My fiance and I are pretty sure we want to honeymoon in Italy. We would liek to spend the majority of the time in the Amalfi coast. Then also hit Rome and maybe Florence, or do Sicily as well. We would like to stay in reasonably nice places but are young and don't need everything to be on par with the Ritz. We are open to trains, cars, etc. What would two weeks in Italy probably cost???

Can't comment on your cost to get to Italy, without knowing what month and where you are originating.<BR><BR>You can get good lodging for 200 euro per day; satisfactory for 125-150; princely starts at 275-450.<BR><BR>Allow 40 per person per day for good eating/&quot;dining&quot;; 25 to get by; 75 for splurge days.<BR><BR>Plan on trainsfor some of your travel needs (Rome/Florence) for example at less than 100 per person, and one week car rental for much of the rest at 300 (200 budget-oriented, 400-500 splurging)<BR><BR>Then allow another 500 for taxis, attractions and the like.<BR><BR>Congratulations on your new life in marriage.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

<BR>Accomodations will be your greatest expense. What's &quot;reasonably&quot; nice varies from person to person. How much per night are you willing to spend, especially considering that this will be your honeymoon? <BR><BR>Meals will likely be your second-greatest expense and you can eat cheaply or eat like a king and queen; it's completely up to you. How much do you imagine, for example, spending just for dinner, including wine and everything else? <BR><BR>Trains are relatively inexpensive in Italy; car rental is not. <BR><BR>

Thanks for the initial help! Sorry, I completely forgot about the timing. It will be the end of October/beginning of November. This should be the beginning of off-season, correct? How far in advance would we need to start making hotel reservations? <BR><BR>As for &quot;reasonable&quot; hotels, I can see splurging for great places around the Amalfi coast with lots of atmosphere/views. Other than that, I'm sure a nice pension would do.<BR><BR>As for food, I think we would be pretty big eaters! We both love food and wine. I'm sure we would splurge on some meals and eat more cheaply at other times. We live right outside of NYC, so we're used to expensive food.<BR><BR>Thanks for any additional information!

ttt

Get yourself a copy of &quot;Great Eats in Italy&quot;. You can find some reasonably priced good places to eat in Rome,Florence and Venice in this book.<BR>From what I've read on line some ifnot alot of the suggestions are great ones.<BR>When you decide where it is you want to go just check back in this forum. You should get all sorts of responses.

Laura, Go to www.slowtrav.com and under &quot;Italy&quot; and then &quot; Planning&quot; find my article on travel budgets. It should be just what you need. Good Luck !

You should be able to do quite well with pricing during that time although not as great as when the Lira was King (queen?)! <BR>Great books for accomodations are: Margo Classe's Hello Italy-Bargain Hotels http://www.helloeurope.com/italy.htm and Fodor's has an old one (I didn't find it on the website!) Close Up on Italy that has a large selection of bargains as well. Cheap Sleeps is also a good guide-but the problem with it is that it covers pretty much the big three (florence, Venice and Rome) only.<BR>I've paid, off season, as little as $35 - $40 and had nice rooms, but that usually doesn't happen until mid Nov. and ends in March. (Prices rise again from about 12/18 thru Epifania (1/6 for obvious reasons).<BR><BR>Rex has a good handle on prices, but as everyone points out-it's how you like to stay and travel. <BR>Car rental on your first trip should be avoided-if you go to Sicily, yes, but not if you stay on the mainland. <BR><BR>I would keep the travel simple: Rome, Amalfi Coast then up to Florence. Maybe day trips from these spots. More than that makes things a rush! As I'm fond of pointing out-in two weeks, you really only have 12 days since you lose nearly a day flying there and need to be back in your departure city the day before you fly out. If you do that, then everything could be simple train travel and maybe some buses for day trips.<BR><BR>Most good guides will give you ranges of prices for meals, and here again Rex deals sensibly with costs. We generally spent more on our one major meal (we'd do caffe'/pastry in am and a light meal for either lunch or dinner) then we did on our lodging!

Travel in Late October will help reducr your cost of getting to Italy - - but still can't predict without knowing where you are starting.<BR><BR>The website www.venere.com is a great place to start making some lodging selections - - great for window shopping, making inquiries, checking availability, booking reservations or cancelling them. I would recommend starting to browse right after the new year. One good thing about this much lead time is that you can afford to ask that places send you actual brochures. Makes for spreading everything out on the floor - - easier than with internet printouts. And their eagerness to send you a brochure will sometimes give you a hint about their attitude towards service.<BR>

This is all wonderful advice! loislane, I'm with you about keeping it simple. I just felt pressured that we weren't do enough. My mother's last trip to Italy was some whirlwind two-weeks, and she saw what sounded like everything from Venice, Bologna, Amalfi, etc, you get the point.<BR><BR>If you all were doing Italy for your honeymoon, where would you go and how many nights would you stay in each place? (with a two-week trip in Oct/Nov as the goal)

I always go with this equation...<BR>$100.00 dollars a day plus airfare. This has worked for me the past 3 trips to Europe....

Hi,<BR><BR>You can find wonderful places to stay for $100 a night or less. Rome is more expensive, but in Tuscany we spent from $60 to $90 a night for three in July. These were lovely places with our own bath, of coarse, and breakfast. On the Amalfi we stayed at the Tramonto D'Oro which is in Pariano. It is on the cliff with fabulous views and roof top pool. You probably will not need the pool. We went with 13 others and got breakfast and dinner. The cost for two for the week (7days) was $1100. You will not need to get the dinner. We did this for convience. We were there at the end of June. You can find great places for a reasonable amount. Have a great time.

Well, with 12 workable days, and flying into Rome-my first question would be Have you ever been to Italy before? Then you'd get: what is it that you most want to see or experience in Italy (I mean aside from the obvious part of you being on your honeymoon ;-)<BR><BR>On a broadbrush first visit, I would still hit the Big 3-there's good reason they are so visited! So maybe Rome, down to Sorrento-from Sorrento homebase: Naples (museum, dinner, driveby art touring!), Pompei, Ercolano. Then onto Amalfi or Positano or Ravello as a homebase and visit the others! Restful-maybe a day on Anacapri, maybe a bus out to Paestum.<BR>Then back via train directly to Florence. At that homebase: a day trip (nice-because you can cancel them anytime you want!) to Fiesole, Siena, Lucca, and the Chianti region as you desire. I'd spend 5-6 days with Florence as the center point because you have access to more day trips there.<BR><BR>Then train from Florence to Venice. This is the only time you might need reservations on the train. If you Eurostar to cut time (and I'd recommend that) you'll have to reserve anyway. Generally I travel second class and the reservations happen on popular runs (Rome to Florence to Venice and back).<BR>Spend several days in Venice. You can decide to do the islands or not, the mainland wonderful towns (Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Asolo and Padova) or just hang around in the lesser known areas of Venice. Then train back (Eurostar for speed) to Rome and spend the last 2-3 days there.<BR><BR>Now go through your guides, see what cities most attract you and write them down. Print out a calendar and write in &quot;Fly out&quot; &quot;arrive&quot; and your departure dates and where you might want to be. Be sure to account for the travel time! You can check www.trenitalia.it for exact train trip durations as well as schedules! Things will fill up fast. You should leave enough time to blow off any event and pick it up the next day. Try to work day trips to every other day. Then see that you've probably programmed 4 weeks of time! It's very sobering!<BR><BR>For me, I like making memories in real time, not fast forward! It allows me to decide to stay extra or leave early.<BR>

to keep your costs from going up up up<BR>

In Rome good accomodation to is www.58viacavour.it<BR>

Laura,<BR><BR>Congratulations! You will LOVE Italy for your honeymoon. My husband and I went in June'02 for our honeymoon and it exceeded everything we imagined.<BR><BR>In terms of planning, for us airfare was the single most expensive cost, we flew from Cleveland to Pisa and for both of us it was $2300 USD, you should pay a fraction of that in November, and depending on where you live even less. We did not want a whirlwind tour of Italy (no 7 cities in 7 days kind of thing) we opted to rent a farmhouse on a vineyard in Chianti for a week and it was perfect. The cost was around $2200 USD, but far less than a hotel that would have matched the calibre of our accomodations at the vineyard, plus we had it all to ourselves including the pool. <BR><BR>We stayed at 4-5 star hotels in Pisa the first night, and Lucca the last 2, the rates were around $300 USD/night and after our stay in the farmhouse a bit disappointing in terms of their appointments, but really how much time do you spend inthe hotel? <BR><BR>We rented a car and that was so easy and reasonable - autoeurope around $400 for 10 days, we had a VW Passat. The rest we spent on food, shopping, etc. everything was quite reasonable even with the euro. <BR><BR>I suggest doing a bit of planning, I totally recommend staying at an agriturismo - I will never travel any other way. Seriously check out slowtrav.com and the michelin website for lodgings and restaurant rec's. email me if you have any other questions. Best of luck!

Laura, <BR>We just got back from our honeymoon 2 days ago. You can do a fabulous trip and stay at fabulous places on a budget. You must use Karen Brown guides. Trust me on this one. They are INCREDIBLE! We just got back on Tues. nt. and are already re-booking for next year! Ciao!

This is all great advice. I had been referred to the karen Brown guides before but had forgotten her name. thanks!<BR><BR>I have been to Rome and Florence before in college. My fiance has never been to Italy. I'm definitely torn between trying to see a fair amount of places and the amalfi coast or Tuscany. Can you spend as much time on the Amalfi in one place as you could in one place in Tuscany(doing day-trips)?

Laura, October/November, in my opinion is the most glorious time in Italy, especially Tuscany &amp; Umbria. Sue is right in that Rome is more expensive but in Tuscany &amp; Umbria you can find very nice 3* hotels for $75 or less. You say you like food and wine, there are many wonderful places to eat that are very expensive. Nothing against places like Cane e Gato and Da Fiore but there are many restaurants in Italy where you can eat like a King or Queen for very reasonable prices. My husband is from Forte de Marmi, about 45 minutes from Florence and his fraternal family is from Assisi so I know Tuscany &amp; Umbria very well. My personal favorite though is Venice and I've spent alot of time there. I don't think you can do all the things you want in 2 weeks, especially Sicily. But Rome, the Amalfi Coast and Florence is possible. I would land in Rome and either stay put for 3-4 days and really see Rome or move on immediatly to the Amalfi Coastm for a few days. You can plan to see Rome for the back end of your trip. You will not need a car in Rome so you could either stay put and wait to pick one up, or on the back end of the trip return it once you arrive back in Rome. If you want to see any part of Tuscany it will be very difficult without a car. A week will run around $250-$300. You can get from Rome to Florence by train and I advise it. I agree with Rex on food. Italians don't eat much for breakfast and I personally can't have a big lunch everyday. Some days I just have pizza and gelato or a picnic of some sort. Do more research, slow trav is very good along with Rick Steves. I know there is alot of controversy surrounding Rick Steves but he is a wealth of information, take what you wish and leave what you don't want.

oops! There is something to be said for re-reading. Regarding Food and Wine, I meant to say INexpensive.