Midnightsun

Jayneann: Here's an idea. Rent an apartment in a Tuscan hill town (look at www.invitationtotuscany.com for starters). It's easy to relax in such a setting. From there you can take day trips to Siena, Florence, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Pienza, or any of dozens of small Tuscan towns. Florence is wonderful, but it will be packed with tourists in the summer. The same will hold true for the destinations like San Gimignano and Siena, but the smaller towns are much more relaxing. Each town can take you anywhere from a half day to a whole day to explore, and the drives through the countryside are pleasant. You'll need a car, and if you fly into Rome, you can drive to central Tuscany from the airport in about 3.5 hours. If you rent through Hertz, make sure you have Gold Service before arriving; otherwise you'll wait in line for hours to get your car. Happy 5-0 to you both.

Jayneann

Thank you all for such valuable information! I THINK we have narrowed it down to Italy, so I'm going to have to do some investigating! I know we will definitely visit Venice.

How difficult is it to get around without knowing Italian? We will buy a CD and a phrase book and have over a year to practice, but still, tough for us at 50 to learn a language!!!

Again, thanks so much!!!
Jayne

docdan

I'm taking my family to Paris late March for 9 days and we were facing a similar quandry: Do we visit somewhere else? 1 2 or three other places? Got LOTS of advise from experienced travelers to make Paris a base and only plan on one other city for variety's sake. What other city? Irrelevant, just keep it to one. We arrived at Brugge, Belgium becuase it is accessable easily by train from pris and it is regarded as the "Venice of the North" I will post our experience when we get back in April.

adnil1962

Italy is a great choice. We were there last November for 10 days. We had no problem at all with the language.

We stayed in Sorrento for 3 days at the Excelsior Vittoria (central location, beautiful hotel, 1 minute walk to the ferry). From there we hit Capri, Pompeii and the Almafi Coast (with tour guide Marcello 39 338 338 18 28- we found out about him from posts on Fodors).

We then took a train to Rome and stayed at Hotel Hassler Rome - right at the top of the Spanish Steps.

We did the Scavi Tour (incredible - you have to get tickets about 30 days in advance).

Did a walk to all the major sights (Panthenon, Roman Forum, Collusium) with Bianca from Through Eternity - excellent English & incredible tour.

We also did a Vatican tour with John Boyden (also found on this site) - unbelievable tour - although he mentioned that he was moving back to the US so I am not sure if he is still there.

We then headed to Florence where we stayed at Helvetia Bristol (each hotel was better than the last).

We took 4 walking tours in a day (very tiring but we wanted to see everything): http://www.artviva.com
Florence in 1 day tour
David tour
Uffizi Gallery
Evening walk
These were all group tours (in the other cities we did private ones). All were great, good English speaking "fun" guides. The groups were small maybe 15 people.

We then rented a car (not recommended) and drove to Pisa, then to Siena and then through Tuscany - wish we had more time to explore the Tuscany region).

We then headed to Vienna and stayed at Locanda Oreseolo - this was by far the best (and cheapest) of the hotels. We felt like family, it was sad to leave.

In Vienna we didn't do any tours but we did go to a Vivaldi Concert recommended by the hotel staff, did a gondola ride, walked alot and took a trip over to see glass blowing.

It was alot to fit into 10 days, people said we were crazy, but we didn't know when we'd get back and wanted to fit alot in....

We had great hotels, food, the people were wonderful, great weather and all the sights/cities were great - we wouldn't leave out one thing (except maybe the car rental and drive to get out of Florence).

Have a great time!!
-Linda & John

adnil1962

To the Paris question - we also did Pasis, London & Amsterdam in 10 days - another whirlwind trip. If you want hotel/tour details drop me an e-mail.

socialworker

HI Jayne--altho we *had* been to Europe previously, we had never gone to Italy until our early 50s. It was wonderful and such a treat, that it was worth the wait. We went to Venice, some Tuscan hill towns and Rome in a 10 day trip and while it was not an exhaustive visit to any of the places, it was not exhausting either!! We broke ours down to 2 nights in Venice (altho b/c we arrived early afternoon and departed early afternoon, it seemed longer than 2 nights) 4 nights in a small town in Chianti w/a rental car for touring other towns and Siena, and then 4 nights in Rome. It was a lovely sampler, that made us eager for a future trip, but that did not leave us with any "Oh, if only we could have seen ___"!!

escargot

Jayneann: I found Italy one of the easiest countries to navigate language-wise. If they didn't speak english, and our minimal italian wasn't cutting it, pantomine and charades worked great - language was never a problem, as most places someone spoke english if not most people.

Also, I used the contatti language cassettes and liked them. i have them somewhere, i';ll see if i have the name right, it was five years ago our last trip there. I played them while I was in my car or working around the house and had enough phrases down by the time we left to feel comfortable and that I could make a 'good effort.' The people we met in Italy were so friendly and welcoming, we always want to go back.

And, b/c my husband can only take 3-4 weeks off in either march or august, we have spent the month of august in both italy and france and while we found a few things closed, most where we went were up and running and while it was summer, I didn't find the heat oppressive, but I don't know what you are used to.

I know people say it is best to avoid August, but if that's when you can go, don't not go b/c it is August. Quite likely, that is why we found it easier to find a rental apartment in Paris, and since you haven't been before, it is likely you will be wnating to visit attractions and areas that are up and running in the summer, rather than off the beaten path type of thing.

Dickscar

While I agree too many countries is a mistake, the distances are much shorter in Europe than in the USA. We were stationed in Germany and could get from Wiesbaden to Amsterdam in 6 hours and Switzerland or Paris in 5 1/2, You could see two big cities but no more if you only have 7-10 days. Don't spread yourself too thin or you'll both be exhausted.

Jayneann

Again, thanks for the posts! Adnil1962,socialworker and escargot, sounds like you all had great Italian vacations! Thanks for the info, especially about the private guides and language issues. I can see narrowing down places and sights is going to keep me busy over the next year, but I love planning so this is right up my alley!

FYI, my son is talking about doing a semester abroad in France, so I'm thinking that's when we'll do Paris, London and hopefully Amsterdam! Happy travels everyone!