Shoegal

My fiance and I plan on spending our honeymoon in November in Italy. We intend to fly into Venice on the 18th and out of Rome on the 29th. We will visit Florence in between. Two issues for this board: 1. Can and should we do Tuscany in the time we have, and do we need to stay in Tuscany or can we do day trips from Florence in a rental car? 2. How should we allocate our days between all the cities? We are both first-timers and want to do and see as much as we can.

Bob

Looks like you have a total of ten days not counting the travel days. We just returned from two weeks in Italy splitting our time as follows: 3 nights Bellagio, 3 nights Santa Margherita, 3 nights San Gimignano, 3 nights Florence and 2 nights Venice. We had been to Florence and Venice before but wanted to spend some more time in Florence. If I had to do it again, we would spend more time in Tuscany particularly Chianti. But, given the time you have and the fact that you haven't been to Italy before, I would suggest concentrating on Venice, Florence and Rome. You can catch the Eurostar from Venice to Florence, it takes about 4 hours leaving an afternoon of that travel day to orient yourself to Florence. I wouldn't suggest driving in Florence and I don't think you really have time to think about getting a rental car and driving in Tuscany. We drove into Florence from San Gimignano and getting into Florence was challenge enough for me. You need to decide how much time you want to spend in each city based on what your interests are, history, art, wine, etc. and plan accordingly. I enjoy art, history and my wife likes to shop so we allocate time for each other's interests. Someone on this board can recommend day trips out of Florence without your having to rent a car and if you do a search here on Tuscany you will find some previous suggestions. We used this board to help plan our trip as well. Good luck.

Wayne

If you are going to do justice to a first trip in all 3 of those major cities, you probably don't have a lot of time for going anywhere else, or going on day trips. Day trips from Venice are a hassle, anyway. <BR><BR>I'd recommend you spend 3 nights in Venice, then 3 nights in Florence, then 4-5 nights (whichever is left) in Rome. While in Florence, you might consider a day trip into Tuscany. It would be even easier if you stay in some location outside of Florence and make Florence a day trip also.<BR><BR>I think you will enjoy your trip immensely. Though the weather isn't always the best at that time of year, you have a good probability of encountering reasonably pleasant days. It will rain on some of those days, but it's impossible to say how many. November is historically Rome's wettest month. It won't be very cold---probably in the 50-60's range; but a cold front can push it down to the 30's and 40's for a day or so.

nn-nyc

We spent our honeymoon in Italy the first two weeks of November 2000. It was cold so go prepared. I recommend starting in Rome for 4-5 days (you will need some time to tackle the jet lag); be sure to eat dinner at Santo Padre restaurant, it is truly authentic and only locals go there. Then go on to Florence for 3 days max, it will be very crowded and rainy, so spend one of the days in Sienna. Then go to Venice which will be wonderful and the cold weather will be a plus as it keeps the smell of the canals to a minimum. Be sure to visit the islands of Murano (glass works) and Burano (charming fishing village). They are easily reached by motorboat. In Burano have lunch at the Gato Negro. It will be the best meal of your trip. If you can go back to Rome for a last day or two. Have a great trip.

mae

we were in italy for 10 days in Nov 2000 around thanksgiving.<BR>2 nts venice, 3 nts florence and 4 nts rome.<BR>I wish we had more time in florence. no time for day trips.<BR>weatherwise, venice was very cold--we were lucky and encountered no rain while there but the boards were out on the ground b/c of flooding from the previous rains.<BR>Florence, it poured rain the whole time.<BR>Rome was nice temperature wise--comparable to california weather--but it rained very hard for one full day and we ended up staying in the hotel and only had 3 days.<BR>

Leslie

My recommendation (I'm counting 11 nights if you arrive into Venice on the 18 and depart Rome on the 29th:<BR><BR>2 nights Venice<BR>Eurostar to Florence (less than 3 hours)<BR>3 nights Florence, then rent a car<BR>3 nights at a beautiful villa in Tuscany such as Villa L'Amorosa. Tour a few of the hilltowns of Tuscany, including Siena and Orvieto (the latter is actually in Umbria). <BR>Either return the car in Orvieto and train from their into Rome for your last 3 nights, or return the car to the Rome Termini.<BR><BR>