Soliciting thoughts on Verona (Venice? Bologna?) trip
 

Hi all,

I was hoping to get some ideas on possible itineraries and help me focus my mind. We have jumped on a good fare BOS-CDG yesterday (reduced FF miles tickets on direct flights with minimal taxes for Oct 18-26), but I was thinking of using CDG primarily as a getaway to somewhere else this time. We have been in Paris several times (8 or 9, I think, although many of past trips very brief in nature). So I found a cheap and most importantly very well timed fare out of CDG to Verona (the idea was to leave CDG around noon, either via direct cheap flight or on TGV out of CDG). Now I am toying with a few possible itineraries and hope someone can share their experience and tell me what I am not thinking of.

1. Fly CDG to Verona, base in Verona for 6 days/5 nights, take day trips to Padua, Lago di Garda, wineries, Vicenza, Venice - not all of the above but some of the above, then take a direct night train from Verona to Gare de Lyon, arriving on the 25th and then flying back home on the 26th.

2. Fly CDG to Verona, stay a couple of nights, move to Venice for 3 nights, take night train to Gare de Lyon. We have been in Venice once, loved it, always happy to go back, main concern is losing time on checkout/checkin between cities on already a brief trip. Another open question is weather - how cool/wet is Venice at the end of October?

3. Fly CDG to Verona, stay a couple of nights, move to Bologna, stay 3 nights + day trip to Ravenna, take night train to Paris. Same concern wrt losing time moving hotels.The schedule for Thello direct night trains from Bologna does not extend to fall, so I am not sure if it means there won't be direct trains or Trenitalia hasn't published it yet. The schedule from Verona or Venice extend to mid September, so I feel more confident in being able to return via train from one of those cities.

4. Stay put in Paris for the duration, possibly taking small day trips out. I love Paris and can always spend more time there.

I toyed with the idea of heading to South of France out of CDG, but we were in Provence/Cote d"Azur in 2011 and in Italy last several more years ago. We have also been to Loire valley and Normandy on separate trips, and while these can be repeated, I hear the siren song of Italy stronger this time :) We loved the lakes (Como, Maggiore, Lugano) and haven't yet seen Garda. Interests include history, scenery, architecture, wine, food, art, roughly in that order.

Would you wise folks of Fodors have any thoughts to consider in this trip planning? I am presently leaning towards #1, not because I want to dedicate 6 days to Verona but to save time on moving and use it as a base to see many wonderful things around, but I am definitely open to ideas and suggestions.

Thank you!

(3) Bologna is a major train station with continuity so I'd stay there second.

I'd also look at Bologna as a bigger core to the holiday with Ferrara, Faenza etc all a train ride away it is a great base.

Do try Soave as well (the place is a walled city and it has a local wine tasting next to tourist info but offering experimental wines so you don't have to touch the usual soave rubbish)

We spent 9 nights in Verona last October with a car and had no trouble filling our days. We visiting different locations on Lake Garda as well as toured the Soave wine, reserving a tour and tasting at Ca'Rugate. Padua and Vincenza were short trips from Verona. Verona is a lovely city with friendly residents willing to help a lost tourist ;;) Deborah

Thank you both very much. Another question - we were not planning on renting a car (for any of the itineraries, and esp. if we were to move to Venice) this time, as it seemed that the train connections were plentiful, frequent and inexpensive. The hassle of picking up/dropping off, plus worrying about finding a hotel with parking didn't seem to be worth it with any of the locations I had in mind. For wine tasting tour, I was thinking of booking a small group tour instead of having a car rental.

Would we lose out much on experiencing this area if we don't rent a car, do you think?

Verona is a great base from which to travel to other places because it is on the main train lines going east west and north south. we visited Padua, Vicenza, and Trento as separate day trips from Verona using the train and had a wonderful time. leave time for Verona itself which is very interesting.

Pat

You don't need or want a car in the cities you mention. However, if you go to Lake Garda for a day or more, a car will be very useful if you have limited time. There are ferries that criss-cross the lake between the towns but compared to car speeds they are slower of course.

I'd hire the car to do a tour right round the lake, but depending on time, see Sirmione, Malcesine (for the cable car) and Riva del Garda. If you have time, see Bardolini and Limone.

Nothing against Lake Garda (we're in Desenzano for four days in August), but travelling in October would push me in the direction of staying in cities to provide better options on poor weather days.
Splitting your time equally between Verona and Venice would be my advice. Verona has plenty to offer for a few days and you have easy access by train in under 30 minutes to Lake Garda with a network of ferry routes that should allow you to explore Sirmione, Garda town and Bardolino in a single day.
Three days in Venice is never enough and if you get tired of the canalscape, you can take a trip out into the lagoon and take in Burano and Torcello.
And how about the Orient Express back to Paris.......

I would spend the whole time in Verona. Very easy to do day trips by train to most of the places mentioned including: Venice, Padua, Bologna, Lake Garda, Mantua, Ferrara, Vicenza. Obviously not time to do all of them, but choose the ones you are most interested in. For Lake Garda I took the train from Verona to Desanzano and the ferry over to Sirmione - it was a great day trip. I love Verona - such a beautiful city, the historical center is very walkable, and you can even walk from the center to the train station in about 15 min (or take a city bus). I agree that on a short trip I would rather just have the one base.

Here are my photos of the towns I mentioned:
http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/italy__the_veneto
http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/ital...s_cinque_terre
http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/italy_emilia_romagna

I'm going to agree with SeeDee on just about everything.

Garda in October might be nice, and it might not. I was there in September once when the weather turned a little wet. Wasn't pleasant. The Verona/Venice split seems like a good idea, and not too rushed. The train ride is short between the two, and you should be able to salvage a half-day in Venice on check-in day. Maybe what you should do is book a hotel near the train station to cut down on travel time to lodging. It's not the most desirable spot, but the city is small and you'll easily be able to make your way to the highlights. And then you'll have less hassle when taking the train out of Venice.

Of course, you're going to get people who say 3 days in Venice isn't enough. Well, it's better than 1 day or 2 days.

Thank you all for giving me further ideas to ponder. I started leaning towards basing in Verona for 5 nights, taking a train to Venice on the last day, and taking the night train from Venice back to Paris. 1 day in Venice is not much, but it's better than 0 days :) But still mulling over all the possible combinations. The problem is that all 3 cities (Verona/Venice/Bologna) are very appealing for different reasons and it's hard to commit to giving up any of them, although give up I must if I don't want to rush from hotel to hotel.

I tentatively booked a hotel in Verona for 5 nights half way between historic center and train station, for ease of access to both, but will modify if we decide to relocate for the last 2-3 days of the trip.

kasper, I remember when I was doing my research for Verona there was a half day tour that visited a winery or two near Verona. I'll try to search for the website but unfortuately I will not be home for a couple of weeks so don't have access to my notes.

I remember it was reasonably priced but we decided to tour on our own.

There might be a concert at the arena in Verona that you could attend. Adriano Celetano was in concert when we were there last year and that created all kinds of entertainment for visitors, even without tickets. There were local radio stations broadcasting in front of the arena. Great people watching and music. Deborah

Ooh, DeboraAnn, I'd love to hear Celentano - there was a complete Celentano craze (songs/movies) when I was a teen back in Soviet Union, and it would have been great to hear him live, even if many decades later ;)

I think I found the tour company you mentioned via TripAdvisor - looks like they do winery and lake tours, and maybe we will just combine the two if the timing works out. Thanks again.

I wanted to post a (belated) update - to thank for the suggestions and give a quick summary of the trip in case someone will find it useful down the line.

We ended up staying in Verona for 5 days, taking day trips out. We did not rent a car and used trains, bus and one guided tour, to do some wine tasting. The weather in Verona for most of our stay was cloudy/rainy, so we planned our day trips based on where it was sunny that day ;) Spent a sunny fall day in Venice, caught a bus to Sirmione on another day (the bus stop was right outside our B&B, on Corso Porta Nuova and the weather in Sirmione for the few hours we were there was glorious), spent a couple of days wandering lovely Verona and took an aforementioned wine tasting tour.

Since our US bound flight was from CDG, we decided to get to Paris a day before (2 nights before our flight). Since the EasyJet flight takes off from Verona in the late evening, on the last day in Verona, we took our bags to the train station, left them there and took a train to Padua. I surely wish we had more than half a day in that beautiful city but that was just about enough to meander to Basilica of St. Antonio with some stops on the way and then wander back to Scrovegni Chapel to catch a tour just in time for our train back to Verona. The flight to CDG was a quick, easy and cheap on EasyJet.

We stayed in B&B Arte Nel Centro which I can't recommend highly enough - beautiful and well appointed rooms, fantastic breakfast and extremely hospitable and helpful owners and staff.

We sadly did not have time for a few more day trips that we initially planned (Bologna, Vicenza and a few others) but that is only another reason to return to the region for another trip!

good to know, thanks for the feedback

Thanks for your update. So I take it you enjoyed Verona? I am debating a weekend trip there for my birthday and am a bit wary for one reason or another.

Sounds like a lovely visit to the Veneto. Wasn't the Scrovegni Chapel something?

I'd like to put in a quiet recommendation for Ravenna, next trip. The mosaics are really stunning. It's sort of out of the way, of course...

@eluckhardt, we absolutely loved Verona and would return in a heartbeat. There is plenty in the city to occupy one for a weekend or more. I then read David Blixt's The Master of the Verona on return, and enjoyed the trip all over, albeit now in my mind :)

@danlev - thank you. Yes, I have Ravenna in mind, but I was thinking it might become a side trip when we visit Bologna due to easier logistics. Scrovegni Chapel was indeed something. Wish we had more time inside - it was a rushed visit due to train scheduling but I am thankful even for an abbreviated one. I generally really liked Padua and would love to spend a few days based there on some other trip.

I wanted to add one last update to this thread. This year we went to Bologna and from there as a base, visited Ravenna (what an incredible gem!), Parma, Florence and an extremely short stop in Modena due to train snafu. Modena looked like a town I would like to get to know better. Except for Florence, it was amazingly uncrowded. The food was everything it promised to be. So I am glad we were able to split this two wonderful cities into 2 trips and even though a week in each is not enough to do them justice, with all the side tripping, it is enough to know that we will return!

Cool...

Another big fan of Verona here...can't wait to go back again (and again).