Ok so I’ve been a bit cheeky and booked 4 days off work from the 26th to the 29th of April next year, with all the bank holidays that means I will actually be off work for 11 days and I’m going to use that time to go and explore Italy with the Mrs.

She wants to see Venice and Rome, I would like to see Lake Garda, and head south and spend some time on a beach somewhere.

Can anyone tell me anything about other places that would be worth a visit, what the weather will be like, are there any nice beaches down south, what is it like traveling around Italy, are the trains good, any B&B or hotel recommendations?

We will just be backpacking it and won’t have a car. We plan to fly into the North and fly back from the south.

Any advice would be appreciated

I like Florence.

Try Lucca too, and Assisi.

If you’re backpacking, Tuscany would be a good visit. You could be based in Florence and then travel to various destinations around the region.

With only 4 days don’t try and see too many things or you’ll spend all your time travelling.

Concentrate on a couple of places.

If you go to Venice, get a gondola. It’s fearsomely expensive but the nicest way to see the city and you can marvel at the unbelievable skill of the gondolier. Truly memorable.

When you eat, try to get off the beaten track and find small places with menus only in Italian where the locals eat. The food will be cheaper and better as will the atmosphere.

Don’t know where you’re going so can’t recommend anywhere but use TripAdvisor to source accom and you won’t go wrong. Once you’ve skimmed through a load of reviews you get a pretty good feel for what’s good and you can book over the web.

Italy is great. You’ll have a blast. 🙂

With only four days I wouldn’t bother even leaving Rome, tbh. If you really must head out, hire a car* and drive up to Sienna or any one of the thousands of wonderful medieval hilltop towns in Umbria / Tuscany. Orvieto, for example, is wonderful.

Personally I hated Florence, but given the millions of tourists clogging up the place it’s possible my opinion may be a minority one.

* Driving in Italy is nothing like as bad as people say it is.

When I did it , I got a Thomas Cook European Train Timetable (but this is going back some time).

The trains were dead easy and the people on them really nice.

If you don’t manage to get to Venice, don’t worry, you can stay at home, buy some coke, leave the top off it then leave it in the sun for a few hours before drinking the flat and warm rubbish whilst burning £20 notes. Pretty much the same experience.

read the post, he’s got 11 days not 4!

definitely Florence, fantastic city.

Thanks for the help so far guys.

Just to clarify, I have 11 days to placy with for the price of 4 days holiday from work due to the bank holidays.

I gave the details as I just thought a few people out there may want to book the same as it seems like good value, book from april 26 to 29 and you get the 22nd 25th, and 2nd May off anyway

mogrim’s correct about the driving, it’s not that bad, if you’re a decent driver you’ll be fine.

Although they do roundabouts differently, you give way to people coming on – **** knows why. Fortunately there aren’t that many roundabouts.

Pizza

Ah, oops. 11 days:

3-4 days Rome
3 days Naples (Pompeii, Capri, etc.) (assuming they’ve managed to clear up the rubbish!)
2 days Venice.
2-3 days Florence (though pre-book everything!)

If all that’s a bit much travelling, I’d do the following:
3-4 days Rome
2-3 days Florence
1 day Pisa
1 day Sienna
Rest in small hotels in Tuscany / Umbria

The further North you are, the more like Southern Germany it is. The further South (beyond Rome), the more like North Africa it is.

Trains are surprisingly good. Beaches are usually (IMHO) awful as they are all privately owned. You’ll not have the weather in April for lounging on a beach. Florence would be top of my list, Rome has the big hitter attractions, Naples has the crime, camping will see you get robbed.

I can recommend
http://www.cacciani.it/english/home_giadrina.asp

in the town of Frascati, just outside Rome. Good rail link, great small town, superb food, lovely views. Just off the beaten tourist trail.

Home
Milan
Lake Como (Belaggio & Menaggio on the hydrofoil from Como)
Next down to Tuscany
Lucca, Florence & Sienna (I used to like florence, but in recent years it seems to have turned into a bit of a dump).
Rome – 3 days at least
Naples – Pompeii, Mt Vesuvias
Home

I wouldn’t bother with the beaches TBH.

EDIT: add Como to the Tuscany list, but only to see the tower.

Italy is a beautiful place. We have been to Rome – a long weekend was sufficient to be honest we also went in April 2002 and the weather was really hot but it can be a bit hit and miss at this time – have a look on the websites to see what the ranges are. We stayed at this hotel they have now built the restaurant but the price is still the same. We also found wonderful restaurants in the back streets. We stayed at the campsite in Florence in July (scorchio) which is right next to the Michelangelo Plaza – fantastic view of the city – spend a few days here. We got the train to Pisa from Florence so allow 1 day there.
Have spent a week on the amalfi coast – this is great scenery but I remember that as sunbathing by the pool that the buffalo aroma wafted over late afternoon – no PeterPoddy was not with me then! You have to bear in mind that English is not their first language so worth learning a bit of Italian for outside of the major cities. Unless you speak French or German. Can’t comment on lake Garda but have been told that it is definitely worth doing. If you hire a car – make sure it is small – they build good small cars for a reason! If you are a nervous driver – don’t go on the Milan ring road. To be honest Naples is a bit of a hole – best to drive out of it asap I have flown into there and know a family that managed to live there for 5 years. Lets hope the euro improves with the pound otherwise you will be going how much? Know that there are 3 price ranges for drink – standing up, sitting inside, sitting outside and the same with food.

best place iv ever been in italy (ive wandered about the place quite alot) was the puglia region in the far south but then i find cities a bit stressfull. there is an absolute gem of a place called Matera which is a city lost in time, (its where they filmed the passion of christ) you can get cheap flights to Brindisi if your interesed.

Isle of Elba is one of the best places I’ve ever been – highly recommend it.

Naples looks like a bit of a sh8thole and you’d be well advised to keepn your wits about you if you go there, BUT, it’s full of brilliant stuff, like the Veiled Christ, Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Certosa, all the Underground stuff, the Campo Flegrei, access to Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, blah, blah, blah, and is one of the buzziest cities I’ve ever been in. Based on being there, not driving through. Check tripadvisor/Lonely Planet for more.
venice is a MUST DO. I woundn’t waste money on a gondola, just get the vapretto (water bus). No 1 goes from the railway station to the Lido. Do it that way as well, because trhe architecture just gets better and better, If you really, REALLy need to be on a gondola, use one of the public ones to cross the Grand Canal, short trip >1Euro. that might fire you up for hire gondola.
Florence is worth the trip and if you’re in the area a day or two in Siena, possibly with a trip to San Gimingagno is worth doing.
Rome is good and so full of stuff you have to see, but I’d be inclined to picking off a few places and doing 2, maybe 3 days
Naples I love, but it’s not to everyone’s taste, a bit rough and chaotic
Sicily’s nice, but Palermo’s a sh*thole. The east coast, apart from Messina is stunning and I would particulaly recommend Taormina and Syracuse. I used Catania as a base and went up Mt Etna – woohoo walking in the crater of a live volcano – I still tingle at the thought.

Trains are excellent. Book 30 days ina dvance = 30% discount. Check the Trenitalia web site for times and prices. Check their special offers.
If you’re skint or mean, InterCity is trhe way to go, but I’m booked on Freccia Rossa (Red Arrow) trains for my next trip – 360 km/h

Also, if you are going south of Rome, learn a few words of Italian. People in the north don’t give a monkeys, but people in south love it if you make a an effort.

mrsflash – Member

read the post, he’s got 11 days not 4!

definitely Florence, fantastic city.

Aaah – now I see 😳

Well 11 days is much better. I’ll second Florence – it’s fantastic. Go to the Accedemia to see Michelangelo’s David.

Bear in mind lots of attractions are closed on Mondays.

Pompeii is cool and also the smaller, richer, town of Herculaneum nearby is definitely worth a visit (partly due to the “interesting” murals).

Ive been to and heartily recommend

Rome
Florence
The maritime alps with those wonderful folks at riviera bike

Plum

Florence is ace and if you go to Venice, stay at the Hotel Aldo Mori, right behind St Marks Sq, friendly people and v cheap. The David sculpture in Florence is mind-blowing and the market is well worth a visit.

I stayed in the Hotel San Giovanni in Florence. Our window overlooked the Duomo. It was very central and reasonably cheap. The hotel is minutes walk from the market (ace for silk ties and leather) and the Uffizzi and Michaelangelo’s David. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

Driving in Italy is nothing like as bad as people say it is.

No, it’s BRILLIANT! Flat out everywhere! Fantastic!

No, it’s BRILLIANT! Flat out everywhere! Fantastic!

remember to take some sellotape so you can tape the horn in the “on” position and still have a hand free for gesticulating wildly

If all that’s a bit much travelling, I’d do the following:
3-4 days Rome
2-3 days Florence
1 day Pisa
1 day Sienna
Rest in small hotels in Tuscany / Umbria

+1 for this itinerary

I don’t know about timings but any chance to get to see an opera at the Arena di Verona?

I saw Aida there with the misses a few years ago. The only opera I’ve ever been too – utterly fantastic evening. Sat up in the cheap seats, well stone, IMHO it’s quite an experience.

That trip we stayed in Tuscany (here). I remember Florence being screaming hot and rammed with people. Sienna was good and I forgot where else we went other than San Gimingagno. Then we drove up to Sirmione on Lake Garda – very busy at the weekends but very nice in the evening – and finished off by getting the train over to Venice for a couple of nights.

Rome is a good city-break (I think we did 4 nights there), so you might want to save that a seperate trip and move around more to get loads in.

-1

drop 2 of the Rome days and add Venice

Go and stay at Berlisconi’s villa. His parties sound… ahem… interesting

Venice (Lots of walking but worth every step just let youself get lost in the back streets)
Florence (Arty, take a walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a great view over the city)
Rome (Mad but in a good way, a visit to the vatican (Sistine chapel) is a must)
Lake Garda (Stunning and peaceful get a cable car up Mount Boldo)
Verona (Nice for a day to see the amphitheatre)
Sorrento (Stunning location on the side of a cliff and great base for Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum)

The train will take you from city to city. It’s true that Venice, Verona, Florence, Rome, etc. are wonderful places, not to be missed. But I would suggest that the best bits of italy are nowhere near the train tracks.

It’s the little villages which haven’t changed for four hundred years.
It’s the agriturismi where a 70 year old woman serves you a plate of pasta in her living room made using ingredients from her back garden.
It’s buying cheese from the sheep herder.
It’s drinking a glass of wine next to the vines that produced it.

But I suppose it depends on who you are…
I’d rent a car.

Florence and Verona, hmmmmm I know this lovely little steak place in Verona.