Honeymooners 8 Day Trip Advice

We need more info! When are your travel dates? What are your interests? What is your budget?

We went to Italy on our honeymoon and spent 3 nights each in Venice and Florence and 5 nights in Rome. we went back 2 years later and added the Cinque Terre. If you really want to relax and do as little as possible, Lake Como could be for you! Let us know some more details and we can give you some good advice!

You can't miss the Amalfi Coast. I can't think of a more perfect honeymoon spot!!! Venice and Lake Como would also be perfect honeymoon destinations.

I agree with Judy. Select either amalfi coast or lake como and surrounds for your honeymoon. Both locations ooze of honeymoon. U cannot go wrong both areas are very beautiful and peaceful.

I agree with Stephen, Judy & JS... Lake Como is a great destination for a honeymoon.

Varenna is a gem... You can take the ferry & visit other lakeside villages such as Bellagio, Menaggio, etc...

When in summer will you be traveling?

It gets very hot in Italy in the summer & many escape to the coast or to the Dolomites to cool off.

Food for thought: Check flights in/out of Milan which may be more affordable than the ones to Rome.

EDIT:

What is the easiest/most convenient way to travel?

The answer depends on where you want to go.

The Italian railway system is great & will get you to all the destinations you mentioned on your post.

Day 1+2 Lake Como
Day 3 Train to Cinque Terre
(with Milan sightseeing stop)
Day 4+5 Cinque Terre
Day 6 Train to Venice
(with Florence sightseeing stop)
Day 7+8 Venice

ps. Your fiancé won't be travelling with you. Hopefully your new husband/wife will be. Lol.

Best wishes!! You are very wise to restrict yourselves to only a couple of places. After all the stress associated with most weddings the last thing you need is a mad dash to hither, thither, and yon. Consider flying into Milan and out of Venice. Train from Milan to Lake Como and stay in Varenna for four days. Then train to Venice for four days with perhaps a day trip to Murano / Burano, and / or Verona. You could reverse the route and go to Venice first. That might be preferable since it is a little more difficult to fly out of Venice if you have a very early morning flight.

Depending on what flights you can get, I would fly into Venice for 3-4 nights. Perfect honeymoon spot, and also relaxing to get over jet lag.

Spend one day traveling, fast train to Rome, just under 4 hours. Spend rest of time there, and fly home from Rome. You can always do a day trip to Orvieto , it is not Tuscany, but Umbria is beautiful, too.

Congratulations :)

To answer a few of the questions. We just want to get a feel for the Italian culture, see some of Italy's beautiful scenery and of course eat. We both love the outdoors and learning the history of any place we travel to, but I think on a honeymoon trip we may want it to be on the more relaxing side. Cinque Terre, Lake Como and the Amalfi Coast all seem like great destinations to do just that. Pairing one or two of those with a city like Venice, Florence or Rome may be what we are looking for. It looks like our entry/exit points would need to be one or two of Rome, Venice or Milan. Any suggestions for tackling this in 8 days (not including travel days)? Is there anywhere we may not have thought of that could be worth looking in to?

You still haven't told us when you are going.

If you want the Amalfi Coast, fly round-trip Rome and spend your time in those two places. It takes too long to get to the AC to add anything else. You should plan to spend your last night in Rome - it's too far to get to the airport from the AC, even if you have a flight late in the day. If you arrive early, you can continue to the AC: train from FCO to Rome/Termini, high-speed train to Naples, slow train to Sorrento.

Much the same for the Cinque Terre, though you could fly round-trip Milan, which is close to Lake Como. While getting to/from the AC is a bit more complicated than getting to the CT, the advantage is that there are frequent trains. I think there are only 1-2 direct trains from Rome to the CT. There are more from Milan (and shorter time) if you stay in one of the towns (Monterosso, others?) that don't require transfer to a local train.

My preference would be fly into Venice, then to Lake Como, last night in Milan and home from there. Venice is the perfect place to begin an Italian visit - relax and soak up the atmosphere while you get over jetlag and catch up on sleep. Even when it's crowded, it's quiet because there's no traffic

You could fly into Milano and go directly to Lago di Como, then Firenze, and fly out of Roma.

Or, fly into Venezia, train to Roma, train/bus to Amalfi Coast (Costiera Amalfitana, no train service beyond Sorrento unless you go to Salerno), fly out of Napoli.

Or mix and match. Three stops would be the maximum for 8 nights (2 nights either Lago di Como or Venezia, 3 nights Firenze or Amalfi Coast, 3 nights Roma).

We are going at the end of June.

I booked my son and daughter-in-laws honeymoon through Avventure Bellissime, an Italian tour company, did it all online. It was a semi private tour, where a driver picked them up in Rome took them to the hotel and then they had 2 walking tours they had to get to, driver picked them up after 3 days to train station they had 1st class tickets to Florence, driver was waiting for them to take them to their hotel, 2 more small tours, driver took them to train station and they were met by a private boat in Venice that took them to their hotel and 2 more small tours, so it was tour time and time alone, they loved it. The company booked all first class hotels, tours, train/drivers and we just booked the flights. They loved it and it was stress free. They flew into Rome and out of Venice

Would Venice, CT and Lake Como be too much to fit in 8 days? Will they be too crowded to enjoy at the end of June? Is Rome an essential stop for first time travelers to Italy?

Would Venice, CT and Lake Como be too much to fit in 8 days? Will they be too crowded to enjoy at the end of June? Is Rome an essential stop for first time travelers to Italy?

The best way to answer the first question is to look at the train schedules on the Trenitalia website. Note that you have to use the Italian city names even when using the English version of the site. You also have to choose a specific location in the CT and Lake Como. For Venice, use Venezia S. Lucia. You may need to use regional trains. They only show up on the site a week in advance, so just choose the day of the week you would probably travel. Schedules don't change much. Add to the actual train journey a reasonable amount of time to get from hotel to the station and a few minutes at the station to find your train. Then you have to get from the train to your new hotel to drop your luggage before you start sightseeing. You will want to spend your last night close to your departure airport. This is really the only way to know what is best for you. My impression - without trying to do the lengthy research - is that the CT is too remote.

Second question - late June isn't as crowded as later in the summer. The CT could be really crowded. There have been some recent threads about it. If you want hiking, maybe it's worth going. If you want more relaxing, Lake Como sounds better.

Lastly, Rome . . . I did not see it until my second trip. I've been twice, love its museums and sights but not much else. Others love everything about Rome. Thank goodness we don't all love the same things.

The last thing we want to do is spend too much time traveling between destinations or spending all day in lines for tourist spots.

Chani has given you sound advice... you basically need to figure out how long it will take you to travel from one destination to the next & decide if that's the route you want to take.

You can also check this website to give you an idea of travel times: http://www.rome2rio.com

Have you booked your flights already?

Rome obviously offers the best options for us on flights

Does this mean that you are flying in/out of Rome?

If this is the case, then vising the Amalfi Coast & Rome make more sense than traveling all the way to Venice & Lake Como.

There are so many options as Zoe & others have pointed out.

If you want to visit Venice & Lake Como, you could fly into Venice & out of Milan.

I think it would be easier for us to help you if we know whether or not your flights are already booked...

No flights booked yet so still very flexible in that area but looking to get those booked soon.

You may consider getting open-jaw (multi-city) flight tickets to avoid backtracking.
So... if you choose Venice & Lake Como. You could fly into Venice & out of Milan ( I think I already said this in my previous post...)

If you choose to go to the Amalfi Coast, then you could fly into Rome & out of Naples or vice-versa ( I think Zoe already mentioned this on her post.

Italy is a beautiful country & all the destinations you're considering are amazing!

The most difficult aspect of planning a trip is choosing where to go, it's like a child in a candy store!

Re-read all the posts here & ask more questions if you need to.

Consider reading some travel guidebooks to get more ideas too.

Happy planning!

So we are thinking of trying to squeeze 3 destinations into our trip if we can pull it off. One option being Venice, Cinque Terre and Lake Como which could look something like this:
Day 1: Land in Venice
Day 2:Venice
Day 3: Travel to CT
Day 4: CT
Day 5 CT
Day 6: Travel to Lake Como
Day 7: Lake Como
Day 8: Lake Como then train to Milan
Day 9: Fly out of Milan

The other option would be substituting somewhere in Tuscany for Lake Como and possibly departing from elsewhere. Does this plan seem doable on our timeline? Is there a town in Tuscany that is recommended? Would switching Tuscany for LC make travel more/less complicated? Any advice would be appreciated.

That is 'doable' but I would be comfortable if you had 2 extra nights, especially on a honeymoon.
Rome + Amalfi Coast (Sorrento) would be my preferred option for you - 4 nights each.