can do it properly then.

Either skip CT or Capri (I'd choose Capri because of your schedule.).
Add the time to Rome and you have a much better plan.

Wow, everyone has been so helpful. I have changed our plans. I may still be packing too much in but I really want to visit all these places and I am not sure we will be able to go back. So, here it is:

Fly into Naples - one night
Amalfi Coast (day trip to Capri) - 3 nights
Tuscany - 5 nights
Cinque Terre - 3 nights
Venice - 3 nights
Fly out of Milan

That is 4 instead of 5 cities and at least 3 nights in each.

Hopefully this makes more sense :)

..it is OK though not my choice..but not my honeymoon either! I would do another day in Venice and 1 less in CT..Others may comment but you may be disappointed by Capri...given that you want to go to Tuscany you will probably need a car (and just rent it for that part of the trip). Do you really want to drive?

hi, apirone,

not perfect, [no holiday ever is, except someone else's!] but much, much better.

I'm sure that the three night minimum idea is a good one.

hope you have a great time,

regards, ann

Much better !
Shame you cannot fly home from Venice

Hi ap,

Are you sure that you want to do both the AC and the CT on one visit?

If you skip the CT, you could add one night to each of Naples, the AC and Venice.

I think that that would make your visit more pleasant.

Enjoy your honeymoon.

((I))

I don't know what the prejudice is against driving on a honeymoon = my first experience ever driving abroad was with a love interest (not a spouse) from Rome into Umbria. Couldn't have been better and I even earned points for my (apparently) unexpected skill with the standard transmission in the hills. If you enjoy driving together (not all couples have their finest moments in a car) then don't worry about it.

Starting your trip on the Amalfi coast is not a bad idea. It's beautiful and romantic. Don't schedule too much, as you'll want those days for winding down. (You can start planning now, there are beautiful things to see and you can be perfectly happy there doing almost nothing.)

Fly from Naples to Florence for your Tuscan leg rather than spending half a day on the train. Pick up your car there, or in another town (after hopping a train) closer to your eventual stopping place. Enjoy driving trips to see some Tuscan sights, do a winery tour, spend a day in Florience (don't drive into Florence at any time). Then Drive up to the CT (you could make a DAY of travel to the CT, stopping in Lucca, Pisa ...) Leave your car and take a train to Venice.

It sounds to me like you are a couple who enjoy the coast, so doing both Amalfi and CT is no big stretch. Having the countryside days in between breaks it up, plus you'll have all the sights of Tuscany as well. Finally you end in Venice, which will be a treat. Save some energy and money for that.

(The only further simplification you might make, though, would be to split your CT days between Tuscany and Venice - 3 locations instead of 4.)

Finally, I think you're wise not to squeeze in 2 days in Rome. Time and again people plan &quot;16 hours in Rome&quot; and such. It's not a good plan to take on the Eternal City in the wink of an eye. Go back another time for 5-10 days and you'll love it. In two days, IMO - for a first visit at least, Rome is kind of punishing.

Congratulations.

Ann,
I'm voting with the others to spend more time in fewer places. This would be true of any trip, but more so for a honeymoon, which comes after many hectic months--you'll both appreciate a trip with minimum hassle. The more often you have pack and travel, the less time you have for relaxation and romance and enjoying what's around you.

Unless y'all are pushing 95 years old you WILL be back, we promise. Italy does that. So figure out together what three places on your agenda are most interesting to you (and exactly why) then plan your time around them and save the others for later.

Not changing places so often saves money, which you can put towards spending more time in Venice (if you can't arrange for more than three days, just skip it for next time). Capri wouldn't be my choice, but if your heart is set on it, give yourself more time. And a farm in Tuscany sounds nice but don't foreget this means more time and expense to get around. Have you considered basing your Tuscan time from an apartment in Florence? It's easy to reach by train and day-trips by rail are easy (Assisi, Orvieto, Siena, or Perugia, for example) and inexpensive and can often provide easier access to the part of town you want to see than a car. Then you can skip the trouble and expense of renting a car, picking it up, dropping it off, finding a place to actually park it when you reach destinations, getting frustrated when you get lost, stalled in traffic, or fined because you parked where you shouldn't and didn't realize, etc, etc. Just an option to consider.

And while it's understandable it isn't something you want to do this time around, please-please-please don't deny yourself the pleasure of Rome and making your own memories there with your (soon-to-be) DH on your next trip.

You'll likely revise your plans several times as you learn more and more--smart to start planning now so you can get your reservations in for the places you really want as quickly as possible.

Wishing you a happy wedding and a wonderful life together!

My wife and I just returned (Sunday) from a very similar trip. It was our honeymoon as well. Our itinerary was as follows:

Fly into Rome (immediately to Capri)
2 nights in Capri
2 nights in Sorrento
3 nights in Rome
3 nights in Tuscany
3 nights in Venice
1 night in Milan
Fly out of Milan

We are in our mid-thirties and very active, but this was indeed too much to tackle for one trip. Here are the changes I would've made to our trip.

- More time in Capri!!!! This was our favorite part of the trip. We stayed in the JW Marriott Tiberio Palace b/c I had points. I was worried about it because it's a big chain, but it turned out to be the best hotel we stayed in during our entire trip. JW is Marriott's luxury line. We looked at many other hotels (even the 5 star) while on the island and decided ours was the best. I highly recommend it. It's in the town of Capri, but just enough outside the very touristy area to provide a quiet escape. Capri is amazing, especially in the early morning and later in the day when all the tourists go back to Sorrento.

- I wish we would've stayed in Capri all 4 nights instead of moving to Sorrento for 2 of those nights. I would stay in Capri and do day trips to the Amalfi Coast. There are ferries to Sorrento and Positano. We visited Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. Our favorite was Ravello. Amalfi and Positano were just too crowded with tourists. Again, we liked Capri so much better than the Amalfi Coast.

- More time in Rome. Rome was our second favorite stop. We admittedly didn't give it enough time, but also didn't want to skip it altogether. You could easily spend a full week or more there. If you decide to go, I recommend a private tour guide. We had a very good one. If interested, I can send you her contact info.

- I wouldn't change anything about the Tuscany part of our trip. We stayed at a farmhouse in Castellina in Chianti. Very ideally located between Florence and Siena. We loved it, the owner was fantastic... gave us lots of local tips. The farmhouse is Borgo di Pietrafitta Relais (http://www.borgopietrafitta.com/en/index.htm). We reserved a one bedroom cottage and ended up getting a two bedroom unit (no extra charge). An added bonus was the laundry machine in our cottage.

- Note: We rented a car as we were leaving Rome and kept it for Tuscany and the drive to Venice (3 hours from Florence). And we didn't have a single problem driving in Italy. This whole message board over-plays driving in Italy. The roads are high quality and the signs are better than the US (especially Tuscany). We barely needed a map in Tuscany because road signs are everywhere. Love the round-about. You won't see a traffic light until you get to the big cities.

- Less time in Venice. Three nights was PLENTY. This was my second trip to Venice (wife's first) and I don't see the need for more than 2-3 nights. As you mentioned, very expensive and very crowded. We were ready to leave.

- Milano was pleasantly surprising. I would've liked to spend another day or two in Milan. The city has a great European feel and is clean and modern. We liked it. I recommend the Park Hyatt. Great location. Very nice hotel.

- From my brief glimpse of Naples, there are far better places to spend your time. I'd go straight to Capri and skip the night in Naples.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have.