Has anyone attended Festa Italia in Newport? My husband is Italian and we are wondering if it's worth planning our October trip to New England around it.

Also, we could take take a long weekend off for this trip. Is it too ambitious to see Boston, Providence/Newport all in four days?

Don't know about the Festa Italia, but you can definitely do those places in 4 days. 2 Days in Boston, a day in Newport, half a day in Providence will be fine. It's only 1.5 hr drive from Boston to Newport. Just under an hour Boston-Providence.

For me, that would be trying to see too many places in too short a time. but I like to get to know a place a little.

Come to Milwaukee some July for our Festa Italiana, which I've read is the largest Italian Festival in the US.

All three in four days seems ambitious. For example, your day in Newport might be half spent at the festival and half spent at one mansion/Cliff Walk, leaving little to no time to walk around the waterfront, or go for a bay tour, etc. I don't know much about the festival itself, but from what I know about some of the other similar events in the fall at Newport (Boat Show, Octoberfest) I am not sure they are large enough to be the centerpeice of a week-long vacation.

Such a bummer that we could only do a long weekend, I knew that it would take a week to get to know the towns better. I'll surf the web a bit more to find out about the festival then. Thanks for your input!