Help Planning Italian Honeymoon!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/venice-lake-como-sorrento-amalfi-coast-with-lots-of-rain

We just returned from Italy, so hopefully my Trip Report has some useful info. We didn't do Rome this time.

Europe is very busy this summer, and lodging in short supply, so it's advisable to get an itinerary and book lodging asap.
I assume you have the RS guide books, have watched the RS videos, and reviewed the last several months threads under the Italy section here. There's a wealth of info already here.

You haven't mentioned budget, travels style, interests, if you have been to Italy before.

Good luck planning!

Congratulations! Everywhere in Italy is great, so the only challenge is stuffing too much into a trip. I'll be honest though--August has its challenges--intense heat, Europeans on vacation, etc. So, what I would strongly suggest is picking one place that is not fully on the most-popular circuit to enjoy for at least a few days. It could be in the mountains or just somewhere you don't see mentioned as often--every region in Italy has something to offer. I would for sure need a respite from intensive sightseeing with crowds, so grab a comprehensive Italy guide book and pick a "wild card" to round out your trip. I also firmly believe you do not have to see Rome-Florence-and Venice just because this is your first trip. I'd also think twice about the Amalfi Coast because it is absolutely slammed. Save it for another anniversary and go when you can travel outside of August--most places are already booked there for this August.

Hi!
What a lovely plan! I would be inclined towards landing in Milan and leaving from Rome, in the hope for slightly cooler weather later in Aug/early in Sep.
If you have 20 nights or so, your route could look like this:

• Lake Como 2-3 nights. Mostly R&R. Easy access from Milan airports.
• Venice 3n. Stop in Milan for a few hours if you want.
• Florence 4n. Can include day trip to Siena or Pisa.
• Amalfi Coast 2-3n. Relax.
• Naples 2-3n. Tour Pompeii or Herculaneum from there.
• Rome 5 or more. There is a lot to do there.

Naples and the Amalfi Coast look close to each other on a map, but you cannot satisfactorily visit one from the other. Hence my suggestion to stay in both.

Thank you everyone for such helpful advice!!!

I just ordered the guide book, waiting on the delivery tomorrow!

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary!
I agree with all of the above. Your biggest challenges will be heat, crowds and time.
If you can add some days always go with the longer trip.
I am going to assume 20 nights- if you count your tip in nights you’ll have a better feel for how the itinerary flows.
Avoid 1 and 2 nights stays. Every time you move location you lose at least half a day. Sometimes 2 nights is really all you need in a smaller but do avoid as possible.

Have you determined your best flight option? Look for “multi-city”, “open jaw” fly IN to one city, out of another to elimnate backtracking.
Often best flights are in/out of Rome and/or Milan.
Do you have a great interest in Milan? Last Supper and Duomo are worth it but otherwise I think Milan is skippable - assuming no specific interest on your part. You’d have to be willing to commit time/effort to getting tix for last Supper- they sell out fast and early.

OK minimum stays in my opinion
Milan 1 or 2
Lake Como 2 or 3
Venice 3
Florence 3 add a night for every planned day trip
Rome 4- 5 is better
Amalfi/Naples 4 or 5- it takes time and effort to get to and from

If you can fly into Milan, out of Naples
Lake Como- 3 nights
Venice 3 nights
Florence 3 nights
Rome 5
Amalfi/Naples 5

That’s 19 nights- add to Rome or Venice
Entire itinerary easily done by train although you might want/need a private drive in Amalfi.

If you skip Milan and would consider renting a car for a few days- fly IN to Venice, OUT of Rome or Naples

Fly into Venice- easier to fly in than out of and perfect place to get over jet lag
Venice 3 nights
Florence 3 nights
Pick up car- Tuscany hill town of choice- 4 or 5 nights- this is a honeymoon after all!
Drop car Chiusi or Orvieto
Train to Amalfi Coast- 4 nights
Train to Rome- 5 nights

That’s 19 or 20

OR if you don’t want to rent a car
Venice 4
Florence 4 or 5 w/ 1 or 2 day trips
Train all the way to Amalfi
Amalfi town of choice- Sorrento- although not ON the coast makes a good base and with this year’s transportation problems in the area makes good sense
Sorrento 5 or 6 nights - day trip to Naples unless you really want more time there
Train to Rome 4 nights
Fly home from Rome

Skipping Amalfi- again due to crowding/lack of accomodations, difficult transportation

Fly in to Milan
Lake Como 3- also good place to get over jet lag
Venice 3
Florence 3
Tuscany hill town- with car- 4
Rome 5 or 6- you can never have enough time in Rome and if Pompeii is important you can day trip- brutal but doable.
Fly home from Rome

Anyway lots of combinations.
Leave your departure city for last so you don’t backtrack or split stay.

You might also consider the Dolomites instead of AC region.

I just ordered the guide book, waiting on the delivery tomorrow!

Excellent!

Just be aware that his suggested itineraries are very fast paced- most here agree. He suggests a LOT of 1 and 2 night stays. That's very fast paced.
A 2 night stay really equals just 1.5 days in that location.

example here:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/itinerary

I'd cross out Milan and the Amalfi Coast, and figure out exactly how many nights on the ground you'll actually have. Fly into one city and out of another- open jaw- so no backtracking. If you could push this later into Sept., and out of August, the heat MIGHT be better. You will have crowds in the cities- do you deal well with that?
Travel by train, no cars, carry- on luggage only.
Again, have you been to Europe before?
Have fun planning.

You might check your local library or Passport on PBS and view the Rick Steves' travel DVDs. You could do but with travel, checking in and out of hotels, etc., you are only looking at a couple of days per site. I would cut the list in half so that you can really enjoy each site. Maybe into Rome, Florence, Venice, and come home from Milan. I would save Naples and Amalfi Coast for another trip. For the major cities use the train. Cheap and convenient.

Fly into Milan and out from Rome as already suggested.

Spend your arrival night and one more in Milan, rather than making it a stop on your way between Lake Como. Stashing luggage for a few hours of sightseeing en route between two destinations, as is sometimes recommended by RS, is a time-consuming and stressful exercise in these days of crowded trains and train stations. With a full day in Milan after your flight, you can (a) sleep in til 9 or so, which we find helps with recovery from travel fatigue and jet lag, the (b) have a relatively relaxed day visiting the one or two sites you wish to see there.

Hopefully that will include the Duomo, particularly the rooftop which is amazing. We like to take the steps up rather than the elevator. For the Last Supper, if that is on your list, read up on how to reserve tickets and be ready to jump the day they are released for your preferred day and time. Also take some time strolling around the area of the Duomo and the Galleria. A hotel near the Duomo will facilitate this. There are several nice ones, including Gran Duca di York, and Spadari al Duomo.

A taxi to the Milano Centrale train station from this area cost us about 10€.

Then head to Lago di Como (Varenna? Bellagio?) For 3 nights. Note that train service to Varenna is currently disrupted by a landslide, but that should be fixed by the time of your visit. Trenitalia is showing a normal, schedule by mid-June.

With regret, I will recommend skipping Venice. It is our favorite city in Italy——we spent out own honeymoon there (April 2003) and returned later to spend a whole month (October 2013). But I would never go in the height of summer, particularly not in August. Too hot and humid, and way too crowded.

You can watch Rick's TV shows right on this very website:

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show. Click on the "+" sign on the "Italy" line.

Be aware that it has become nightmarishly difficult to get tickets to both the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums this year. If you want to see the Borghese Gallery (also in Rome), that's probably more doable but will call for online purchase as soon as you have your dates in Rome firmed up.

You'd be smart to skim back through the Italy forum here to see what topics have been addressed in the last few months, then read the appropriate threads. That will give you up-to-date information.

Consider whether you want to rent a car and drive or not - that has a big influence on where you go.

We did rent, driving can be stressful and not easy at times, but you get to access areas with far fewer people. We ended up with an unplanned private wine tasting because nobody else was at the winery, one of my favorite highlights from the trip.

Ahhh! You all are rock stars.

Okay so I read through everyone’s advice and spoke to my husband. We will skip AC this trip around. We haven’t been to Italy before and haven’t decided on renting a car. I’m sure it has its advantages (having a place to put your stuff) but also seems stressful in a new country coming from the US.

The only interest I really have in Milan is what I’ve heard about the shopping. Is it really that great? Would love opinions on shopping for luxury items, otherwise we can skip.

Right now, two revised options as follows:

Fly into Milan 2 nights
Lake Como 3
Venice 3
Florence 3 + 1 potential day trip
Rome 4
Fly out of Rome

Total trip: 16 days

Or

Skip Milan (where would we fly into to get to Lake Como?, could we do Venice first then lake como or is that doubling back?)

Lake Como 3
Venice 3
Florence 3
Tuscany 3
Rome 4
Fly out of Rome

Total trip: 16 days

Thoughts?

PS
Make sure all lodging is air conditioned

Other than the vintage markets at Navigli, I doubt there is any shopping in Milan that you can't do in any other Italian city. If you plan on buying much, I would put Milan last or you're going to be schlepping stuff around on and off trains--you don''t wanna do that. You want one piece of luggage (plus a small bag like a purse or backpack) each that you can manage yourself.
Both of your itineraries look good, so just choose the one that appeals to you the most.
Start looking at accommodations soon, good luck!

Remember you'll need time to wait on laundry at some point, whether you send it out with a hotel $ervice or do it yourself (rental apartments often have washers but no dryer--you air dry with a rack).

Have you checked flight options?

Skip Milan (where would we fly into to get to Lake Como?, could we do
Venice first then lake Como or is that doubling back?) Lake Como 3
Venice 3 Florence 3 Tuscany 3 Rome 4 Fly out of Rome Total trip:
16 days

Yes you can go from Venice to Lake Como- fast train to Milan then regional- pretty easy.

Tuscany is the only place that you would likely want a car.
There are a few towns that work without a car- Lucca, Siena and Orvieto- (in Umbria but on the train line on way to Rome)

I'm going to suggest something else- sounds like renting a car is not something you want to do- and you can still have a great trip.

Fly to Milan- travel right to Lake Como- it’s not hard via train or you could hire a driver
Lake Como- 3 nights
Venice 3
Lucca 3- a nice quieter place to get away from crowds and busy city for a few days- you’ll change trains in Florence to get here but it’s easy. Could day trip to Pisa (half day really), bike/walk the walls, just chill
Florence 3 or 4- day trip to Siena
Rome 4

All easily done by train

Or
Fly to Venice
Venice 3
Lake Como 3
Florence 4- day trip Siena
Orvieto 2 or 3 beautiful hill town- will be less crowded on weekdays.
Rome 4
Fly home from Rome

This thread is a similar question/itinerary with lots of great suggestions/info
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/how-to-prioritize-21-nights-in-italy-or-is-siena-worth-it

Do your high end shopping in Rome.

Okay so here is where we’re at:

The flights to Italy directly were too expensive and did not include seat selection or checked luggage (we’re just bringing mid size one my husband can handle 😇) So what we decided to do was take a flight from DC to Athens Friday August 18 (arrive 9 am August 19th) and then return from Venice on September 6.

Athens 3 nights, then are going to be flying from Athens to Rome on Tuesday the 22nd. 22-27 will be Rome (5 nights). Hotel booked yay!!!

Now we just need to figure out what to do between the 27th and the 2nd (when we head to Venice).

We are trying to make Lake Como work, but the accommodations seem lacking that week. So maybe Florence and some day trips/Tuscany!

Making progress!

We had 3.5 days in Florence and it was sufficient to see everything we wanted. The city is not large so it is easy to move from one site to the next. With your timeline you could add day tripping from Florence or another stop like Siena or somewhere in the countryside.

If you do want to venture into the countryside make sure to check rental car availability and minimum stay requirements on lodging before locking in plans.

Another vote for Siena. Great base for Tuscan day trips and lots of good restaurants.

Perfect.

We just booked a bus from Rome to Siena on August 27. We will plan to stay for two nights then go on to Florence! Any accommodation recs for Siena?

Palazzo Ravizza
Great location, fantastic views
https://palazzoravizza.it/en/

Adjusted the schedule. We got 3 nights Athens,
5 nights Rome, 2 nights Siena, 5 nights Florence and 3 nights Venice.

My husband and I are in Florence from Tuesday August 29th 4:15 pm through Sunday September 3rd pm. We were thinking of seeing Florence sites Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday and potentially doing a day tour to Cinque Terre on Friday. We’ve planned a half day trip to Pisa (8:15-2:00pm on Saturday September 2nd). Thoughts on whether Cinque Terre be worth it during that time of year for a day trip. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Nope for the CT. This year has shown that shoulder season is just as crowded as summer. ( Darn, can't find the post.) Someone just posted here how incredibly crowded the CT is now. Do you really want to be part of the crowds for your visit?
Safe travels!

I'd skip CT. You are packing in a lot already.

Siena: We spent 2 nights there. We went to Ostoria la Sosta di Violante, and really enjoyed it. We had the bistecca Firenze there - the giant steak - more than enough for 2 with a side dish of potatoes. We really enjoyed Siena, and did less there (did not tour the duomo, did not climb the tower). Just walking around enjoying the unique ambiance of the 17 catratas (neighborhoods) was enough for us. We also had a unique experience of going to a small church for evening mass (we are atheists, but respectful) and the priest did it for us alone - no one else available - he was glad to have us - I mentioned that we were not believers so he did not ask us to take communion. The church is very close to Sosta di Violante, and is next to a wonderful overlook where you get a great panorama of the city.

I think your schedule looks fantastic. I will probably get roasted for this, but if you are not an art/museum person (which I'm not), 5 nights in Florence is too much. If it were me, I'd take 2 days off Florence and add to either Siena and/or Venice.

And when in Rome, make sure to visit the Borghese Gallery (you will need reservations). Even this non-art person thinks the Berninis there are exquisite.

Enjoy this wonderful vacation! And Happy Anniversary!!

Thank you for the feedback!!!

Our favorite restaurant experience was Restaurant Zeb in Florence. Very small (make reservations). Allow the chef to select wines (unless you know more about Tuscan wines than most). We went on a Sunday afternoon, and waited 1 hr for a seat. The food was very good, wines excellent.

https://www.zebgastronomia.com/1148-2/

So many responses!
My two cents. Last September/October we returned from 20 days from Salerno (direct train from Rome), Atrani (next to Amalfi), Anacapri, Sorrento and on to Rome (always Rome). You do not mention your interests? History? Art? Hiking? Beach?
They crowd was overwhelming in Amalfi and Capri, I cannot imagine what July and August are like.
Salerno, we loved and used for recovery, low key, and not heavily touristy, Easy access to Paestum ( Greek ruins, had a lovely garden lunch) for a day trip. You would find reasonable accommodations here.
Ferry to Atrani - get away from the crowds and hike up to Ravello and the Path of Gods
Ferry to Anacapri - not Capri town where all the day tourist go but up on the top of the island. We had an awesome B&B, Boutique B&B Bettola Del Re with patio. Can hike up to Tiberius Villa and then to Villa Lysis . You will not escape crowds but most stay in the towns and I think Capri must be the most romantic beautiful place on earth!
Ferry to Sorrento - lovely town, awesome food tour, can easily visit Pompeii from here (get a guide)

I agree with skipping Venice and Lake Como, just makes for time consuming transfers.
Best wished and happy travels. You do know you can private message anyone if you wanted more information.