Allocating 25 days for a central/northern Italy trip during May

Hi, May's a beautiful time to travel in Italy, lucky you.

Given that you love people-watching and natural scenery I would give some thought to staying in one place in Tuscany and exploring from there - there is something beautiful about going back to the same cafe for your morning Cappuccino every day for a week that will give you something that changing place all the time might not.

I would recommend Casole d'Elsa as a good central Tuscan village - and maybe somewhere like Orvieto - or even Tuoro or Perugia for Umbra/Tuscany.

In Central Tuscany, starting from the south, I would visit:

Pitigliano - Etruscan hilltop village carved on tufa outcrop - also has the oldest synagogue in - errm, don't quite know, but in the area for sure.

Abbadia San Salvatore - for the 9th century crypt built by the Lombards

Bagno Vignoni for the hot thermal springs - and Rocca d'Orcia or Castiglione d'Orcia too

Left to Montalcino - and coffee in the Fiaschetteria...

Below Siena cut west to Murlo - the old, little one. It has an Etruscan museum with a great figurine of an Etruscan with a cowboy hat.

Then Siena - plenty to see! - and on past Monteriggioni, west again to Casole d'Elsa, then past Poggibonsi to San Gimignano. Near San Gimignano visit Castelvecchio, an old village abandoned after the plague, 1348. On to Volterra - see the theatre and the Museo Guarnacci - up to Pisa, Lucca, Pietrasanta (for the sculptors) then up the coast towards Sarzana.

I'd stay in Lerici or Tellaro and go the Cinque Terre from there - they're crowded for my taste...

If in this itinerary you use Casole (or similar) as a base, nothing is over 2 hours away (except for the cinque terre) so you could set off each day and then return. And Florence of course - and Chianti....

Have a great time!

That's a very nice itinerary. Of course there are tons of things within that region that you will miss but you can only do so much in 25 days. While I think you have a reasonable amount of time in each place, you don't have enough to start adding in other places. You basically have two choices - keep to your itinerary and "sample" each place, or cut out half or more of the places and add in other places closer to the ones you are going to. For example, yes your are missing some great destinations between Verona and Venice (such as Vicenza, Padua, Ferrara, Mantua, Trevisio, etc,) But to visit them you'd need to cut out Cinque Terre and Lake como (for example). Either approach is fine, just don't try to add in a bunch more places in the same amount of time.

Definitely take trains between all those places. I can't think of any reason why you would use a "hotel-to-hotel car service" unless you have health/mobility issues.

I have photos of all those places here: https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f739967755

Dan, the OP intends to use trains (with the occasional car service) to get around. I think a number of the locations you've listed are not on rail lines?

packcal72, most of your locations - Montepulciano is the exception - are serviced by train so I'd use rail for your transfers. One other exception might be Siena> Florence: the bus station is more convenient to the city than the train station, although you could grab a cab from hotel to train station.

This is a really good plan and quite similar to one that we followed several years ago. To eliminate some logistics we rented a car in Orvieto and spent 5 nights in an Agritourismo near Civita di Bagnoregio. That allowed us to visit many of the areas in Tuscany and Umbria that are easily reachable.
Tarquinia gets overlooked, probably due to the challenge of getting there without a car.

I rather think I would give a day to Lucca (esp. Piazza dell'Anfiteatro) - taken from Florence - on the way to CT and the coast.

I see two things worth considering:

• There are an awful lot of 2-night stops. I hate those, but perhaps you've moved at that pace before and know you are fine with it.

• It appears you won't have a lot of time at Lake Como. Unless you are willing to rise really, really early and take a 7:24 AM train, it looks like you will not reach Varenna-Esino until nearly 2:30 PM. By the time you get settled in your new hotel, you will have much less than 1-1/2 days to see what the lake has to offer. I'd be tempted to drop the stop in Montepulciano and see it from Siena; that would eliminate one of the 2-night stops (and a hotel change) and give you more time at the lake. You could add both nights to Varenna or one to Varenna and one somewhere else (Siena? Venice?)

I do like both Padua and Vicenza, but as has already been pointed out, you have enough destinations to fill your time. I think adding more will not improve your trip.

You have listed 25 "days", but many more nights would be needed to give you full 2-day or 3-day stops in this many places. You have listed 8 places so you will lose 8 half days packing, traveling, checking in.... Maybe try breaking your days down into AM, PM and Evening slots and figuring out how long it takes for each change.

Rome-5 days - 6 nights?

Find a central location with day trips for "Orvieto, Umbria-2 days; Montepulcino, Tuscany- 2 days; Siena, Tuscany- 3 days - 8 nights?

Florence- 4 days - 5 nights?

Vernazza, Cinque Terre- 2 days - 3 nights? to actually enjoy the CT

Varenna, Lake Como, Lombardy (MIlan?) -2 days - 3 nights - Not nearly enough time given distances

Maybe a central location like Verona with day trips, Veneto-2 days; Venice-3 days - 6 nights? - Again a real rush.

Too much travel time. Travel time is wasted time. We are rail fans (we never rent cars), but sometimes it takes longer than you expect.

1. Set a 3-night minimum. (We have found a dramatic difference between 2 and 3 nights.)
2. Forget the Cinque Terra as it is GU. (I did love our time there, but we spent 4 nights.)
3. Consider Treviso instead of Venezia. (We loved it. I am not a fan of Venezia and its crowds.)

Thanks everyone. Very helpful. I take your points about too many 2-night stops, of which we have currently have these five:
Orvieto, Umbria-2
Montepulcino, Tuscany- 2
Vernazza, Cinque Terre-2
Varenna, Lake Como, Lombardy-2
Verona, Veneto-2

Keeping in mind our interests, which are:
Enjoying natural scenery;
UNESCO World Heritage sites;
Local culture and museums;
Old town squares- coffee, beer, wine- people watching;
Walking around old town Europe;
Sample the region’s local food & wine:
Avoiding overly crowded conditions, which might not be possible.

Which of the five 2-night stops should we consider dropping?

Orvieto, Umbria-2
Montepulcino, Tuscany- 2
Vernazza, Cinque Terre-2
Varenna, Lake Como, Lombardy-2
Verona, Veneto-2

Keeping in mind our interests, which are: Enjoying natural scenery;
UNESCO World Heritage sites; Local culture and museums; Old town
squares- coffee, beer, wine- people watching; Walking around old town
Europe; Sample the region’s local food & wine: Avoiding overly crowded
conditions, which might not be possible.

Which of the five 2-night stops should we consider dropping?

I would drop Verona and Orvieto. That gives you back 4 nights to play with.

Add a night to Rome (6 total) and day trip to Orvieto if you like.

Add a night to Venice (4 total) and day trip to Verona if you like. Or you may decide the Venice vibe is what you need and use the time to tour the Laguna Islands.

Add a night to Vernazza (3 total). It is kind of far and slow-going to get to the Cinque Terre and weather is not always cooperative so 3 nights ensures a less-rushed experience and the chance to see all of the villages as well as maybe go to PortoVenere by boat. It's lovely.

Add a night to Montepulciano (3 total). There is a train station outside of town so you can day trip or just enjoy the environs and slow down a bit.

Appreciate the good advice. Working on some consolidation.

Anyone else have input on the allocation of our 25 days?
Thanks all.

Again, consider a 5 night stay in one place that you can use to explore Umbria and Tuscany from with a car. We used Bagnoregio as a base and were able to enjoy trips to many of the places you list for overnight stays without having to constantly pack and move. I would also consider trimming Florence to 2 nights. It is not one of our favorite places.