Italy

A month is a long time. Consider adding Assisi or Orvieto and Siena to your list. Figure out your towns first and number of days in each. Then, we can help you bang-out the details.

Don't mean to be unkind, but my tip would be to get a guidebook and read it, then do some research on the net. I generally do both before I take trips.

We took a similar trip in September 2016. We flew into Milan and out of Rome. We used trains the entire four weeks and visited Milan, Lake Como (Varenna), Florence (1 week), Cinque Terre (Vernazzo), Positano (1 week) and finished with five days in Rome. Ten years ago we spent a week in Umbria and took the train from Venice and picked up our car at the airport in Perugia and dropped it back off there as well before going to Rome. We love to stay in apartments to get a local feel for the area and to settle in and have had great success traveling this way all over Europe. This trip we stayed in a former monastery in Rome in the Trastevere neighborhood and it was fabulous. We are an active couple in our mid 60's so we walked mostly to get around in the cities but booked a bike tour in Rome which was great fun!!!

Travel by train will be faster and more efficient, especially on the routes served by the high speed trains which travel at up to 300 km/h. Both rental cars and travel by public transit have some potentially expensive "caveats", so be sure you're aware of those or you may find that your trip is considerably more expensive than planned.

Hello, and lucky you to be able to spend 30 days in Bella Italia. Might be helpful to know more about what your interests are, and what kind of trip you are hoping to plan for to assist others in offering helpful suggestions.

What are your interests? A week in Rome could be perfect, or it could be too much. Florence for Renaissance art lovers needs 3 full days minimum. For many, seeing the highlights in a day is enough. What is your travel style? Do you only want to settle in for 5-7 days? Or move around more? Bologna is a great base for day trips by train, though the city itself is not a big tourist destination. Venice is one of my 3 favorite places in the world, but a bad choice for day trips. Some towns are well worth 2-3 nights, but not longer. They can be visited as day trips but are much better as overnighters.

To add to Ken's advice, there are few areas in Italy that are better visited with a car than by train and occasional bus.

My basic advice is to plot your destinations on a map and find a one-way route, flying into Milan or Venice and home from Rome.

Here are some of the sights that we found enjoyable on our trips to Italy.

There are a lot of sights worth visiting in Rome but if you have time you might consider a day trip to Pompeii or Herculaneum. I stayed with friends in Naples and made several trips to Pompeii. It is amazing how well it was preserved by the volcanic ash. I have not been to Herculaneum but from what I have read it is a newer excavation and is even better preserved. I imagine either would be a long day trip from Rome.

In Tuscany we stayed in Borgo Argenina. It's near Sienna and has a beautiful view of the vineyards near Chianti. It's a Band B with clean rooms and a good breakfast. There are many beautiful hill towns in Tuscany but the one that intrigued me the most was San Gimignano.

Lake Como is one of our favorite places to relax. You would need a minimum of two nights (we usually stay at least four) and a full day. The best way to enjoy the lake is to take ferries. You can visit most of the pretty little towns that are dotted around the lake by using the ferry. Varenna and Bellagio are two of the most charming - Varenna for its natural beauty and Bellagio for its shopping - silks in particular. If you choose to stay in Bellagio you will find the road from Como to Bellagio to be particularly narrow. I would recommend using a car ferry instead of taking that road.

In addition to the lakeside towns there are several villas/palaces worth visiting. I would recommend visiting Villa del Balbianello in Lenno. Approach by water and enjoy the gardens as well as the villa. There are others which we have not visited but look appealing from the water. In addition George Clooney has (or had) a place on the lake, so I am sure he would be pleased to look after any close friends.

We have stayed at Hotel Florence in Bellagio and Hotel la Perla in Tremezzo. Both were very nice. Both have rooms overlooking the lake. In addition I have read reports from people who rented houses on or near the lake.

With a month, you can see lots of Italy, or see fewer places in more depth. There's no right or wrong answer - just what works best for you, for this particular trip.

Don't discount the possibility of including Sicily in the trip. There are lots of flights from many mainland Italy airports; you could fly into Palermo and out of Catania and spend 10-14 days there. You'd pick up a car after seeing Palermo, and return it at the Catania airport.

If you really want to have a driving trip, you'd probably want to focus on more rural and small town destinations (either in Sicily or on the mainland). Rome, Florence, and Venice are all places where a car is not only not necessary, but a HUGE hassle and expense. And that's not even counting the many kinds of tickets you can get, which themselves come in two installments - a fee from your car rental company for turning over your information to the authorities, then the ticket itself, many months later. If you are going to drive, learn about bus lanes, speed limits, the Tutor system, and ZTL's. If you don't learn beforehand, you WILL learn after, and pay a lot for it.

I see in your profile that you're in Texas, where even cities are built around people having cars. European cities are very different - think Boston and New York, not Houston or Phoenix.

I don't mean to be rude but quite honestly don't bother coming to Italy it's full of agrrogant thieves. I would leave this country to rot in its own self loathing disrespecting cheating ways. If you come to Italy be mentally ready to get your valuable stolen or cheated on. Even if you try to respect their culture and are not assuming and speak Italian as best you can you will be marked as a target. If you must go to Italy get in and get out - treat Italy like they would treat you.. get what you want from it and drop them as quickly as possible. I've been coming here for years and each year it has been progressively worse.

luisecha, then why do you continue to travel to Italy??? You obviously do not respect Italy or traveling for that matter. Stay in your bubble and don't travel to a place you despise is what I say. And stay off these forums because there are people who actually like to travel and enjoy experiencing new places and traditions and like positivity NOT negativity.

My, my, luisecha, aren't we just a little ray of sunshine.

To offer the opposite, I dearly love the place: planning trip #4. Warts? Sure, what country doesn't have a few of those but the pluses far outweigh any minuses. To date, we haven't encountered anything worse than an ill-timed, partial-day train strike but still managed to work a way around that. Prep and and open mind go a long way.

edleroy45, we aren't aren't Airbnb fans nor do we have any interest in messing around with a car (yet, anyway) so I can't help you with that. Trains have been great as they're fast, efficient and usually dump us out right in the middle of the action. I will weigh that you don't want or need a vehicle for Florence or Venice, although they can be handy for exploring Tuscany's rural areas.

How long to spend in each place is entirely up to personal style and preference? We generally like longer stays in a home base than a lot of packing up and moving around so places within reach of easy day trips appeal. Florence is a good one for that, and Rome offers a number of those as well. From Varenna, you can ferry-hop around the lake, scoot into Milan or Bergamo for the day. etc. Venice? Lots of island-hopping to do there.

Alternately, you have enough time for some 2-nighters at attractive points in between, if you wish. Say, Orvieto or Siena between Rome and Florence, or Bologna, Ravenna or Ferrara between Florence and Venice. Lots of options!

edleroy45 - we are trying out AirBNB for a second time on our upcoming Italy trip. We had a good experience at our first AirBNB but I think that I still may prefer more typical lodging like hotels and bed & breakfasts. I'll be curious to see what we think of our next place. I've found that my favorite accommodations while traveling in Europe are bed & breakfasts where the owner is typically very welcoming and friendly and you can chat with other guests. Some of these can be very affordable as well. I guess it depends on your personality and preferences but I would definitely suggest researching other options besides AirBNB. Italy also has wonderful agriturismos that you can stay in.

My favorite guidebooks for trip planing are Rick Steves, DK Eyewitness, and Michelin Green guides. You can get a lot of great information from those books, as well as cruising forums and searching for topics that may be of interest to you. Good luck!

Never traveled abroad until seven years ago, now have done three trips to Europe, including Italy each time. And I keep coming back, luisecha...

What I have found is that while Italians are uncanny in spotting you as a non-local, they innately understand that tourism is crucial to their economy, and most play their part in making you feel welcome. I never found that quality in France.

September is a great time to travel, although it is still considered high season and there will be many tourists. A month gives you many options, however. If it were me, I'd start with a flight into Milan or Venice, then at the end a flight out of Palermo or Catania in Sicily, and fill in the blanks.

Four or five bases should do it---hmm, on my trip I'd pick Verona, Florence, Rome and Taormina or Palermo. Trains all the way, pack light, enjoy the ride!

Enjoy your planning, too!

We have had two huge trips (3 and 4 weeks) plus 4.5 years of living in Rome. What I learned is fewer places for a longer time is my favorite was to experience a country.

I like the idea of a week each in Rome, Florence, and Venice. So many day trips you can take from the latter two, especially, but such charming bases to return to at night! Lake Como, however, is sort of a 3-night place IMO. How about a trip in Switzerland on the famous Bernina Express? Spend a couple of nights in St. Moritz or Samadan. Bologna is another option in the north. I like that you are not trying to do the whole country and are staying north of Rome.

Other tips: start in the north and make Rome your last stop. It will still be hot in September, but moderating toward the end to merely warm. If you stay in Florence, only rent a car for a day trip to the countryside. You do not even need a car at Lake Como. You really only need a car if you want to stay in a smaller town in Tuscany or at an agriturismo. Try VRBO.com for apartments for anywhere you stay 5 nights or more. Otherwise, Booking.com is a good source for B&Bs. I find these sites more likely to yield professionally-run places. Just sayin'.

And pack along the Rick Steves' Itlay Guide, which you will have read cover-to-cover before you go, right?

Did you decide to skip Barcelona?

My suggestions:
1. September is still summer in Italy and many places are humid as well. Think about being outside in the heat all day sightseeing. It's not the same as going from air-conditioned place to place in your air-conditioned car. Consider whether the heat will slow you down. Consider whether you will need AC at night.
2. If you want more tips or suggestions, you have to give us more information about what you are interested in seeing and doing. Have you been to Europe before?