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On a second visit to Italy...now what? (November 2017)

Posted by (Los Angeles, CA) on

My husband and I traveled to Italy 10 years ago, flying into Milan and taking the train to Torino, then Florence, then Rome and flying out from there. We were there for 10 days. We were pretty thorough considering it was only 10 days. I don't feel the need to repeat it.

We find ourselves going to Milan for business in November this year for a week. We thought we would take another week or two to travel around, heading south after spending time in Venice. We're remote workers now and thought we would take advtantage of this new way of living and working.

Any suggestions, based on time of year, for places to see? I heard the Lakes region is mostly closed down due to time of year. I've read Puglia is a good retirement location for expats, and one of my favorite movies of all time took place in Palermo, Sicily (The Big Blue, Luc Besson, 1988). I read a review on Amazon that said Rick Steves guide on Italy only covered north and central Italy, so I am at a loss of even which guide book to start with to figure out what to see.

We've also considered taking hops to other countries or the nice overnight busses with wi fi and exploring adjacent countries. Any thoughts? Cost is a consideration.
See: https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/how-to-travel-cheap-europe-wanderu

Thanks!
Wendy of Los Angeles, CA
(formerly of Seattle, WA - we've been to RIck Steves classes in person and have the bags and taken the packing class!)

Posted by
16231 posts

I think only you can make up your mind. In Nov I'd stick to cities however. Venice, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Ravenna, Ferrara, Bologna, Parma, are all good options and each will keep you busy for most of a day. Venice will keep you busy for a couple of days. Bologna is a good base for the Emilia Romagna region.
Sicily requires a flight but it would be good. Sicily alone will keep you busy for 10+ days

Posted by
2124 posts

I'd just fly to Palermo or Catania from Milan, and tour the island with however many days you have. RS just spent some time in Sicily because I think he's given it short shrift in past years. Check out his Facebook videos.

Weather won't be fantastic (average 60's with a fair amount of rain) but you could catch some nice days and it won't be cold.

Posted by
490 posts

Great opportunity! I would consider the northern cities and towns as suggested . Rainy season with mostly outdoor sights and activities is not the time to go south of Rome.

Enjoy!

Posted by
7 posts

So we watched some videos and looked at some maps tonight. We were kind of torn between seeing capital cities in other countries or just staying in Italy. I think we've decided to go to Venice for 3 days then Naples/Pompeii for 3-4 days before heading home. I will look to see if he's given more recent info for Sicily, the video he has for there is from 2004. That's a whole generation! Taormino and Palermo look amazing in films I've seen, but there's just so much that's amazing about Italy altogether, it can be hard to decide

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