Hi, I´m planning a trip to Italy in med june for 2 weeks. I was considering starting in Venice (2 nights) then move to Cinque Terre (5 days) and La Toscana towns (3 days), then move to the Amalfi Coast (3 nights). Do you think is a good itinerary, we will be moving by train or bus.. We want to enjoy beaches, culture and nature mostly, not interested in big cities. Any suggestions?
Posted by
San Diego, California
5649 posts
How many people? Ages? Travel style and budget? Been to Italy before?
You are rather late to be booking accommodations for June in these very popular places. Availability may influence your itinerary.
Venice needs more time, the CT less, and the AC more days because of the difficulty getting into the AC and moving about. You need to be in Rome or Naples the night before your departing flight, if you're in the AC.
Italian beaches are not like US beaches. Italian beaches are pebbly and lack the fine white sand.
I'd skip the AC for this trip unless you can add more days.
Review the related posts under Italy here on the Forum. This is almost a daily topic, and there is very helpful info already posted. Do extended research, and come back with a firmer plan, more specific questions, and we can help you more. And do it soon, as every day your choices of lodging are decreasing.
Safe travels!
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1147 posts
Hello vivianavillalon77, and welcome to the forum!
There's a lot to unpack here but a big question - where will you be flying out of? If you end in Amalfi then Rome or Naples are the obvious choices. But I think everyone would strongly recommend being in that town for a flight out the next day so I would plan your last night in your departure city.
That brings us to the point that travel into and out of Amalfi is complicated and slow. You can fast train as far as Naples and then local train as far as Sorrento but then is it bus, car or ferry to the coast itself. Alternatively you can fast train to Salerno and then bus or ferry to Amalfi but many people like the small, charming town of Sorrento as the "introduction to Amalfi".
Taking Florence as a jumping off point in Tuscany I would expect at least 4-5 hours by train to get to either Sorrento or Salerno and then the travel time to Amalfi itself. These travel difficulties are are why most people would recommend not trying to navigate this way on the day of your flight.
I absolutely love Venice but it is all the way across the country from CT and I would recommend flying into Milan, Pisa or Florence instead to be closer. I estimate Venice to CT travel is probably 8+ hours from door to door. If you have limited time on the ground I would avoid spending so much time getting place to place.
I'm sure you'll get tons of advice but these big decisions about how much time to actually spend traveling around Italy I think are a good place to start.
Whatever you decide, have a great trip!
=Tod
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks so much for your comments! We will be 2 people. Due to your comments I decided to skip Amalfi Coast and use those days in nice places located between Florence and Venece. Any suggestions besides La Toscana, (which is already included in the plan)? as I said we want to enjoy nature, culture, small towns, food, rather than big cities, cause we already wento to Florence and Rome. I would fly in to Venece and out from Florence or Rome.
thanks!
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1147 posts
Circling back to your planning I would add a day to Venice - it deserves it and it gives you an additional day to acclimate.
From there if you're moving across northern Italy there a several options, but given your interests I think one of the lakes would be good. Lake Garda is very near Verona which is an 1.5 hours from Venice by fast train. The lower part of the lake is easily accessible by train but is very touristy. You should look into Malcesine on Lake Garda. You can take the midlake ferry and a cable car up Mount Balda and check out the mountain views and hikes. You would probably need to take a bus from Verona train station to reach Malcesine but it should be pretty straightforward. There are other smaller towns as well but I think the towns and trips around Malcesine could fit what you're interested in.
Lake Como is also very pretty and worth exploring but you jumping off point for there would be Milan so either before or after CT since one is south from Milan and the other is north. Varenna is Rick's recommendation for Como and it's a good one but there are fewer obvious nature related activities but there are always walks, hikes and water activities.
I know people also visit the Dolomites - the Italian alps - from Venice around this area but I haven't done it so I'll leave it up to Rick for advice on that, but June should be lovely.
Have you nailed down the Tuscan towns you want to visit? Public transportation in rural Tuscany can be slow and complicated so you should have a firm plan of what you want to visit and how that's going to happen.
Have fun planning,
=Tod