Italy Itinerary
1:10 pm Mon, 7th August 2006Ok, after many hours of research, surfing page after page of internet travel guides on italy (btw I highly recommend SlowTrav for any travel planning – excellent user contributed resource with lots of reviews and hints!!), scouring the net for the cheapest hotels and B&Bs… I have FINALLY put together an itinerary so organised it rivals that of a tour company! Hehe. It’s all coming together, car hired, accomodation booked… and there’s still over 4 weeks to go! Hrm.. me, anal? Pffft. 😛
So the plan is to drive ourselves around northern italy – flying into Milan, then onto Venice, Rome, through some Tuscan countryside, Florence, the Cinque Terre and finally back to Milan. All this in a very cool, very chic, Nissan Micra C+C convertible!! Fully designed & manufactured in the UK, and I think only available in UK/Europe. Check it out below (I want one!!)
So the itinerary break-down:
Day 1: Fly into Milan around 9pm, pick up our lovely nissan micra and maybe quick drive around to see Milan by night
Day 2: Drive to Venice early early morning to explore/sightsee for 1 day. Stay overnight in Venice East (on the mainland)
Day 3: Drive to Bologna for early lunch and a quick look around, then onto Palestrina (just outside Rome) for local dinner and some evening sightseeing. Stay overnight at a lovely B&B in Palestrina
Day 4: Explore Rome for the whole day. Morning visit the Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon. After lunch visit Vatician, St Peters Square/Basilica, Sistine Chapel. Evening see Trevi Fountain and wander about eating loads of gelati and caffe lattes (gonna have to roll me back on the plane!) 😛
Day 5: Depart Rome early and drive up Tyhrennian coastline into Tuscany for quick stop at Orbetello/Monte Argentario & its beaches, then head inland to Saturnia for a scrumptious tradional tuscan lunch, then to the natural outdoor hot springs/waterfalls for a relaxing & healthy dip. Drive off to our accomodations at Castello Di Grotti (in a farmhouse apartment on some beautiful castle grounds!) which is in the Tuscan countryside, have dinner at the local village
Day 6: Depart for Florence (via Siena) arriving mid-morning, exploring & sightseeing for a day. Sleep overnight in the San Frediano Mansion (B&B) in central florence, near the river Arno.
Day 7: Visit the Uffizi gallery in the morning before departing for the Cinque Terre. Park up and lunch at Riomaggiore village and walk the coastal path Via dell’Amore (Lovers Way) to the next village Manarola. Train or ferry to Vernazza and hike the coastline path to Monterosso for a swim at this picturesque beach village. Depart Cinque Terre and drive to Milan
Day 8: Shopping, shopping, sightseeing and more shopping.. plane leaves at 9:15pm. Back to London and dismal reality.
*Phew* So there you have it. All organised and booked, with estimated driving times included thanks to Via Michelin. Of course there is some flexiblity in the plan, depending on how things go during the day. Only thing we can’t change is accomodation! We found some REALLY cheap rooms on RoomsNet. Sometimes at half the price of those “cheap internet rates”. Pretty cool eh.
Anyway, give me some feedback.. any flaws in my itinerary etc. 🙂
Current listening :: “Say After Me” – Bic Runga
Posted in Travel | 8 Comments »
8 Comments on “Italy Itinerary”
Cryptkeeper
Aug 7, 2006
Hi kazzart!
That’s a great itinerary you made there. Unfortunatly I haven’t traveled that much, so I can’t give you any tips.
By the looks of it, it will be a busy trip. Make sure you don’t forget to relax 😉
If I do go on a trip, I’ll definetly use the sites you posted to plan it.
4 weeks to go…
Kazzart
Aug 7, 2006
Hey.. yeh those sites are great – I esp recommend SlowTrav.com! Its very informative and a very useful resource.
Yeh.. I’m a bit worried i’m gonna need a holiday after this holiday! Will definitely have to try not to rush too much and just take things easy!! 🙂
muddy
Aug 7, 2006
Hi Kazz! (BTW my first post on your blog, got here via riss!)
You sure got a packed schedule there.. some things you might want to keep in mind are the lines.. specially in Rome. Both the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel can have long (sometimes 3hrs+) lines to get in..
Other thing is that traffic can get bad in the big cities…
Places like Rome, Florence and Venice deserve a few weeks to explore, so hopefully you’ll be heading back soon. 🙂
Have a great trip! I’m sure you’ll love it!
Kazzart
Aug 8, 2006
Hey muddy! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Yeh I read about Colosseum and Sistine chapel – to get there early in the morning for both. But as I only have one day in rome, I had to choose one over the other. So its Colosseum early morning, and take my chances with Sistine chapel!!
Yeh, read about traffic too – thats why I’m staying at places (with secure car parking) outside or on the outskirts of the main cities, and will be catching public transport into the main city (Rome, Venice, Milan).
And yeh, its a shame I only have a week (£££ being a major factor here!!) – this is really just a taster of Italy as I have never been to any of these places before. So I get a glimpse of each place, and come back another time to the ones I liked! 🙂
CC
Aug 8, 2006
Hehe! I was going to give you the same warningas about Rome! I just remember sitting outside the entrance for AGES waiting to get into the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica queue went for ages too but the thing is, you must do BOTH cos they’re so worth the wait. We only had about 3 days in Rome, from memory, 6.5 years ago in winter and it wasn’t long enough! You need at least 5-7 days to do Rome justice, methinks!
Enjoy! Sounds like a jampacked trip! Definitely will need a holiday to get over it!
=)
Vron
Aug 8, 2006
Me being me (non-touristy, exploratory hotel-lover), I honed in on the parts of your itinerary mentioning accomodation and wandering around – the B&Bs sound bliss and that coastal walk even more so – I saw it on the Great Outdoors – would love to do it one day!
Kazzart
Aug 8, 2006
CC: Yeh, its a bit of a catch-22.. i either wait ages for Colosseum.. or wait ages for sistine chapel. Oh well. Its only a taster.. I’ll come back to Rome another day if I really like it. Who knows, I may dislike it. And yes.. jam-packed. I have the day after I get back off work too… to recover!!
Vron: Hehe good spotting. I am also quite non-touristy.. that sorta sightseeing has never really interested me that much. I want to see the real italy.. not just the tourist areas. So I’m really looking forward to Tuscany, Monte Argentario and the Cinque Terre. 🙂 Oh, I was gonna post more urls of the accomodations too. Have edited the itinerary to include links to some of the nicer ones worth linking. 🙂
CC
Aug 9, 2006
Was swooning over the B&Bs and Tuscany and the coastal stuff! That’s what I’m gonna do for sure the next time I do Italy! And the hot springs! Yeah! =)