Florence vs Milan

As someone who just visited Madrid and has visited Milano and Wein my advice is Firenze.
You will not like Milano.
I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the big cities (except for Roma as it was too crowded in November 2022).

Consider Bologna with day trips. Modena has the Ferrari museum.
We are making our 3rd visit (for 5 days) to Bologna this coming November.

FLORENCE BY FAR

We also were not big fans of Madrid, and we preferred Salzburg to Vienna. With that in mind, if I had to choose only one place it would be Florence. We thoroughly enjoyed our day trip to Cinque Terre, but since we have not been to Amalfi, I can's compare the two. If you do choose Milan, then I highly recommend a visit to The Last Supper. A reservation to see that needs to be made as soon as they become available, because they will sell out very quickly.

Florence!!!! By a mile. And in a landslide here, it seems.

Not gonna trash Milan, but based on your family/preferences, I’d definitely vote for Florence. It is not “too similar” to Rome except in the general sense of being a world class artistic treasure that will bowl you over.

Never been a fan of Milan and I’m a native of Florence, so you know where I would cast my vote. Also, coming from Rome, Florence is much closer to Milan and much smaller than Milan and Rome. In northern Italy, Venice would be better than Milan, but I don’t know if you have time to visit both Florence and Venice.

Since you don’t seem to like big cities, you might enjoy staying in Sorrento instead of Naples as a base. You can visit both Naples and the Amalfi Coast from there. Sorrento is well connected to Naples (and Pompeii) by Circumvesuviana commuter train (a bit over one hour away from Naples) and to the Amalfi Coast by bus. Sorrento is about half way between Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Definitely Florence. There are so many day trips you can take via public transportation such as Sienna, Lucca and Bologna. I also think you should consider staying in Sorrento. It’s a lovely town with good transportation options to the Amalfi coast, Capri and Pompeii. Naples is a large and busy city.

Hi Gina and welcome to the RS forums!

Ooof, given the your preferences, I'm sort of feeling between a rock and hard place. If you don't care for large, modern cities, I don't think you'll like Milan even though it does have some impressive historic attractions. I LOVED Florence but I'm also an art/architecture geek and fell head-over-heels for its riches of priceless Renaissance treasures. It is, however, a very museum-heavy city so if you don't care for those or her many wonderful old churches, I don't know if that one is right for you either. It is not anything like Rome, and it is a very good hub for any number of days trips but... That said, I'd definitely choose it over Milan.

Naples.... You do know that it is also a large very busy city? I guess I might ask why you've chosen that one for your base versus, say, Sorrento? I see some others are wondering that as well.

A couple of questions? When are you planning on doing this trip, and how many are in your family? One of your challenges may be choosing pastimes that appeal to your 4 year-old AND elder offspring. Depending on when you're planning to go, the Cinque Terre - which involves a healthy bit of a train trip from Florence - may be overrun, and trying to get all of you on/off local trains could be challenging. Your youngest may also not be up to managing the steep hiking trails, although he/she could probably manage the steep streets. It's different from the AC in that it's not as high-end/luxe as some AC locations (e.g. Positano) and is less spread out but offers little to do outside of hiking, walking around the very-small villages, and maybe some time on Monterosso's pebbly beach, if warm enough.

I'm surprised that Milan isn't getting more love. World's oldest shopping mall, cathedral with an incredible many pointed roof that you can go up and WALK on, fabulous clothes shopping, ancient trams, Lugano Switzerland and Locarno Switzerland just a few minutes away, Lake Como which has scenery to rival 5-Terre and Amalfi, and Lake Maggiore with its Borromean Islands and their incredible gardens just nearby too. Last Supper, too.

oh well... lots of museums in Florence but you don't want that

kids aged 4-20

I don't think we've bottomed that out yet. How many kiddoes? What is the spread? Is the 4 year old the outlier, or the 20 year old? What have the older kids got their hearts set on?

So. gang, is there a base on one of the lakes or other location that would provide the OP the desired scenery + some days trips? For instance, we day-tripped Varenna + Bellagio (Lake Como) from Bergamo; they could do the same in reverse. Milan wasn't a long train journey from Bergamo either. Not that I'm saying they should base there but you get the idea? Yes, time of year, number/ages of the family's offspring, and interests of the older one would help.

So you have kids and you don’t like big cities or museums and would rather be outside. Then I would skip Florence and Milan. Look at Lucca to do day trips to Pisa and Volterra (neat hilltop town) and back to Rome. The Cinque Terre is beautiful but extremely crowded, like wall to wall crowded. The only similarity I see to the Almalfi Coast is that they’re both by the sea.

I am with Nigel. The big problem is that Milan is an apple and Florence an orange. How to compare? Florence is certainly a lot more like Rome both for feel and buildings,etc. Loosely tend to think of Florence as a small Rome. Not so for Milan. It is a huge modern city with the 3rd or 4th largest cathedral in the world. There are a lot things unique to Milan. It just is not Florence or Rome. I would view Milan closer to Vienna and less so like Madrid so you will not like Milan. Stay in Florence or somewhere near to there. Florence is not the best base for the day trips you ID.

PS -- I think you got the idea that site seeing in Italy is either or. CT is very different from Amalfi coast -- but it does have some similarities. Take you time and plan on returning to see what you missed this time.

Florence. It’s a completely different feel from Rome.