poshwriter

Hi,

I have been reading a lot of your helpful posts regarding Italy. My new husband and I are going for our honeymoon, also, first time to Italy for us both.

We are flying into Rome on Sept 7th and leaving on Sept 17, also from Rome.

Originally we wanted to go to Rome, Venice, Florence and Capri. We were planning to rent a car and drive.

We are on a tight budget.

My questions are:
1. Is it more cost efficient to rent a car for the entire time or to take the train from one city to the next and possibly rent a car for the duration we are in Florence?
2. Where should we stay in the various cities? Hotel, B&B, farmhouse? Any specific suggestions? We would like to stay in a four or five star hotel, if we can afford it. Our budget is around 110 euros per night.
3. My husband is a huge car guy, does anyone know of any special and exclusive sites to see that are a bit more than just the Ferrari Museum?
4. Any suggestions on culinary places, sites, classes, etc?
5. How many days in each city? I don't want to make the mistake of trying to cram too many things into our short stay.

THANK YOU!!

doug_stallings

It's probably more cost-effective to skip the car entirely, and this particularly group of cities makes no sense with a car.

With gas being $7 a gallon (or perhaps more) and the requirement to purchase insurance, you pay a huge premium for a car-rental, which is only useful if you are going to actually explore Tuscany. YOu should also consider whether or not you can deal with a manual shift; automatics are not common and quite a bit more expensive than manuals in Europe.

You can easily take a bus from Florence to Siena, and you can take the train to a few hill towns from Rome. I'd go that route if you are on a budget.

SusanP

I agree, you don't want a car where you're going, and you won't have time to add driving around Tuscany to your itinerary. With 10 nights in Italy, I would limit it to 3 places. Venice and Capri are a long way from each other, so probably cut out one of those. You would have to be back in Rome the night before your flight out, so to minimize hotel changes, when you arrive in Rome go directly to your first destination, which I would make Venice. This makes the first day of traveling longer but means 3 hotels instead of 4.

Spend 3 nights in Venice, train to Florence, 3 nights there, train to Rome, 4 nights there. I doubt you can find a 4- or 5-star hotel for 110E. If you give your must-haves (location? elevator? private bath?), you will get plenty of suggestions. Or you could start by doing a search here for hotels (one search for each city) and you'll find lots of info.

Zerlina

As I count it, you have nine nights on the ground in Italy. You will, I think, have to drop at least one location.

There is absolutely no use having a car in any of your locations. You can't drive one in Venice; there are strict limitations to driving one in Florence or Rome; rental cars are not allowed on Capri. You will have to take trains.

Since you are arriving in and leaving from Rome, you will have to backtrack, wherever you go. I would suggest you leave out Capri, since it's south of Rome, while Florence and Venice are north. Stop in Florence, go on to Venice, return from Venice, or vice-versa.

There are hotels and B&Bs in the cities, but there are no farmhouses. If you want a country stay, you'll have to cut out one of the cities.

I'm afraid you'll have to forget about four or five-star hotels. Do you know many in the US that go for $150. a night? With that budget, I think you'd do best looking for B&Bs.

Early September is *highest* season for where you are planning to go. I'd suggest you start looking - and booking - as soon as possible. Try something like www.venere.com.

Try putting "cooking class Florence" or "cooking class Tuscany" into the search box. They are not inexpensive.

nytraveler

It's you honeymoon. slow down and realx a little. do 2 cities and train between them.. Take plenty of time for cafe-sitting, having a gelato and just walking around looking at the romantic fountains at night.

You don;t want to be getting up at 7 every days and rushing around to get her ot there - weddings are stressful enough - relax on teh vacation.

Girlspytravel

I would do the "Golden Triangle" Posh-Rome, Florence Venice and skip Capri. You can go out to the Lido while in Venice and catch some rays on the beach, if you want. What are your budget constraints, re hotel rooms? 200 Euro a night? The reason I ask is that you will be in Italy during the highest high season-Venice often has every single hotel room full during the period in September you will be there. I would go on venere.com, put in my dates, and see what room availability they have for your time period.

Sassafrass

Agree with everyone else: skip the car. SusanP's plan looks really good. I haven't stayed here and you would have a little short trip into Florence, but this place has gotten good reviews by several people, looks pretty and is in your price range, if it is available.
http://www.martellina-bb-florence.it