Italy for a month or more

First, I'm not sure about your plan to purchase a one-way ticket to Rome and deal with the return flight later. There are some newer airlines that do sell one-way tickets at decent prices, but you need to be very careful here. Have you actually priced out that one-way flight, and a tentative one-way return flight (perhaps from Milan)?

It is definitely not too late to plan for May. In 2015 I arranged my flight to Rome in March and flew on May 24, the beginning of a 4-1/2 month trip. I pre-booked my Rome hotel but arranged all the others while on the road, using Wi-Fi and the tablet computer I travel with. You've got plenty of time to set things up before you go.

I've recently used booking.com to look for lodgings. It's a convenient clearinghouse to get a rough idea of what is available at what cost. It does have some apartments and B&Bs as well as traditional hotels. There are other useful websites as well, which I'm sure other responders will tell you about. The main thing is to look at the pictures and read a lot of the reviews.

With the possible exception of Venice, even hotels in Italy need not be expensive, but you'll want to make a decision based on good information. Many of your options will be small and their showers smaller. Many will be in older buildings, so you'll want to know whether there is an elevator/lift (and be sure there aren't reviews complaining that it isn't working, or doesn't go all the way down to the ground floor).

I found that even very inexpensive places in Italy usually had air conditioning except when I got up to the Alto Adige near the Austrian border, but of course you need to verify that. I think you might have more of a problem with Airbnb-type places, so take extra care there.

Florence is an excellent base for day trips by train or bus, though it may cost you a bit more to stay there. First you need to figure out what towns you'd like to see, then folks here who are knowledgeable about Tuscany may be able to suggest less expensive alternatives. I think it would be good to stay in Florence while you're actually seeing the sights of that city, at least.

I agree with you that it is wonderful to stay put for a while and take side trips. The difficulty with basing yourself in a small town is that to visit nearby small towns you often must start by traveling to the nearest big city. That adds time to each day's travel, plus expense. And in Italy, there can be significant gaps in bus schedules because the buses are set up to help commuters get to work. There may be multiple buses between 730 and 930, then nothing till around noon-1:30, then nothing till 4 PM, etc. So it's good to be staying in a city that's a bus/train hub, rather than a spot somewhere on the rim of the wheel, if you get my drift.

Sometimes it's worth it to take a one-day bus tour as a means to visit multiple towns that would be hard to reach in one day by public bus or train. But those tours only run from the large cities (Florence and perhaps Siena). If you're staying out in a small town, you are probably cutting yourself off from all bus tours unless you are prepared to get up very, very early and take a train or bus into the big city to catch the tour departure.

Bologna is another city that's a very convenient base for day trips. It also has a nice, large historic district of its own. Many wonderful small cities and towns can be reached within one hour from Bologna.

There's a series of attractive cities lined up along an east-west rail line in northern Italy: Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Venice. Venice lodgings are expensive, so I wouldn't daytrip to the other cities from Venice (I'd only stay in Venice to see Venice itself), but any of the other three would be a good base. I used Padua for that purpose in 2015.

First thought is that a one-way ticket may be more expensive than an open-jaw/multi-city return ticket.

I think it would be easier to stay in Firenze for several nights, and take daytrips from there. If you don't want to stay in the city center, you could stay in the Oltrarno area or Fiesole, a short bus ride down the hill to the city center.

Everyone's "must sees" vary; some of mine are the Museum of San Marco in Firenze, along with the Accademia, Uffizi, Museum of the Duomo, the Duomo and Baptistry, Bargello, and many churches.

If you will have a car for those two weeks, you could stay further out.

A second base, for southern Tuscany, would be Siena, another place that quiets down almost magically in the late afternoons when the daytrippers leave.

Looking forward to hearing about your solo plans!

I'll be 71 later this month and I have knee issues. If you have any physical challenges, please be aware that you will encounter lots of steep terrain, cobblestones and stairs.

As you look for places to stay, keep in mind that in Italy, elevators are few, they may not start until the 1st floor and they may end before the top floor. Also, what we call the 1st floor is the ground or 0 floor. The European 1st floor is what we would call the 2nd floor.

Use Booking.com to get started and get an idea of what's possible for what price. After you do the basic search on the initial screen, you can refine your results in a number of ways, but you'll have to look at those options to decide what's important for you. Ignore the stars and limit to places with a review score of 8 or higher.

I use it to identify potential places, then look at their websites and finally email them directly. Sometimes you can get a better deal by going direct and sometimes they have options not listed on Booking.com. I'd be sure to ask about any possible discounts if you stay in the same place solo after your son leaves.

This sounds like your 1st trip to Europe and that you have a lot to learn, so please thoroughly explore this Rick Steves website to start climbing that learning curve. A good place to begin is in the Travel Tips section.

One thing that really stuck out for me is the bit about the one-way plane ticket. I don't think you can do that because there is a 90 day limit on how long you can stay in the Schengen countries. Italy is one of those. Without a return ticket how would you prove that you don't plan to stay too long, should you be asked? It will likely be lots cheaper to get a round trip or multi-city ticket and pay the fee to change the return date than it would to buy 2 separate tickets anyway.

I trust your passport is in order. I just sent mine in for renewal. There are new picture rules since I renewed it 10 years ago. No glasses, no smiles allowed. Very plain clothes. As if the pictures weren't bad enough already!

Lo, I've taken trips the last two summers with just one-way outbound tickets (frequent-flier miles, so I wasn't paying one-way prices). No one blinked at the lack of a return ticket, but I'm 65 years old and I wouldn't necessarily recommend that a very young person try such a trip.

I did get extra attention when I headed back from Barcelona in August. That may have been related to the one-way, frequent-flier return ticket, or it could have been because the trip extended 89 days. or it could have been random. In the end, the fellow was satisfied when I showed him photos of Spain on my phone.

marion,

There are a few points about your travel plans that stand out and need to be clarified. A few thoughts.....

• the first point is the "or more" part of your title. How much time might you be spending in Italy? As you may be aware, tourists are allowed to stay in the Schengen area no more than 90 days in any 180 day period. You'll have to ensure that your visit complies with that.
• your plan to travel with a one-way ticket may raise some red flags with authorities. On top of that, buying two one-way tickets will likely be more expensive than buying a return or open-jaw ticket.

Regarding some of your questions......

"Also if there is a site that you trust to find a place to stay that would be helpful."

There are good listings for hotels and sometimes other properties in the RS Italy guidebook. Check your local Library as they will probably have copies. You could also check sites like Air BnB. As a solo traveller I never rent apartments, but I'm sure the others can provide some good tips on that.

"We will not rent a car so public transportation or drivers will do."

If you haven't travelled in Italy before, there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit. If you're not aware of those and need more information, post another note here.

Good luck with your planning!

Good to know, acraven.

We have been asked how long we planned to stay on more than one occasion. If marionsher said something consistent with what she said in her post, I'd expect a negative reaction from immigration.

But then, the last time we arrived in Rome, the immigration officer didn't even stamp my passport. I didn't realize it until much later. Fortunately it was stamped when we left Rome for Istanbul and when we returned.

If you fly into Rome be sure the lazy immigration people there do stamp your passport; it may not be a problem leaving Rome again but we got held up for over an hour and had to prove our entry with other documents in order to leave Schengen from another city. The guy pulled over with us did not have documentation to prove his date of entry and missed the plane.

Commuting to Florence is a terrible idea. That is one place you need to stay to enjoy what it has to offer. I am your age and just got back from 10 weeks in Europe this year, spent 3 mos the year before and the year before that (when we had to prove our Schengen dates, we were on day 89 with no passport stamp) I would fly open jaw or if you plan to round trip, head into Rome and immediately train to your furthest point and work your way back. The cost of train tickets is MUCH cheaper 3 mos out so there is something to be said for planning. We always get apartments and in May you are not terribly likely to need AC although it is one of the benefits of hotels. However be aware that in some districts of Italy AC may not be turned on before June; others just have that policy for their hotel.

The idea of staying in some little town and visiting other cities in the regions WITHOUT A CAR is misguided IMHO. Public transport in rural Italy is designed for school kids and workers not tourists. Hill towns don't have train service for the most part (because, hills) and the buses are sporadic. You can stay in the boonies and commute to tourist spots via car but with public transport especially at our age it will be nightmarish. I would base for a week or more in Florence and use it as a base for visiting Lucca, Pisa, Siena for starters -- all easily done by train. You could then book tours to get to places harder to reach by train or bus. I love staying in Tuscan hill towns and touring -- we have done this for a week or two 3 times over the past 30 years -- BUT always with a car. Without you would not be in a good transport hub and that is Florence. From Rome you can visit Ostia Antica, Tivoli, Orvieto etc.

Sounds like a great trip. Plan it to make it easy on yourself not to spend all your time on complicated logistics.

There are low-cost rooms to be had. One of the problems with double rooms is that most have one double bed, not two twins, so be careful when booking. There are lower priced areas in expensive cities. In Florence, the Oltrarno (other side of the Arno), in Venice, the Dorsoduro and Cannaregio tend to be cheaper, yet all are "close to the action."

Also look into staying in hostels. On a site like hostelworld.com you can locate them, read descriptions and reviews. Most hostels have double rooms with private bath (en suite) and the beds will be twins. They aren't just for youngsters though they are the majority; you'll find families with kids, and older folks too.

Bologna is an excellent base for a week or more. It's not a big tourist town so rooms are cheaper. It's easy to visit lots of other places by regional train (cheap tickets)

Thank you so much for your speedy and most helpful replies. Based on advice I ditched the one way ticket idea. Also will stay in Florence and use it as a base. After 3 or 4 nights in Florence will rent a car to stay in a smaller town. My travel experience is RVing the US and traveling to Costa Rica and Hawaii and always concentrating on few areas. (Also Rome 40 years ago-a happy but faded memory) Getting to be in a place rather than day tripping is what I enjoy. By the way I can't see adding more than 2 or 3 weeks to my month so I obviously can't stay in more than a few for any length of time. While my son is with me, we can do some of those day trips to small towns by car. Suggestions for towns needed. Pistoia ? Lucca? Someplace not too crowded.
I will be checking on booking.com in the next couple of days. In the meantime, if you know of a particular place or area in Rome or Florence please advise.
I can't begin to think about it now but after my son leaves I would like to stay at an Agriturismo and do nothing but enjoy the scenery and people. Please don't reply to that now except to tell me if it is a good idea or not.
Janet, if you have the names of apts. you have enjoyed please pass them on.

Here is a nice two-bedroom apartment we used in Lucca, inside the walls.

http://www.casaolivieri.it/location.html

80€ a night for two, if the prices are current. Less if rented by the week.