Amalfi as already mentioned. San Marino is a nice gem too.

Sorrento/Amalfi, Rome, Cinque Terre and Venice.

We are heading to portofino in two weeks for a wedding and are going to spend a day in the cinque terra. I'll post an update post mudslides. I've heard a lot of the trails have reopened, but vernazza still has a long way to go.

If you like History...Rome is a must see!
I highly recommend the Rick Steves book, very helpful to read before you go

Florence has a TON of architecturally-significant buildings. Rome has a TON of history, but it's crowded and most of the historic buildings are torn up. Lots of other neat stuff though. A&M's study abroad school is in Castiglion Fiorentino which is close-ish to Florence. Pisa, I believe, is a tourist trap. You have to pay to get in to see 3 buildings, one of which you can't get into because it could fall over any day now. It's one of those ok-now-I-can-say-I-did-it kind of places.

Just got back from Venice/Florence/San Gimignano. Tuscany... love it.

Portofino was my favorite. Havent been south yet to amalfi but i loved rapallo/portofino

Nice. The wedding were going to is at Castillo Brown at sunset. Should be amazing. Any recs on things to do in the area?

Paris.

Rome is great; lot to see and do. Venice is nice; take the grand canal cruise, lots of shopping. Florence has a lot of art and history, also they have really good prices on leather wear if you are into that. Pisa--don't bother, after seeing the leaning tower for 5 minutes you have exhausted all there is to do there. Naples was nice. Never made it to Milan. Never made it to the Amalfi coast. Sardegna was really nice.

Of course, these are just my oponions.

AGGIE12B
JC '88
If you value the Freedom and Liberties you have in your life, be sure to Thank a Veteran everyday!

Amalfi/Capri

Never been, but this thread is making me hungry.

Anyone take a day trip to Maranello to see the Ferrari factory?

At Lake Como right now. May be most beautiful place we have ever seen

Siena and Rome.

Any recommendations on hotels in Siena?

and...transportation recommendations from Florence to Siena and from Siena to Rome.

Tuscany. San Gimignano.

Went in Mid May and Cinque Terre is hard to beat. More specifically Vernazza

Lucca was my favorite small town in Tuscany. One if the few places there that I went and didn't feel like a tourist

I'm in italy now. 4 days at lake como were the best 4 days of travel I've ever had. It's beyond incredible. Siena is a great base for tuscany. Can do everything from here. San G. and montelpuciano were our favorite hill towns outside of Assisi which may be my favorite place in the world.

Hard to go wrong in italy.

I'm in italy now. 4 days at lake como were the best 4 days of travel I've ever had. It's beyond incredible. Siena is a great base for tuscany. Can do everything from here. San G. and montelpuciano were our favorite hill towns outside of Assisi which may be my favorite place in the world.

Hard to go wrong in italy.

I'm in italy now. 4 days at lake como were the best 4 days of travel I've ever had. It's beyond incredible. Siena is a great base for tuscany. Can do everything from here. San G. and montelpuciano were our favorite hill towns outside of Assisi which may be my favorite place in the world.

Hard to go wrong in italy.

Anyone who visits Italy and misses Sicily misses a great deal. More Greek, Roman, and Norman ruins concentrated there in such a small area and in better shape than anywhere. It is an often missed tourist destination. We lived there for a year and also visited all the aforementioned sites except Milano.


Gig'Em & God Bless

anyone have any Italy recent trip updates?

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Amalfi as already mentioned. San Marino is a nice gem too.

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I lived in Rimini for 6 months. San Marino is a great spot.

Venice is like going to Epcot in Disney world and tons of japenses tourists..Do a day nothing more..

Defitneley for th e novice traveler.

Just went for the first time this summer. Our stops were Florence, Rome/Vatican, Pompeii, and Sorento/Capri before going on to Greece. I love history, so Rome and Pompeii were amazing to see in person, but the place I really want to go back and spend more time in the most is Sorento/Capri. Beautiful setting right on the coast that I feel like would be a great place to just spend a week relaxing

Getting ready to book a trip to Italy for summer 2016 and this thread has been very helpful but I'd love a little more help. Here's the brainstorming of ideas so far.

Really started to think of this in terms of two trips. Was overwhelming thinking of it as one trip so we are planning our trip now and then identifying locations we'll hit on a return trip. Makes me feel much better about leaving places out of this first trip. Places we are considering visiting:

Rome - feel this is a must because of our desire to see the history and just the city in general
Tuscan Region - day trips to Florence and other Tuscan towns
Lake Como - possible day trip to Venice from here or just Venice on next trip
Cinque Terre - needs no explanation
Amalfi Coast - would include Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri

We don't want to stay in any place for less than 3 days and are planning on this being a 12-14 day trip. Don't think we'll stay in more than 3 locations. We feel like Rome and Tuscany are musts on this trip. We could be persuaded otherwise but for now we're trying to decide on 3rd location and then what would that make our next trip to Itsly look like.

Flying into Milan and then staying in Tuscan region, then to Rome and then Amalfi coast is one option. I assume we'd fly out of Rome so there would be a little backtracking but I don't think that would be too wasteful. A return trip could the. Be Venice, Lake Como and Cinque Terre. That return trip would be all water locations but easy travel with all being along the northern part of Italy.

Also thought about subbing Lake Como or Cinque Terre for Amalfi Coast. A return trip makes less sense though because then we'd be trying to hit Northern parts of the country with Southern parts all in one trip.

What would yall do with 12-14 days and wanting to hit Rome and Tuscany for sure? Where would your 3rd location be and where would you fly in and out of?

My wife and I just spent 10 days in Northern Italy. We flew in and out of Milan, but spent all of our time in the Dolomites( Ortisei) and the Verona/Lake Garda area.
Our first 3 nights were spent in Ortisei which is about 3.5 hrs from Milan by Car. It's an hour to the North East of Bolzano Italy, just off the A22. Being in the Dolotmites, the main summer activity is hiking on the many trails and stopping to have food and drinks at the many huts that are located throughout the mountains. Right around Ortisei most of the hiking is done through the ski area, and there are gondolas and lifts to open to get up the mountains. It did rain one day, so we drove to Bolzano in the hope of seeing the "ice man" exhibit at the archeology museum, however the line was insanely long due to everyone coming down from the mountain towns. Ortisei was a great start to our trip as it was relatively peaceful and relaxing. Lots of spas in the town.
The rest of our trip was spent in the Verona area. We rented an apartment not far from the Arena and a convenient 24-hr parking garage.
We spent about 3 days driving around various villages along the shores of Lake Garda. We rented a boat in Sirmione and traveled around the lake for a couple of hours. There are many castle and roman ruins along the lake and having the boat provided an awesome way to see them from the water. There are beaches along the lake but few are actually sand. In fact all the ones we were at were small gravel. Other activities included wine tasting at Fraccaroli Vinyards in the Lugana Appellation, walking around the town of Lazise, and just taking in the amazing views with the mountains surrounding the lake. The whole area is an easy 20-30 minute drive from Verona. I would have gone to the lake everyday if my wife would have allowed it. We saw only a fraction of the towns and sights surrounding the lake.
In Verona itself we spent several days seeing the various sights and churches. We went to an opera in the old Roman Arena one night, which was an amazing experience. I don't really like opera but seeing it in the Arena made it worthwhile. All of the churches in Verona are amazing and stand up at the top of most of the churches I have seen in Europe. We did see the "Juliet House" but I'd prefer not to waste time discussing how I stood in a courtyard to observe a balcony in which it's only claim to fame is that it's in a fictional story. Verona itself could consume 2-3 days of sightseeing alone.
We did take the train to Venice for the day. Originally we had planned on spending two nights in Venice, but based on advice from my Italian friend from Verona and our apartment land lord we chose to just take the train over for the day. It turned out to be the best decision we made. First our apartment in Verona cost about the cost of our hotel in Venice, and second Venice was a bit of a disappointment. After a trip where we encountered few large tourist groups, as expected Venice was packed with the large groups. In addition the dirtiness of Venice was a bit off putting. Especially after having spent most of our time in areas that were well taken care of. It's hard to appreciate the canals with trash floating everywhere. The train ride from Verona is about 1.5 hrs, and there are trains every hour. In total for two it cost 34 euros round trip.