I am planning a trip to Milan in March of 2025. We have 10 days and want to visit Milan, Verona, Venice and end in Florence by day 8. Any suggestions on when to train and when we should rent a car. We are looking at 1.5 days in Milan, then train to Verona.. Stay one day in Verona then travel to Venice. Stay in Venice for two days, then travel to Florence. We want to visit Florence to visit a winery we know, and other time visit possibly cinque terre and montepulciano.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5448 posts
With all due respect, given the time required to travel from one place to the next, you won't really have time to visit the CT, and in any event, March is a bit early for that. All of your other cities are efficiently reachable by train, except for Montepulciano. A rental would be most efficient for that. Given the low legal limit for blood alcohol, any winery visits should be done either by a day tour, a hired car and driver, or by a designated driver. Remember that all drivers in your party will need an IDP.
Posted by
Irving
3234 posts
How many nights will you sleep in IT?
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1110 posts
Hello colsconz, and welcome to the forum!
The general advice on the forum is to track the number of nights you have and then assign them to the different places to stay. This makes it easy to know where and when you need reservations and when you need travel reservations. Keeping in mind that you have one less full day than you have nights somewhere - 2 nights is 1 full day and potentially 2 partial days - plan your activities and your "must sees" into the time you have. I personally try not to stay anywhere only one night unless it is for logistical purposes like flying out the next day.
I use a spreadsheet with each night listing the city, time of travel for travel days and keep track of dates and number of nights. I like it because it lets me move details around the play with the details. But that's just me and not everyone necessarily works the same way.
With 10 or 11 nights I would recommend 3 places maximum - especially big destinations like Venice and Florence with a lot to see and do. If you want to do 1 night in Milan after you fly in and then onto Verona for 2 nights I would recommend at least 3 for Venice that would leave you 4 or 5 for Florence which should give you time to do a day trip to winery and/or Montepulciano. Keep in mind that Montepulciano is a good 2 hours away by car from Florence and this would probably be a very long day.
The train is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to move between all these cities with the exception of rural Tuscany like Montepulciano which will require a car. I would look into a driver or tour service as the easiest way to do one - potentially long - day of driving with wine tasting.
I think anything beyond this - especially the logistically difficult CT - is out of reach without more time in the schedule.
Help that helps,
=Tod