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Trip to Italy

Agree - 1 night in Siena is plenty; a better option is to stay out in a smaller town and drive into Siena for the day. Park in one of the lots around the edge of the city and just walk into town.

One other thought - take warm clothing. I went in late May a few years ago, and while it's in the 70s during the day, it can be chilly at night. I didn't really expect that in late May.
 
DeacDiggler said:
Agree - 1 night in Siena is plenty; a better option is to stay out in a smaller town and drive into Siena for the day. Park in one of the lots around the edge of the city and just walk into town.

One other thought - take warm clothing. I went in late May a few years ago, and while it's in the 70s during the day, it can be chilly at night. I didn't really expect that in late May.
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I'd personally skip Florence and save it for the next trip as you are already hitting 2 other major cities. Use Siena as the base and travel out from there. I actually spent 2 nights in Siena and didn't regret it at all. We then moved further south for 3 nights in San Quirico and used it as a base for where we wanted to explore.

There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat in Italy but as DD says above, take it slow to fully enjoy everything.
 
Don't miss San Gimignano in the middle of Tuscany's Chianti region. It has become kind of touristy but it is still a unique curiosity and beautiful.
 
We're flying in/out of Florence in Sept and staying in Tuscany 5 nights. Probably will stay in Florence on each end of the trip, but won't rent a car until we're ready to leave Florence. Where is best place to rent - at the airport? Any special driver's license needed?
 
I picked up at the Rome airport and dropped off at the Florence airport. As in the small airport just north of the city center - not the international airport that serves Florence, which I believe is actually in/near Pisa, an hour or so away from Florence. My guess is you are actually flying into the bigger airport by Pisa?

The little airport does have car rental places and is outside of the forbidden driving zone, so I believe it should work well for someone picking a car up as you head out of Florence. Or dropping a car off as you get to Florence. It is an easy cab ride to/from the city center. It was also one of the spots that was available for a one way rental drop-off/pick-up.

As for what you need to drive, I believe it is recommended that you get an international driver's permit. You can get one at a AAA branch - you just fill out some paperwork and give them a passport photo, and they provide it on the spot. I got one, but never had to produce it.

https://www.aaa.com/vacation/idpf.html
 
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ATLDeac said:
We're flying in/out of Florence in Sept and staying in Tuscany 5 nights. Probably will stay in Florence on each end of the trip, but won't rent a car until we're ready to leave Florence. Where is best place to rent - at the airport? Any special driver's license needed?
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You're supposed to have an International Driver's Permit, which you can get at AAA in like 15 minutes. Nobody ever asked for it when we rented, but police will ask if you get pulled.
 
If you are flying into Venice and going to Rome ... you are basically forced to go through Bologna and Florence. Florence is the far more popular tourist destination (to the point it's almost not going to be fun) ... but Bologna is a terrific city and worth spending time in. It has the oldest university in the world and is a vibrant youth culture, tons of history to see, etc.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Verona, which is (imo) the best preserved of the major ancient Roman cities, but it might be slightly out of your way.
 
vadimivich said:
If you are flying into Venice and going to Rome ... you are basically forced to go through Bologna and Florence. Florence is the far more popular tourist destination (to the point it's almost not going to be fun) ... but Bologna is a terrific city and worth spending time in. It has the oldest university in the world and is a vibrant youth culture, tons of history to see, etc.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Verona, which is (imo) the best preserved of the major ancient Roman cities, but it might be slightly out of your way.
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Only an hour train ride or 1.5 hour drive from Venice, don't see any reason why we couldn't do that on the way out. Thanks for the help!
 
Typical vad take. I'd love to hit Verona though.

The tough thing for Americans who only get so many opportunities to visit Europe is that you're almost bound to hit the highlights because there's so much to see on the continent and you don't know when you're going to make it back. Venice/Florence/Rome is a pretty typical trip because they're all in Italy, they're all the must-see cities in that country, and the trains between them make travel very easy. If you've got more opportunities to visit Europe and want to highlight that area, Venice pairs well with a trip to Croatia and Slovenia if you're not focused on Italy.
 
BiffTannen said:
Typical vad take. I'd love to hit Verona though.

The tough thing for Americans who only get so many opportunities to visit Europe is that you're almost bound to hit the highlights because there's so much to see on the continent and you don't know when you're going to make it back. Venice/Florence/Rome is a pretty typical trip because they're all in Italy, they're all the must-see cities in that country, and the trains between them make travel very easy. If you've got more opportunities to visit Europe and want to highlight that area, Venice pairs well with a trip to Croatia and Slovenia if you're not focused on Italy.
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2 weeks in Croatia/Slovenia is currently the plan for Spring/Summer 2020
 
Yeah, I'm trying to do that this September, mostly on a catamaran.
 
vadimivich said:
If you are flying into Venice and going to Rome ... you are basically forced to go through Bologna and Florence. Florence is the far more popular tourist destination (to the point it's almost not going to be fun) ... but Bologna is a terrific city and worth spending time in. It has the oldest university in the world and is a vibrant youth culture, tons of history to see, etc.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Verona, which is (imo) the best preserved of the major ancient Roman cities, but it might be slightly out of your way.
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no, florence is still fun as long as you're not a slave to time and/or seeing all the museums
 
BiffTannen said:
Typical vad take. I'd love to hit Verona though.

The tough thing for Americans who only get so many opportunities to visit Europe is that you're almost bound to hit the highlights because there's so much to see on the continent and you don't know when you're going to make it back. Venice/Florence/Rome is a pretty typical trip because they're all in Italy, they're all the must-see cities in that country, and the trains between them make travel very easy. If you've got more opportunities to visit Europe and want to highlight that area, Venice pairs well with a trip to Croatia and Slovenia if you're not focused on Italy.
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this. it's hard to not want to see as many tourist highlights as possible if it's the first time and/or you have a bucket list of other destinations to visit.
 
I actually found most of the museums/churches in Florence boring even though it was my first time there.

However the ones out in Tuscany in the smaller towns were far more interesting and there were hardly the hardcore tourists that are all over Florence there.
 
BiffTannen said:
Typical vad take. I'd love to hit Verona though.

The tough thing for Americans who only get so many opportunities to visit Europe is that you're almost bound to hit the highlights because there's so much to see on the continent and you don't know when you're going to make it back. Venice/Florence/Rome is a pretty typical trip because they're all in Italy, they're all the must-see cities in that country, and the trains between them make travel very easy. If you've got more opportunities to visit Europe and want to highlight that area, Venice pairs well with a trip to Croatia and Slovenia if you're not focused on Italy.
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Yeah, I'd say Venice works with the Adriatic better than with Rome for sure (Venice -> Split for example) ... makes sense as that entire region was part of the Venetian Republic for hundreds of years.

And I do get that Venice, Florence, Rome is the "must see" ... but damn, you're "must seeing" it with the entire population of a small country at the same time (with the exception of Rome, which is big enough to swallow tourists crowds completely).

Along that tourist route you don't get to eat at really any authentic Italian restaurants, cafes, etc ... and that's such a huge part of visiting Italy to me. Moreso even than looking at a famous piazza I can see a photo of whenever I want.
 
BiffTannen said:
Yeah, I'm trying to do that this September, mostly on a catamaran.
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seems like visiting Croatia right after the end of Game of Thrones might be a bad idea, I've heard it's gotten way worse since the show came out
 
Bologna and Verona are both great, as are lakes Garda, Como, and Maggiore, especially Maggiore. But that's just the point, everywhere you go you will find fantastic places, history, scenery, culture, art. You can't go wrong. I can't wait to go back.
 
BarcaDeac said:
seems like visiting Croatia right after the end of Game of Thrones might be a bad idea, I've heard it's gotten way worse since the show came out
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That's really only Dubrovnik (King's Landing in GOT) which is very small and has hoards of cruise ships stopping for day tours. By all accounts it's effectively just GOT Disney World at this point. Split and all the islands are effectively still untouched (other than the standard summer deluge of Austrian and German tourists).
 
sailordeac said:
Bologna and Verona are both great, as are lakes Garda, Como, and Maggiore, especially Maggiore. But that's just the point, everywhere you go you will find fantastic places, history, scenery, culture, art. You can't go wrong. I can't wait to go back.
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I am very intrigued by Bologna as we flew out of there the last time due to weather in Florence. How many days optimally would you spend in this part of Italy? I am not into Venice at all, so no worries there. Whenever we were done we could train down to Tuscany.
 
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