My wife and I are going to Italy for 2 weeks and would like some recommendations and travel advice. Best Trip?

Question

We are flying into Vienna, Austria and then by train going to Venice. After this we are thinking Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Florence, Pompeii-Vesuvius, and Rome. Any advice on restaurants, sites that aren't well known (but amazing), and concerns for travel will be perfect.

Answer 1

Regardless of other posts - train travel is the easiest way around the country.  Am American married to an Italian and spend 1/2 the year there and I've used it all around the country without incident. (Everyone knows that people get robbed on the trains at night - do a google search or look in most guide books - there are warnings everywhere.

Don't travel with cash - use your atm card, pull out a couple hundred a day.

Do not over do it on your trip - it's a vacation afterall.  You can easily do Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra (from La Spieza you can catch a direct train to Rome) and Rome.  Don't worry about buying train tickets in advance of going there - easily bought at the stations when you're there.

While you're out seeing things, check out menu's for your dinner.  In Rome, I love Tullio's or there's a restaurant in Piazza Navona that's splendid.  West side of the piazza

Answer 2

I'd recommend that on the last leg of your journey you go to Florence, Rome and Naples in that order as you'll travel north from Venice and your final destination with be the most southern point of your trip.

Milan - The Refrectory of Santa Maria del Grazie to see The Last Supper (Tickets in advance)

Venice - Saint Mark's Square, The Doge's Palace, Rialto bridge, Bridge of Sighs, Arsenal, The Accademia, Giacomo Cassanova's house, The Grand Canal and Murano.

Shopping in Venice is great too. All of the designer names can be found in the San Marco district although there are tiny streets full of shops all around the city.

Rome - Vatican Museums which include the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basillica, Castel Saint Angelo, Forum, Colosseum, Palatine, Circus Maximus, Via Appia, Gallery Borghese, Capitoline Museums, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon and many many churches.

Lovely places to eat around the Trevi fountain.

Like any other city keep an eye on your valuables and if you're if a delicate nature stay away from the beggars as some sport horrific wounds.

Florence - Uffizi Gallery (tickets in advance), Accademia (Michelangelo's David is there, Bargello, Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia with its sculpture, various churches and family chapels, Palazzo Pitti, Fort Belvedere.

Lots of different cuisine to choose from and there are stands which sell hot tripe or pork ciabatta.

Vinci in tuscanny to see the birthplace of Leonardo da VInci.

Naples- Pompeii, Herculanium.(1.5hrs from Rome)

There's a lovely Neopolitan restaurant next to the necropolis. Bags of fresh fish etc.

Padua, Verona, the lakes, the Dolomites etc etc.

I can only list a few things here or I'd be going on for days

If you're pushed for time then train travel in Italy is very cheep and efficient.

Great guide books are the Eyewitness Travel Guides. They have photos, every attraction you can think of, opening times and great maps.

Take a look at these web sites and enjoy your trip.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_en/pages/mv_home....

http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/englis...

http://www.whatsonwhen.com/scripts/query...

www.venere.com

buona fortuna

Answer 3

Pack very light because you can buy a lot of nice clothes in Italy for much less than the same Italian clothes in the US.  If you ever wanted a pair of Gucci loafers, get them in Italy.  I was there many years ago the the exact same model that cost $275 in the US (not including sales tax) cost $165 in Italy (including the tax which can be refunded when you leave Europe).  A Gucci belt that cost $165 in the US at the time cost $90 in Italy (at the Gucci store).  Italy is also world famous for the great silk ties and wool sweaters.  Florence has the best reputation for variety of high fashion.  RE: restaurants, I have not been to the cities that you mentioned, but some of the best meals I have ever had in my whole life were in Italy.  Even the supermarket food is great.  Hope you and the Mrs. have a wonderful trip.  I'm envious!

Eww tough crowd.  Give an honest, thoughtful, answer and get a thumbs down!  No good deed goes unpunished.  To the lady who got robbed on the night train, sorry to hear about your experience.  The only part of the story that I don't understand is the part about the knock-out "spray"  I didn't know that such a spray existed outside of Batman episodes from the 1960s.  I would have thought that  the thieves just depended on being very quiet.  Again, sorry to hear about your experience.  I hope that some day, you can visit Europe and/or Italy and have a better experience.  Maybe you can spend some time in a small village or bed and breakfast place where the ppl are more down to earth.

Answer 4

I wouldn't recommend traveling by train that is definite . Besides the problems with crime and grime and dirty stations I don't think it is the way to really visit Italy.  I have blogged about it on my site http://www.my-italy-piedmont-marche-and-...

I have lived in Italy for ten years and travelled by train throughout the country. Car Hire is a much better option and it is easy to organise before you leave or in Italy.

Where to go in Italy? There are so many places. I tend to prefer the more out of the way regions of Italy like Umbria, Le Marche, Puglia and Piedmont but if it is your first time in Italy you shouldn't miss the great cities like Venice and Rome.

Restaurants - it is not difficult to find wonderful restaurants in Italy - these are my favorite http://www.my-italy-piedmont-marche-and-...

but they are perhaps not in the areas you are planning to visit. The food in Italy only seems to be bad in the areas of Rome that are full of tourists and in Rome, Florence and Venice you will find that you need to avoid the touristy areas to eat well.

Ask the locals to recommend a place. Don't ask your hotel as often they recommend places where they have an interest of some sort not necessarily the best places.

Answer 5

There is a place in Tuscany called The Castle Dell Serre, www.castellodelleserre.com, wonderful. (tell them Kerrie from San Diego sent you)  If you go to Capri for one day take a Capri boat around the island.  Load up on vino and snacks at the dock and swim into the blue grato after 5pm, it is magical.

Answer 6

the captains tips _do not eat were its says TOURIST MENU !!! bad food -also eat off the tourist area's -you pay double price for drinks in outside cafe in Italy .if you sit down -have fun !

Answer 7

every time somone goes to italy they alwys go to rome or venice why not go to my home town. its called padova but in america they call it padua its near venice but its more ancient and fun trust me if you go youll love it!

Answer 8

I've been and I love Venice just because the whole city of the water fascinates me. Plus you can avoid the tourist spots and hit the outer islands and little neighborhoods.

Restaurants--heck, any local eatery will kick butt in most cases. I just love grazing from bistro to pizza place to sweet shop. Italy rocks!

Answer 9

If you thinking about taking a “NIGHT TRAIN in ITALY”….. Do yourself a favor….. DON”T!!!

Let me tell you about our “vacation” in Italy! My husband and I have been married for 12 years and since he is from Europe, throughout our marriage, his dream has been to get me to Europe to see how “the other side lives”. Being Italian myself, I was very excited to visit Italy! We started planning our European vacation back in April and decided to take a Mediterranean cruise on Celebrity Millennium from Venice to Barcelona because the itinerary was excellent and also wanted to see Paris. We got busy booking our cruise and all the travel arrangements from place to place. My husband was thrilled with the fact that we would start in Paris and take a sleeper train at night to continue our journey to catch our ship in Venice. He said it would be wonderful experience for me and a great way to travel in addition to all our flying. Our three days in Paris were phenomenal. We boarded our train #221 Paris-Venezia on Tues. Aug. 28, 2007 for our journey to Italy. We got in our coach 95 couchette 45-46 and got cozy for the nights ride. We ask our conductor who collected our passports  for two blankets which he delivered later , locked the door and went to sleep at around 23:00. We awoke around midnight and checked our watch for the time. Falling back to sleep, we awoke around 5:00 am and discovered my husbands’ watch was missing. We checked around the floor and my husband said somebody took it and immediately went for our money and documents in his “fanny pack” only to discover every bit of cash we had for travel, 1500 Dollars + 500 Euro’s was GONE!! We were robbed while we slept with our door locked and money in the “fanny pack”! My husband immediately went to the conductor to report it and found him standing with two “undercover officers” who never show any ID’s. They came back to the couchette and did a “report”. After train stopped in Venice we went to the police station and filed a report. We then went to get a cash advance off our credit card that was not stolen and the lady informed us it happen every day. I said there is no way somebody would come in my room and I would not wake up and she informed me that thieves use conductor’s key’s to open your couchette and spray your room and it knocks you out so you won’t hear anything and that how they rob you.

What a horrible nightmare it is to make plans for months, make all the arrangements, take time off from work and packing for a wonderful vacation only to be robbed of all your cash while you sleep before you even arrived to your cruise ship! For these people to invade our privacy and break into our couchette and drug you while you sleep to steal all our money is something we will never get over. We arrived at our ship and began our journey at sea. Along the way, we met a couple that travel by train from Paris to Venice two days earlier with four people in their room and she was robbed off ALL her currency as well. She had it tucked away in four different envelopes and the thief had time to go into every envelope and empty them one by one while four people slept. We got a copy of their police report if you are interested. This is my first trip to Europe and my first and last ride on your train was a horrible and frightening experience. After have returned home, I decided to go on the internet to read about all the other victims of this horrible ordeal. We feel TRENITALIA is a 100% responsible for the safety of its travelers and we paid approx. $500 to travel on your train only to be invaded and robbed!!! We do feel company is 100% responsible for allowing this theft to occur every day, on a regular basis and feel it OK to accept this behavior from your own employees. There is no doubt in our minds you are fully aware of this incredibly horrible crime and allow it to happen on a daily basis. We also feel your conductors are definitely part of the whole operation and you as a company are fully responsible for allowing people to pay for ticket to ride your train only to be robbed on a daily basis. Why there are no cameras on the sleeper trains to prevent this? We are planning to go to the television with our story so we can let the world know about our wonderful TRENITALIA experience. This has been a devastating event for our trip which completely ruined our desire to EVER visit Italy again! If this was your goal, congratulations…You have succeeded! With sincere regret of traveling TRENITALIA…

Answer 10

Sure, Italy is full of nice places and my suggestion is to decide which kind of travel you'd like to do.

An artistic one?then, visit Venice (two days are enough) and move towards Padua, Verona, Mantua. After this, go directly to Rome: the town is so full of art to need almost a week to be visited rather well.If you have more time, visit some archeological sites (Near Rome if you need or in Sicily)

Also, would you like to have a nature trip?Then move from Venice to Tuscany hills, taste its wines, then go to Amalfi coast and also down to Sicily.

I'm giving you a hot tip: near Rome visit this place

http://www.parcodeimostri.com/eng/entra....

this is hard to know for a foreign person, when you'll back home will show your fantastic photos and everyone will be envious of you!

Answer 11

I've been to all of those places, and I love the way you're starting.  The new Vienna to Venice train tracks are supposed to be great (I've only done the old ones), and the views are fabulous.

The worry I have about your proposed trip is that you're trying to do too much in too short a time.  Your risk will be that you will never see the really interesting stuff.  For example:  In the Cinque Terre, the best part is hiking between the towns.  This takes a half day at least.  In Tuscany, some of the more remote towns are the most interesting historically (and the most picturesque at times).  They take time to get to.

My suggestion:  If you have never been in Italy before you didn't say), spend two weeks in Venice, Florence, and Rome.  Enjoy.  See the cities and environs.  You will see more than you would if you raced around.  See the Cinque Terre, rural Tuscany, and Naples/Pompeii the next time.

Answer 12

why not come to Sicily?i have been stationed here for the last year or so and it is wonderful. there is so much history here it is unbelievable! this island has been taken over like seven times by different people throughout its history and each has left its mark,from the Greek temples to the northwest corner that has a middle east feel to it. get back to me if you want more info!