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Italy Itinerary Thoughts for April/May

Posted by on

Hi,

I'm currently awaiting for my husband's work to give the approval for leave for our Europe trip around April/May and would love your thoughts/recommendations (length of stay, travel - car, train or bus, comments about the destinations, accommodation or restaurant recommendations) about my very vague brainstorm. Most of the trip will be in Italy with the final stop in Austria to visit some friends. We are planning to have 3 weeks off, with the plan to spend 2 weeks of it in Italy, and are travelling from Australia.

Currently, I'm look at the following breakdown.
Rome 3 nights
Siena 2 nights
Florence 3 nights
Cinque Terre 3 nights
Milan OR Lake Como 3 nights

Our travel style is definitely more on the adventurous (looking to do some hikes and swims!) and love enjoying the vibe/culture of the countries. We love eating and are super excited to invigorate our taste buds with local food! We're not as history fanatics in comparison to some of our friends but definitely will visit some iconic sites in Rome and Florence.

Thank you in advance!

Posted by
11802 posts

You could combine Florence and Siena: stay in one and daytrip to the other to eliminate one change of lodging and location. I find it a better pace to have at least one longer stay in a trip of that duration and that is a good place to do it. You can easily take a train to Florence, settle in there, and day trip to Sienna. I would highly recommend a day with Tours by Roberto to get out into the countryside.

I am glad to see you have allotted 3 nights to the Cinque Terre as so many people only do two and if you like to hike, you'll be glad of the extra day.

Milan or Lake Como: Milan is museums and shopping. Lake Como is lakeside, ferry boats, villas, and hiking. As a hiker. I'd lean toward Lake Como and stay in Varenna.

Are you flying into Rome and out of Austria?

Posted by
905 posts

For more adventurous, Lake Como over Milan. Drop CT and plan something in the Dolomites/Sud Tirol. This will also acts as a gateway to Austria.

Posted by
5109 posts

If you want time for adventure, I’d consider consolidating your Cinque Terre and Lake Como stops. Do one or the other and perhaps add some time to Tuscany also.
Won’t be swimming weather in April/May, but there are some hot springs in Tuscany.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks Laurel … Yeah having the option of doing a day trip to Siena is actually a great idea. We were hoping to do a farm stay around Tuscany as well … I was also already leaning toward Lake Como! I was planning to fly into Rome. We will be visiting Bregenz in Austria (Where I did an exchange year and the closest airports will be in Switzerland or Germany and will be flying out of there.

Thanks Marc! Yeah I did heavily consider Dolomites and Sud Tirol. The mountains are beautiful. I did really want to bring my husband to Cinque Terre and I know I’ll be visiting the mountains in Austria later hence my eventual decision to hang around in Cinque Terre for a different landscape.

Thanks Geovagriffin! Yeah … I was wondering whether to hire a car from Rome and drive up to Florence to visit Siena? Do you have any thoughts? Otherwise I totally agree with you.

To Valadelphia - I did want to spend time exploring the Tuscany region. Would you suggest maybe keeping 3 days in Cinque Terre and having more time in Tuscany and maybe then just having one day in Milan?

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