My wife and I are going to Italy May 4-12 for our honeymoon. We're flying in and out of Venice. We definitely want to go to Florence. Any suggestions of places to stop at during that time? We want to do lots of eating, lots of drinking good wine, seeing good art and doing lots of hiking.
Any tips appreciated!
Are you counting your travel days? How many nights will you be on the ground? Thats a better way of managing time.
Go straight to Florence after you arrive and work your way back to Venice.
To me it sucks changing hotels so I would split your stay to two hotel stays;
assuming you are flying May 4 arriving May 5 and flying out May 12:
May 5-6-7-8 Florence
May 9-10-11 Venice.
Nail that down first. Then get some kind of guide book to see what you are interested in seeing. Those guide books also have lists of places to eat.
Most would probably say based on where say you definitely want to go, you might find the hiking on a day trip somewhere or will not have time for it. You will be walking a lot anyway up and down
Any tips appreciated!
Get a guide book and see what interests you in each city.
If you arrive in Venice mid-afternoon or earlier, I would go directly to Florence and spend however long you decide you want there and then go and end your trip in Venice. This will eliminate one hotel change.
Great advice from Jazz and Joe. I understand the desire to hike, but the locations to do that require somewhat excessive travel time and if you want to see Venice and Florence, that is all you really have time for.
On your way home, plan your next trip and make it September in the Dolomites.
Treviso is lovely and has wonderful restaurants, many with tables out on the piazza. And there are also canals, nothing like Venice but not the terrible crowds that Venice has. Also, the Proseco Wine Trail is just north of that area, the vineyards are on steep hillsides and the views are spectacular.
Verona is a lovely ancient city with great restaurants and shopping. The Arena us older than the Colosseum in Rome, and since its your honeymoon- a romantic stroll to “Giuletta’s balcony” would be perfect!
Happy Travels💫✨
For your comment about good hiking you may want to spend a day or 2 in Cinque Terre. The hikes between cities are wonderful. It is available by train from Venice and Florence. The caution here is twofold- the train rides can be long due to connections, eating up half a day or more in travel and would be weather dependent.
Just sightseeing in any city is hiking enough for me so another thought would be to take day trips to cities accessible by train. Lucca and Pisa are a good day trip from Florence.
Two of the four segments of the lower-level path stretching along the Cinque Terre have been closed for an extended period (two years?) due to severe weather damage. There is no indication of when they may re-open.
Not hikes, but I guess you could turn them into one. Fiesole is around 3 miles from Florence.
And Piazzale Michelanglo on the other side of Florence around 1 1/2 miles. Great views of Florence from both.
Good advice from Jazz. Florence has more to see than Venice. Both are great. Take the high speed train.
If you have a chance go to Verona. The Arena is older than the Colosseum in Rome, the city is beautiful,Juliets house and balcony and statue, you can also mail a letter to Juliet- lots of shopping and great restaurants- I had the best meal of my life at:
http://www.osteriailbertoldo.com/
It is a family run restaurant, tucked away in a alley that has THEE most amazing food you will ever eat!! Reservations are a must and easy to make, I mafe on trip advisor and emailed them to confirm- It was one of the funnest nights with the most flavorful food Ive ever had! Father tends bar, Mother makes all the desserts, son is the waiter- it is a must!!
Happy Travels✨💫
People said "get a guide book ..." >> "yes!" >> I like Rick's books and will always buy one. I just bought a Lonely Planet guidebook (I don't like it's layout) and it talks about hiking trails WAY more than Rick ever does. So you may want to check one out of the library and review it.
Also, I took a trip to Spain this spring and purchased the largest scale map I could of one region. It was very good at looking at parks, vistas, etc.
I love all the museums and churches in Florence. In addition, the Boboli gardens on the south side of the river are large - they were nice - but we so tired when we got there that we didn't walk much of it.
