Hello all.
I'm a female senior, traveling solo from US, end of Oct/beginning Nov 2019. 11 to 14 days. Plan to make Florence my hub, and thinking of bookending trip flying into Naples, (Mt Vesuvius), and return via train to Milan/Bernina Express, train to Zurich for the landscape and fly out of Zurich. Not interested in spending half a day eating, cooking, tasting wine . While I can't do country hiking anymore, I can easily manage walking streets. Love history, landscapes, geology, antiques, art, architecture, textiles. Any and ALL suggestions MOST welcome!! You all Rock!
Posted by
26 posts
Hi
If you're planning to make Florence your main hub I highly suggest you to look at Tuscany cites, like Siena and San Gimignano with their old sights. Pisa and Lucca also will easily make into your bucket list, easy to reach on local train from Florence and get back after that. Been to Cinque Terre? If not, then you should definitely include it as well
Posted by
North Carolina
2502 posts
What a great trip! It sounds like you'll have time for several day trips from Florence. A couple of suggestions: you could take the #7 bus up to Fiesole - great views. You could take an ~1 hr train ride to Arezzo - on the first Sunday and previous Saturday of each month, they have a huge antiques market. Of course there's Siena, which is spectacular - there are some really steep bits, but they can generally be avoided by routing your walk in a more circuitous fashion. In Florence, in addition to the main sites for viewing art, the Uffizi and the Academia (which you'd do well to reserve in advance), there are many smaller places that are easy to get into, e.g., the Bargello, the Museo San Marco, the Bracacci Chapel, Santa Croce, the museum housing works removed from the Duomo... Also, I'll bet you'd really enjoy the Palazzo Davanzati, aka the Museum of the Florentine House.
Posted by
New Orleans
1225 posts
With your interest in antiques, architecture and textiles, I highly recommend visiting the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence. In among the antique furniture and well-restored rooms, there is one room with cabinets full of drawers of antique lace and textiles. Amazing!
Posted by
OP
Indiana
104 posts
Thank you all. What wonderful suggestions! What do you think of taking the train to Cinque Terre from Florence, staying overnight and then on to Milan, then Zurich for the last section of my trip? Any ideas on how the scenery is on the regular train - not Bernina express -from Milan to Zurich? The only reason I'm flying out of Zurich is to see the Alps on the way from Milan I don't want to spend a day on a train and be disappointed. I understand there is a costume museum at Pitti Palace. Is it worth it? I was able to see the classical art museum at the Pitti Palace on my last visit, but the costume museum was closed for updating.
I managed Sienna fine on my last trip. I'll be fine for that sort of thing.
Is there a site where I can find all the bakeries in any given town? (the best bread I ever had was in Lido)
Please keep the suggestions coming!
Thank you all so very, very, much!