Suggestions for week after Village Italy tour

Jane, check airline schedules out of Venice back to your home. Others have reported here that Venice departures tend to be extremely early, causing a need for very expensive transportation to the airport (and not much sleep the night before departure). It doesn't sound as if Venice is a great place to depart from, but your particularly routing might be different.

I haven't taken the VI tour, but I just looked at the itinerary, and I agree that one thing you'll want to do is see more of Ravenna and Assisi. Ravenna's not large, but there are 6 or 7 glorious mosaic sites (one slightly outside town but accessible by local bus if you're not driving), and the tour only visits two of them. Also, the colorful historic district is really lovely, so you'll want some wandering-around time as well as time to see all the mosaic sites. One day should do it. Ravenna looked like it would be a very nice place to spend the night, but I haven't done that.

Assisi is also beautiful, all creamy stone. I know there's at least one St. Francis-related sight other than the Basilica, which the tour apparently doesn't visit. And you'll love walking around the historic area away from the basilica. I saw very few tourists there, whereas the area close to the basilica is a zoo. With the time the tour spends there, you might find one full additional day sufficient. I'm not religious and am all about the aesthetics rather than the history, so you will experience the city differently.

I'm not at all familiar with the eastern coast of Italy; it would be nice to visit one of the coastal towns, but I have no idea which one to suggest.

I see that Gubbio--often recommended in guide books though I haven't yet managed to see it--is quite near Assisi. It's practical by car or by bus from Perugia (nice larger city). It looks like it would be a mistake to try to visit Gubbio by bus from Assisi.

Up near Ravenna is the small city of Faenza, historically important for ceramic production. It has a very nice ceramic museum, including contemporary ceramics. There's an attractive historic district, but I'd recommend the city over other options only if you happen to be particularly interested in ceramics.

I'm convinced by posts on this forum that Ferrara (NNE of Bologna) is very worthwhile. It'll be on my next Italian itinerary.

Definitely more time in Ravenna and Assisi. From Assisi you can take the train to Spello and Trevi, although buses from the train station are infrequent.

Ferrara is s wonderful place, many sights in a reasonably small area.

I did do the VI tour. What I wish I had done (and I think maybe I mentioned this before) was NOT spend another night in Orta San Giulio. I would plan to spend the AM, eat lunch, then go to Milan in the afternoon via taxi. I wish I had spent 2 nights in Milan but the timing was not right to see the Last Supper due to their closure day or something...or me just not being experienced enough to plan better, lol.

We spent most of a day in both Ravenna and Asissi so if you want more, plan to go back. It was my first time to either and I was good with seeing what we saw and moving on...but this was about week 6 or 7 in an 8 week trip so my opinion might be different now.

I am guessing there aren't any direct flights to Tulsa from Europe but you might consider a couple of days in whatever European city you might leave from to get to your closest Int'l arrival city....if that makes any sense at all. For instance, flying out of Milan, I had to leave at 0-dark-30 to get to Amsterdam to get my international hop to Seattle, then another flight home from there. I was thinking that what would have been better was to leave mid-day from Milan to Amsterdam, spend a day or 2 in Amsterdam and then catch my flight from there to Seattle, so taking it in stages to get back home. This is what I would recommend in particular if you decide to fly out of Venice, which will be an early flight with a connection if you are doing it in one day.

I took the VI tour in 2015. The one place my traveling companion wanted to go was Rome, so we shared a taxi from Orta to Milan and then hopped right on the train to Rome. Lake Orta was lovely, but we were ready to move on.
One thing we agreed on was that we would have loveed to have spent more time in Ravenna and Assisi. While our time in Assisi was enough to see the main sights, we thought it would be great to spend the night there, in part because we loved the atmosphere. But one night would have been enough for me. If you like mosaics (I love mosaics and Byzantine history) then I highly recommend Ravenna. We managed to see one other church while we were there on the tour during our free time, even managing to use our group ticket to get in, but I would have loved to see more! The town was small and rather charming, too. I would spend a couple of nights there. With 5 or so days, that should be plenty for you!

As far as flying in and out, check some other airports that are close on the map or easy to get to. For example, we got a great deal flying into Verona, where we spent a night before taking the train to Venice for two days before our tour started. That was a sweet, relaxed way to start our trip. Bologna is pretty close to Ravenna, so maybe that would be a good place to fly out of. Try a few cities in an internet search.
Just so you know, although the tour seems fairly mellow, we were definitely active and on the move, so try not to plan several one night stays after the tour. We were glad to stay in one place for a couple days. Your ideas for post tour travels sounds fun! If it was me, I would do one night in Milan, two nights in Ravenna, and two in Assisi. The order would depend on flights and train schedules. You will LOVE the tour! So many lovely villages and towns to meander through!

We did the VI tour last year. It was amazing. We would have been glad to spend an extra day at almost any of the stops. Everyone will have their own opinions, but Orvieto and Lucca were our favorites. For our post-tour time, we decided that rather than backtracking the tour, we would stay more 5 nights in Florence. We felt it has the greatest concentration of interests for us, without requiring us to dash by train or car too far around Italy. The morning after the tour ended in Orta, we got up with everyone else and vanpooled down to Milan. Many folks were flying home out of Milan that day, but we got dropped at the train station and arrived in Florence by the early afternoon. We were able to thoroughly explore the many Florence sights we wanted. The slight downside was the 0730 flight time up to Paris, in order to catch the nonstop home. We needed to get up a bit earlier than we had grown accustomed to. But the Florence airport is a quick taxi ride from downtown, and is small and easy to navigate. N. Italy has such a wealth of possibilities, you can't go wrong in whatever you choose. You just need to plan on another trip. :) Enjoy.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input, and the verification of my suspicions that the tour did not spend enough time in Ravenna or Assisi. (Or Orvieto, or Lucca, or Siena.) And Pam, I like the idea of an intermediate stop before the trans-Atlantic flight home. I may look into that. You're right; there are no international flights into Tulsa, even though is is considered an International Airport. We usually go through Dallas, then through Atlanta or Chicago.

We do love Florence, and have considered ending our Italy stay there. Sigh. So many wonderful places; so little time.

Thanks you so much for adding this question as a group of us are taking the VI tour next year in May. We are flying in/out of Venice on KLM in via Amsterdam with a Delta return from Venice at 11:00AM to Atlanta. We plan to stay in Padova 3 night on our own then the two nights with tour so five nights in one place. I thinks this will go along way to helping make us get adjusted to the timezone changes. Our after tour plans are to head to Milan for the train to Venice where we will spend 3 nights before our flight home. Getting ideas on others are doing does help make the planning easier.

Since Italy has a nearly infinite number of interesting places to visit, one thing I'd suggest is to consider what your next visit to Italy may look like. If that trip might cover Rome and points south, Orvieto would be an easy side-trip from Rome by train, so you might choose a different add-on stop this time around. If you're thinking, "Next time--the Dolomites," it will be easier to include Ravenna then (not as a day-trip) than Assisi.

These days, the cheapest nonstop flights to Italy are out of NYC to Milan, but the price jumps a lot after May 14. So if you are going early May, you're in luck if can spend an overnight in the Big Apple before hand.

My wife and I will be on the VI tour in May and plan to spend additional time after the tour in Milan (3 nights) and Venice (7 nights). We will be leaving from Venice on an 11:00 a.m. Delta flight to Atlanta (perhaps the same outbound flight mentioned by Mark G.).

I am an art historian and retired art museum director, and, therefore, I am happy to note that your interests include art (especially frescoes and mosaics) and that you are a practicing Catholic. With that in mind, let me suggest that you consider a visit to Milan, specifically to see Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper and the Milan cathedral, as my wife and I plan to do. Leonardo's masterpiece is well-known, of course; and Milan's cathedral is one of the most spectacular gothic cathedrals anywhere (with neo-gothic additions) and it is the largest church in Italy (St. Peter's Basilica is larger, but it is in the State of Vatican City, so technically not part of Italy).

I suspect that you have visited Venice. For us, it will be the first time there together, and, we feel it will be the perfect ending for our inaugural trip to Italy together. I also look forward to viewing the magnificent mosaics in the Basilica of San Marco, and contrasting them to the much earlier mosaics we will have seen in Ravenna.

I would arrive 2-3 days early and spend those days in Venice. Since you love frescoes and mosaics, be sure to see San Marco's beautiful gold mosaics. You will like the Accademia, the multitude of art in various churches in Venice, etc.

The RS itinerary hits the high points in Padova; I wouldn't bother spending your pre-tour days in Padova. (We've stayed there 5 days) Be sure to see the Art Museum during your free time because of your interests you listed.. Another easy option for pre-tour days would be to go to Verona, a very nice town (you'd love the Roman arena) but it doesn't have as much art as Venice.

After your trip - since you've been focusing in the villages of Italy, I would recommend either heading to one of the larger cities ~Torino, Florence, Milan, Rome. If you head to Rome, you'd probably love seeing Ostia Antica. It's easy to get there by Metro & a tram line.

I'll also throw out this idea just to expand your options - flights back from Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich) are a 5-hour train from Orta San Giulio. You could explore some completely different villages & scenery and then head towards one of those airports the last night.

I'm loving all the suggestions and observations. Jean, I love the idea of adding the train trip to Switzerland. We probably can't handle that this time, but it fits it with Pam's suggestion of splitting up the trip home. We had actually thought about something similar: splitting up the trip on the way to Europe. Someone had suggested that on another thread recently. The poster flew from the States to London, spent a day or two in London, then hopped a shorter flight to Rome or Berlin or wherever. Splitting either trip - there or back - makes a lot of sense.

SteveM: Yes, we are hoping to spend a day or two in Milan, and the Last Supper is on our list. My DH is a Leonardo groupie, and we both love art, as I mentioned. (BTW: in my next life I want to be an art restorer. If I had realized that that field existed, I suspect that's what I would have chosen this time around. Of course, I said the same thing the first time I ever saw a female park ranger...)

And acracen, you are absolutely right about putting all this in a larger context. Yes, we plan to return to Italy in a few years. And I'm always preaching on this forum about slowing down, spending more time in each place, and heeding Ricks dictum: "Assume you're coming back." So I suspect our post-tour days will be divided between Ravenna and Milan. I love the idea of staying in a smaller place for 2 or 3 nights, slowing down, enjoying whatever it is that makes Italy so attractive. After all, that's why we go there!

Thanks, everybody.

Logistically, you'll use a lot of time to get to/from Assisi and/or Ravenna after the tour. I'd suggest loading most of your time at the front end, unwind in Venice (the best place in Italy for getting over jetlag and absorbing the special atmosphere), then a couple nights in Ferrara (or Bologna) with a day trip to Ravenna (skip the few sights the tour covers), then the long train ride to/from Assisi. Sadly, Assisi is an "outlier" and it will take a lot of time to get there and back but it's worth it. Even though the tour goes to the Basilica, do it on your own as well. The frescoes are wonderful. After the tour, spend 1-2 nights in Milan and fly home.

Chani, your suggestions (as usual) make a lot of sense. I was trying to figure out the best city from which to leave for home, and since the tour ends near Milan, that seems like an obvious choice. I think the main reason we were looking at extending our travels after the tour, rather than before, was so we'd have a chance to brush up on our Italian during the tour itself, before we headed off on our own.

But you've given me something to think about... I do like the idea of not having to backtrack to leave the country.

So you'll brush up on your Italian before the tour and impress your tour mates!

We just returned from our VI tour, and did basically what Chani suggested. We arrived three days early in Venice, so had time to explore the city on our own (and use our Italian that we had been learning). Then at the end of the tour, we spent two nights in Varenna on Lake Como and two nights in Milan before flying home. BTW, our tour guide organized shared transportation from Lake Orta to Milan, which we were grateful for.

We had a wonderful time on our VI tour. I wish we could have stayed extra nights everywhere we went. I would have liked one more night in Orta and maybe taken a ride to Switzerland from Lake Como. But since our trip was already three weeks, it was time for us to head home.