Recommendations for a relaxing place to stay in Italy during the first part of our honeymoon?
 

We are planning our honeymoon to Italy and Paris for late May-early June 2005 for 17 days. We will be leaving a few days after the wedding and would like to just relax and hang out for the first couple of days and save the sightseeing for later. We will probably stay 10 days in Italy and 7 days in Paris. The latter part of our stay will probably be in Northern Italy, but would like your suggestions on a relaxing place to stay for the first 3 days, just knowing that we would need to recoup from the wedding day.

Pups,
To relax the best is to rent a villa...especially one with a pool. One issue to this option is they typically only rent by the week generally from Saturday to Saturday. However, it is may be good to pick an area to base yourselves for a week, relax a few days and take some day trips.

Why not start in the Amalfi Coast? Just chill in lovely Positano for a few days before marching north through Rome, Florence, or whatever. Or, if you'd like to concentrate on northern Italy, you could begin your trip on Lake Como. From there you can see Venice and the Cinque Terre before moving on to Paris. That would be less traveling and lower key, but you'd miss Rome and Florence. Depends on what you want to see.

I would also recommend one of the lakes or Venice for your relaxing start. I would not agree with using Lake Como as a base for daytrips to Cinque Terre or Venice though. A day trip is NOT the was to see Venice and Cinque Terre would not be that easy or close, by train at least.

We really loved Lago di Maggiore, staying on Isola dei Pescatore just off Stresa. The islands and towns all around were charming, the scenery and gardens fantastic, the microclimate perfect (palm trees).

Buon viaggio and congratulations!

Dayle,
Oh, no, I wouldn't recommend using Como as a base for daytrips. I see now that I wasn't clear. I meant that from Como, it's easy to train over to Venice for a few days, then train to Cinque Terre for a few days.

I second the recommendation for Isola dei Pescatore and the Borromean Islands off Stresa. As far as I know, the Hotel Verbano (www.hotelverbano.it) is the only hotel on an the islands. It has wonderful views and a good restaurant. Pescatore is a small fisherman's village; a few minutes away by ferry are Isola Bella and Isola Madre. Isola Bella consists almost entirely of a small palace and its extensive gardens which I think would be a great place for honeymooners to have a stress-free stroll.

Hi pups,

You might want to consider
http://www.castiglionedellago.it/eng/england.htm

consider the cinque terre, a group of 5 villages.on the N.W. coast. A great place to just relax.

Just got back on Tue. We stayed at two places that were amazing and very relaxing. We started off in Santa Margherita at the Miramare http://www.grandhotelmiramare.it/accomodation.html It was really wonderful and we loved the town. From there we day tripping to Cinque Terre and Portofino. Next we went to Southern Tuscany and stayed at La Saracina http://www.lasaracina.it/menu_eng.htm. It was the best place we stayed. Beautiful, relaxing, romanitic and the views, WOW! The rooms have fireplaces, the most comfortable beds and the bathroom was amazing, as big as the bedroom. At La Saracina you are near many of the beautiful hill towns (Montalcino,Pienza, Montepulciano) where some of the best Italian wines are from. I have been to Italy 7 times and I think this hotel was my favorite hotel. Everything was perfect. The website doesn't do it justice. Do a search and see what others have said about it.

For me, the farther away from the heavy tourist ares (e.g., Venice, Pisa, etc) the better the trip.


Casale-Budget Villa Rental in Abruzzo
http://www.angelfire.com/film/casale