Best of Italy 17 days 10-4-23

What a great time you will have! I just did BOI this fall in about the same time frame you did. Here is a link to my TR if you are interested.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/best-of-italy-sept-30-october-16-2022

IF you have extra time to add, I'd plan to spend at least 2 nights in Milan. The highlights for me on the full day was getting in to the Last Supper and doing the Duomo from the rooftop to the excavation under the front steps, hahaha! I have a fear of heights but I was highly motivated to see the roof area and it was fine as I could stay well back from the edge.

At the end I'd recommend at least one more night in Rome. On that full day I got a timed entry/English tour of Nero's Palace (Aurea Domus) which has been buried under feet of rubble for ages and then in the afternoon I went to the Borghese Gallery. There is plenty to do for another full day as well, just depends on your interests and time available.

If you can go up to Varenna the day before that will make it less stressful on the day the tour starts. I went up 2 nights before and stayed in the tour hotel. I splurged and got the balcony room with a view and in retrospect I'd probably see if I could stay in the same room and just pay the extra, lol. It was wonderful. Tour rooms were fine, just smaller and no view.

I also recommend you do some research on what you want to do in the bigger cities on your free afternoon.

For Venice, since I'd been there before I skipped the walking tour and got a timed entry to St Marks, did the Secret Itineraries tour of the Doge's Palace and found my way to a small museum that has 2 paintings by my favorite Venetian painter, Canaletto. Your needs might be different.

For Florence I wanted to see the Church of Santa Croce which is where Galilleo and Michelangelo are buried. I meant to get to the Medici Chapels in Basilica San Lorenzo which was just steps from the hotel but I ran out of time, lol.

In Rome I also added the Capitoline Museum.

It was still quite hot this Fall and I was glad I took 2 pr of capris. I only wore the long pants on my flight days. I did impulse buy a lightweight waterproof Columbia jacket in the summer and took it instead of my usual heavier waterproof jacket. I needed it a couple of days. In the end I wound up leaving out my umbrella as I was trying to pack really light BUT I wound up buying one in Varenna. We had a downpour when leaving Monterosso al Mare so since I had my rain jacket on I loaned my umbrella to another tour member as she'd left her rain jacket on the bus.

If next summer is anything like this summer, I'd try to pack light and carry on to avoid any lost luggage issues. No one on my tour had any delayed luggage but it can happen. Since I know there are no direct flights from Phoenix to Milan, hahaha, make sure you give yourselves enough time at your transit airports. I gave myself 3+ hours in Paris and that was a good amount of time.

This is really MORE than you wanted to know...must have had too much coffee this AM or I'm just avoiding the inevitable shoveling of snow, haha!

Hi Ken & Elaine,
You may want to remove your full name and location from your post. This forum is open to the entire internet and you've indicated when you will be away. We did this tour and loved it.