mvr

Hi,

I will be attending a conference for a week in Riva del Garda in mid October. I am student on low budget. I am planning to stay 2 days extra for local sightseeing. Apart from this place, I am confused about which places to visit. I heard so much about Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Leaning Tower (Pisa), Alps, Amalfi Coast etc. that I find it difficult to choose 1-2 of them for a short trip. Just based on the map and the direction of travel, I thought that starting from Riva del Garda, I can visit Florence, Pisa, Rome and catch the flight back in Rome. Or may be I can skip Florence. Thought of spending 2 days each in one place. Is this a good plan? If I stay in hostels, eat at low cost places, what is the budget that I am looking at? 300 euros?

Should I pick alternate places that are nearby to Riva del Garda?

In general I like hiking, going to scenic places, greenery and don't mind walking around these historic places.

nytraveler

I fyou have 2 days AFTER the confrence does that include getting to whatever places you want to see? Does that include the day you are leaving Italy.

Two days is a short trip for 1 (ONE) location.

I would do Venice because of the proximity and the minimal loss of time getting somewhere.

You could try for Rome - ONLY ROME - but would need to look into the best way to get there quickly by train - or you could spend a good part of your time traveling.

What is the 300 euros supposed to cover? Train fare? 2 (or 3) nights hotel? Food? Local transit? Entrance to sights?

This is major budget travel - assuming you will take budget/often slow trains, stay in a hostel, be eating picnics and carefully selecting sights (look at the entrance fees of major sights online: combo ticket for colosseum and forum seems to be 16 euros)

mamcalice

Where are you flying home from? With only 2 days at your disposal, you won't want to travel far from your departure destination. All of the places you mention are fabulous destinations but you will have time for only one.

mvr

Thank you for the replies and sorry for the ambiguity in the question.

2 days -- I meant it for each place. I can spend total of 5-7 days including local sightseeing at Riva del Garda. If I take 2-3 for Riva del Garda, that leaves about 4 days for other places. I guess, it is best to visit 1-2 places in those 4 days. The estimate of 300 euros is meant for these entire 5-7 days.

I will check the entrance tickets and travel cost.

@mamcalice

I haven't booked the return ticket yet. I can book it from the place of the last destination, for eg. Rome.

vincenzo32951

I'm confused on how many days you have for sightseeing.

mvr

@vincenzo32951

2 days for Riva del Garda and 4 days for other places (yet to decide which is why I posted here). That is why I gave an estimate of 5-7 days in total for the sightseeing.

AlessandraZoe

Wooo, that is better, mvr.

Your train connections from Riva del Garda were not pretty at first glance, and I did not see how two days would work. I first did a quick look-up to get to cities close to you, and Venice and Milan are around 2 hours away by car, but more than 5 hours by train.

Tell us more about how you are getting to Riva first, if you don't mind. Are you flying IN to Milan and you are taking some shuttle or bus to Riva del Garda to start the trip? I ask because I don't think most of us are experts on Riva del Garda, but we're pretty good with knowledge about the other cities.

So if you don't mind, could you walk us through your confirmed plans so far?
When do you leave your starting point at home?
Where do you land?
How are you getting from that airport to your conference destination?
When does your conference start relative to your day/time of landing?

bobthenavigator

I would spend 4 days in Venice and fly home from there.

mvr

@AlessandraZoe,

Thanks .

I will be flying from Ohio, US to Verona. Catch a shuttle bus to Riva del Garda. The conference organizers advise is to land in either Verona, Milano or Venezia. Verona seems closest, so I picked that. Conference is from Oct 19-23. My plan is to arrive 2-3 days earlier than that and complete the sightseeing at Riva del Garda before the conference starts. Then, go to other place(s) for the next 4 days after the conference ends. Return ticket would be from the place of the final destination in Italy - yet to book it.

Renting a car is not feasible since I don't know how to drive manual transmission cars. I drive an auto transmission car in the US and I learnt driving on that only. I don't mind travelling 4-6 hrs by train/bus. In fact, I don't mind travelling overnight in train/bus, I am used to it.

Also, I thought of avoiding going to Venice since the Gondola trip seems expensive. From the internet search I did, it seems to cost around 80-100 euros -- that is way too expensive just for one ride. And this seems to be the primary attraction in Venice.

Mimar

So you have a one-way ticket from Ohio to Verona. Return ticket to be bought. It would be cheaper to buy an open-jaws ticket into Verona, out of Venice or Rome or wherever. This is like a round-trip ticket, but called multi-city on airline ticket web sites, and costs about the same as round-trip.

If you think riding in a gondola is the only thing to do in Venice, you know almost nothing about Venice, to me the most beautiful city in the world.

I think you should take the train to Rome and spend all your time there. There's lots to do there and you can concentrate your research on that one place. You do need to do some research, so you know what you want to see and do. Check out guidebooks from the public library, online resources like Fodors Destinations (on the upper left in the orange bar on this page), and videos on TV and at the library. You might like Rick Steves' books and videos; he's helpful at the basics like simplified maps, how to get around, locations of laundromats, etc.

If you buy your train ticket early, it's a lot cheaper. Rick Steves' web site has good information on this, also www.seat61.com. Don't buy from RailEurope (fewer options, mark up), buy from www.trenitalia.com. The train leaves from the south end of Lake Garda, from Desenzano so allow time to get there from Riva del Garda.

AlessandraZoe

MVR--Good, good, good.

And we NEVER rent a car, so don't worry. We go to Europe around 2-3 times a year, and trains, planes and buses (plus a taxi or two) do the job for us.

Well, if you are arriving in Verona, that's one area you can explore right off the bat even before you. Verona is gorgeous, and it's very underrated.

Problem is that you will be suffering from jet lag, so if you are like us one bit, you really can't make the most of the first day and actually remember it. But even if your flight lands awfully early, you can certainly do a drop-off luggage at a budget hotel, do some type of walking tour (self-guided or other), and hit the hay as soon as you need to do so. Then you can use the next day darn well.

How long do you think your total initial travel time would be? And what time will you land?

I'm also going to interrupt your thought process and tell you not to take Venice off the list quite yet. I agree it's an expensive city but there are lots of workarounds. And a gondola ride is the LAST thing I'd do in Venice. I've been there twice now--and in a way, I've been there three times now--and while I love watching the booking process for the gondola ride, I've never longed for one. Budget wise, you could cover most of Venice on foot without even buying a vaporetto ticket. However, I would not recommend foregoing a vaporetto ride because riding the Grand Canal is one of the greatest (and relatively cheapest) pleasures of European travel.

I just wish you had more time before the conference, because the routing between Verona and Venice would be a snap.

But onwards...

Let's just hear your landing plans.

oooo--and does the conference put you in travel lockdown from dawn until evening? That would help us help you.

AlessandraZoe

Excuse my writing, mvr. I've not been previewing my submission on this thread, and I'm going awfully fast.

mvr

@LucyStanmore, yes, sticking to one place seems best.

@Mimar, yes, I will be taking a multi-city ticket. I haven't actually purchased the one-way ticket to Verona, but planning to land there. True, I don't know about Venice or Italy. Thank you for the suggestion on Rome and the transport.


@AlessandraZoe, I haven't actually made the booking to Verona, but thats the plan. I guess I can try to pick a flight which lands in the morning in Verona, go around the city till evening and catch a shuttle bus to Riva del Garda.

During the conference, its like a working day -- sessions go from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. So, can only go around in the evening.

Looks like we shortened my initial list and also spending all the 4 days in one city seems to be preferred way. Let me throw the current options for that one city -- Venice, Florence, Rome.

By the way, is a trip to Leaning tower of Pisa worth it in the schedule that I have?

Thank you all.

AlessandraZoe

Well, heck, mvr, if you haven't booked yet, I'd just land in Venice! A bus to Piazzale Roma (the big land parking lot/bus depot before the waterway that becomes Venice) costs very little from Marco Polo Airport, and even with horrible jet lag, you could ride the Grand Canal on a 7 Euro ticket and get the drift of the place.

Even without 40 hours of sleep, you'd remember it and want to come back.

Depending on how you want to do things, you could just make your way East towards Verona by train from Venezia St. Lucia, plop there for a night and "absorb" that town.

You could do stuff around Riva del Garda every night after your conference at will.

Then you are free after the conference to start making your way towards Milan/Florence.

mvr

@AlessandraZoe,

Sorry, I should have mentioned earlier that the flight ticket is not booked yet. I think to visit some places in Riva del Garda, daytime is necessary. I think it would still make sense to stick to the 2 complete days there?

So, would you prefer Milan/Florence over Rome? What about the leaning tower in Pisa?

Is it preferable to book hostels, train tickets in advance to these cities? Will it be cheap that way?

AlessandraZoe

Trenitalia has a lot of cheapo tickets online, depending on when you book.

But you need to get an itinerary sketch first.

Again, though, I'm trying to talk you into dipping your foot into Venice before the conference, then heading on to the Riva del Garda. It's not hard.

You could land in Venice, get the bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma (6 Euros), buy ONE vaporetto ticket (7 Euros), get on a Line One vaporetto towards San Marco, look around at St Mark's Square, and then head your way back landside or splurge on another vaporetto ticket (7 Euros) and hop on the Venice St. Lucia train at the Ferrovia stop.

You'll snag some train at Venezia Mestre.

Then you are on your way.

I'd spend the night in Verona to break up the ride east and then head out at leisure to hit the Riva the next and you are go to go. That would still give you time to explore your conference area.

But if you want to skip Verona, just do that.

After the conference, I'd head to Milan (Last Supper) and then to Florence (all things art--The David alone is worth the going). If your heart is set on seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa--go for it. It's a short train ride from Florence. I know people say, "But it's so touristy" but we loved it.

You can also take buses to Siena and Lucca from there.

You can then fly out of Florence.

You'll then be determined to come back to Italy later.

At the time of year you are going, I don't think you'll have to book hostels ASAP, but then again, I'm not sure of Fall Break in universities and I could be totally wrong.

Trains, ah, might be a problem because a lot of older folk love to travel in Oct in Italy.

I will not be hurt if you reject my ideas!!

Sassafrass

AlessandraZoe is giving you wonderful advice. Decide first and buy multi-city ticket. IMHO, you do not have time for Pisa. To lay it out simply:

Day 1 (Oct 16) arrive Venice, sleep in Venice
Day 2 (Oct 17) explore Venice, very late afternoon, train to Verona, evening walk, sleep Verona
Day 3 (Oct 18) explore Verona a bit, train to Riva del Garda
Conference: Oct 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Day 9 (Oct 24) train directly to Rome, arrive late in the day.
Day 10, 11, 12 (Oct 25, 26, 27) explore Rome
Day 13 (Oct 28) fly home

That way you will have seen four places: two extremely unique and amazing cities - Venice and Rome - plus a Lake area and lovely Verona.

If you wanted to see another place without more actual travel, you could on the 24th stop in Florence for the night, do a bit of sight seeing the next day and head on to Rome late afternoon of the 25th. I would do that only if you have a real interest in Art and seeing David.

It does not give much time in Rome though, and you may not even have this much time. I am still not 100% clear on precisely how much time you do have.

As to Venice. I went to Venice the first time 40 years ago and have returned seven times. Absolutely no need to ride a gondola. Use the vaporetto or walk to get about. As to the gondola ride being the main thing - no, no, no - not even close to being the main thing. I like the gondolas and have been on them several times but save that for a romantic visit with a SO someday.

mvr

@AlessandraZoe and @Sassafrass,

Thank you very much for all the suggestions.

Sassafrass, you got the dates and itinerary right. I need to see if it is too hectic and may be cut down on a place. I think I will skip Florence and try to cover Venice and Rome. I will plan on catching the train to Rome from Riva del Garda in the late evening on Oct 23.

After I sort out the number of additional days that I can spend, I will post back with my schedule.

Thanks so much.

tuscanlifeedit

You don't really need any special time to see Riva del Garda. It's a pretty town but it doesn't offer the historic, archeological or artistic significance of any of the places you have on your list. If you are there, you're there, but taking an extra day or two out of your short time in Italy isn't a very good plan.

I spent my time in Riva swimming, boating and strolling. It was a nice two day relaxation break from sightseeing; I would not take any special time for the area. There are some sites to see around the lake but leaving yourself one extra day would seem to me to be the most I would take from such a short trip to Italy.

Venice to Verona to Riva del Garda to Florence OR Rome would be perfect.

mvr

@tuscanlifeedit, thank you for the suggestions. That looks good. If at all, I feel like spending more time in the day at Riva del Garda, then may be I can sneak out on one of the conference days