Honeymoon in Northern Italy

You have a great start, but I think you should narrow it down a bit--that may be why no responses yet. Peruse your guidebook sections on the Dolomiti, Veneto, and surrounding areas (I am less familiar with the north, so I am leaving out specific recommendations). Once you get a bit more focused, you will find it comes together easily.

Congratulations! Love long and prosper.

Since "...we just want it to be relaxing and take things slow..." consider the following.

Fly into Venice as it is a great place to kick back, relax, and get over jet lag. There are several day trips you can do from there including (among others) Verona, Padua, and Murano and Burano "in" Venice itself.

After about four full days, head to Lake Como for about three days. Just chill there and do some day trips to places around the lake.

Then head to Florence and do some day tripping from there and fly back from Milan.

I realize I'm not being very specific, but you can fine tune your itinerary with the Rick Steves guide book according to your more specific interest.

mz,

First of all, congratulations! A few suggestions you might consider.....

• Fly into Milan and travel directly to Varenna, which is in the mid-lake are of beautiful Lago di Como. The town is perfect for Luna di Miele and also a great place to get over jet lag for a few days.
• Take the train from there to Bolzano and then bus to Castelrotto. It's very scenic and you can either hike from there to Alpi di Siusi or take the Bus. You can do all the hiking you want at Alpi di Siusi. Ortisei is another popular location in that area, and others on the forum can provide more information on that.
• For your time in Tuscany, you can either spend some time in an Agriturismo or use Florence as your home base and take day trips to Siena, Lucca or other locations (Florence is the capital of Tuscany and there are lots of sights there as well).
• While it's a long day, you could travel to the Cinque Terre ("on the coast") and do some hiking there, or just enjoy the towns and some great Pesto in the area where it was invented. There's an extensive network of trails in that area, in varying levels of difficulty.

Whatever you decide, you'll have to get cracking and start booking hotels as it will be busy in Italy at that time of year. You might have a look at the RS Italy guidebook for hotel listings and good sightseeing information.

I came across this place when I was hiking in the Dolomites this past fall...regretted not staying here for the rest of the trip. Next time!! I think it would be a great place to stay while on your honeymoon. Spectacular location and a beautiful, small hotel.
We stayed at an amazing inn though that I would highly recommend...Hotel Uhrerhof Deur...it's run by the third generation of a family of hoteliers and they are lovely people. The inn is absolute perfection. We got 1/2 board that included breakfast and dinner which was the best decision we made. Their breakfast spread is simply spectacular and dinner was a multi-course affair with the chef-husband churning out food that is some of the best I've had anywhere, and beautifully served. The hotel is in a tiny village above Ortisei - for hiking you can either drive up to the Seiser Alm from there or catch the bus at the end of the road. Or you can drive into Ortisei and catch the gondola up. Either way it's very easy to get up there from this inn.
While hiking on the Seiser Alm I recommend eating at the Rauch Hutte - it's an old alpine hut with a view of the mountains. All locally sourced ingredients, a welcoming family, and an amazing location.

Thank you all for the insight and suggestions! We are hoping to pull this trip off, but if we can't then we know where we are going next year :). From what I've read I've seen several people say do NOT rent a car if staying in any of the main cities. Would this apply to any of the lakes like Como or Garda? Seems like there are so many sights in that area that it would be easier to have a car there.

Also, has anyone done any hiking around the Dolomites in June? Wondering if snow would be a concern still. Most likely we'd be going mid-late June so I'm thinking we'd be okay for most trails.

Thanks again!

Congratulations! My husband and I took our honeymoon in northern Italy last summer and had a wonderful time.
Slowing down and taking a relaxing trip is a fantastic idea- you don't want to be stressed out on your honeymoon!
I like picking a "home base" that is well-situated to take day trips (make sure the train station is easy to get to). We spent a few days in Venice and then moved to Verona, from where we took day trips to Vicenze, Padova, Lake Guarda and Mantua. I loved Verona and thought it made an excellent home base.
However, Lake Guarda ended up being slightly too far for a good day trip - next time, I would just spend a few days on Lake Guarda itself. If you are interested in nature, you will probably enjoy it there :) I am more interested in cities and architecture, so I don't have any specific recommendations for hikes.
My advice is to alternate day trips with a day in your home base, so it doesn't feel like you are going to the train station every day.
Enjoy your planning and your honeymoon, lovebirds!

Right, no cars for cities. From reading, it seems the lakes are fairly amenable to public transport travel. For rural areas, you will want a car, and once you get the Dolomiti part pinpointed you will know for sure. I'd try to go without a car along the coast as well because of summer traffic.

Late June should be OK for the Dolomites. I would expect more wildflowers than snow by then.

In addition to the places already suggested, I will recommend this one in Santa Cristina ( Val Gardena):

http://www.villamartha.it/en/welcome.html

Matteo is an excellent host, the views from the room's balcony are lovely, and the food is gourmet quality. We did lovely hikes from there, one on either side of the valley. And one bike ride, riding down to Ortesei and taking the gondola up to cycle the trails on Alpe di Siusi.

mz,

Most of the places you'll be going are well served by public transit (depending on where you decide), so there's no reason to rent a car. Especially in the cities, cars are of little use and there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when driving in Italy (such as the dreaded ZTL / limited traffic areas). There are also some caveats to using public transit as well, but those are easy to deal with. A car is of most use in places that aren't well served by trains or buses, such as rural Tuscany.