What Would You Do Next? ~ We Are Finishing Our Mid-October Rick Steves Tour In Florence

Venice seems obvious to me. Nothing else like it in the world. Also why not fly to Istanbul? You'd not be disappointed.

Claudia is right. Venice and Istanbul. Both are very unique places that everyone should visit at least once if not more.

I am guessing you are doing Heart of Italy which is a fun tour. I would stay at least one more day in Florence, then as others suggested go to Venice. If you want to extend longer in Florence, then you could also do a day trip to Siena. From Venice, I would fly EasyJet to Paris for another week. I realize you did not mention Paris, lol. It's just on my mind and you asked what I would do!

After finishing the Heart of Italy tour in Florence two years ago, we took a bus to Siena, where we spent three fun days. We then bused to Orvieto for another three days. We caught the train back to Rome for a couple more days to take in several attractions that were not on Rick's tour. Easy, relaxing excursions.

Leave some room for suggestions from your tour guides and other tourmates. Turkey is great, so are Austria, Belgium/Netherlands, France.

I would stay in Italy, you will have learned a lot by the end of your tour that you can use on your own. A few days in Bologna, Ravenna, the Lakes.

We are making the same decisions for our Oct. RS Tour - we are staying another 10days and NOT renting a car. After tons of research - we are extending time in Florence & taking a couple WALKABOUT FLORENCE Tours (the Chianti Wine & Food Safari and still deciding on the other one, maybe the Best of Tuscany), we are also taking a Bus to Siena as a day trip, but if I were you, I'd stay a night or 2. We are then heading south to Sorrento for 5 nights to see Herculaneum, etc. Then back to Rome w/a day trip to Orvieto before flying home. Our RS tour includes Venice, but if yours doesn't, that would most likely be on my list. We've read Rome & Milan would be easiest to fly home from.

We want to see the Lake area, Cinque Terre, and the Alp area, but we are saving that for another trip - we've read it can be rainy in CT mid-October.

That's certainly a wide open question and you might get more useful suggestions if you explain what it is that you're looking for. We just got back from Europe and did our last four days in Barcelona. Absolutely loved it.

I addressed Lake Bled on your other thread but I would also stick within Italy, as others advised, or easy flight destinations like Paris.

En-route to Venice, you could easily plan a stop at Padova (recommended to reserve a day or two ahead for the Scrovegni chapel). Or to get closer to the mountains, the direct train from Florence to Bolzano takes 3 hours (but some mountain lifts and services around there are only open through mid-October).

Doug - If you still have up to two weeks remaining try the Lakes and Venice. With that much time you can choose to spend enough time in each location. And depending on your choice of where to go first you can fly out of Milan or Venice when you're finished touring.

We are appreciative of the replies thus far! Since we've not travelled internationally too much, it's tricky to know how much to put into a trip. I had not travelled to Europe until a few years ago. Just to give perspective, I have gray hair and bifocals, which gives you some sense of age. We went to Switzerland and then an 11-day cruise of the Baltic on our first trip. Last year we drove around Ireland for a couple of weeks. I returned the car with side mirrors, so we did great! I'm now madly in love with Europe, clearly confessing how trivial our reasons were for not going earlier. We want to make up for lost time...

I'm learning from your posts to go for quality of travel versus quantity of miles. Great suggestions to develop an itinerary, yet be resilient and flexible. I don't expect we'll go beyond Italy after your guidance. Being new to this forum, I cannot express adequately how your joy of travel comes across in your responses. THANK YOU for your kindness of taking time and the thought you put forward to make our trip even better! Doug

Consider stopping in Bologna for 3-4 nights between Florence and Venice (a must-see place). It is an excellent base for day trips to Ravenna (spectacular 5th-6th century mosaics in the original churches), Ferrara, Padua, and others. Verona is one of my favorite towns in Italy and is worth a couple of nights with enough sights to fill a full day at least and a nice vibe in the evenings. Bologna is the food capital of Italy, by the way. If you head for Venice, Verona and the lakes, look for flights home from Milan.