My daughter, my father(who's originally from Calabria) and myself are going to travel to Italy mid-Oct for approx six weeks. I have been told that must sees are Venice, Rome, Florence, and Amalfi coast. We want to do about 2-3 weeks of travel and then spend 3-4 weeks in appt or BB where we can enjoy the everyday life of the Italians. For the longer stay, we want to go to markets do our own cooking and enjoy the town. All of us enjoy the opera, baroque, classical, and traditional music and would love to take in some musical events. Any suggestions of a plan of attack and must sees would be helpful.
Since your father is from Calabria, are you interested in spending part of your trip there?
I agree, spend some time in Calabria. Sicilia, Puglia, Basilicata are good choices, too, but for several weeks in one place I would choose a larger city, like Roma, Firenze or Bologna.
Thank you for your help. We will for sure visit Calabria. It seems like the weather is nicer there in Oct then some other places We are not wanting to rent a car, as we do not feel comfortable driving, so are the bus and trains easy to get around with?.
The train system is really great. Check out the trenitalia.com site to get a sense of schedules between your desired destinations.
Zoe took the words right out of my mouth!
A couple of things I should mention about using the trenitalia website: the schedule is changed sometime in June, so if you search for October schedules now, you won't see anything. Instead, search for, say, a couple of days from now - the schedule won't change much, and you'll still get a good idea of what's available. Also, you need to put in an early morning time - otherwise, you only see departures from whatever time you're searching, on.