One night stays?

Only small mom and pop hotels or B&Bs in certain locations have 2 night minimums, especially in high season. Most hotels in the US and Italy in medium/large cities don't have any minimum night stay requirements. Business hotels/ travelers for sure would not appreciate this type of requirement.

I know here in the States most hotels have a two night minimum.

That is news to me. I've had more one-night stays than I care to count. A couple were even in Italy.

Maybe I'm thinking of B&B's and places like that....

I found that B&B's have two night stay minimums on the weekend in the USA., Friday and Saturday nights. Don't know about Italy. But I would suspect the smaller the hotel or inn or a B&B there would be a two night minimum on the weekends and maybe on the weekdays. You just have to keep checking hotels and see what their policy is regarding one night stays and see if you could do a one night stay during the week and avoid the weekends with a one night stay request.

One night stays seem like a good idea until you do them. It's a lot of bother to pack up and move, unpack, try to do something, start all over again. You can stay in Venice and day trip to Padua/Padova (IT) or Verona. Much better use of time. Or stay in Padova and day trip to Venice and Verona. To me it is not about what the hotel or B&B allows, but about what might be less stressful and a better use of time. Do not underestimate the time it takes to orient yourself to a new place.

I never really liked one night stands.

Season, season, season. Here in Green Bay, on weekends when the Packers are playing, a two-night stay is required. Any other time, no such restriction.

I myself have not run into 2-night minimums, in the US, in Italy, or anywhere else. As has been said, that may be more likely for B & B's and especially apartments. I try to avoid 1-night stays, as they usually seem rushed and do not give you enough time to really appreciate and enjoy a town in a leisurely way. Still, sometimes it makes sense, if you really want to visit a special site or museum, and don't particularly care about other things in that town. Or if you are on a quite long road trip and just want to stop for dinner, a shower and some sleep. Although, often a 1-night stay near a departure airport. Every once in a while, I will stay in a room for several nights, and if I want to make another visit that is longer than a reasonable day trip but I do not want to pack up and move, I will get a second very inexpensive room in the place I am visiting, and travel with very minimal stuff in a day pack. That really only makes sense when both rooms are very low-price.

I agree to see Padova as a daytrip. A one-night stay might take half the actual travel time of a daytrip, but the saving if check-in/out, pack/unpack, and the new orientation cuts into any saving of €.

Thanks for the input..I agree...one night might not be enough in these places and I am sort of limited with time. I think I'll stick with the original plan of taking a train from Venice to Bergamo to stay for two nights. Maybe take a day trip to Brescia? After Bergamo take a train to Milan for a night before I fly home the next day. And all this means is that I'll just have to go back to see the other places!

I personally try to avoid the 1 night stay while on vacation unless in a situation where the last night I want to be closer to the airport.
In your case I think you are better off sticking with 2 nights per. Just too much time lost and you start to feel like a gypsy never really unpacking your bag. If you don't mind that feeling and can pack light you can make it work I guess.

In terms of hotels, I don't think you will run into a minimum stay issue. Unless you are looking at Airb2b places which will have minimums everywhere. (cleaning fees would make them make no sense for 1 night usually anyway)
In the US, many of the stay limits are seasonal, all along the northeast coast even the larger resorts (not just mom and pop B&B's) have 2 or even 3 night weekend minimums in the summer months. Some of these do plenty of business convention/retreat business but in the cities here 1 night stays are going to be fine.

I spent one night in Milan before flying out last year. I arrived by train in the morning and took the hop on/hop off bus around the city the rest of the day. The duomo was impressive, but other than that I didn't care for Milan at all. I was happy we only spent one night there. I usually try to avoid one nighters, but have done that from time to time as I'm traveling through an area.

I spent one night in Milan before flying out last year. I arrived by train in the morning and took the hop on/hop off bus around the city the rest of the day. The duomo was impressive, but other than that I didn't care for Milan at all. I was happy we only spent one night there. I usually try to avoid one nighters, but have done that from time to time as I'm traveling through an area.