Looking for responses, critique, suggestions....
Planning early November Italian visit for spouse and me (her first, my first for many years). Time/physical constraints have caused us to limit and eliminate, even some of my old haunts - Naples & the Peninsula, Taormina, Rapallo/Sta.M/Portofino, but to add Venice, even too briefly, under the now or never clause.
Prelim Plan:
Day 1: ARR Malpensa, AM, bus to Milan Central, train to Venice.
Day 2: Venice
Day 3: Venice, Night train to Rome, to couchette or not?
Days 4 & 5: Rome
Day 6: Rome, Evening train to Florence
Day 7 & 8: Florence
Day 9: Florence, PM: Pick up rental car, drive loop thru Pisa and quick drive by Livorno waterfront and spend night in Livorno area (if for no other reason to hunt for triglie cooked over an open fire of dried grapevine).
Day 10, 11 & 12: Siena & San Gimignano, preferably staying in country hotel(s) nights of days 9, 10, 11 & 12.
Day 13: Drive back to Florence slowly, turn in rental car, catch late afternoon train to Milan, then bus to Malpensa, spending night at hotel near airport w/shuttle (Cervo recommended, website looks OK).
Day 14, Shuttle to Malpensa for a 1040 DPT to ATL.

Air travel - Delta Awards, Business Elite International/First Domestic, DFW/ATL/MXP&RTN

Hi,

Do your air miles restrict you to flying into Milan? If not, fly into Venice, saving several hours of transit from Milan and fly home from Rome. You can do Florence/Siena area on the way from Venice to Rome. This will save you at least a day of backtracking. You can pick up the rental car in Florence and turn it in at the Rome airport and take the train into Rome.

Because of FF miles, flight into/out of Milan are in concrete.

Ok - here's my input based on Milan as your arrival and departure point.

There's too much moving around for me. I'd prefer to spend more time in fewer destinations to covering a lot of ground and only staying a couple of days in each place. I'd cut out either Rome or Venice and do things a bit more leisurely and see more. You're staying in 5 different towns in 13 days.

If you keep to your planned towns I would start in Rome since you're probably going to be jet lagged and could catch some sleep on the train. Then work backwards toward Milan.

If you take the night train Venice to Rome I would get a couchette and get a little rest. How long is the ride at night? I know it's 4.5 hours in the day time.

Have you looked into an Alitatlia flight from Milan to Rome? If it's not too high you could fly right to Rome and then work back to Milan.

adrienne

Hi tof,

For the Venice/Rome trip I suggest a 2-bed compartment.

Have a great trip.

What is Day 9 all about? Have not seen too many folks do something like that.
What are the attractions?

Looks good to me--nice trip.
But why Livorno? Sub Lucca for that day.
Take your raincoat and a hat.
Try Hotel Pescille for your Tuscany base. Just south of San Gim.

Livorno?

I spent some time there 40 years ago. While I know that little will be the same and that Livorno is pretty featureless, Thos. Wolfe's _You Can't Go Home Again_ not always applicable...

Besides I want to eat triglie cooked over open fire.

TMO

Why not pick up the car in Rome and do all your driving on the way to Florence? You could stop in Orvieto on the way to Siena.

Fun! We loved Tuscany.
I like the idea of getting your car on the way out of Rome. Stay near Montalcino a few nights so you can drive and see Montepulciano and Pienza and even hit a winery. See Siena on you way up to stay in San Gimignano, also hit Volterra and Lucca. So 4 nights in Tuscany, 2 in the S and 2 in the NW. Then turn in your car in Florence for a night or 2 there. Lodging options at www.tuscany.net. We stay in San Gimign at www.sangiapartments.com, very nice lady and clean big room for very little pricing!
Also, we had a 10:30am flight out of Malpensa. Stay in Milan that night before, you're that close, you need to see it. Get into town by 3pm and take the easy to use Metro 3 stops from the train station right to the Duomo. Stay at Hotel Speronari for about 90 euro, perfect spot on an old street right by the Duomo. Drop off your bags and go tour the church and walk on the roof among the spires and view the city. Walk around the shops, the galleria, the Sforza castle maybe and have a good dinner. Get up at 7am, train right back to the Centrale station, hop on a bus to Malpensa! Enjoy! (I want to go back now!!)

You're locked into flying into and out of MXP? Sounds fishy to me. You've got business class tickets -- unrestricted -- so you should be able to change your airports as long as there are frequent-flyer seats available on the corresponding flight(s) you need. Delta flies nonstop from JFK to VCE, so instead of flying DFW -> ATL -> MXP, you fly DFW -> JFK -> VCE.

Your tickets allow you the choice of either an open-jaw ticket (fly into VCE and out of FLR, for instance) or a stopover in one of your intermediate ports, either ATL or JFK.

Instead of the night train to Rome, you might want to consider:
n1,2,3 Venice (allow time for recovery from flight in Venice, and avoid night trains which you might not find as comfortable as you did 40 years ago!)
early am train to Florence, n4,5 Flo
early am train to Rome, n6,7 Rome
Train to Orvieto (1 hr), pick up car in Orvieto, thus avoiding Rome congestion.
n8,9,10, in Tuscany.
next, do your Livorno thing en route Italian Riviera, since you're determined. Have your open fire meal at lunch, not dinner, and o/n n11 Santa Maria Ligure or somewhere on Riviera.
- drive scenic route to Genoa, drop car in Genoa, late pm train to Milan where you spend Night 12.
N13, at Milan airport as planned (this gives you a more relaxed exit from Italy, and some leeway for unforeseen delays such as train strikes on your return to Milan.)