Italy for a month redone Please help with logistics

On your own, you may want to slow down and stay in one place for a few days or a week. Your list doesn't include Lucca, Siena, Assisi or the lakes. Lucca and Lake Como are good places for kicking back.

Trains run on weekends, but usually have a little different schedule than on weekdays. Spend some time learning to read a train schedule. Weekends in the CT aren't bad so long as you have your reservation set and can avoid the busiest times of the day for train travel. The trails can be crowded with hikers. Italy is small enough and some of the trains are fast enough that you can travel from Rome to Venice in a few hours. Rome to Milan or Turin takes about four hours. A good website for train travel is "the man in seat61." Sounds weird but it has all the info you need to get a handle on travel in Europe.

The common wisdom is to fly into Venice and out of Rome. Flights leaving Venice often are available only in the very early morning hours. In your case, unless you end your vacation in Rome, you might want to consider Milan or Pisa airports. Pisa is close to the Cinque Terre and Lucca. Milan is close to lakes Como and Maggiore.

Even with a month to travel, you won't see all of Italy. Plan on coming back!

Don't worry so much about Monday closures. If you have 2-3 days, there will always be things to see and do on Monday and time for the other things on the other days. May 1 is a holiday. Are you going at the end of April (you write early May)? What other holidays are there in May that would impact you?

Fly into Venice. Backtracking from Venice to the Cinque Terre wastes a whole day. End your time together in Rome.

Assuming 13 nights on the ground together:
Venice 3-4 nights. You'll be zonked when you arrive, so you need at least 2 full days (3's better) there.
Open 5-7 nights (depending on Venice/Rome decisions). If you want to rent a car you could explore Tuscany and Umbria.

Cinque Terre 2 nights.
Rome 3-4 nights. Remember, you'll use 1/2 day getting to Rome, so 3 nights leaves you only 2 full days for sightseeing.

You and your son should work out what he would most like to see and do between Venice and the CT, since you'll have lots of time after he leaves to fill in the gaps. If you are not planning to go far south of Rome, your departure choices are pretty much limited to Rome and Milan, depending on whether you stay in the centre or go north. There are plenty of flights from both.

You will need more time in Rome. I have been there twice, both times for a week and I still haven't seen it all.

Consider visiting Sienna in Tuscany.

Thank you so much for the new itinerary. Much better. Game plan is to fly into Venice 2 nights , train to Cinque Terre 2 nights, train to Florence 3 nights, rent a car when leaving Florence, spend 4/ 5 nights in Tuscany, or 2/3 nights in Tuscany and 3 nights in Orvieto, travel by train to Rome 3 nights. Son flies out of Rome and I take train north to Spoleto for 5 days, then train north to ? for 5 for days, train north to ? for 5 days and fly out of Florence. Will have seen enough museums and churches by the time my son leaves so I am looking for smaller towns scenic towns to enjoy Italy. How does that sound?

I like Chani's itinerary. Landing in Venice is great. It a great place to get rid of jet lag. Orvieto is a short trip from Rome.

With respect to your time as a solo traveler, are you sure you want to slow the pace down? What are you going to do during your stints in smaller towns? I spent six weeks with a traveling companion in Italy in 2015, and another two weeks solo, and I found that I liked faster paced travel on my own. You could also consider keeping your itinerary open during this period. I am not advocating showing up in a town without reservations, but it is very easy to book two or three days in advance using booking.com or another online reservation site. With respect to suggestions for smaller towns to stay in, I enjoyed my stay in Padua (Padova to the Italians). It has some interesting sights (including a fascinating botanical garden), good restaurants, a lively university district, excellent train connections to other cities and towns in the region, and it's an easy distance to MIlan, if that's where you end up flying home from.

You're really only giving yourself one sightseeing day in Venice, because you're likely to be extremely jetlagged (and sleepy) on your day of arrival. I believe you will regret that decision, because Venice is not so easy to return to.

Two good base cities in the north are the already-mentioned Padua (can visit Verona and Vicenza easily, even Venice if you decide one day wasn't enough) and Bologna (good base for the wonderful Ravenna, Ferrara, and many other cities) because of superior train connections. One thing about Bologna, though, is that the core of the lovely (and large) historic district is about a 20-minute walk from the train station, so if planning a lot of side trips you need to think carefully about where you want your hotel to be located--in the area that's most fun for strolling, or closer to the train station.

Orvieto is lovely and will keep you occupied for a couple of days. You can do some day trips from there, but it doesn't offer you the geographical reach you'd have in Bologna.

The main issue with Sunday travel is buses. You must check the train schedule carefully since Sundays and holidays are different, but you may not be too limited if taking the train. Destinations served only by (or most conveniently by) buses are a problem on Sundays. A serious problem.

Appreciate the advice. Looking at a third night in Venice. Of course I have more questions. Is it safe and/or economical to book on booking.com or another site someone might suggest? If I book on my own, is pay pal the way to pay? Giving a credit card doesn't seem safe. Am I wrong there?
I have looked at the earthquake map and it is a bit scary. Where do I draw the line as to where not to go or stay in Italy?

I book through booking.com a lot (200+ reservations so far). Never had an issue with using my credit card to reserve. Excellent customer service, in my experience.

I've used booking.com, hotels.com, and venere.com as well as booking through hotel websites using credit cards and never had a problem. What's important is to have a credit card that doesn't charge you fees for foreign transactions. If you're going to pay 3% or more, you're probably better off using PayPal.

I, too, have used booking.com and venere.com a lot with no difficulty.

You do need to know about your credit card's (or cards') fee, so call the 800 number on the back of each card and ask. You may find you have one that's clearly better for use outside the US. In my case, my United MileagePlus card does not have foreign-transaction fees, but my American Airlines card does. Guess which card I do not take to Europe.

Thank you for the booking sites. I will definitely use them. Again, any suggestions for specific places and areas in which to stay in the cities and CT will be helpful. I am figuring on an average of $200 a night max. so I expect to have to pay more in Venice, Rome, Florence and CT and less in other areas, especially when I go solo. The catch is that we obviously need twin beds for the first 2 weeks. I have been told to be careful with airbnbs and apartments. Any further comments on that?

Verify that accommodations you are considering have elevators/lifts. Remember that in Europe, the "first floor" is what we would call the "second floor". I doubt that this will be an issue in your price range, but best to be sure.

To be safe, look for places that are air conditioned. You won't know for sure whether you'll need it till shortly before arrival.

Many (most?) double rooms in Italy have double beds. Read the room descriptions carefully. Even if you are offered a choice of double or twin, that may not be guaranteed, so after you book, email the hotel with your reservation details and explain that you require two beds. If they can't guarantee it, then cancel and keep looking.

Thanks to advice and research I have changed itinerary again.
Fly into Venice (3 nights)
Train to Florence (3 nights)
Eliminated CT (too much travel time for crowds; save for another trip)
Train or car to Lucca and staying within walls (2 or 3 nights)- Would it be possible to hire a driver for the day to tour wine country? I am sure it is expensive but renting a car won't be cheap either
Train to Orvieto or another town someone might suggest (2 or 3 nights)
Train to Rome (4 nights)- friend meets us in Rome and son flies out
Two weeks to travel by train north with friend to visit some small towns and stay 3 nights in each (deal with that next)- suggestions of towns needed (alternate between touristy and non-touristy)
Fly out of Florence
Any feedback on itinerary is appreciated
Will probably book through Booking.com or airbnb because most hotels are doubles and not twins.( Thanks for the warning)
Has anyone done the night tour of the Vatican? Seems only offered Friday nights. Is that a better option than the early morning tour?
Told in either case to go to the Sistine Chapel first when it is less crowded and work way back. True?

Ravenna is lovely, even aside from its fabulous mosaics. It feels small and was amazingly short of tourists when I visited in the summer of 2015. It's not centrally located so not a great base for visiting other places, but Bologna (much larger city) is easily reached, and transferring in Bologna brings Ferrara within as little as 90 minutes. If you happen to be interested in ceramics, Faenza with its ceramics museum is as little as a half hour away.

Farther north, I think you might like Vicenza. The historic district feels small. From there you can visit Padua and Verona.

Much better plan! I'm so glad it's all coming together for you. Orvieto is a good choice.

I loved staying in Bologna for a few days and day tripping by train. On the other hand, many towns are much better as overnights or even 2 nights. Towns I've overnighted in and loved: Ferrara (1 night was perfect), Ravenna (2 nights wasn't enough), Verona (1-2 nights is fine), Assisi (1 night was not enough), Padua (I'm luke-warm on this one, I was there overnight, thought a day trip would have been enough, but most folks don't agree).

If your friend hasn't been to Italy before, you may want to go back to Venice for 2-3 nights. What about the lakes? Wish I could help there, but I still haven't been to any of them.

Thanks for feedback on towns. I will save ideas for second two weeks until after I book first two. Please read above itinerary. All is the same except I am excluding Orvieto and opting for 2 nights in Lucca ( needed to shorten sons stay by a few days). Lodging budget max at $200 a night for entire trip. Thinking of spending third day in Florence by taking train trip to one of the smaller towns and then the next day taking train to Lucca for 2 nights. Idea behind that is I keep reading days are mobbed with day trippers so the only way to appreciate Lucca would be to be there before and after they leave. With that in mind I would like to rent a car with a driver during one of those days to see more of Tuscany. From there we would take the train to Rome. Opinions? More suggestions?
Also I need feedback on Vatican or breakfast or Friday evening?

Looking for info on Villa Mercede in Orvieto. Also any opinions on Greve in Chianti. Looks a bit less touristy and small town. Both of these would be with friend or alone. No car.

I found a Villa Mercede in Frascati; looks nice, but if you want to stay in Orvieto, there are lots of hotels in the city in the same price range (I like Hotel Virgilio, on the Piazza Duomo).

Marion--

We visited the Montagliari Winery in Greve-in-Chianti in October 2010. It was part of a daytrip from Florence that included a wonderful cooking class at the winery itself. The guide that set this up for us--picked us up and dropped us off at the end--has since passed on, so you'd have to find out for yourself if this is still available. The Super Tuscan wines--the 1997 Brunello in particular--were fabulous.

Orte, Spoleto, or somewhere else? After Venice, Florence, Lucca, and Rome with my son, my friend and I are going to Orvieto and Civita. After she leaves I have 6 nights on my own before I fly out of Rome. By that time I will have had enough duomos and museums and I am looking for something different and less touristy. If you have ever been to Orte please give me your take on it. I am thinking of Spoleto because it looks interesting. Neither one is on my must do list so if you have other suggestions, as always it will be much appreciated. I will not have a car.

I don't know Orte (photos look nice), but there are a couple of interesting places you could reach by from Orte, for day-trips:

Viterbo: A walled city of some size, not touristy. Nice to go somewhere that feels real, as it were.

Tuscania: A small medieval hill town that had no tourists the day I visited in 2015. Maybe I was just lucky.

Viterbo is less than an hour from Orte, and Tuscania is less than an hour from Viterbo. How the buses line up, I do not know.

Edited to add: I haven't been to Spoleto, either, but have read good things about it. It has a major annual music festival, but I believe that's later in the year. Best to check, because it would means lodgings are probably already booked up.

Second Ravenna for its lovely small town with some beautiful mosaics, lovely historic area and ease of walking across town. Its small so its really easy to walk from one of the basilica's to another. The Piazza where we had lunch is lovely. We had fabulous fig sauce and bread with a special cheese sauce. The opera house painted yellow is beautiful. We visited Ravenna a year ago, I hope you will put it at the top of your list those last two weeks.

http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/ravenna-i-er-ra.htm