Please sign in to post.

Help on Itinerary

This is our first time to Italy and first time traveling overseas. My wife, myself and my 18 your old daughter are planning a 2 week trip in June 2008. We have relatives up around Milan and are hoping to visit them and that's why we thought this trip we'd focus more on Northern/Central Italy. We're also not as much into the musuems, churches, etc, but more want to experience the real Italy and the culture of the people. We plan on traveling by bus and train and staying in some of Rick's suggested hotels. Here's our itinerary, please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Fly into Milan
Varenna/Lake Como - 3 nights
Venice - 4 nights
Siena - 3 nights
Vernazza/Cinque Terre - 3 nights
Milan - 1 night and fly out next day

Posted by
1003 posts

3 nights in Siena seems like a lot. On my recent visit, I had seen enough after most of one day. What do you plan to do for that long? Use it as a base to travel throughout Tuscany? People do say it's great at night; I was there during the day but if it were my trip I would probably only spend one night there and the rest in Florence (and I am not a museum person either, I skipped the Uffizi) - my 5 nights there weren't enough. 4 nights in Venice was a good amount for me - it is a great place to just "experience." If it were my itinerary, I'd probably do: Como - 2 nights, Venice - 4, Siena - 1, Florence - 3 , Cinque Terre - 3 (or 2 and add another to Florence or Siena), Milan - 1. But that's just me, you have to tailor it to your interests. But on a first trip to Italy I think not spending at least a couple nights in Florence would be a shame, I just loved it there! You'll get as many different answers as people reply. Take it all in and then do what will make YOU happy :)

Posted by
6 posts

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we were thinking we'd use Siena as our home base and go see Florence, and maybe another hill town but also we were hoping to be there around for the Palio and experience that (I know that sounds crazy, but when in Rome, what the heck!)