Honeymoon in Italy -- advice?
Not the best time to head to Europe, but it is a honeymoon. Since DBR has wonderful travel advice I thought I would hit up the experts. We were thinking of going early may for 10-14 days. I live on a residents salary so keep that in mind if you are recommending a nice palace or something:)
Venice, Rome, and Florence probably lead the list. I would like to spend some time in the Tuscan countryside as well. The Lakes region, the dolomites, cinca terra, and the amalfi coast all sound nice. Not everything will fit into 2 weeks and we don't want to be constantly traveling.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Venice is for honeymooners
I love Italy, and if I had to spend 2 weeks on my honeymoon, it would have to be 2 weeks in Venice.
Be careful what you ask for...
I'm writing from an internet cafe right around the corner from the Duomo in Florence right now, so what an appropriate thread! Here is all the advice I can muster about where to go. I've been studying here since mid-August, which I suppose is a little better than staying at a Holiday Inn Express last night! :D
First off Venice: I see no reason to spend more that 3 days and 2 nights in Venice. Yes, the city is beautiful and unlike anything you will see anywhere else in Italy, but that's exactly the problem. The food is generally not as good (though you can try some wacky seafoods), the people are not as nice, and the city will be packed with tourists - even in November you can notice it.
I would highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend Cinque Terre. In terms of scenery, it tops anything I have seen in Europe to date. The disclaimer that goes with that statement though is that I never made it to Capri and the Amalfi Coast, though I was in Naples to go to Pompeii. I have heard great things about Capri, Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano and all of those towns and I don't think you can go wrong. Doing the hike between the five towns (and we did every step, no trains for us thank you very much) is a really amazing experience. A couple times I stopped and thought to myself that the view I was seeing could actually be Heaven. Really stunning and totally worth it. I'm not much of an outdoorsman at all, and the hike was very hard, but incredibly worth it and a lot of fun if you start early in the day and take frequent trips to the beach!
Rome is a city that you need time in. There is just so much to do, it is really overwhelming. I would recommend at least 3 nights and 4 days, 4 nights and 5 days would really be better. Go to the Vatican even if you aren't Catholic and make sure to take a guided tour of the Colosseum - pay 3.50e instead of the 15e or whatever the freelancers try to rip you off for. Do the Pantheon, eat the most expensive lunch you will every eat in Piazza Navona because it is worth every penny, and walk across the Tiber to Trastevere every night for dinner. Browse menu, have a drink, and enjoy my favorite big city in Italy.
As for Florence, well I could go on and on, but here is the simple truth. Florence is amazing for art - by far the best in Italy. Sculpture, paintings, frescos, you name it and we've got it. But for me, this city leaves something to be desired. It's too big and dirty to make you feel warm inside and not big enough to let you get lost in the speed of the city. I would say 3 days and 2 nights here would be fine. I can PM you the best restaurants in the city if you'd like.
I completely, 100% echo what DevilBen02 said about smaller cities in Emilia and the Veneto. I absolutely loved Ferrara, Padova, and Parma. We also stopped in Bologna on that trip which has a great student nightlife and tagliatelle alla Bolognese but left something to be desired. Padova is especially great because you can see the tomb of Saint Anthony in the Basilica di Sant'Antonio and then go see Giotto's magnificent frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel.
As far as Tuscany goes, it is a great place to visit, but if you intend on spending as much time there as it sounds like you absolutely have to rent a car. It's great to drive around to different wineries especially because the roads are well marked (for the tourists) and very wide and easy to drive on. Me and my friends spent 2 days in Siena, the first sightseeing and for the second we rented scooters and drove around Greve in Chianti and the Tuscan countryside for the whole day. Now that was a fantastic day.
Pisa is absolutely a tourist trap but if you are in Florence, it might be worth extending your stay one extra day to take a day trip. Really, Pisa is more of a couple hour trip than a whole day. There are four magnificent, beautiful buildings and that's pretty much it (other than the vendors selling fake bags, sunglasses, watches, and belts).
If you can find a deal that lets you fly into one airport and out of another, that is really the best you can do. Then you could fly into Rome/Venice and then out of the other and not have to backtrack across the entire country. The Eurostar train from Venice to Rome is 4.5 hours and I think somewhere around 60e a seat (one way), so it's just sort of a pain.
Here is the train system's website in English: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Regional trains are the cheapest, InterCity trains are in the middle, and Eurostar trains are the fastest, newest, and most expensive. For routes between major cities (Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Napoli) you will probably have to take a Eurostar because there are very few regional trains, but for going from big cities (Venice to Padova is only like 30 minutes) you will use regional trains or sometimes InterCity. ALWAYS VALIDATE YOUR TICKET!!
Alright, well this post has gotten insanely long. I'll think about it more and if I come up with anything else then I'll post it.