My wife and I are planning a trip to Italy (Oct. '07 for 2wks). What cities/regions do you recommend?

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TravelAgent

Since you have 2 weeks and you are traveling at a great time of year, anywhere you choose will be just perfect. Since you are the same age group as my husband and I, I'd suggest following the same itinerary my husband and I took on our trip in 2005. We went in late October. We were not into touring with a large tour group either, so we arranged day trips throughout our trip.
I suggest an itinerary that covers Rome, Florence and the Almalfi Coast. I would suggest flying into Rome and staying for 4 nights. Rome is a must on your first visit. And because it is a very action-packed city, putting it at the beginning of the itinerary will be great. Next, arrange a 'first class' train transfer from Rome to Florence. Have your hotel in Florence arrange a driver to pick you up at the train station and transfer you to your hotel in Florence. I'd personally stayed 6 nights in Florence. It's the city of art and a very easy walking city. A very relaxing part of the trip. I have a feeling you will enjoy this area (Tuscan region) the most. You will love walking to restaurants at night and enjoy the wine bars and cafes after dinner. Even the discos. While in Florence you can book day tours on some of the days (Leave at least 2 1/2 days open to explore just the city of Florence. The other days, surrounding cities such as Siena, San Gimiginano, Chianti, Pisa, Lucca and more are just a short day trip away. Day trips can be pre-booked ahead of time or arranged by your hotel manager/concierge. The cheapest way to do day trips is to go with a group. However, you will only be on the bus with them for the length of that particular day trip. The other way to do it would be with a private guide. But, a private guide would run you at least 4 times the amount of taking a group day tour. I choose to take private tours only one day in each city, because it was a little more hands on. But, a group tour works just fine and the group bus tours can usually arrange to pick you from your hotel in the morning. After the 6 nights in the Tuscan region (Florence), you should then arrange another 'first class' train ticket to Naples. From Naples, you will hire a private guide to pick you up at the train station and transfer you to Sorrento (in the heart of the Almalfi Coast). During this transfer, I had the private guide take me to Pompeii and Herculean to see the ruins, he then toured us through the coast line and finally to our hotel. Stay 3 - 4 nights in Sorrento. Because you are in the South of Italy, the weather should be mild. A beautiful time of year to see this area. Again, after getting to see Sorrento, take a day trip to the Isle of Capri, Poisitano, Almalfi and whatever other interest you have in this area. From the hotel in Sorrento, on the last day, have your hotel arrange a transfer to Naples airport, where you will catch a flight home. So, to recap, you would fly into Rome and out of Naples on this itinerary. I'm a travel agent and book just Italy vacations; I personally worked very hard on my last trip to Italy to see as much as I could, I was very happy with this itinerary. If you need assistance with anything, please contact me via email at luca@thetravelone.com - Enjoy the journey! Italy is magical and you will love every place you see, there is no wrong way to see Italy. Youâ€™ll see what I mean once you arrive. Enjoy!

skims!!!

rome

nickisbox

we spent time in the umbria region of italy and loved it! the villa we rented was near spoleto, it is such a charming town! if you or your wife are into ceramics, check out deruta italy, they have beautiful ceramics, all hand crafted and painted.

Mario

The main tourist attractions are Rome, Venice, and Florence & Tuscany.
I suggest staying in Tuscany:
http://www.tuscanweb.com/region/

Hope it helps.

TwilightBella

if you want to spend time together, don't go on a tour. My family is going there this spring break. VENICE, rome, (maybe dolamites),FLORENCE, and many other places are good. Look in tour books that are specialy for no large crowds, make a list of things you really want to do, and choose what cities have the most things you want to do. Some of the things that do attract large crowds are some of the reasons why most people go to Italy. They are fine, just make sure you can get in. Do you tourist things, and then go eat at one of the restaraunts the locals eat at, get to know them, that's the best part of any place in my opinion.

(if this was submited 2, sorry) Milan is great for shopping, expensive that is. In my opinion, the only thing that sounds interesting there is the Last Supper, which you have to make reservations like a year in advance. Milan is ok, but we're only going there because that's where we fly in from London (if flights to London, etc are cheaper, take them because then you get to spend some time in that country and the flights from there to like milan are CHEAP) Pisa is cool, take my advice. Also, you might want to make reservations for the city where your flying into or out of but leave the rest for when you get to that city. Though it may seem a little risky, it's good becuase if you get somewhere and you say "this stinks" but you're staying there for three days, you'll be bored and when you get to the next town and you REALLY like it, but you're only staying there for 1 night, you will be wishing your resrvation was longer. Don't limit yourself to reservations, you never know how much you will like a town. Good Luck!!!!!

Robert W

Try the VENETO Region, you can look at it on a map and decide for yourself. my family and i did the veneto for christmas break and we loved it. (we lived in italy previously so we spoke some italian when we went)

italianov3ro

well lemme think..
Rome
Venice
Palermo (Sicily)
Naples
Milan
Florence
Have Fun!

sonny

my advice if you dont like large tours is to plan the tour yourself prior departure, pick the cities you like, probably northern cities
the trick is this- land in Milan rent a car pick a route to go to one city to another. the problem is lodging which you should determine and reserve accordingly prior departure, also dining is to be take in consideration probably if you eat and lodge at the same place is safer. also beware not to be taken

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