The wife and I are planning a trip to Italy and Austria in April-May. We arrive on the 28th of April in Rome (late evening), and then the itinerary was:
28th - 1st in Rome
2nd - 3rd in Capri
4th - 6th in Florence (including a day trip to Pisa)
7th - 9th in Venice
10th - 11th in Salzburg
12th in Milan
13th we fly out of Milan.
Leo, my Italian friend and bringer of bad news, says that we’re arriving at a terrible time. The weekend following our arrival is a long one, all of Italy is on holiday for 4 days starting May 1, there’s a huge free concert in Rome on the 1st, hotels will cost a bomb and more, and we’d just get lost in a sea of tourists everywhere in the country. Which we definitely don’t want. So this plan needed altering.
So now we’re thinking we’ll fly in to Milan on the 28th, and:
28th evening arrive in Milan
29th morning budget airline to Vienna
29th - 30th in Vienna
1st - 2nd in Salzburg (we’ll probably drive to Salzburg - should be gorgeous)
2nd night - overnight train to Venice (i would’ve loved to drive, but I imagine there will be a stiff fee for dropping off the rental car in a different country)
3rd - 5th in Venice (would’ve preferred to stay away from Venice on this weekend, but we don’t want to spend time in Austria at the expense of time in Italy)
6th - 8th in Florence (including the day trip to Pisa)
9th - 10th in Capri
11th - 13th in Rome
Fly out of Rome on the 14th.
We have a 3000 euro budget, excluding the flight tickets. I’ll be buying Eurail passes for our travel in Italy (included in said budget). We will stay in B&Bs and the like, to have more to spend on travel, sightseeing and food. We don’t intend on seeing all the sights - the idea is to have a fun and relaxing holiday.
I expect Venice will be ridiculously expensive that weekend, so if anyone has alternative ideas, I’d love to have them!
Any ideas, suggestions, anything?! There’s only two things that I can’t change on this trip - my budget and the day we arrive! Oh, and we’re going on our honeymoon
That’s your idea of a relaxing vacation? With all that moving around from place to place, you’re going to be exhausted by the time you get home and you won’t have much time to see anything. You have one full day in Vienna, one day in Salzburg, two days in Venice, two days in Florence (but one of those days will be spent in Pisa), one day in Capri, and three days in Rome. Keep in mind that everytime you move from one place to another, you lose pretty much a whole day in travel time and checking in and out of hotels. You might want to narrow down your itinerary so you have a little time to relax and soak things up. We spent a week in Rome and wanted to stay a month, there was so much to see there.
Why Capri? Personally speaking, I think you’re better off spending a few more days in Tuscany (Siena is particularly awesome) than getting over to the coast and an island trip only to have to return the next day. Plus, by overshooting Rome, you’re wasting a lot of time backtracking! Or you can add another day (or two) in Austria instead. As a whole, the itinerary doesn’t sound too bad (if a bit rushed), but the Capri leg is definitely the most impractical, and by that time, you may be exhausted anyway and up for some more casual Italian living. Just my $0.02.
Drop Capri and spend the extra time in Milan. At the very last it will give you time to acclimatise. You might also consider dropping Salzburg: for a relaxing holiday you’re sure doing a lot of travelling. Give yourself at least two full days per city and allow a full day for the travel. Something like:
28th Fly to Milan
2nd Travel to Vienna
5th Travel to Venice
8th Travel to Florence
11th Travel to Rome.
14th Fly home.
Yeah, there is a lot of travelling involved, but it’s intentional. I’m hoping to get into business school next year, so we can count on minimal to zero holidays till 2010 (or '11, depending where I go). We’re compensating by seeing and doing as much as we can now!
Overshooting Rome for Capri is a bummer - the journey from Florence to Capri will be a bitch - but my SO really wants to see the Blue Grotto. We’ll discuss it anyway - it really is a lot of travelling there.
For the rest of the trip, we’re not that bothered by the travelling. Distances are small in Italy, at least compared to what we’re used to in India!
You might try staying at Mestre instead of in Venice. Mestre is on the mainland just a short local bus ride from Venice. 30 years ago it was affordable. Haven’t been back since.
In Capri don’t take the tourist boats from Marina Grande to the Blue Grotto. Take the local bus. There is a coffeeshop above the entrance to the grotto and the small boats that go into the grotto will pick you up there. It is cheaper. Be sure to call to make sure the boats are going into the grotto before you take the trip out there. They don’t enter the grotto unless the seas are calm enough. Hotels in Capri will be pricey.
You are planning an extensive trip and I think you may have underestimated travel times though 40 years ago when I was your age I also did trips like that. I learned to see fewer places and more of each. But if you have the energy you will have a great time. You are visiting some of my favorite European cities. Venice and Rome are treasures.
Rick Steves has good suggestions for restaurants and hotels in Italy. Don’t buy the book, borrow it from the library and make notes.
Train passes are usually cheaper if you buy them before you go to Europe.
I agree with some of the other posters. That’s a lot to fit into two weeks. The first time I took my wife to Italy, we were there for 10 days, and did a Rome-Venice-Florence-Rome loop and it exhausted us. I had been to most of those places before, and lived in Italy for a few years, so I was more adjusted. For her not being as well traveled as I, it was a blur and far too much to see.
Sure in comparison to the US Itlay is smaller geographically, but you’re travelling by train. You’re not going to get there any faster than the train will. And even suppose you get up, eat that last breakfast at the hotel, and catch the 10am express train from Florence to Rome. Now you’re in Rome by…what, 12 probably at the latest? (I think I remember that being a quick trip). But you can’t check into your hotel in Rome until 3 or 4 pm. Now you have all your luggage with you that you have to do something with. Some hotels may let you leave your bags there before check in, but you won’t be able to freshen up at all. Even a change of shirt can make the world of difference. You’re between seasons in that time frame, so you’ll need to pack with the idea of hot and cooler days mixed with some rainy ones as well. So keep that in mind.
I’d suggest something more like what Quartz recommended. Either that, or leave Vienna out totally and do something like what we did. Fly into Rome, spend a couple of days there at the start of your trip, train to Venice couple of days there, train to Florence with a few days there, trip down to Rome either stoppin in Pisa on the way, or as a day trip from Rome or Florence. Then finish out the last days in Rome. You can also do a day trip to Pompeii from Rome without too much trouble also.
For some other threads about Italy, do a search on my name. I usually end up saying something in most Italy threads that pop up. Good Luck, and have a great time!
Take a chill pill and slow down!
This is like when my students in Berlin would say they were going to the US and planned to visit NYC, Miami, Las Vegas, LA and SF in 10 days.
One quick observation: Milan gets a bad rap as being somewhat industrial compared to other Italian cities. I like Milan a lot - and a very short train/subway ride away is the beautiful Lake Como, and another short train ride (45 minutes) north is Lugano, Switzerland. These are gorgeous areas to visit, with lots of things to do and April/May could be a really pretty time to visit.
I always found the best way to travel Europe is land somewhere and then let the mood strike you. Get on a train and get off the train somewhere you least expected. Roam the little villages and go to a cafe and meet the people. Ask where the best local restaurant is located - find a family owned bed and breakfast - rent bikes, take boat rides. Maybe it is just me, but that is the best way I found to really get the feel of a country and relax at the same time.
Thanks for the great advice, everyone! Looking at it from an impartial perspective, it does seem like we’re trying to do too much in not much time. I’ll be discussing this with my SO over the next few days - we really need to do some figuring out!
DMark, our original idea was in fact to just land in Rome and then make our trip as we go along. In fact, all I had intended to book was our flight tickets and a B&B for the first few nights.
Any suggestions on how to avoid the huge crowds that will be inevitable in every major tourist trap on the first weekend of May? It’s 4 days from Thursday to Sunday, and pretty much all of Italy is on holiday!
goudahere is a link to an older thread about Italy. In it I also link to a few even older threads. Some of the info may be a bit outdated, but the basics are all still the same.
I’m not sure which holiday is coming up, but keep in mind that if it’s a holiday for the italians, they’re not going to be at the tourist spots. They’ve already seen all that stuff. I do advise trying to plan out your day at least in general. That way you can look at the sights you’re going to see and group the ones that are together…well…together.
I’m not sure how much traveling you do, if this is just one of many trips out of the US that you take, or if this is a big “dream” sort of vacation and a once-in-a-lifetime deal. If the former, then going where your feet take you each day is fine. If it’s the latter, then I highly recommend doing research and figuring out what you absolutely have to see. In all the big tourist cities in Italy, there are hundreds upon hundreds of different things to see. You wouldn’t want to miss something that was just around the corner from you because you didn’t know it was there until you got back.
Let us know if you want more specific advise and I know I’ll be happy to help. Do check out some of those other threads, as there is a lot of good information there.
1st May is Labour Day, which falls on a Thursday. Most people in Italy, and the rest of Europe for that matter, will take the Friday off as well. So even if the italians themselves stay away from traditional tourist traps, there will still be boat loads of non-italian tourists to make up.
I’ve lived in Germany before, and have travelled a fair bit in Europe (never Italy though), while my SO hasn’t yet (she’s done the same in the US). While this certainly will not be our last trip outside India and also likely not our last trip to Italy, it is our honeymoon so there are some things we definitely want to do.
We do have a rough plan for Rome, Florence and Venice already, covering the major sights. For the rest, we’re both up to play it by ear.
We’re coming up with an alternate itinerary which I’ll post in a day. I’d love to get your inputs on that!
I loved Cinque Terre. We went there just for the day and had a fantastic time. We want to go back and spend more time there.
Beautiful.
Hiking.
Shopping.
The food was good too.
This falls into my opinion that I voiced in the older thread I linked to. Cinque Terre is a very picturesque sea-side like little town-villa sort of feel. The “wander the streets and visit the quaint shops and little cafe’s” kind of place. If you live in the US, there are hundreds of places in the country that can give you that same feel. True the buildings may not be made of stone and everyone won’t be speaking italian, but other than that the idea is the same. I visit other countries for things that I can’t find here in the US. Not a lot of 2000 year old buildings here. Heck, not a lot of very interesting architecture. At least not all in one place. Sure a city may have 3 or 4 interesting buildings, but nothing like what you’ll see in say Rome. Or can walk down a overgrown path through the jungle with howler monkey all around me and climb up an ancient Mayan pyramid. Knowing that the location is so out of the way that there aren’t probably more than a couple of hundred thousand people in the world today that have been there.
But…if you’ve traveled a lot. And been to Italy more times than you can count. Seen Rome, wandered the forum…ridden a gondola in Venice, see the sunset from the Ponte Vechio…then sure. Take a more relaxing vacation in a country that you love. It all depends on what you want. Cique Terra is a very beautiful part of the italian countryside. Although I’ve heard that the number of tourists has increased to the point that it’s loosing some of it’s “quaint” feel.
For our travel in Italy, I’m buying 2 10-day Eurail Adult Saver passes. The cost difference between 1st and 2nd class is about 50 euros each. Is it worth buying the 1st class pass, or is 2nd class make-do-able?
