Italy for 2 weeks

whitelightrider

Hi Folks,

We are hoping to go to Italy for 2 weeks in July. We'd like to see a few different places and I dont mind driving over there.

Can anyone recommend areas to visit? Obviously Rome would be one.

chenguin

I really loved Florence when I was there. It is a very beautiful city. Of course if you go you will have to see michelangelo's David. It is crazy how life like a piece of stone can look!

cooperla

Sardinia and sicily. loved it.

bills

chenguin wrote: »

I really loved Florence when I was there. It is a very beautiful city. Of course if you go you will have to see michelangelo's David. It is crazy how life like a piece of stone can look!

+1. florence is amazing & from there you can do tuscany also. We got the train to pisa & lucca from florence. We also did wine tasting in a vineyard & had dinner in an amazing little village. I would also reccomend venice for a night or two- its a surreal experience & has to be seen at least once. You could easily do rome florence venice in 2 weeks .

whitelightrider

bills wrote: »

+1. florence is amazing & from there you can do tuscany also. We got the train to pisa & lucca from florence. We also did wine tasting in a vineyard & had dinner in an amazing little village. I would also reccomend venice for a night or two- its a surreal experience & has to be seen at least once. You could easily do rome florence venice in 2 weeks .

Thats exactly what we'd like to do aswell.
Could anyone recomend some good hotels to look at in these areas?

whitelightrider

Folks,
If anyone can recommend hotels in Rome, Venice and Florence Id appreciate it. Hoping to book something over the weekend.

WooPeeA

Garda lake area! Cheap local wine, nice beaches, clear water, lots of theme parks in the area, mountains etc etc..

bills

Hotel Hesperia in venice. We were lucky enough to get a room at the very top on the terrace.

archer9

I found Venice to be too touristy... but of course it's still a "must see". Agree with above poster about Florence. That deserves a few days (3?) because there's a LOT of things to see. Just a reminder that Florence has two train stations so make sure you're at the right one if you're taking the train to somewhere else! (I almost missed my train to Venice)

Berty

I spent a week in the Sorrento, Amalfi area of Italy which is picture perfect. We attended a wedding in the church in Positano.



We stayed in the 5* Hotel Bristol in Sorrento and we will definately go back and stay in that same hotel.

Next time when we go back we will visit Capri. We visited Pompeii whilst there which was amazing to see and climbed mount vesuvius.

olaola

Have to say I wasn't too pushed on Florence. And when we got home - a rake of people agreed. Anyhoo!

The Cinque Terre is a must see. It's really amazing. Lake Garda is also beautiful. Go to Venice - if even for a day, it's worth it. I was most impressed with Turin, thought it was a fabulous city - I think we were the only tourists there at the time last September.

whitelightrider

Folks,

Thanks very much for all your input. Gona have to sit down over the weekend and work out what we're going to do. We're looking to go for 14 days so I need to figure out how to split it days wise. Want to do Rome, Venice and maybe 1 or 2 more. Florence or Turin. Will figure out the length of time to stay in each place and can then start planning hotels and stuff.

whitelightrider

Folks,

Can anyone recommend any 3 star hotels in Rome, Venice and Florence? Just getting prices together now for the hols.

country_gurl

we stayed in perguia as a base, the hotel was fab, pool was on the rooftop looking over the mountains while you swam, ahhh heaven. Wasn't dear either.
Its a small town with not much to do bar go for a walk, dinner and a drink but it was the most relaxin place i've ever been 2. Day trips to florence and an overnight in rome.

ajc100

whitelightrider wrote: »

Folks,

Can anyone recommend any 3 star hotels in Rome, Venice and Florence? Just getting prices together now for the hols.

We used http://veniceapartments.org/, they have a sister site http://www.romeflats.org/

you can not beat the privacy, would highly recommend them.

Also stated earlier, Lake Garda area, try see peschiera del garda and Sirmione, both on the south coast so not too far off the beaten track.

I would recommend Venice in the off season, we went Oct, not to packed.

Have a ball, its a great country

Chumpski

I was in Italy for a week about 18 months ago. 4 days in Rome and 3 days in Nettuno/Rome, a little town on the coast about an hours train ride from Rome.

Rome is just spectacular. You could easily spend a full week there if you are into sight seeing old roman ruins and churches, etc. You still could not see all the highlights in that time. Well worth 4 days at least.

Nettuno was just to add a bit of a beach element to our holiday. Nice town but quiet. Probably an area like Sorrento or Lake Garda would be better for that if you are planning travelling around the country. We spent the days on the beach then and went into Rome for dinner and night outs the 3 remaining days.

Edit:
Places well worth seeing in Rome:

The Coluseum. 2 stops from the termini metro station. Also the palatine hill is where some of the oldest roman ruins are including the roman forum.

The Trevi fountain. Also nearby is the Pantheon, an amazing dome shaped roman building? Famous people like Raphael are interred there. The view from the square outside is amazing. The Piazza Navona also nearby again is a great place to have dinner.

St. Peters Square ia amazing also as is the Vatican musesum. Its a very very long walk from the entrance to the sistene chapel so be warned. I drove herself mad with "this must be it around the next corner, surely!"

As i said there are and we saw loads more than that in the week but they are the standout highlights for me.

whitelightrider

Hey Chumpski,

Thanks very much for that. I think we'll spend most of the time in Rome and then maybe hit Venice for a few days and if we have time go to Florence.

Where did you stay when you were in Rome? Just looking around at hotels now.

Chumpski

http://www.yeshotelrome.com/

Was a good hotel. Near the main train station so it was very easy to get around on the metro. I'd recommend this hotel anyway.

ros244

I'd recommend to the first poster to be very careful if driving in an Italian city. My girlfriend has received 3 adminitration fees (€60 each) from car rental company on her credit card for passing along owner info to the authorities who in turn are about to send us fines (presumably €60 or so each again) for driving in restricted areas. This all took place over a 1 hour period while dropping the car to its return location actually in the city (Florence).
9 months later this is. A complete scam as far as I'm concerned. See driving rules here. Great in hindsight!
http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htm

Anyway, hopefully stop somebody else getting scammed.