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Need Help with Itinerary

Posted by on

We are beginning to plan our first trip to Italy. We have decided to go in October and have tentatively decided on 10 days with two of those being travel. I know we barely have enough days to scratch the surface. We are mostly interested in relaxing in scenic locations, good food and wine and seeing some of the big sites. We want to see some of the famous sites but don't want to spend all of our time at museums or looking at art.

Here is what I have so far

Fly into Milan (see The Last Supper and the Duomo)
Train to Varenna stay for 1 to 2 nights
Cinque Terre (we would enjoy hiking and visiting all the small towns)
Florence
Rome

Here are my questions Are Cinque Terre and The Lake district too much the same, should I cross one of those places off? Although this is the vibe we lean to more, relaxation, being outdoors, etc.

Would it be terrible to not do Rome and just concentrate on Florence?
What about Venice? Do I need to add that in?

I know it's all personal taste. I want a good combination of easy vibe and also seeing the sites that make Italy famous.
Knowing what you now know about my preferences how should we spend the eight days not including travel.

Posted by
8230 posts

Varenna 3 nights day trip to Milan
Cinque Terre 2 nights
Florence 3 nights
Less is more.

Rome and Venice will probably be still around to go see on another trip to Italy.

Posted by
5655 posts

With only 8 nights in Italy, scratch Rome and forget about Venice for this trip. You just don't have enough time. The rest is doable. The lakes and CT aren't similar at all. Fly out of Florence. You'll have to connect to another from a major European city for the flight home.

Posted by
1245 posts

With 8 nights, you don't have time for everything. Consider the traveling time, too. Checking in and out of hotels, getting to train stations, etc. I would pick no more than 3 places to stay, and preferably close to each other so you don't waste a day on train travel.
Cinque Terre and Lake Como are nothing like each other.

Where are you flying out of? That should be your 3rd (or last) stop.

Posted by
1829 posts

8 nights is not long enough for all of the places you mention.
Personally I would skip the lake and go to Venice for those nights, if you want to see sites that make Italy famous Venice can make a much better case of that than Lake Como can.

Lake Como is pretty and all and also completely different than the CT but if you can only pick 3 places in Italy I would never put Lake Como that high on a list of Italian sites.

Don't have time for Rome
So recommend Venice, Florence and Cinque Terre ; limit the time in Milan to the night before you fly out or better yet skip Milan and fly in and out of somewhere else ; like into Venice and out of Pisa.
You will be much happier with no more than 3 lodging places for this trip overall.

Posted by
124 posts

I agree with MReynolds. I would skip Varenna (sorry Rick) and Como.

If you have to fly into or out of Milan, it is a great city and there is a lot to see, but for a week, I agree that you should definitely limit yourself to two or three places -- Venice and Florence for sure. Stresa is a lovely place on Lake Maggiore (45 minutes by train from Milan) to spend a couple of days. I prefer it to the Como area. I am not a big fan of Cinque Terre -- expensive and crowded.

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