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Itinerary Florence, lake Como, Zell Am see and Venice

Hi All,

Pls am looking for some tips and advise for the best itinerary route. We are a couple planning for our honeymoon and would like to spend around 14 days in total for our holiday. We will travel from Jordan (Amman) on 8th of July and landing bologna (Italy) late night, rent a car then heading directly to Florence and spend around 4 nights at the Tuscany region then drive from there to lake Como via Cinque Terre (spend half day here) and would like to spend 3 nights at lake Como, then we will be heading to Venice for 2 nights and will drive to Zell Am See (Austria) and stay there for 3 nights as well and finally will be leaving back to Bologna and fly out back home country. Is this plan doable? Is this the best route to take and visit all these cities? Is it easy to drive a car between all cities or shall I use the train? We are thinking to stay 2 nights in Florence city to explore it and then another 2 nights at Chianti, any advise here?
Pls feel free to share your opinion, thoughts and recommendations.. many thanks

Posted by
1576 posts

It might be difficult to find a place to park in Florence let alone drive there. It might be more useful to use train at various points of your journey then once you depart for Chianti region then rent a car to visit the small villages. Since you will fly into Bologna, why not fly out of another location to go back to Jordan (Amman) instead of backtracking to Bologna. It will save you time Ibrahim.

Logistically the shorter drives you have the better and less fatigue you will be. I suggest drop Zell am See. It;s way out of the way.

Start out like this:

July 8 - Bologna

July 9 , 10, 11 - Venice

July 12, 13, 14 - Lake como

July 15 , 16 - Cinque Terre

July 17, 18, 19 - Florence

July 20, 21 - Pisa

Drive from Pisa to Bologna on the afternoon of July 21st

July 22 - Fly out from Bologna

You don't want to be doing too much and become exhausted at the end of your trip and in need of another vacation.

Thanks RJean
You have valid point to consider about driving in Florence. We are reaching Bologna late night around 11:45pm so we can take probably a train or a taxi to the hotel in Florence!
Regarding the flying back to Jordan, we are traveling on Rayan Air and this airline travels directly either to Milan or Bologna but does not travel from Austria to Jordan (Amman) otherwise it would be much more easier and convenient to fly out from Salzburg or Vienna..

Posted by
2281 posts

hey hey ibrahim
congratulations on your wedding and honeymoon to italy.
do you have your hotel in florence booked? your issue will be when you land that late in bologna, are there any car rentals open at that hour? check the train schedule times that early AM and the cost of a private transfer to florence will cost you a price you may not like. why not spend that night in bologna and leave the next day? with a long overseas flight and jet lag, don't recommend driving.
have you looked at the laws and rules of the road in italy plus you will need an IDP (international drivers permit), parking is at a bare minimum, no driving in city centers, look for parking garages which will cost you, along with cost of fuel and tolls on the roads. read up about taking car out of country and what you will need to cross border. you have less than a month to have all your plans together, i would travel by train except the tuscany area. look at rome2rio.com, put in cities you want to drive to, lets you see routes, miles and travel times that you add more time too.
you are traveling during high season with the crowds and heat. i would leave austria out of this trip. you have your wishes where you want to go, do you have rooms booked? the days for austria i would add to the places you want to see. RJean has a great itinerary for you where you can enjoy, take in italy and not be in a car most of trip. just my 3 cents.
aloha

Thanks Princess for your valid thoughts..
Yes I will look into the route suggested by Jean as it sounds very practical and would stay overnight at Bologna and leave it the next day. The hotels yet to be booked as we are still exploring the best route for this journey. Renting the car is mainly to explore Tuscany villages, lake Como and initially to visit Zell Am See and my thought it would save more time than taking a train between those places with longer hours spend on board..
May be cinque Terre does not need 2 nights as suggested by Jean from what I have read in some other forums so a full day there should be fine I can think! So, if to cancel Zell Am See then probably I would like to explore another city near the lake Como but yet to find which one!!
Do u think lake Como does not require a car to explore it and hang around?! Regards

Posted by
10344 posts

In Italy, if trains go there, do what the locals do--take the train.