My husband and I are planning to take a "splurge" trip to Italy and Croatia this summer. The plan is to spend one week in Italy and the second week in Croatia. We've been to Rome and Tuscany and would like to see a different part of the country. We love cities, beaches, food and wine. We enjoy sitting at cafes, walking around and exploring local haunts. We are avid runners and always run in the cities we visit. Planning our routes is lots of fun. We also don't mind driving. We rented a car when we were in Tuscany and enjoyed exploring the countryside and happily drove to/from Rome. Finally, we firmly believe "less is more" when traveling-we like a slower pace and don't need to see EVERYTHING. There's always the next trip….

Some of our ideas include: Northern Italy and either seeing Milan and the Lake District or Bologna/Parma. If we do either of these regions, we would probably end with a day or two in Venice (my husband has already been and does not want to spend a lot of time there) before heading to Croatia.

The other idea is the east coast of Italy- Puglia specifically, but again, are open to suggestions. Not sure what else is a must do/see in that area, as I am less familiar with it than other areas of the country.

This is a special occasion vacation for us and we have a pretty nice budget so we are interested in higher-end accommodations. We prefer smaller, boutique hotels to mega-hotels and resorts.

Look forward to hearing your suggestions, ideas, and recommendations for itineraries, hotels and dining.

Bob the Navigator, you were instrumental in helping us plan our last trip to Italy, so if you happen to see this post, I'd love your input!

Thanks in advance.

I think you are looking at some very wonderful locations, but I also think that it would be to your advantage to do a bit more research. For example, Croatia itself can easily take 3 weeks or more, depending on what parts of the country intrigue you and what kinds of things you want to see and experience. Puglia can be lovely, depending on the season; it can be horribly hot during the summer. Options for northern Italy might also depend on the time of year. You might want to spend some time with guidebooks, whether in your local bookstore or library, to narrow your options down a bit. Since this will be a special "splurge" trip, it would make sense to make sure it includes the things that YOU want to see and do, not just the things that some of us found to our unique tastes. Hope that helps!

In 2013 we visited Croatia for 8 nights. As we only had a very short time, we stayed in Rovinj, Krk and Rab. Each of them was great and would recommend a stay there. Travel time between them (by bus and ferry) were fairly significant but we thought that worth it, especially as the scenery enroute was really interesting. We caught the ferry from Venice to Rovinj (we visited Italy and Slovenia as well).

I stayed in Croatia for a few nights, in Split. Nice and relaxing (for a few days), easy to get around without a car and had wonderful seafood too. Dubrovnik is also great.

The north of Italy is lovely and serene and picturesque and the food and wine is amazing. Sounds like the perfect place for what you're after.

Hello actravelgirl,
You do not say the month but I will assume summer months.
You sound like active people to me. I would try to include Lake Como and the Dolomites and Venice for your Italy segment.

You need to read about Croatia and Slovenia. Access to Istria and Slovenia is fairly easy from Venice, but getting to Dubrovnik is another story--a long way south. You may have to fly via Zagreb to get back home. I agree with kja about more research for Croatia includng flight alternatives. Do not overlook Slovenia as an alternative.

Frankly, I would save Croatia for another time and include the wine region of Piemonte for this trip---giving you 4 destinations in Italy. Flying into Milan and home from Venice, or preferably vice versa to avoid early departures from Venice.

Arrive VCE---3 nites
Get car---drive to Dolomites---3 nites
Drive to Piemonte---near Alba-----3 nites
Drive to Lago Como---3 nites
Last nite near MXP---see Lugano enroute

That works for me.

You may wish to start with the transportation logistics and work backward. As Bob said, from northern Italy to the Istria region of Croatia is a snap (trains from Trieste, ferries from Venice).
I would not ruin a perfectly good two-week itinerary with a flight in the middle, but that's just me. You will want to scope out your open-jaw options as well. If you prefer to minimize transfers, Zagreb will most likely be your best bet.
For southern Italy, there are ferries from Bari to Dubrovnik and Ancona to Split.
Maximizing time and convenience of transportation is a must because you really cannot go wrong with any location in Croatia or Italy.

For me the pleasures of Puglia are the people as much as the ancient cities and the food. So I'd pop for half the time in a Masseria and half the time in a city like Lecce.

The ferry to Dubrovnik looks good and the towns of Dubrovnik, Split and Trogir make a good visit though you can go out to the islands for a more laid back break (Brac is good) and in high summer the ferries run a lot.