Possible 10 year Anniversary trip to Italy

I just did my research using travel advisor based on their top 10 things to do. Then when I arrived I talked to someone at the Hotel (stayed at Hotel Rialto) about doing some non-touristy things.
I stayed in Venice but I purchased all of my sightseeing stuff on the app Viator as it is easier to purchase and go than to wait in line and go. Most of the high end restaurants you need early reservations which I did not have but still was able to get into one thanks to the hotel manager where I was staying.


As far as flight I was in Belgium and just booked Ryan air to Venice. Hotel and all booked through phone after looking at locations and what not.

Buy a used rick steves Italy book off eBay and look at trip advisor for hotels.

We did Italy and Greece last year. Spent a few days in Rome with day trips to Cinque Terre and Tuscany. Then a few more days in Positano. Then on to Santorini. It was a lot to pack into one trip, but we loved every minute.

quote:

---

Buy a used rick steves Italy book off eBay

---

That or watch his episodes on italy and use that as a way to decide what cities you want to hit. The hardest part is deciding what cities you want to visit

Then it’s as easy as booking flights, trains, hotels. Plan out your days. Use the internet or even this board, it’s all there

Really seems every city in Italy could be seen 3 days, at least two full days of sight seeing and a day of travel either coming in or out of the city. Depends on how much someone wants to do as well.

I’m not a fan of packages or travel agents, but you need to determine your own comfort level with detailed travel planning. Italy is a very diverse country—deciding where to go & how to spend your time is the first decision to make. You can’t plan much of anything until you do some research and decide on your priorities: do you want city, country, landscapes/scenery, art, religious pilgrimage stuff, wine, food, outdoor activities, etc.

Also, I think it’s a sweet idea to do some planning without her knowledge, but please don’t do all of it. Maybe buy a bottle of Italian wine, write up a note that you’re springing for a trip to Italy, and give it to her....because it would be a shame to buy plane tickets or book specific cities to find out once you tell her that she really wanted to see Venice, or would have preferred Pompeii to walking in Cinque Terre, or only wants to do cities.....make the planning a joint exercise, you’ll both enjoy the trip more that way.

First off, where are you flying from OP and how many cities do you want to do? How adventurous are you?

The typical tour of Italy is something like 4-5 nights in Rome, 2-3 nights in Florence, and 2-3 nights in Venice. Fly into either Venice or Rome and out of the other city.

As said, there are some really good packages out there with flights and hotels included. Check out Gate1 travel. I personally wouldn't use a travel agent but if you usually don't know what you are doing a travel agent will usually save you more than they cost, so I wouldn't entirely rule one out.

OP, I started Italy researching/saving at year 6 for my 10th anniversary, and revealed the surprise on our anniversary after it was all arranged. So you're inquiry/thread really rings a bell. The trip was 10 years ago now. I ended up using Italysource.com. It's a husband and wife team with a handful of employees that specialize in Italy. I'm not here to play salesman. But whether you use them or not, check out their website, as it will give you good ideas as to various city combinations and sequences in planning your trip, should you do it on your own. As for my experience with them, I could not have been more pleased. At any time, even while in Italy, I could call and speak to the owner with questions or travel advice. They know Italy and periodically return and stay in the hotels they use. By my request, I asked them to combine/extract features from some of their listed packages into a custom plan that turned out awesome. We started out with a few nights in Lake Lucerne Switzerland, and trained from there through the alps into Italy. Having never been out of the country before at that point, private transfers waiting for you at key junctions (airport/train stations) and transporting you to the hotel, really helped out tremendously.