Venice in January?
 

My friend and I have had to postpone an October trip to Italy/Paris due to damage sustained in Hurricane Katrina. All hotels/airlines have kindly allowed us to cancel with no penalty.

We are still anxious to go and believe we'll be in good shape by January. We're first timers to Italy, have been to Paris before. Our itinerary was supposed to be:
4 nights Rome
3 nights Florence
2 nights Venice
fly to Paris for 5 nights.

I'm wondering if Venice is a good choice if we go in January? I hate to miss it, but if that's not a good time, we could spend 2 nights in Siena or another Tuscan town instead.

What do y'all think?

Personally, I would stick with what you have. Venice will be very cold probably (the dampness doesn't help), but it IS worth seeing and probably won't be packed with tourists. Of course, I wouldn't turn my nose up at extra days in Tuscany either--I consistently had the best food of my entire 2 weeks in Italy there.

Don't miss Venice!!!

I have a friend who lived in Italy for several years..Army.. and she claims the best time ever to go to Venice is in Jan! The light and the quiet ,she says, are quite remarkable and I am convinced that I must make a trip in Jan soon!

In Jan I would always pick a city - where much of what you want to do is indoors - rather than the countryside - which can be quite dreary in the middle of the winter. The small towns would still be interesting - but driving through a dark and dripping countryside can't be a lot of fun.

Well, I think that settles it. Venice stays on the itinerary. Thanks, all.