Initial Stages of Planning my Italy Trip

I love Venice and I think three days there is too many. Do you like wine? If so I'd fit a couple of days into Piedmont or The little towns of Tuscany. The lakes up north are incredible too.

Sounds good. Are you getting a car? Florence to Rome is straight shot on the A-1 Autostrada.Both cities have major train stations and are an easy train ride away from each other. Other than that the order does not matter much because the CT is not that far from Florence. We drove from Rome to Florence. We drove from Florence to La Spezia from where we took the train to the CT towns. Great trip.

Do not go to Italy in August. Like many other Europeans countries a ton of businesses shut down for the month. Plus it can be hot as blue blazes in July and August. September would be preferred.

It's not only the heat. Europeans don't have the hygiene of Americans from my experiences.

If you go in the summer, remember that Europe doesn't use AC like we do in the states. Some places still don't have it at all, and there's many places that only use it a limited amount. It's not like the states.

Venice at the beginning of your trip for 3 nights is right. You land and only have half a day, then you have two full days before leaving early the 3rd day most likely. IMO that's right, you have the time to do everything and relax a little. If you only stay 2 nights at the beginning of your trip first time to Europe you are pushing your self and going to miss a lot there. Just realize Venice is like being in a different country, I always tell people to enjoy the best of Venice when there and not worry about it being in Italy. Enjoy Italy for Italy when you leave Venice. What I mean by that is something like a gelato may be 5 euros in Venice and 1 euro elsewhere.

Every post spot on. Lake como is worth a visit as are all of your sites. 2 full days in Venice are plenty. Many impressive sites in Italy. If u travel by train do it at night if possible. Have fun and watch your belongings. Gypsys all over and they pose as train porters and grab your luggage. Wear neck wallet everywhere. Otherwise trip will be great.

Just remember to give yourself extra time occasionally. You can't say Venice 3 nights and Florence 3 nights and expect anywhere close to 3 full days in both. Even though a train ride may only be 2 hours, you have to pack, check out of the hotel, travel to the train station, find your hotel, check in, in pack, refresh, etc.

Italy is one of the best countries in the world to take it slow, have a glass of wine at lunch, take a siesta, and just enjoy the culture. You really want to give yourself at least 2 full days to do litttle to nothing on a trip that long. So id try to schedule that in, you don't have to literally do nothing but it's nice to have an extremely relaxing day of not running from site to site. Or else you wear yourself out and need a vacation from your vacation when you get home.

Thanks for the advice (if you were indeed replying to me). We travel with our three elementary aged kids (6, 8, 11), so I have to have at least a rough plan of what we will be doing so I can make sure to include things that they would like in addition to things my husband and I would enjoy. So, even though our plan sounds rather go-go-go, we have a good bit of down time built in- but not so much that the little ones get restless. ;) Plus, I know based on other trips we've taken, that it's better for us to have plans and then decide to change them once there, than it is for us to not know what to do once we're in a new city. And travel planning is kind of my hobby. I like to over-plan. But I do sincerely appreciate your input.

And to the poster that has biked Lucca's city walls, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! That's one of the things I threw in for the kids but I think it will be fun for all.

We stayed in old town part of Monterosso, which is the largest town with the most night life and restaurant options and after visiting all the towns, we feel like we made the right choice.

Especially after arriving back from Florence on the last train on a Sunday night, there was only one place open and the mussels stew was good enough for me to want to return to have that dish again.

Anyway, it is not the prettiest of the CT towns but has the most amenities. Check out Locanda Il Maestrale B&B.