Hi fodors folks! My fiancé and I have decided on Italy for our June/July honeymoon for 3-4 weeks.

Originally we were set on sicily, Rome and Tuscany, but now I've been curious about puglia, Umbria and some less-visited areas. I have been to Florence, Siena and Venice but never south of there. My fiancé has never been to italy at all. Rome and Florence are a must on this trip, at least for a few days of museums. Other than that I just want to relax and take in as much of the local culture and food and wine as possible. I guess we just want some insider advice about what areas will best fit what we want. I keep going back and forth between traveling around that whole time (would see more things, but soak less in) or just renting an apartment in some village for the entire time and eating delicious food and practicing our italian. Everywhere in italy looks so amazing that I want to see it all...but then again when you try to see too much, you don't really see anything at all and you end up exhausted. Any suggestions? Should/could we visit sicily, puglia, Rome, Umbria and Tuscany? Or best to cut one or a couple of places out of the trip?

Here is some info about what we are looking for:

We want to go for as long as possible, which means spending less $ per day.
We are undecided about having a car..seems expensive but maybe much easier to have one for getting around. (Or maybe a hassle having one?)
We have done a lot of traveling and living abroad so up for adventure.
We want delicious, local food and wine, small towns (except for Rome, Florence) scenery, maybe some beaches, and less touristy areas.
We are learning italian so going to places where they speak little English is more exciting than intimidating.

Thanks in advance!!

We lived in Bologna for a while. It's a beautiful city and the historic centre is relatively small so most places are walkable once you've found your away around.

You can certainly get to Milan, Florence and Rome by train. We had a car so you'd have to check train schedules regarding the following but they're certainly within easy driving distance: Vicenza (birthplace of Palladian architecture), Verona, Parma, Modena. Although I didn't visit at the time, I've an idea that Venice was within reach - again, you'd have to check.

There's a huge park at Cassalechio de Reno (approx 20 mins away on the number 20 bus). Buy your tickets from a "tabaccaio" and get them date punched in the yellow box on board. The park starts out like any conventional park but melds into the real countryside and goes on for miles.

I don't know the south so am unable to compare and contrast!

Enjoy your trip, whatever you decide to do.

Put a stake in the ground---you are shot gunning!

Is it 3 or 4 weeks---big difference?
Sicily and Puglia will take 3 weeks to see well.

Rome, Tuscamy, a

Sorry, big thumb !

Rome, Tuscany and Umbria will take 3 weeks as well.

Either of those itineraries will demand a car for most of the time.

You need to make some basic decisions first.

I had a similar question when planning my trip (may 2014) we could not decide between north and south, we decided on both! but we only have 11 days, 2 days in venice, 3 days around amalfi coast, and 5 days in rome with a day trip to florence one of those days. You have 3-4 weeks! it seems like you will have time to see alot, start in the north and end in the south? Car travel was something we thought about as well, but seemed a little stressful and the thought of getting lost and losing time didnt seem worth it.

I wish I had such a problem: filling 3-4 weeks!
You could start with a week of Florence + Rome, then rent a car for a week in Umbria or Tuscany and a week in Puglia. The hardest part will be narrowing down your list, as you have already discovered. I would hold off on Sicily, unless you decide to prioritize it over the others and fly there for 2 weeks.

The more you know Italy, the more you realize that the South is very different from the North. Dialect, mealtimes, tipping, price level, standard of life, public transport offer,almost everything differs.
Early July is still low season in South Italian places which are not popular with tourists from Northern Europe, whereas Northern Italy has already high season.

Sicily is fascinating if you like well preserved Greek temples and theatres, Norman and Arab buildings, Byzantine mosaics (similar to those at San Marco in Venice), entirely baroque towns (like Noto, Ragusa, Modica) and all kind of beaches, from a small cove in a National Park like Zingara Parke that you can only reach on foot up to the big beach organized all'Italiana).
As said above, I don't hink that you will find crowds there in early July, except at the famous tourist places of Taormina, Lipari, Vulcano and in some tourist ghettos like Sciaccamare.

The Islands around Sicily (Strombili, Panarea, Salina, Vulcano, Lipari, Ustica, Favignana, Marettimo, Linosa, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, etc.) offer neither cultural sites nor big beaches, but are fascinating neverteless.

neckervd-
so would you go to Puglia and Sicily or just one of the two? We have to hit up rome and tuscany for at least a week, so that leaves us with 2 weeks to explore the south. Money is an issue and from everything i have read, the south is way more affordable. We can go back to Italy and do a trip more focused on the north later in life when we have more $.
I know nothing about Umbria, but it looks beautiful and there are cheap apartments there in Perugia.

Well if you want to extend your cash and meet interesting people you can do no worse than Puglia. I've been two times, once on a bicycling holiday and once to get married. On both occasions the food, the wine and lovely people made it for me.

I'd look at Puglia in two to three chunks, both in terms of geography but also in terms of type of holiday.

Firstly you have to stay on a Masseria, give yourself over to being fed all the time, lying by a sun heated pool, walking in olive groves and scratching donkey's ears. If you follow my name back you can see which one we used but the range and quality of these types of farm house based holidays is immense

Secondly You need to visit some history ranging from Greek temples (just over in Basilicata), Holy Roman Empire buildings, Norman keeps and Baroque stone cities all the way from Gravina to Ostuni which suggests you need to stay in a city or large town (say Lecce)

Finally you need to stay in a cliff hotel, often built into grottos by the sea these have to be enjoyed and out of season you should get a good price.

You can rent a villa for not a lot but then you end up spending your time hunting down food and cooking.

You don't need a car for all these breaks, but I'd arrange to have one for at least 2 out the 3 centres. The trains are good and the buses run on time. Tourist Information in Italy is pretty poor, but the town websites are very affective and the the bus companies may try to hide but if you focus on town sites and airport sites you can get all the planning info you need.

Getting to Puglia from Rome is dead easy as El Italia bankrupts itself to fly you there from Rome at dead cheap prices.

There are a bunch of people you might want to entertain you, Fodors have a good guide for Matera if you search far enough and if you would like to improve your Italian, paint or learn to cook Italian food in a fun enviroment contact Ylenia at yltour (find her on facebook) based in Lecce but operating all over the heel. She is just one hugable human and her rates are very competitive.

To save money, the fewer times you change residence, the better.

Apartments should save you money and if you base yourself right, you'll be able to make some great day trips and return to your base residence to sleep.

Other less expensive lodging would include hostels and monasteries/convents. Those, though, probably only in the larger cities. Most certainly, Florence/Venice/Rome will all have options for those accommodations.

Here is a link for monastery/convent stays: http://www.monasterystays.com/ Note that some have curfews. You won't find phones/TV's/wifi- but for the price, you do get a nice clean bed and a bathroom w shower or tub.

I'm sure someone here can recommend a hostel website, or check your guidebook(s).

To save money, you can download for free Rick Steves Europe. He has free walking tours for dozens of sites in Italy. I love his app on my Iphone!

Buon viaggio!

Hi L,

With a month you <i>can</i> see it all.

I'd fly into Venice 4 nights, train to Florence for 5 nights, train to Rome for 4-5 nights.

You can be the guide for your new hubby.

Train to Naples, 3 nights - visit the AC, 3 nights rent a car and visit the South.

Fly home from Naples.

Enjoy your visit.