NEED ADVICE for 24 days italy and greece
 

My fiance and I are going to Italy and Greece for our -25 day honeymoon April - May this year.

I don't want a Travel Agent because we want to use points from various accounts as well as our VIP Platinum status on Expedia, Chase and Amex so we book ourselves but need help to plan. I don't mind paying for the planning, just don't want to book through the agent.
Here is our outline - any input or assistance would be greatful. If a Travel Advisor wants to help plan but not book, let me know as I am happy pay for the services.

Fly into Rome - arrive in morning of April 22nd.
Stay in Rome April 22nd, 23rd, 24th, leave on 25th to Florence.
Stay in Florence, April 25th, 26h, and leave 27th to Milan
Stay in Milan, April 27th, 28th, and leave the 29th to Venice
Stay in Venice April 29th, 3oth, leave to Athens on May 1st
Stay in Athens May 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and leave on 5th to Santorini
Stay in Santorini May 6th, 7th, 8th, and leave 9th to Mykanos
STay in Mykanos 9th, 10th, and leave 11 th to Palermo
Stay in Palermo 11th, 12th, 13th, and leave to Amalfi Coast/Naples 14th
Stay in amalfi coast May 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and leave to come home from Either Naples oir Rome

I think we would be okay eliminating Mykanos if we need more time in other cities.

We are semi-flexible on dates and duration.

Plan on taking train most places, but open to taking helicopter, private of commercial flights if worth value -example - Venice to Athens; Palermo to Naples, etc.

On a honeymoon I'd recommend ferries, trains and commercial airlines over private aircraft. After all why would you spoil such a momentous, beautiful thing by helping hurt the planet?

I think you base timing is great April May is a great time for this trip

Palermo is a bit of an outlier and not really in the same "quality" as your other visits.
If I was doing this trip I would fly into Venice, hire a water taxi for the whole James Bond experience of racing into town, then Milan, Florence, Rome, Napoli and then fly to Athens, tour the islands and fly home from Athens. If Palermo really had to be done you can catch a ferry from Napoli to Palermo.

So, IMHO good place just wrong sequence.

Nine (or ten) hotels in 25 nights. Although the destinations are all great, this pace doesn't feel like a honeymoon.

I think you need to check the logistics and travel times between points. You're spending a lot of time just moving around and not enough time in sightseeing-rich places like Rome, Florence, Venice and no time at all in smaller towns/villages.

FYI, April 25th and May 1st are national holidays in Italy.

Generally, for the places you want to visit in Italy, I'd stick to just Italy on this trip. Go to Greece on your first anniversary.

I agree with bilboburgler that the order could be better. I also think that you'd have a better time if you selected either Italy or Greece but not both, especially as you're not seeing anything of Italy's rural areas or villages.

If you stick with visiting both countries, it makes more sense to see if you can get a flight from Italy to Santorini, visit Mykonos and then take a ferry back to Athens, flying home from there. Returning to Italy adds a lot of travel for very little gain. I personally wouldn't go to Palermo without exploring Sicily further. When buying flights look for multi-city tickets, not two one way tickets (the former will typically be less expensive).

Enjoy your honeymoon.

It's been mentioned but you've got two national holidays in there. One is more or less EU wide.

Not mentioned is your interests? Wants?

Why are you spending three days in Milan? Is there something drawing you?

You've got two southern Italian stops at the end. I'd think about starting here. Can you get a flight into Palermo? While the weather should be fine in Rome it'll be even better further south. Starting south and heading north will build in a small extra bit of safety.

I'd think about flying home from Athens if you can. Which means from your last Italian stop head to one of the islands. Then the next island. Then finally Athens.

The problem might be finding flights . There are non stop flights from Bergamo start of May. If you really want to see Milan put it last before heading to Santorini.

I dont't comment yourr choice of places to visit. I think you have serious reasons for it.
My proiposa concerning transportl:
Visit Venice after Florence and go then to Milan.Leave Milan Bergamo on May 1st at 9.40 by DIRECT flight to Santorini.
Go then by catamaran to Mykonos and by slow ferry to Piraeus (port of Athens)
Leave Athens on May 11th for Catania, because there are no direct flights to Palermo.
Palermo - Naples: there is a cruise ferry leaving Palermo at 11.00 and arriving at Naples at 19.30.
On May 12th there would be a overnight ferry (with restaurant and comfortable cabins) from Palermo to Salerno, closer to Amalfi than Naples.

Burt I' wiith Traveler Nick. the easiest way would be to fly from your homeland into Palermo or Catania, to do the whole Italy thing and fly finally from Milan to Santorini and then back home from Athens.

Welcome to Fodors. I would do just Italy -- or just Greece.

As it is, your Italy portion is VERY rushed.

Arrive Rome morning of April 22nd for 3 nights. That gives you just two full day in Rome and you will likely be jetlagged if not totally frazzled after the wedding festivities. Don't count on doing much of anything on the 22nd arrival day.

Florence the nights of 25 & 26 April -- giving you just ONE full day in Florence plus a few hours on the 25th.

Milan the nights of April 27th, 28th -- again - just one full day in Milan

Venice April 29th, 30th, -- this is almost a crime -- ONE full day in Venice

What is the rush?? Budget clearly isn't a main issue considering some of your comments but the above reads like a low budget Cosmos or Globus tour covering half of Italy in 10 days.

That’s a whirlwind tour with not much time to really relax and see the cities you’re intending on visiting. If this were my trip, and I’ve been to Italy dozens of times and lived there too, I’d only do Italy or Greece but not both even though it’s 25 days, of which two will be intercontinental travel and you’ll also lose more days traveling to these destinations. Also concerning Italy I’d either stay in the north or the south but not both together. If you must do both Italy and Greece I’d eliminate some of your cities and change them around a bit. For example, go to Venice first after Rome, then Florence, then Milan and from Milan fly directly to Santorini. There are flights to many Greek islands and taking a ferry to Athens when one can fly makes more sense. Don’t know what to make of plopping Palermo in there without even exploring the rest of the eastern coast of Sicily such as Selinunte and others. I’d leave Palermo out of this visit if you intend on visiting Greece but like others have noted you’re packing a lot into a trip without leaving even time to breathe. We usually do 15 day vacations with smaller vacations inside it. Last year we bookended Greece with three days before and after it in northern Italy, mainly to visit and spend time with family but also to see sites we hadn’t seen before, and in my wife’s case to see sights she hadn’t seen since childhood. How are you getting around from city to city in Italy? Train? Airplane? Driving? Your haven’t stated any of your passions or things you like to do so that will give us a better sense of what you’d like for this potential trip.

The OP didn't come back since more than a week.

Hopefully, they are thinking, discussing, re-thinking... But this often happens when the requested input doesn't endorse the original plan.

Sometimes I think newbies assume they will get some sort of notification there are responses to their topic. I've seen posts in the past along the lines of "Gee, I'm sorry. No, we haven't given up, I didn't get an alert there were responses".

I think some other websites do that??

OR maybe they forgot how to get cack here ;)

Many sites send out notifications. Even Fodors does. The difference is Fodors only does it daily not after each posting like some sites do.

I believe that is only when one has subscribed to a thread. I don't subscribe to topics and have never once received any sort of notifications on any of the MANY threads I've started.

I do get alerts when someone has tagged one of my responses on one of their threads - and those are more annoying than anything.

I get email notifications every time somebody responds to my comments and I’ve never subscribed to a thread either.

The subscription is automatic when you post on a thread, at least on my computer. You have to physically remove it if you don't want to be notified of future replies.

Yes, I've never subscribed to anything on Fodor's but if I write anything in a thread I will get an email summarising the thread at the end of the day.

Lavandula