Our first trip to Italy was a tour and included all the important sights: Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice,Siena, San Marino, Como, Amalfi.... In November we plan to return to Rome and include Sicily - which we haven't seen yet. We're looking at the possibility of other towns in the north - maybe flying into Bologna, and visiting Parma, Modena and Piacenza. Are these good choices? Is it worth the visit?
Would the Cinque Terre be a better choice?
It depends on what you're interested in doing. The food in Bologna is amazing but there aren't a lot of typical sights to see.
It will be very quiet in the CT in November. It rains a bit there during that month, and will be a bit cooler than Rome, Amalfi.
Been to Bologna. We spent 3 nights there to visit Mondena, Verona, Ravenna. We got bored of Bologna, visited the towers, the Duomo, etc. Mostly just found a convenient hotel to the train station and used it as a jumping off point...so the CT would be better, but don't count on hiking that time of year, watch the weather.
Perhaps you should look into Lucca? That's a pretty city too!
I've been to Bologna twice and think its a great place, overlooked by many tourists. Its in the food capital of Italy so lots of good food. It is the site of one of the oldest universities in Europe, and has lots of history. Parma is a great place to walk around, they have a pedestrian-only downtown with of course great food (Parma ham, the cheese, etc). But only you can decide "if its worth it" because only you know what you're interested in seeing and doing.
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