Great Post - newbie needs help though updat please respond

Hi Kay - as you are still in the palnning stage, may I suggest you take a few days in Paris - I was there last September and 7 days were not enough - just a thought. Happy Travels!

Kay, How wonderful you are beginning to plan your trip. By starting so early you will really feel you have a grasp of where you are going by the time you board the plane. I would suggest you scroll down this page to the "Help with itinerary planning and travel times" post by Kent. It's in bold type. Read it and refine your questions based on his suggestions and the answers you receive will be much more helpful to you. Happy planning!

I don't understand the title. Which post is great? I don't want to miss it!

Kay,

It's great that you're getting an early start on your planning. That will provide lots of time to work out the details.

To begin with, I'd suggest reading Europe Through The Back Door as that will provide you with lots of information on things like Itinerary planning, rail skills, money issues, languages, etc. It's an excellent pre-read before travelling to Europe!

I'd recommend open-jaw flights for best efficiency. Also, as you indicated you'd be visiting Switzerland and France on your trip, it would be more efficient to see those on the way from Paris to Italy. One possibility would be to fly to Paris and return home from Frankfurt (both have good availability of flights).

You might find it helpful to download the free PDF Rail Guide from this website (click the "Railpasses" tab at the top).

Don't be too concerned about which trains to use and the travel times until you get your Itinerary somewhat finalized.

Finally, could you provide a bit of further information on the types of sights you want to see on the trip and other particulars? Why is it important to see Turin on a Monday?

Good luck with your planning!

Kay -

Not sure you understand, (from your comment), but you DO know that you cannot actuually "see" the shroud when in Turin?

Definitely get a good guide book to locate exactly where the Last Supper is located. Because of the damage inflicted on that area of Milan during WWII, it is now in the middle of a maze of similar-looking buildings, so it requires a bit of walking, unless you take a guided tour or a taxi to get there.

I would fly into Milan. where train connections are very easy to get to all of the places you want to see.

As for lodging, well, it really deponds on what you like. All of those accommodations should work for you.

Almost forgot to mention that you need to reserve the time ahead of your visit to see the Last Supper.