north or south?!
 

Having a hard time deciding for a vacation , north italy or south. We want to choose a base and do day trips. North would include venice, verona, bologna, ravenna? South would include rome, naples, pompeii, sorrento/ AC? We like everything, beach, food, wine, art, culture... I guess that is why we are having a hard time deciding. We have 10 days to explore and a $5000-6000 budget. Any advice would help alot!

Both trips are too much for 10 days. For the second trip you would have a few very long days. I'd choose the one involving Venice as there is less running around and I love Venice.

Steak or lobster? Mashed potatoes or baked?
You're going to get people's personal preferences (and some will choose both), but those might not be your preferences.

I think addrienne is right, that the south itinerary is too packed for 10 days. You'd probably have to cut out Rome or Naples. Here's one piece of advice based on your post: Forget the beach. Because (a) you can go to the beach in a million other places and (b) IMHO, the beaches in Italy are nothing to rave about.

Venice actually works quite well as a base for day trips. The place is overrun with tourists during the day, anyway, so it's a great time get out and day trip somewhere else. But at night and in the morning, before the crowds arrive, Venice is magical. Easy trains to the places you mention for the north.

I agree that Naples and the AC area are not realistic day trips from Rome. So of the choices you presented, the Venice plan works better.

But here's another option for 10 days... Divide your time between Rome and Venice. You could easily fill 4-5 days in Rome without any day trips, but you could squeeze one in (maybe Orvieto or Tivoli?) if you really felt the need. Then the remaining days in Venice, with a couple of day trips. Fly into one city and out of the other (many folks find flight times work better into Venice and out of Rome).

I love the north, expecially the area around Verona - great history and great wine towns.

the time of year might influence me - when are you planning to go?

great advice thanks! we are going in may

oh dear, that doesn't help much as both north or south would be lovely then.

in 10 days you could do Venice, Verona, Ravenna, bologna at a pinch, or

Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, Rome. [A/c would be too much, IMO]

which calls to you most?

you will maximise your time, particularly in the south, with an open jaw flight, into Naples and out of Rome. if you can't do this, travel onto Sorrento immediately you arrive in Rome, then work your way back. in the northern itinerary, a round trip to Venice wouldn't be too bad and I can't see much advantage to flying into Venice and, say, out of Milan.

is this too much for 10 days?...
fly into venice and stay for 2 nights
train to rome ( really wanted to see verona, but ill give that up for now)
base in rome and do day trips to, pompeii, tivoli, florence if we feel up to it?
walk around rome for a few days?
fly out of rome

allie - if you are flying in from the US, you will be doing yourself a favour by staying at least 3 nights in Venice - after all even that will only give you 2 full days there and you may need a day to recover from jetlag.

if you want to add Florence into that, rather than do a day trip from Rome, I'd spend a night there at least, which won't give you much time, but will certainly be better than no night at all and will be a more efficient use of your time.

then a quick train to Rome, you'll still have ?5 nights there, and time to see some of the sights, perhaps Tivoli, possibly Pompeii.

why not set out your proposed itinerary in detail [including how long it's going to take you to get places] to get an idea of how much time you'll actually have eg

Day 1 -arrive Venice at ? am. Day in venice

Day 2 - Day in Venice

Day 3 - ..etc/

Rome is not really in the south while your nothern trip is really the Po valley. I'd do your northern trip as it more dense, packed with interesting visits. If you want to base yourself on train transport then look at say Padua or Bologna.