Northern Italy in October

I was in Bologna and Venice the last half of October last year. Days were warm enough to go jacket-less, but for nights definitely have something - I found that a suit blazer worked great. I'd recommend Milan, Venice, and Bologna.

I lived in Chioggia for several years - about 50km south of Venice, and can say from experience that the weather can be very nice in October, sunny but cool evenings. November will be cool days with a good possibility of rain. Never gets really cold (only had a touch of snow once in three years) but will be chilly. Chioggia would be a nice place to visit - it is like a mini-Venice with a couple of canals and a broad bay. It is a fishing town so the fleet will be in the bay. Also Padova and Vicenza and of course Verona. If you can go earlier September is the ideal time - weather is perfect and the tourists are gone.

We were in Verona, Venice, CT, Florence, Rome and stops in between from mid October to first week of November.

The weather was very comfortable and the crowds were very managable. We had a slight drizzle one night in Venice (not enough for an umbrella or to keep us from walking around) and a light rain in Rome one night (we still walked around but it was enough to want an umbrella).

We really liked Verona; we liked the ampitheater here better than the Colliseum in Rome. It has a great medieval center.

Venice was magic. See the Duomo when the interior lights are on. Buy a one day Vaporetto pass and squeeze trips to the other islands into one day. Spend at least one night so you can experience Venice at it's best.

We all enjoyed hiking and relaxing in CT. We didn't get reservations just showed up and found a nice appartment (normally I call in the morning for rooms in the evening because we don't travel with a fixed itenerary, we travel shoulder seasons).

We liked San Gimignano and Orvieto a lot. Sienna was nice. The obligatory stop in Pisa was fine, no need to spend extra time there.

Next time, there are some other towns I will try to include in our trip, Assisi, Civitavecchia, Bologna, etc.

Lucca didn't do anything for us. I hear people rave about it on this site. I received a PM saying that there are great festivals there in June and July, in October the wall/park was nice - everything else was dead, we didn't see anything to recommend it.

We were dissapointed with Florence. The art and history are great but the cost and quality of lodging, and just okay food, spoiled an otherwise good city for us. Florence appeared crowded even in late October, can't imagine it in summer. It's still a must see but we're not in a hurry to return.

Rome was great this time of year but you have probably already toured there.

We leased a car which worked well, except for parking in Venice, La Spezia and Florence, we were able to drive directly to our destination. We dropped off when we arrived in Rome. Definitely get a GPS.

I would also recommend against bringing only an RS guide book. Between Venice and CT we found ourselves lacking any information on good places to visit or stay.